...and still unlock chests and doors.

This question has probably been answered multiple time before. But for role playing purposes I'm trying to avoid lockpicking altogether.

What I know is that your follower can unlock any chest without lockpicks in his inventory.

Doors however can only be unlocked by your follower with the necessary skill level and lockpicks. So 50 for adept locks for example. Worn rings etc seem to have no effect on the follower. And with most followers the lockpicking skill is not increased with use. Are there followers with high lockpicking skills?

And there are no spells or other means to unlock a chest or door.
Is this correct? No other way to do this?

Thanks
capman

Hmmm...I never thought of using a follower to unlock chests. Good tip.

That being said though, there seem to be a lot of characters in Skyrim who are suffering from major identity issues. It's always the same - "I want to be a good guy but I really really want to get all those daedric artifacts" or "I want to be uber evil but I really really want to become the Arch Mage even if it does mean I save the world in the process and end up a hero" or in your case "I want to play the part of a hardy (Nord?) warrior who doesn't even know what a lock pick looks like but my OCD requires me to open every locked chest and door I find because I really really need to know what's in there".

If you can't stick to playing the part all the time then don't. Every great hero of history had feet of clay my man. So you can pick locks. So what? Your father was probably a Blacksmith who had to open stuff for people all the time and you picked it up from a young age and mastered it as you grew up. Hec, you can even think of yourself as a reformed juvenile deliquint if it helps.

And don't worry, unless you use the thief stone lockpicking levels uber slow. And at higher levels it wont matter anyway as youll be happy to have something to level so you can get more perk points.

This annoys me a bit too. As far as I know there is no way of opening locked doors and chests without raising your lockpicking skill or using a companion.

There used to be an Open spell that was governed by Alteration in the ES series but that's not in Skyrim.

I like the partner lockpicking thing, although admittedly I haven't tried it yet. Note that in some quests your partner will disappear/not follow and there will certainly be loot so in the end it may be best to just learn the skill anyways or find a way to get the keys/avoid locks.

I used the tower stone for most of my "no crime stats" playthrough. It can't unlock everything, but there are very few master locks that you need to pick.

Companion picking the lock is the only way to avoid increasing it.

Scr*w it increase it and you will unlock any lock without struggling

What I want to know about companion lockpicking is, how can I possibly know what level of lock they can open.

Thanks for the feedback.

Two points you got wrong there. First I want to avoid lockpicking skill increases because I want to focus only on the skills relevant for my role. Why should everyone have to learn lockpicking? There should be alternatives for opening chests and doors.

And lockpicking levels up fast. I have a skill level of 41 now (started at 15). Opening only 42 locks in total. And thats only for doors...

I rather have those 26 skill increases in the combat or magic skills. And using all skill increases available to get perks is only one way to play the game...

open console, click on follower and type in "getav lockpicking"
There are some follower stat sheets available too. On UESP wiki I think.

I don't see why they took the open spell out.

I suppose it would epend on you character level and how fast your other skills level. For me, Lockpicking takes forever but that's probably because my main skills are Sneak, Archery, Illusion and Pickpocket which leveleled to 100 quite fast.

The point is however that you will reach a cap eventually where all your main skills are maxed and you'll have no choice but to start leveling other skills to get perk points. So if you do level lock picking every now and then it won't influence your gameplay one bit. Your character won't be any weaker for it because it's more about where you put your perks than what level you have in which skills.

Of course, leveling Smithing to 100 the moment you get past the start of the game would be silly...

^ This.

Also, you'll need at least some points in non-essential skills to give you enough perks to fill out your essential skills.

Yes but it levels you up and you will get to 50/81 early and lose perks

I'm sorry but what? You can't lose perks because you're using a skill. You choose where to put your perk points. It's all about balance and thinking ahead.

On the contrary. The levels for the essential skills of my current character are not high enough to meet the perk requirements. I have perk points to spare...
Sounds like you have more essential skills than I'm currently using. I only have three skills I'm focusing on. As I said it depends how you want to play...

You really want that dragon armor

I wonder... I'm at level 20 now. With around 50 quests and 200 misc objectives completed. The three main skills are at 60 now.
Will I play that same character up to level 50? Probably not. I'll switch to a new character long before then.
I think its more interesting to focus only on one role. So either a companion. Or an assassin. Not both...

Must admit I rather want to slow down leveling. I do hate it when a thief comes along with a full set of glass armor...

That can be an interesting way to play I guess. My current favourite is a lvl 49 master thief/archer and has a ton of skills I consider essential.

Sneak - 100/100
Archery - 100/100
Pick Pocket - 100/100 (Yeah yeah, I know stealing the armour off hot girls is not essential but it's fun! I'm a thief dammit. >.<)
Illusion - 100/100 (Ever tried shooting a Draugh Death Overlord in the back only to find he got 2 pals with him and he's not dead yet? Being able to turn invisible at will is a life saver.)
Smithing - 100/100 (Hey, you try shooting a Dragon Priest on master level with a standard ebony bow. Sneak bonus or not it ain't happening in one shot. Nothing short of a Legendary Daedric Bow will do and since they don't drop in the world you have to make them.

Those are the ones I couldn't live without. They have all the essential perks that counts. Then there's the secondary skills that I try to keep going as well.

Light Armour - 58/100
Alchemy - 75/100
One Handed - 31/100 (I svck at swords. Lol)
Lock Picking - 67/100

So yeah, right now it's slow going but I like my character. She can get out of pretty much any situation. I have purposely not put any perks in Light Armour because it would kill the fun if it didn't matter that you were caught snooping around or overwhelmed by enemies. So she must have a weakness to keep it fresh.

Each to his own I guess. Some like it complicated and some don't. The important thing is to have fun doing it.