How many of you have done one? I played on expert with as assassin, but went for strong melee prowess over archery, after sneak perks. I realize this was a huge mistake because I didn't get any levels into light armor, so no matter how much damage I was dealing once out of sneak, I couldn't take any back. I ended up going into illusion to help which definitely works, but just isn't what I wanted for my character, So now it is essentially ruined for me. (please reset perk option for console players QQ)

Now back on topic. It seems to me the only thing that really changes when you bump up the difficulty to master when playing a non magic character, is that you absolutely craft yourself legendary weapons. Have any of you done a master play through with no crafting? I can't imagine doing one on a mage bust be tough with destruction's limited damage.

So please leave your experience with master play throughs and any advice you have for them.

Im playing master now with a khajiit thief (sneak archer). I dont need uber gear, just standard legendary will do. At first it was a bit hard due to low armor rating, and low damage output overall. Once I got some sneaking skill though its becomes really simple to move around and keep enemies on their toes trying to detect me. Outside of sneaking, I dual wield daggers and move around a fair bit. Its all in the timing and its only really mages that give me any kinds of problems in direct combat.

I'm doing three. One's a sneaky archer, so I don't have trouble with damage mitigation. I was going to level Light Armor, but I found out that I almost never get hit, so it would be a waste of perks. I don't do any crafting on this playthrough, it's just the armor I find.
One's a pure mage, but I'm using Better Magic mod which allows for Destruction damage scaling, so I can't say anything about vanilla mage gameplay.
I've recently started a melee character who'll wear only leather armor. This might be difficult; I'm definitely perking Smithing. I'm going the Restoration route with her, though, so I hope it'll be doable.

I'm playing a Paladin who is now lvl 53, so sword and shield warrior. Though, I also have stealth, and archery. Along with smithing and enchanting. My armour is all double enchanted and before I moved to master level, I was barely taking damage at all. Wasn't much of a challeng, though, with master level I find fights take a bit longer, only because they have more health.

My first time through was a mage on Master. I've played Oblivion and Fallout 3 so I knew what to expect. I used a follower and conjuration for defense and did not level past 47. I used enchanting and alchemy to improve damage output and to improve my follower's gear. I chose the stunlock perk and enchanted for no magicka use. Also chose alteration armor perks which are annoying to continually apply, but useful.

I'm going through again as a mage but this time I am not opening any locks and not wearing any armor to avoid leveling up unnecessarily. I will probably add in poisoning and a bow.

That's kinda dumb. You avoid getting good items, and on top of that, you assume that monsters scale with you like in Oblivion; which they don't.