Light armor or heavy armor? Why?

1-handed, 2-handed, or a little of both? Why?

May seem trivial, but it's something I am unsure about.

Heavy armor: If you're going warrior, no sense in skimping on the armor. Unless you're going sneaky warrior (where light armor is preferable), but that has a much higher chance of getting killed than a straight-up warrior.
One-handed: You're gonna need to max out your armor, so having a shield is a must for a Dead is Dead play-through (unless you wanna get really ballsy, then I guess two-handed is good for extra damage).

A shield would probably be better than a two-handed weapon. heavy armor is a must if your playing a warrior.

I would only do two handed later on if your character survives.
I would do dual weapons cuz they are so easy to get early on.
I would also do HVY armor, tho I would never outfit a Nord in heavy armor.
Nords should be able to do damage in nothing. LOL
But I play my nord(s) in light armor cuz they like to sneak sometimes.

Heavy Armor, Sword and Board. Start training your Restoration skill, and switch your sword-arm to healing spells if you get hurt. Keeping you shield equipped for defense is a priority.

This is important. A lot of people get all confused when they start taking more damage as soon as they pull out their healing spells. Well, no [censored], you just put your shield away. Obviously you're going to take more damage. Keep that shield out, always.

Two-Handed will work, although it will be a bit rougher early on than one-handed due to not having a shield.

@FPSFrame52: you actually have that backwards; the sneaky guy will get backstabs, and drop stuff in one attack that the guy attacking from the front will need several hits to kill. Granted this won't always apply, but generally speaking sneaky combat is the safer route. A bit too safe, perhaps, but for Dead-is-Dead there's no such thing...

That's true, but if you get seen and lose your sneak bonus, you're kinda screwed. Sneaky combat is safer in terms of damage, but more risky because if you get discovered, the game's over (unless you're proficient with sneak and melee, then you're good). Straight-up combat is more risky overall, but carries less "Oh [censored], it's over" risk than sneak combat. With regular combat, yes you'll take more hits, but you'll also be better prepared for said hits.

Only reason I don't want to use heavy is because it seems wrong on a Nord. I definitely have appreciated the feedback so far. I think this should give me an idea on where to start.

Go two handed, nords already get an initial +10 to two handed and honestly block is a viable option with a two hander

If you're really are gonna do Dead is Dead watch out for those blasted Spriggans! Their level is super uneven compared to new characters and the location is close to Helgen.

So true! I still wonder what's that thing that svcks your health away so fast. Is it poison or something? Thank god i have my "Sparta" Nord to interrupt with bash. Shields are overpowered in this game.

Anyway, back to the light/heavy armor question. From a conceptual point of view, maybe Nords are meant to wear light armor due to their barbarian nature. Personally i made my Nord go heavy armor because i wanted him to go one handed/block but that's one possibility. If i went dual-wield i'd certainly pick light armor because that would improve my mobility, but that's me! Options

I think light armor is for a warrior is very viable.The pek that allows for 50% faster stamina regen is great.
Add that with a ton of shield blockings perks and one handed and you got a mobile blocking warrior.

both LA and HA are very viable, LA got alot of Dmg Spec with good Armor and HA got well lots of Armor lol. Whatever u play Warrior/Rogue u need to get that Bow skill up with Sneak dmg them down as much as u can B4 they get to u, Get that restoration skill up basically just 3 points into it the 50% cost to novice, 50% more healing and the healing restores sta as well. Sneak u just need i say just that 1 point into stealth, the backstabs, muffle, bow dmg and the 15x. Id actually have to say go duelweilding until u meet up with a caster then switch to board and sword for interupts until u get the Shout at beginning. Ahh get ur alch up a lil as far as more health and more dmg from potions and poisens maybe 3 points into that tree as well.

Heavy armor to minimize the risk of one-hit kills, and one-handed weapon plus shield. Also, bow and restoration/alteration magic. Do focus on getting your archery skill high at first so you might be able to take out enemies from afar as much as possible. Especially mages.

http://skyrimcalculator.com/#34720

Don't worry about restoration or alteration skill, it's a warrior and a Nord-- NO MAGIC! Nords hate magic, just ask a barkeep! Everything you need from those magic schools is easily done with alchemy. That frees up extra points for Stam and Health. Go 60/40 Health/Stam. My favorite shout for that build is whirlwind sprint to use as a charge or a quick escape. You don't have to worry about ranged, just charge in and wreck them. Once you get Elemental Protection/Deflect Arrows/Block Runner, range classes are not a problem. If you wanted to be one of those min-maxers, you could get enchanting and cut out some points from block/heavy armor/one handed, but I find all 3 trade skills to be tedious to level and overpowered when you do. Use Warrior Stone. It's a fun build. I liked to use a ranged follower to make up for my lack of ranged skills.

I also wanted to note, there is no need to put anything into archery or sneak with that build I posted. With all the armor you have on, you won't be sneaking and you don't want your bow and sneak skills to be what's leveling your character. You want your bread and butter, block and 1h to level you. Especially with a dead is dead playthrough, you need to focus on getting a few skills high rather than trying to do a little bit of everything. To top it all off, if you do like the RPG side of it, that build makes a lot of sense.

I leveled a very similair light armor version of this build to about 30, but I found that I died a lot more often early in the game than I did with my heavy armor version. End game, I'm sure the LA version is nice, but you may not get that far with a dead-is-dead playthrough.

You're saying that for a stealth based character you'd use Illusion spells? That's very interesting. I wonder if you really have to.

I guess it depends on how good you are at making sure you're out of LOS save that from your target, since you're quite right that the sneaky guy is screwed early on if he gets seen in the middle of multiple opponents. Which type of armor you go with also matters, since going Heavy Armor with the 2H sword will let you soak a lot of those hits, while going Light means you'll have to kite and abuse stagger-lock until you can smith the armor to high degrees of mitigation.

Not that I'd advise going 2H+LA for Dead-is-Dead use, since you don't get to reload if you screw up and miss a stagger-strike.

From my own experience, I agree 100% with this and have nothing (important) to add.

Shields really shouldn't add to armor though, that's not an illogical response since when you're not actually blocking with a shield it really shouldn't be doing anything extra for you.

Anyway, my suggestion would be don't play a warrior for DiD unless you like chugging cheesy instant healing potions, pretty much awful gameplay.

If you still want to, sword and board is definitely better than 2 handers, dual wield is also better than 2 handers. Heavy armor is probably a better choice for staying alive through the early levels, even though light ends up superior at high levels due to the armor cap.

IMO Pure warriors or pure mages are the best DiD characters because you won't die with eaither of those classes if you know what your doing.
So, what is a pure warrior? HEAVY armor, with either a onehand and a shield, or two handed.
I prefer one/shield because you do a lot of damage, you're more protected, and faster than a twohander. Maybe slip in some restoration HEALING (i know that makes it a little un-pure, but that will save you from time to time).
And remember OP, smithing and dragon shouts are your best friends.