Hi!
I have started a Dead is Dead character. She is a Breton warrior. Light Armor, One-handed, Blocking with a bit of Restoration (why in the name of Talos can't I block and heal?) and Alteration as support. I will use no Alchemy or Enchanting (except for what I get from recharging weapons that I find).
I am playing on Expert because I have only been playing on Adept thus far, and a jump to Master would be too much for me.
I am seeking advice on what to do with Smithing. I will use it, I admit. But I don't want to abuse it.

So let's say I have 30 iron ores...what should I do with that? Should I forge stuff, hence increasing my smithing maybe a little too fast, or should I just sell the ores, keeping only what I need to make a new set of armor/weapons? <-- This might not work very well because I would be advancing smithing only by a little bit.

Or should I just drop smithing altogether and only use what I find and not improve anything? <-- I'm sensing a very fast death by doing this

Thank you in advance, and sorry for grammar/spelling mistakes, English is not my native language.

IMO, the only reason smithing can be abused is because crafting simple iron daggers, even at the highest levels, grant you considerable skill increases. I wouldn't avoid smithing outright, but maybe restrict yourself to crafting items from ore/ingots you mine/smelt yourself. It levels up with you that way and is quiet balanced.

I say: craft whatever makes the most money from the materials you have (not counting stuff you craft to use, of course). This is fairly realistic and will slow your advance relative to iron daggers. This means a lot of helm and bows, but the market for bows is red hot lately what with the dragons and all.

^^ Hmm, really nice advice. And it would fit in great for RP reasons!

Oh, yes, I'm definitely only going to use only ores that I mine. However, iron is pretty common and so are the pelts (even considering that I will never attack an animal that doesn't attack me). Maybe I should stop using it if it gets ahead of my combat skills.
Also, should a DiD character use followers? I have never used them before because I don't like the pathfinding too much.

Followers?
(+) : Pack Mules. As DiD, the last thing you need is to be encumbered.
(+): Tanks. Works best if you are willing to let them die in you place.
(-): If you are too tenderhearted to let them die, babysitting them can get YOU killed, which is A Bad Thing?
(-): Pathing: as DiD, getting stuck in a corner because of your idiotic companion is A Very Bad Thing?

Personally, I never use them, and I don't play DiD. But then, I always try to keep them alive. (I tend to play Tanks in MMOs ).