I know you know what I'm going to say ... or maybe not. With the two of these and Alchemy at 80 I'm just smithed a new version of my armor and weapons and given Lydia my old armor (nearly as strong). My new stuff is double enchanted. Daedric greatswords (used one at a time) with Fiery soul trap/shock and frost/shock. Armor with fortify health/fortify health regen, resist frost/fire, etc etc.

I'm theoretically a Battlemage but I don't use magic much these days except for light and healing.

Now the only problem is really the weapons are a bit TOO powerful. One wrong swing and I take out Lydia. She can survive one blow but not if she is already injured. I have to be SO careful that I'm debating leaving her behind next time. Maybe I should just give her a superbow instead of hand weapons.

That said, I'm actually enjoying exploring Blackreach. So far I can relax and just marvel at the really cool sights down here. It's been a lot of fun. In the beginning, my lack of fighting skill meant I was getting killed all the time by most things. I much prefer it this way. I may be too overpowered for everything, but we'll see because I'm back on the main quest and I'm headed (slowly) for Alduin. I didn't really believe it when I read on this board all the stuff about smithing/enchanting being a bit too effective, but so far it's hard to dispute. But it's fun!

Have to ask - being only at 92 smithing-wise - is the Dragon-Plate stuff worth looking forward to. Does it look as good as the Ebony, which I think is dead chilling... if not, do the ratings make up for it. Either way, you sir are a stirling example of tradecraft over mere flash... salut

Ebony looks much better then Dragonplate and Daedric is better then both of them, I wouldn't waste the perk point on Dragon Armor. As to the OP, you could create a stronger armor for Lydia that has Elemental Resistances so that you don't accidently kill her.

send Lydia home and get a ranged follower. I personally love Marcurio or (for your evil char) the Namira coven leader, Eola

I think Daedric looks better (but also evil). Ebony looks better too, but dragonplate materials are unlimited and everytime a dragon attacks you, he resupplies you! Come and get me lizard brain! Practicality over aesthetics.

I love ebony looks and light dragon armor

pretty much all armor in skyrim looks great except for deadric (but I always hated deadric in all TES.... too many spikes XD)

Bah! All of you use weapons and armour? That was so last millenia...

Why not fight like a Dovahkiin jumping around with your sausage + meatsack flopping in the air whilst punching peoples faces in and smiting em' off cliffs with your breath! I can show you a picture if you like...

Because mine is female?

To the OP:

Well, you, in a way, solved your Lydia problem by your mere mention that you made armor that increases your health and health regen. Why not make Lydia similar armors?


Well, not all people are male-centric in their physical make-up

Unless you have already, give her a health/magic res ring + neck (while you're at it tailor her boots and gloves with sneak and/or muffle
If she's not level bugged on your character or w/e she should be a monster with a high level enchanted set.
Also. stop hitting her it's hard I know...


It's a matter of taste really, personally I think it looks incredible, exotic in a way that doesn't get boring (as I find with Ebony, I tend to tire of the awesome)
I use Dragonplate as my end-game set basically, it's IMO a nice evolutionary step from Nordic gear to Dragonborn demi-god.
EDIT: And as far as armor rating go, the 3 sets are within equal enough range that it hardly matters.

Smithing is probably the most annoying thing to me in this game. What's the point of making yourself a weapon if you're never going to need to make another one? I don't understand why they removed weapon and armor degrading. I'm trying to legitimately reach 100 in smithing (meaning I don't want to just make a hundred iron daggers) but I don't see any other way to improve it.

Wait a second, smithed weapons have better stats then found ones? I have 80 Smithing and all I've been doing is making jewelry...

the higher the smithing skill the more damage the weapon will do when upgraded. If you have the corrasponding smithing perk a weapon can be upgraded to legendary.

A weapon upgraded to Legendary will out damage found weapons. Legendary Elven Bow > found Dradic Bow

Daedric IMO is ugly.. the shoulders ruin it. The Dragonplate, i like but again the shoulders ruin it.

Dragonscale is pretty awesome, i just don't like the part that goes from the waist down, which i think it was stupid for them to merge upper and lower armor parts, i rather have less NPC's on the screen then have less customization options.

She has my old armor which does do that. She does have some rings and a necklace. The necklace is a shock resistance necklace. I need to make her better ones. It's irritating though. Yesterday she was in a lake inside the witches cave and wouldn't come out. I had to explore the rest of the cave by myself and it was only after I fast travelled that she showed up. Buggy buggy buggy.

at some point if you want your smithing to 100, you'll need to make a few hundred daggers, whether you do em in batches or all at once or during the course of the game, you'll eventually need to make em on way or the other.

my smithing is around 70 so if i improve enchanting and alchemy it will improve damage even more?!?!?!? i havent even bothered with them

With the power combo of enchanting and alchemy to massively boost smithing, it doesn't really matter which armour you chose. You can chose whatever armour you like the look of best and you'll be upgrading it to major legendary status of super high strength. I stick to the light steel scaled armour cause she looks best in that.

i did leves 60-90 trough GOLD rings, take that iron ore from the bsmith guy transmute twice to gold and make into rings, at least it's not daggers AND it also makes you money isntead of costing it.

You're probably more of a merchant than you are a battlemage or anything. If enchanting, smithing or alchemy are higher and or were considerably higher before your character tops out then your character is a mercant class.

Found or crafted does not matter. Items have a static base value. Smithing only affects how much you can improve an item by. For weapons, this improves damage. For armor, this improves armor value. Without Smithing, you will not be able to progress with your gear. To increase this further, you can make potions that increase both your smithing and enchanting. With this you can make gear that increases your smithing greatly. You can also make gear that fortifies your alchemy and smithing to make incredibly powerful items. This is WITHOUT the exploit of potion looping or RESTORATION POTION usage.

That is the only thing that is really annoying is the emphasis they put on Enchanting and Smithing. There is no happy medium.

I got smithing to 100 without the dagger spamming, but only at just past level 50, and spent the first 30 levels of the game skint from buying materials. Opinion : I don't care for dragonbone, but I do think dragonscale looks almost perfect with a Blades sword. I wasn't going to wear it, made it just to see, but now there is a mannequin with my characters 'battle armour'. Even if it doesn't get worn, looks fine and dandy.

I think my next game will be light armor. There are so many neat light armors out there to try.

In my current playthrough, I now have a full set of Dragonscale armor upgraded to Legendary, which might not seem like an impressive feat, except in my case:

1) Although I have 100 in smithing, I have zero smithing perks.
2) I haven't actually encountered any dragons (because I've avoided the main quest entirely).

I found the armor pieces as random loot in boss chests (took a hell of a long time to complete a set), and I was able to temper each piece with I was able to get the pieces up to legendary with a combination of blacksmithing potions and fortify smithing apparel.

Smithing perks are a waste. The only one that's arguably worthwhile is Arcane Blacksmith, but I passed on that one too.