I need some advice. I was going along just great, up to Lvl 39 as a Redguard with emphasis as a thief/archer. I would go into sneak, navigate any 'dungeon' and blow away any foe that came into my sights.

Then the other day I checked my defaults and noticed that I was playing at Novice, or whatever the lowest level is. Totally devastated and my ego deflated to no end. About a thousand saves ago, I remember going down to that level when I got very frustrated going up the steps and running into the Frost Troll on my way High Hrothgar.

So here are my options:

1. Fall on my mace and start over, having the knowledge that I have gained.
2. Just accepting my blunder and changing my level back to the default.
3. Conltinue on at the wimp level, learn and start over with a total new character.
4. Any suggested alternatives

Part of my problem is that I am an old 62 year old fart, that does not have the same eye/hand coordination that I had a thousand years ago when I was playing Zork and I find the plot and interaction of the game is far supeior following the outline in the official guide vs. trying to complete the game; 1) in the shortest period, 2) completing it at the highest lvl, trying to do it with only an iron dagger, 3) etc. All of thes are viable venues, but I would like to weigh the consequences of all options.

Any Help?

Honestly, I don't find that difficulty slider all that compelling. I believe it only changes health levels of enemies, or at least that's the vast majority of the change. Honestly, Master isn't that hard given the fact you can easily do tons of damage, especially if you are sneaking. You probably won't notice much of a difference.

A challenge can be fun if it is a good challenge and makes you up your game, but that's not how the difficulty slider in Skyrim works. So if you are having fun at your current level, I wouldn't worry about it at all.

(1) I don't think a mace is gonna have all that lethal effect if you fall on it.
(2) Hand-eye coordination? In Zork? You must have been playing a different Zork than I did!
(3) I'd say just bite the bullet and scoot the level back up to the default. Run around in the tundra until a wolf or something attacks, and try it out. Then go for a couple bandits. You'll find out if the difficulty is where you need it to be.

Just up the difficulty and continue on.

Gram,
Ok, I realize the eye/hand metaphor was a bit too far since Zork was competely text based. The point I was attempting to make was that really love these RPGs and have been doing it for a number of years; more than I should admit. So I no longer have to go N and attempt to ask a simple question: LOOK.

And my mace has a drain health, so if I do fall on it a few times, I can get into a never ending cycle of return to last save and dying

zenzi,
Right now that is what I am doing. But I was wondering if the game algorithms were set up in such a way to penalize players that take the 'wimp' approach. ie, if I level up for the first 20 levels @ novice, and then change to master, would I be facing leveled foes of a master when I have only the resources as a wimpy lvl?

Nope, I'm 95% sure that it doesn't. Within that 5% is my theory that we are all being penalized for not giving Bethesda more money.

Lol just set it to adept if you want and enjoy the game as you like

Try messing around with the difficulty for a while, and try to find a sweet spot. There is nothing wrong with playing the game on Novice or Master, just play at the level you feel comfortable with and have FUN!

there no really differents really I think it just enemies health and damage increase alittle your character the same in all difficulty.

Ok, I realize the eye/hand metaphor was a bit too far since Zork was competely text based.

He wasn't saying that he needed hand eye coordination to PLAY Zork. Only that he was younger when Zork was out and had better hand eye coordination at that time. I could say that I drank a lot of pepsi when pagers were the "in" thing. The 2 events are completely unrelated it only refers to a time period.

Hey puppy how's it goin'? I'm 65 and am playing on expert and master. How can I do both? I have 4 characters playing the game.

To be fair I am a monster with an insane number of FPS hours and gaming is my hobby.

Roll another character. It's always the best part of a game like this. Once you know what you are doing you can build a character with a much better chance of achieving your goals. You can build multiple characters to try out different types of person. A Mage needs it's own build as does a tank with Daedric everthing. You can't properly explore the possibilities with just one guy.

Friend of mine kid came over with him the other day and he has a level 55 or so everything guy. I showed him my Mage owning everything without actually fighting. Then I zapped a Dragon to death, they do come by a lot in my game, and he was amazed.

Definately 2. Theres no need to do something as extreme as starting again just because you accidently played on novice. There is still plently of stuff to do, so don't think you missed out or wasted a lot of time playing on novice.