Which way do you find most difficult to play and most challenging?
Playstyle, which one requires more of you?

playing a drunk on master

I hear some say Magic is hard to play with. Or harder then Archery and melee, is that true?

if you go destruction and skip conjuration yes. if you go conjuration it be pretty easy once you get frost atronach

Wow, a lot of people asking this lately. Anyhoo, see links in sig. There are much harder ways to play, but any harder than mine might get a tad frustrating.

This^. I'd also add that you need huge alchemy skills if Destruction is gonna be your primary way of moving through the game--at least if you play on Master difficulty. From what I hear, Destruction is more viable below Master.

Unarmoured with melee as your main method of dealing damage is no walk in the park, even on expert.

• I play on standard (normal) difficulty level.
  
• I want to join Thieves Guild and the Dark Brotherhood.
  
• I want to be a vampire, some day.

And I think I want to be using Destruction without Conjuration.
But perhaps I want to use Illusion + Destruction. I'm not sure if Destruction is a VALID way of assassinating someone for the Dark Brotherhood!?

(Added 18:22) *edit*
Is Alteration a good way to find some defense when Illusion fails you? I never touched Alteration, not sure what the deal is with Alteration.

A non-sneak archer really isn't all that difficult IMO. Especially once you get steady hand.

I'd say a cloth destruction mage might be one of the more challenging builds, especially once you get higher in levels because with Lord stone and fully mage armored, you can only get 350 armor rating.

If you're a caster, Alteration is always a good idea, even if you decide to go the armor route. Because even with armor the bonus is nice, and by the time you hit the cap, you'll have access to Paralyze, and also the Magic Resistance perks in the Alteration tree are great.

I don't perk steady hand nor ranger or quickshot . And I use the extra challenge rules (long bow, iron arrows and hide armor on master diff).

Is Alteration a valid thing to use for a Destruction wielder that want to be a vampire and bend the wills of those around him, using Illusions. Or is Alteration some Battle-Mage thing or useless combined with Illusion?

Edit 18:35
I don't ever want to use Restoration, so trying to figure out how I play this out. Because healing spells isn't very vampirish.

Alteration is useful for EVERY caster build. EVERY SINGLE ONE. You might go "oh crap Oakflesh is only 40 points of armor" but early on adding that to your 100 points of armor really helps. Eventually it gets to Ebonyflesh which is like 100 points (I think) and by that time you get Paralyze. When you hit someone with that and they fall limp allowing you to teabag their face for 5 seconds, its worth it.

And 3 perks into Magic Resistance gives you a constant 30% magic resistance, which will help when you're a vampire, or anything, period.

Oh, well you're gimping yourself then, so thats different.

Thank you I want to give you some kind of thumbs up here! But don't see that features, thanks for the help again! *goes back to Skyrim*

No problem. I used to think Destruction and Alteration svcked at first myself, but then after experimentation I saw their merits.

Well, it's tough to find any challenge unless you self-gimp. With the exception of mages, I guess, if you ignore conjuration and illusion.

I used to agree with that. But now having a spellshield in the low 40s, I think they aren't that bad. But then again I'm not playing on Master.

But my attitude now is more not that destruction is underpowered, but that the damage enchant bonuses from melee/archery are overpowered.

I'm currently rocking a monk who wears robes and uses a mace. Alteration is a god send, Mage
armour along with wards offers just enough protection to stop me being one shot. Quick switch out to close wounds (which conveinetly increases my stam) to recover HP and then back to the ward. It's a fun build and fairly tricky on master.

For all those who are unaware, restoration and alteration are perfectly valid schools of magic. In fact no mage / robe wearer can survive without them.

Finally, someone that agrees with me! That's my exact opinion as well. The fact that destruction doesn't scale is not a problem because by the time you max it (around level 35), NPCs stop leveling (by design).

They could fix this easily by adding debuff element spells to the Alteration line, or by adding a third perk to the "Augment [Fire/Frost/Shock]" line.

Or they could just make the damage scale based on skill like every other damage type in the game.

We can use paralyze even to interrupt a dragon's fire/ice breath. Its a very good school of magic, it has also Dragonhide as a huge protection. I, myself, love to paralyze targets and "burn" them with flame/ice/lightining walls and shock/flame/frostbite

Playing a Pure Mage early on is Very difficult, untill you get some good creatures to summon, as mentioned previously. Familiar svcks, but once you get Fire Atronach & your Magicka pool gets deeper, it starts to become a little easier from there on.

Warrior, Melee starts out quite easy beating down Bandits & wolfs, but once you start getting 2-3 Bandit Thugs or 2 Ice Wolfs all around you, things become very Challanging.

Thief is a little tricky untill your sneak skill gets decent ,late 20's early 30's & your going to be difficult to spot. You can get away with more, with a sneak character, as you have the option to not even have to wear armour, seeing as avoiding confrontation is key.

In conclusion, they all have their own strenghs & weaknesses, but at certain points they become more fun to play. I tend to die more as a Mage, then Warrior & Thief.

If i had to pick which one i enjoyed the most, I'd say Thief, then Mage , then Warrior.

For me, playing a light armor wearing stealth character is very challenging. Sure, it's easy to 1 hit kill stuff while sneaking but if I get caught out in the open or by multiple opponents, I get killed pretty quickly. It's obviously different from player to player though. I am more the Warrior/Barbarian type of player that runs in and deals with crap as it's thrown at me.

Non-sneak, non-armor, non-smithing, non-enchanting, non-alchemy, full one-handed weapon only build would probably be the hardest.

All hail dual woodcutter's axes.