I have made at least over 20 characters most of them from restarts and I usually (especially when I first started playing Skyrim) end up with a character that is under powered or just isn't balancing out the way I would like it to. I almost always pick one of the stones you come a crossed at the beginning of the game. This last time around I past by the stones and thought "Na I think I'm going to pass on them this time." Now I am LVL17 and am not smashing through every enemy I see but I am able to put up a decent fight. The only enemies that seem to give me problems right now are higher powered mages but once I close some distance on them it only takes a couple wacks from my greatsword to take them out. I'm starting to get the feeling that those stones were put there to keep me from being able to make a decent character until six months after the game was released so that I still have interest in the game when DLC comes out. I am on to you BETH!

How would the guardian stones keep you from making a decent character? They allow you to create a better character faster.

I'm sorry I don't follow...

I'm glad you're on your way though. It took me three characters to finally make one I truly like.

I felt most comfortable with a warrior/scout build over a battemage, quickly after realizing that I had to unequip my shield every time I wanted to cast a spell. Most of my characters have been almost identical, just with the wrinkles ironed out more and more over time.

As mentioned, the guardian stones can only help your character. The warrior, mage, thief and lover stones all increase skill gain rate. Others make you more resistant to magic, increase carrying weight, as well as give the character various abilities.

Damn them for allowing me to do this! I will inform Bethesda immediately to remove the guardian stones and mounted combat.

O...kay.
but yeah I never take any of the guardian stones.
You level up way too fast.

The first three are only beneficial if you want to be an archetypical warrior, rogue or wizard. If you want to mix it up a little with a warrior who shoots a bow or a sword swinging wizard, then you'd be better off with the lover stone or any of the other ones. I didn't figure this out until too late so now my one-handed skill is way ahead of my archery.

The stones are irrelevant, once you reach in to the 40s, you will steamroll through anything. The game stops levelling, you don't. People [censored]ed in Oblivion that they were getting owned at level 50 by street bums carryinf daedric weapons, now they complain that the game gets too easy.

This is why I never take any Guardian Stones or any training sessions when I play my characters. It's nice to slow things down, there should be no rush to level up. It also allows you to get more of a feel for each level and play your character better.

one extreme doesn't solve the other , i usually reroll when i get to around 40 cus it just gets too easy no matter what character i play

And the Cycle continues...

Morrowind was too easy past level 15.
Oblvion was too annoying with high level enemies.
Skyrim strikes a miidle ground, but not yet perfect.

I think it has improved with every game though.

Yes this was my problem. I would level up skills that I really didn't use that often then when I would get put in a situation the skills I needed didn't match up with my LVL. If only there was a way to LVL down then ... I don't know I'm drunk!

You just have to do everything backwards.

Morrowind's system was pretty bad, but to suggest that Oblivion's terribly thought out level-scaling was a step forward is a bit of an overstatement.

Skyrim definitely improved on things as a whole, since it seems to have adopted Fallout 3's way of doing it. the other reason I imagine it's not as awful as Oblivion's implementation is due to the advancements they've made to the combat, as the unbalanced "stagger" system in Oblivion matched with it's inability to differentiate between if you're blocking or not, made the level-scaling damn near unbearable (in fact, it was unbearable for me as this is the sole reason I've stopped playing it).

The Guardian Stones are there for new players to the series so they can quickly get into the "cool stuff" in the leveling up aspect of the game. For people who look at the numbers or play a character for a long time and like to take things a bit slower, they're a terrible choice of a stone to use. To quote the guidebook regarding the Guardian Stones:


Some sage advice there. I never use them as there are far better choices out there. I would only ever use them if I wanted to quickly increase a skill or a set of skills that falls under one of the Stones that I've never used before, beyond that avoid them and choose another.