I think one of the best ways to make the game more challenging is to not take certain perks. I usually stay away from taking all of the sneak perks as you can almost sneak right up in front of someone if you do. I also don't take the armor perks because I like for NPCs to do a lot of damage while I do the same. I'm actually hesitant to take all five perks on one-handed and archery, but I probably will. Are there any perks that you guys stay away from and if so, why?

I had a character that was only focused on Archery, I got him to 100 in Archery and I only carried a bow and a dagger. I took all the Archery perks and the game was ruined. Paralyzing and staggering enemies every 5 seconds made the game annoying for me.

I don't use up perk points until I feel that I have to. Say I notice a perk up the tree which looks interesting( like the sneak role for instance) and I have the level but not the perks before. I will spend most of my perk points on pointless perks just to get the one I wanted. Just to find that the sneak role is [censored] and pointless.

The thing for me is that I like to be able to kill enemies with relatively few hits, while allowing them to do the same thing to me. I see a lot of people complaining about the maximum difficulty level because it takes 15 arrows to kill things but its the only way they can get a challenge. However, it is also a challenge, and a more realistic one at that, to be able to kill most enemies with fewer arrows while allowing them to kill you easier as well. I think this can be achieved by not taking armor perks.

The only restriction I use on all my characters is that I only perk one crafting skill. Having anyone that can master Smithing and Enchanting and Alchemy gets over-powered very quickly so I just always role-play that the character is only good at one.

I do the same with crafting. Either im an alchemist OR a blacksmith not both. I usually use enchanting but i think the most perks i have put in were 2. Stupid to some but it works nicely for me. The only perks i find are needed is if i have a mage character and taking the upgrade for lower destruction cost. I found i actually limit my characters without even thinking about it.

I limit my characters perk choices in a different way. On my last three characters I picked perks from just three trees per character:

1) 2-Handed, Heavy Armor, Smithing
2) 2-Handed, Light Armor, Smithing
3) 1-Handed, Light Armor, Sneak.

I made a post about a week ago asking whether or not people thought that taking all five perks for archery (Overdraw) or one-handed (Armsman) was kind of like cheating. I suppose its not really, but I just don't want to become too powerful. I don't smith but I do use alchemy/poisons.

The Archer I'm playing now has all five perks in Overdraw. She also has the one that stuns, and to be honest that one really factors in a lot (giving me that extra shot on people charging me). Add to that she crafts in Smithing and has a Legendary Glass bow. It may seem overpowered, but by the time you have all five perks the enemies you are facing are pretty tough so the extra damage is needed.

After my first 2 characters I stopped taking armor and weapon perks. Thrones that just increase damage or armor rating. I'll take the first one because you have to to get into the tree, but I'll leave those at 1/5

My main guy only gets perks into 2-handed block and the armors and really only the first star gets the perk point. I have no problems being OP but I do like to take guys out in just a couple solid hits. But I hardly ever select health when I level up so It only ever takes a couple hits for me to die as well.