So I've been implementing a lot of factors into my play style to make difficulty as high as possible. I think I've come to terms that perks, at higher levels, beginning at around lvl. 20, begin to gradually decrease the difficulty, essentially creating an easier play style. I understand that certain perks, above certain skills, tend to not affect gameplay difficulty as much; but what I'm wondering is, which perks should I avoid if I want the difficulty to still be considerably high? And, although still maintaining a high difficulty, which perks are essential?

I suppose for example, reaching the third, fourth or fifth perk that increase the damage/protection percentage tends to be a bit overpowering, as well as other perks such as Power Shot and Shadow Warrior. I've been thinking about choosing the first rank of percentage increases among certain skills, and stopping at that to simply choose higher perks I find fit, but I'm not sure.

Anyone?

Don't use sneak
Don't use enchant/smithing
Don't use alchemy or found potions
Don't use illusion
Don't use conjuration


Those are the main things that can make combat trivial on any difficulty.

Are you suggesting not using those skills in general, or the perks of those skills?

Not using them in general. Although some are pretty weak without perks, other than maybe alchemy and sneak which can be overpowered with or without. There's no cooldown on instant healing potions, so you can spam them to survive almost any encounter if you have enough. And at high sneak level, I think even without perks, you'll end up basically facing blind and deaf enemies. Although I suppose without increased sneak multipliers it wouldn't be that overpowered unless you used a bow.

I see. I was thinking about probably still using Sneak, but as you already somewhat answered, do you think using a bow while sneaking without any perks would still be a bit too overpowering? I'm also not a big fan of Illusion or Conjuration, and I'm definitely aware of how overpowering Enchanting and Smithing can be. Although I never considered your statement about potions. Hm. Would you suggest only using bought potions? Or possibly not using health/stamina/magicka potions at all, and simply fleeing if a situation's too dangerous?

I'm not sure I'd say anything in this game is too overpowering, the combat has very little to do with player skill, it's really a matter of choosing how you want your combat to play out. You can be nigh invulnerable, you can be extremely fragile, you can one shot everything or be a total gimp that gets one shot by most things. You can have all the strengths with none of the weaknesses, or vice versa. Regardless, it's pretty basic when it translates into actual game play. You choose a weak character you'll just have to play careful, kite around, hit and run, and take advantage of the bad AI more.

Sneak + archery is a pretty easy way to get through the game, I can't say for certain how it'd fare without perks though. The sneak skill doesn't rely too much on perks, even less when you're using archery so you don't have to get too close. Archery won't do very much damage without perks though, and you'll have to spend a lot of time running if you don't have power shot to help prevent enemies from getting into melee range.

As for potions, it's really up to you. You can limit yourself to a certain number per fight, you could use restoration instead, you could only use them when your character is out of combat or in a safe enough potion that you'd be able to drink one in real time, etc. etc. Only using bought potions wouldn't be a major limitation since money is easy to amass in this game. I personally didn't use potions just because I'd hate going in and out of my inventory in combat plus I feel instant health potions are a terrible game mechanic and a crutch. Restoration is decent enough.

Ah, alright. I'll have to think about how I'll handle potions, but really great advice Hermit. Thanks a lot for the awesome input!