So before I try (and probably fail) to get the nexusmods working on my PC and see if I can get my old turd of a PC to run skyrim, I decided to get the last of my 360 achievements. I'm between jobs right now so no Dawngaurd for me, and frankly, I'm not that psyched about it from what I've seen anyway. Anyhow, I figured I'd start with Oblivion Walker, which is collecting all of the Daedric artifacts. I decided I'd do this with an Imperial Paladin build, with the idea she was sent from Cyrodiil to collect the artifacts and remove them from Skyrim, so they couldn't be used by Daedra worshippers or possible Stormcloak agents.

I went with the following skills:

Main Focus: One-Handed, Block, Heavy Armor, Restoration, Smithing, Enchanting, Alteration
Secondary: Speech, Archery

She looks pretty cool with Steel Plate Armor and a Glass Sword & Bow, and of course the Spellbreaker shield.

What I was surprised about was how just doing one specific task would level me up so much. I figured I'd have them all collected and be done by the early 20s. I mean I did a few "kill X bandit at Y place" for a little money, and did Bleak Falls at level 10, but other then that, I've done nothing but the Daedric Quests, and I'm like level 32! I still have to collect:

Masque of Clavicus Vile, the Oghma Infinium, the Savior's Hide/Ring of Hircine, and the Ring of Namira.

I was planning on using this character to also collect all of the Dragon Priest masks and get the Thu'um Master achievement (and make a seperate character for the One with the Shadows achievement) but now I'll probably stop with her after I get all the Daedric stuff, and make a seperate character for the masks/shouts, and a third for the Thieves' Guild achievement.

In closing, you can choose not to do any of the factions and have a perfectly fine Skyrim experience. I think a lot of people get frustrated with the game because automatically think they have to choose a side in the civil war, do the main quest, and/or decide: "Well, will I do the college, companions, dark brotherhood, or thieves' guild?" or some combination of them.

Nice. I'm thinking of collecting the Dragon Priest masks with my newly created dunmer assassin.

Yeah I've got a character idea that is going to use a mix of Conjuration (necromancy), Illusion (fear only), Alchemy, and Sneak to get the DP masks, and get the shouts.

DUNMER ALL THE WAY! haha, I love the elven races, and you are so right i started a new character who is a dunmer paladin and i have barely touched any questline, im only about half way through the main quest other than that i have played mainly random quests and daedric quests makes the game so much more fun!

Bottom line: if I start getting bored of any game, I usually stop playing it for awhile until I feel inspired again. If inspiration does not return, the game will wind up on my shelf, or being given away.

OP, I might be wrong, but if you are actually getting bored, it doesn't make sense to force the game, no matter how cool of an idea you've come up with.

I've collected the dragon priest masks, and it wasn't that big a deal. I wonder whether collecting all of the daedric pieces is more difficult?

I'm not getting bored, I just remember reading threads describing the game as "a mile wide and an inch deep" and it seems like when people talk about builds, they immediately talk about which factions they will join. I was just illustrating that you can approach the game with a different mindset, and have a much different experience.

I still have PS1 and Dreamcast games I haven't gotten around to playing, so if I got bored with Skyrim, I'd have plenty to do.

Not difficult, it just takes up time and makes for a different experience then joining certain factions, its just playing the game with a different goal in mind.

I created a character that punches people to death. And has high bounty on all cities Those little bar fights got out of hand

I have yet to make a character who sympathizes with either the Stormcloaks or the Imperials enough to join either of them. My original Nord Dovahkiin had sympathies with the Stormcloaks sort of, but they are too radical for him. I did the main quest with Ulfric constantly getting frustrated with me in his scenes.

Now I have an Imperial assassin thief like character who I plan to make a vampire. He doesn't seem to care about it either. I pretend he hates the dovakhiin and I switch back and forth playing them every few hours.

I pretend they are in the same world, as if my assassin is hunting my Dovakhiin. It makes the world feel more like a novel or something with multiple stories and characters I am experiencing.

svcks though because you have to join and almost complete the Thieves Guild quest line to get one of the Daedric Artifacts. And you have to both pretty much finish the College of Winterhold main quest line and finish the main quest to get all the dragon priest masks. Makes it hard to do it all on one character while maintaining solid roleplaying like you've laid out for yourself.

I've gotten all the Dragon Priest masks which was a pretty rewarding experience; they usually make it more interesting than just a dungeon crawl and the shouts you get make it worth it even if you don't plan to use any of the masks. The skeleton key is the only Daedric Artifact I have left to get too and you're right, doing those quests levels you up quick! And they are all unique and interesting, again worth it even if you don't use the artifacts.

But what your doing is definitely how I keep the game interesting. I make a new character with a very specific roleplaying purpose for each major task in the game. I have a different character for every faction, including the civil war factions, and I pick a hold with each character to dominate. With 9 holds and 10 races, it almost works out perfectly. I was diligent in avoiding entire quests, areas, and even cities with earlier characters so that I could save the experience for later ones. Then, I go back later with those earlier characters and have a bunch of content to do while leveling them to higher levels.

Well the skeleton key doesn't count toward the achievement, so I'm not really worrying about that one. And I could always join the college as an Alteration/Restoration caster, since both of those skills are reasonably high at this point. I'll probably just make a seperate character for each task, like I said.

Oh since this was the first pure 100% good character I've ever played, I noticed the going can be a little tougher in the beginning, because you can't murder and steal your way to wealth early on like you can do with an evil aligned character.