I've never been able to finish the game.
I always get up to a certain point when the game stops being fun and just turns into grinding... then I give it up and restart it later.

I recently started a character that I tried to stick to theme. Vampire character with Illusion Magic and Sneak. No armor, no +health, no Destruction/Restoration, etc. Played on highest difficulty.

For the first few levels it was pretty fun. There was a fair amount of enemies I could not control with Illusion magic, so most battles were pretty touch and go. I had to choose my Fury targets carefully and then try to finish off the survivor with a sneak attack. I also had to mind where I was when I was casting spells, since they were so noisy. And since I was so vulnerable with no armor and no health, I had to maintain control of the fights at all times. Early on, I found myself being one-two shot by Bandit Leaders Which was frustrating at first.

I only managed to finish the Thieves' Guild questline and the first small bit of the Dark Brotherhood (and a few miscellaneous missions in Whiterun and Windhelm) when I found myself already at Lv.35 with 100 Sneak, 100 Enchanting, and ~70 Illusion.

Dwemer machines and Draugrs used to present a challenge to me since they were immune to my Illusion spells. But after getting the x30 crit bonus from backstabbing with daggers, Illusion stops being useful anyway. It's still fun, but it's pretty much for its own sake. And with double enchanted gear reducing the cost of my Illusion spells to practically nothing, I'm able to dual cast my highest level spells nearly indefinitely (since I also dumped into Magicka, not putting points in health).

And it doesn't matter where I am when I'm casting, my stealth is so good and my spells are now quiet thanks to an Illusion perk, enemies never find me.

With this character, the only challenging aspects of the game is Dragons. Not because they're strong. Only because they just don't sit still long enough for me to whack at them for 10+ minutes with my dagger.

Well luckily for you we got DLC soon

Unto each their own. I'm still having fun in my own way. Challenge Monkeys are always the first to pull camp.

Everything loses its luster after awhile.

If I'm a challenge monkey then what are you?
An assembly line worker?
Content with doing the same old thing over and over and over again til your hands bleed?
"May not be interesting, but it's simple and familiar and doesn't frighten me."

Lol, tons of people coming on complaining about how the game has become boring to them recently.

Perhaps you didn't get the memo that a huge expansion pack comes out this month?

That's weird. The "new-ness" of the two main quests did dissappear for me as it's a one way story with no choices but then again I still love doing quests I've never found before.

Skyrim is poorly balanced and it does detract from gameplay in the long term but TES has never really been known for being a challenging series.

Like you I wish the game didn't get stuck on very very very easy mode a few hours in but that is just the way it is.

The most challenging character i've played so far is the one I'm currently playing.

Master Difficulty, no fast traveling, no tradeskills whatsoever.

One-handed, Block, Archery, Heavy Armor, Restoration, Speech.

Nord, Steed Stone, hasn't found out that he's Dragonborn yet. He's also a werewolf. Never uses warrior/lover stones, never pays to train skills, never gets rested bonuses. (This is to slow down leveling as it's way too fast if you do any of these.)

I've actually been enjoying this game more than I ever had doing this, stuff is actually really challenging and I've even been dieing on certain things. Last thing I had him do was go for a Daedric Artifact and at the end of the unnamed dungeon on the unnamed quest he fought an unnamed character that gave him a real run for his money. The entire dungeon was ridiculously challenging and the final fight was damn near impossible but when I finally got through it all, I felt a level of accomplishment higher than I've ever had playing in any TES game.

I highly recommend you try playing a build with no Enchanting/Alchemy/Smithing at all, it truely is fun and rewarding. Getting enchanted gear/artifacts actually means something, too!

Those interested in the dungeon/quest I spoke of:

Man, kill daedra, do daedric princess quest, try to get all of the shouts, etc... If you still dont have funny create another character

Maybe it's a clever trick.

People think that if they complain that Skyrim's become boring that Bethesda will give them the DLC for free.

Silly people.

This is the type of player who fast travels everywhere, trains his skill with each trainer, and works to op his character as fast as possible, then complains that everything is too easy... whatever dude.

The law of diminishing marginal utility.

Oh, and nice Mithra. You must play a Khajiit!

Edit: I do have to say I found it ironic where you said:


With an FFXI avatar. No offense, I loved the game and played it for years, but I just found it funny and had to point it out haha.

There are tons of dungeons and sidequests available in Skyrim (just like in other TES games). If you try to do them all, it can get pretty repetitive quickly. I've found the perfect recipe is to explore for a few hours, then work on a guild quest of some kind for awhile. Then maybe hit the main quest, then go back to exploring. Then work on my alchemy a bit.

If you spread things out, instead of trying to finish or complete one questline, or hit all the dungeons in a certain area, or things like that, it gives the game tons of variety. I hope this helps!

I just started my 2nd char (well, 3rd - i did a hi elf mage till i read about destruction being weak). My main guy didnt finish anything but did almost every cave etc. this run will be a finish run. I picked a wood elf archer / sneak , figured i could finish fast on that

Wrong. I deliberately don't use fast travel (you find more random events out in the world that way). I do use the horse stables, though.
I've never paid a trainer for skill ups. I don't need the help. I was 100 Enchanting/Sneak before I knew it.

I think perhaps I should find a mod that slows down the leveling process. I've barely scratched the content in this current playthrough (haven't done main story yet) and I've already crossed the triviality line.


You're absolutely right about that.
But it was my first MMO and I played it for years. Loved it :3
Still chat with my friends from there.

Erm... yeah... everything...

Ah-hem.

Ooh, getting a little volatile there, chief. Taking things a little seriously? U Mad, Brah?

Same here, it was a unique experience/community I can't/won't ever find in any other MMO. I still post on ffxiah from time to time, I used to frequent BG alot but now that I don't play the game anymore there's not much point to that lol.

On topic, I find that to make the game challenging (as well as keeping you entertained), you actually have to jump through some hoops to essentially put gimps on yourself. Any form of smithing/enchanting/alchemy can pretty much make you overpowered fast so I try to steer clear of those alltogether.I also find that sneak is ridiculously overpowered so it's harder for me to balance out sneak archetypes, but playing a sword/board or a mage archetype with no tradeskills is an extremely challenging/entertaining/rewarding experience.

Then stop putting all of your level ups into just a couple of perk trees. I'm at level 42 and I have no perk tree complete. Destruction is probably my highest skill at 82 and I'm not close to completing the perk tree.

Well I don't complete trees. I just go for what I use.
Like in Sneak, I only went up the right tree to Assassin's Blade. Didn't take any of the other sneaky things.
I only took one branch up to the top of Enchanting.

In fact, I think I have like 12+ unused perks <.< Because I can't decide what I'll actually need them for. Most perks seem pretty situational.

You don't matter as much as you think you do, you silly little boy.

This. Though Skyrim hasn't become boring for me yet. It happened quicker with Morrowind and Oblivion.

Well all I can say is, if you pretty much just focus on a couple of combat related skills then you probably will get too powerful, too fast. If you don't enjoy leveling up other, not directly combat related skills such as smithing, enchantment, then I can see having the problem you are having. Truth is, it does appear you aren't really a role player and just want the challenge, but this game is more about role playing. So, if you aren't really willing to have a more well rounded character that finds fun in creating powerful potions, or creating a power ring or armor, then I think you are just out of luck.