According to http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Console_Commands_(Skyrim), if you enter console command "tgm" (toggle god mode) before using "showracemenu", the attributes/skills will not be messed up. It seems god mode can freeze these values. However, I find that at least the skin color and weight will be reset. You need to reset them when using "showracemenu".

So, I guess the 85% of nice people who have empathized with me on this thread, and posted that they, too have the same tendency to start over and redesign their characters ALL have ocd?

Don't have this problem. I value RP far more than I do looks, and have restarted several characters for being unhappy with their concept / background story. But once I have a really good character, I can happily ignore any 'imperfections' in his looks. Besides, I rarely look at my character's face.

Same here.

showracemenu makes it all alright.

I really like when games give me a 'random' button to press to see what my character looks like. If the game (like this game) doesn't have one I just pick the 13th preset or whatever when I get to choose what he looks like. However, I usually regret what I've done when he/she looks like a Umbrella / Black Mesa genetic reject and I'm 20+ hours in the game.

Selecting a preset is a care free idea, which I thought would give me peace of mind, as any imperfections to the character design wouldn't be "my fault" as it is a preset. But I have still ended up hating the preset later. LOL. So now I have a special favorite preset Nord that I choose, and then just make a few minor tweaks.

By the way, i am on the 360 and dont use mods/cant use mods.

I have the same problem. Even on PC, with mods, and even making my own facial textures (once I edited the main texture 6 times in the same day), I still can't get something "perfect". Well...I was happy enough with my altmer, 'till vampirism struck It was a planned part of the character's background, but led me to start over 2 days later. heh.
The main problem I'm having is with facial structure. There are more strict limits in the shapes allowed with the current system. I can only mess with the shading on the texture to "fake" a shape so far.

I don't exactly know what creates this phenomenon, but for me, I think it is because when I play Skyrim, I am able to get a sensation of escaping reality like nothing else that the world can offer.

If my character doesn't look exactly right, for some reason, it ruins the immersion.

<sub>My Male Nord reached Lvl 45. I'd been playing as a Spell Sword, by and large, but I HATED the dodge eye, scar and tattoo I'd given him on launch day. The solution?

I started multiple games. I've actually created a character for each race, with different fighting styles tailored to the strengths of each race. And I took a LONG time designing each character's look, but without the pressure of this being my ONLY character.

So far my plan is to play each through to the end of Bleak Falls Barrow and see which ones I prefer to take forward.</sub>

Pretty interesting idea.

I've also started over many times if there is something i dislike about the look of my charatcer. I've spent 2-3 hours sometimes just trying to get the look of my character right.

If they had allowed us to finalise our character before exting the Caves under Helgen, rather then having to run through the tutorial first & have no option to finalise after seeing our charatcer in game, it would had been so much better.

Thanks for the tip!

As far as colors are concerned at least tattoos, scars and pigmentation are reseted, but that's hardly a problem as long as nothing else changes.

I always screw up my first character's appearance in TES games, and then fix it later with ShowRaceMenu and mods. So I don't have to restart. My later characters don't need fixing.

From time to time I think my character needs tweaking, but then when I test changes I find out that any changes weren't required after all...the character just became worse. I think that with ShowRaceMenu many would soon realize that changes to their character weren't necessary after all. Unfortunately console players don't have the command so they could test tweaks later in the game.

I've found out that if you switch between genders once in the ShowRaceMenu screen before editing your appearance your skills don't become messed and you don't lose racial abilities. Changing races messes up skills, and if you don't switch between genders once you lose racial abilities.

Surprisingly, I just threw my character together in a bit of a rush thinking that I'd just put in a few hours to get the hang of the game, then go back and do my main run through character...I didn't, and funnilly enough this is probably the best looking character from any of the Beth games I've had.

The real hoot was that I thought a few scars might add to him as he was a fighter type, and he's got a face that has definitely svcked axe...got a broken nose with a big scar running diagonally across it down over his cheek, and a couple of others on his chin and up near his left ear.

Would you all be willing to check out my character? I will put in some image links below.

First off, I wanted my Nord to be above middle age, somewhere close to 55 years old.

Also, he is to be a balanced character doing some casting as well as melee, and stealth too.

I chose a balding hairstyle because I got sick of seeing my hair clipping through all of my helmets.

I chose the "blue black" hair color because I thought it would be the best all around choice for an older Nord who uses magicka. I figured he would have probably dyed it.

[IMG]http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m287/james_bartee/2011-12-31_02-04-09_216.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m287/james_bartee/2011-12-31_02-06-37_499.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m287/james_bartee/2011-12-31_02-15-02_306.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m287/james_bartee/2011-12-31_02-12-39_869.jpg[/IMG]

Lookin' pretty good. Good face balance. It's actually rare that I've seen somebody do a good job with the balding hair, but this one seems to work prety well.

So what style of armour are you using? Light/Heavy/Robes?

the default in character creation is fine imo.

im not really into flipping the camera around in game just to check myself out.

Besides its a single player game not an mmo.

The NPCs that i interact with do matter to me in appearance. Since that is a great part of the game. Its like the current selection of females to pick as an in game wife. 90% of them are either to pale or look like scrubs.

The females that are eye catching are not available to mara amulet quest. But then the whole marriage in skyrim really has zero influence when gaming so i dont even bother. Its pointless.

PC just about anything is possible. But even tho i have a PC that can play the game well, i just dont see the need to change over to create my char to look like a runway supermodel.

Skyrim is rugged and my char looks like a leather back. I like the default as it is.

I can tend to change some minor things with "showracemenu".
You do not lose anything if you do it right. The key is to not change the race and six(?) at any point, and when you're done just save your game and exit to menu, then load again.
You have to do that last part to get your racial passives and powers back, skills should be unaffected. Also this does not disable achievements either as I did it right before joining the companions and I still got that one.

Great job. He looks real wise and battle-hardened, something I tried with my battlemage, but you did it way better.

Thank you so much!

As a matter of fact that is exactly what he is intended to be! A battlemage, with a touch of archery and stealth.

For some characters (like the Dunmer) I don't mind that they look a bit fugly, they're supposed to be that way.

But when I'm making a character that looks like me or a really good looking character (basically the same thing... oh yeah...) then it always annoys me that they look different then they did in the character creator.

It would have been better if they allowed us to alter our appearance one more time after the innitial character creation (like they did in Oblivion and Morrowind).

Even better would be an ingame character changer so I could also add scars, change hairstyles, etc to make my character look different. For example my Orc started out as a legion deserter and should look the part, but eventually he should look more like a barbarian. Hopefully bethesda will add a mirror that allows us to change our character.

If you dont want to use it then fine, but it is nice that it is there for those that do want/need it.

Hmm, interesting that you'd rather have a bald character than see clipping. That definitely sounds like OCD.

Have you considered always playing in first-person, with a ranged character so you don't get the 3rd person finishing moves? Alternatively, play a thiefy character and get him the nightingale armor asap; the hood completely covers the face. That should definitely give you peace of mind.

The final solution I can think of is to play an argonian. Much harder to be picky about a lizard's face .

And some of the Horn/Spike variations are awesome.

Edited: Posted in the wrong thread, meant to be the one about the weapons.

LOL I thought that it was already a known fact that I have OCD, lol.

As a matter of fact, when I went through the short hair and bald hairstyles, I actually ended up loving the bald one with the long pony tail, especially because the war paint I chose is mainly fixed on the forehead, and only bald like characters can have the war paint in full view on their forehead. I am finally satisifed with my character...

Showracemenu!