Difficulty levels and playstyles. (no not another "hardcore" thread)

So, my Wood Elf is death incarnate.
Dragons are dying with one backstab, mere seconds after Alduin brings them back from the dead.
I didn't power level or take any exploits... and the only skills that have gone up are the ones I use "in character". It took a lot of time and frustration (Level 36 and 112 hours of playtime)

I'm taking a break from the Wood Elf, and going with pure mage. Imperial.

I am sticking to my playstyle of "don't do it, unless your character would do it. Using skills only as they present themselves, never doing things that I can't justify.

She carries a dagger, and hasn't used it once. Wears only robes and hood.

I'm not sure about you guys... but this offers an amazing amount of challenge. Levelling up is slow, story is paramount, and battles are terrifying.

What I have found in Skyrim in general is this... the exploits are simply... gamebreaking. Not "I can't play this" game-breaking... but rather "damn this is pretty easy" gamebreaking.

If you haven't tried this... try it. Seriously. You don't need to add any hardcore rules, unless you want to. Just.. start a character, and play the game, in character. No "i think I'll take a break and make 600 daggers" or "I'm gonna stop in the middle of this dungeon and craft 25 reduce stamina potions" for example. NO exploits. Use only the skills applicable to your "class".

if you already do this, post and share.

If you don't... give it a try and post your experiences.

my character only uses the skills he knows. the only majic i use are the shouts and the powers. but who says you cant learn a new trick?

this is how i almost always play my characters, and i find it much more enjoyable. also, if im a mage, i wont be looting body's and taking heavy armor off my enemies with no other intention than to sell them. the whole take what you need approach makes it much harder, and for me, more fun.

Play master difficulty and it doesnt matter how much you exploit or craft. The only thing you can break is the end game.

You're kinda missing my point.

yeah thats not what i mean. my guy is always picking up spell tombs. and now that hes at lvl 49 will be 50 tonight. my sneak is at 100 has been forever. my 1h is at 85. my archery is 79. my light armor is at 97. smithing 100. lock picking is mid 77-78 or so. enchanting mid 60s. now this is where i get into the gray area.ive learned a ton of spells from spell tombs. i havent tried to use them yet. but like any good soldier will do when you get a new weapon after you inspect it and learn how to use it you test said weapon. last night was my first go at this attempt. i had sold all my spare arrows and didnt realize i was down to 60 ebony arrows. so i was sneaking and killing forsworn with my sword axe combo. hes been getting lazy and leaving his primary gear at home by accident so ive been picking up better weapons along the way. i decided to use a flame spell and ice spike thingy on this forsworn leader. he was all by himself and didnt know i was there. well those spells are to high for my guy and i ran out of magika before the leader died. so i have this leader running at me on fire with a ice spike sticking out of his chest.(it was a funny sight) i pull out my sword and axe i found and begin to lay him out. so my delima is why not start trying out magic every so often so i can get the point i need for my 1 handed tree.or archery. i learned the spells and never paid anyone to teach me any magic. i think itll be a fun learning experiance for him.

You wanted people to experience the game without exploits because its pretty challenging. I get that. If they want to use exploits and still be challenged, go to master difficulty. What am I missing?

I find that some exploits, and just some perks on their own are gamebreaking as well. Well, not gamebreaking per se, just less challenging. (Though raising difficulty level can add some more challenge.) I have one pure mage khajiit that wears robes and no armor. It changes up my playstyle and forces me to do things in combat I might have never tried before. I also have an assassin/rogue character that is very powerful, but I didn't go all the way up on the sneak tree with her. I still like the possibility of getting caught and being in danger. It gives it a more realistic touch.

I also enjoy roleplaying and I'll try to keep true to the personality and style I chose for them.

those looking for a true challenge should have no need for exploits, no matter the difficulty, i play on master only and dont use any exploits. I absolutely love the fact that skill is such a HUGE factor in skyrim on the higher difficulty's, even the simplest cave leaves me feeling like I accomplished something after completing it.

@Barazuka - Respectable but in the end, where enemies level up as you do, how much of a difference does leveling up smithing 5-8 levels at a time really make? Sure you are able to upgrade/make the armor your enemies are already wearing but it only progresses you faster to the end game that we are all inevitably going.

Nightshade said:

I find that some exploits, and just some perks on their own are gamebreaking as well. (Though raising difficulty level can add some more danger.) I have one pure mage khajiit that wears robes and no armor. It changes up my playstyle and forces me to do things in combat I might have never tried before. I also have an assassin/rogue character that is very powerful, but I didn't go all the way up on the sneak tree with her. I still like the possibility of getting caught and being in danger. It gives it a more realistic touch.

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i dont have all the perks in everything either. when it comes to my weapons i only have the perks i use.

I play with a lot of 'hardcore' restrictions (check my sig for the thread), but I also play with a lot of 'what would my character do' restrictions.

For me, the combination of both makes the game far more challenging and far more fun. Do whatever makes the game fun for you, but personally I never understood why people play a game like this and use all the exploits. Seems like it would ruin the experience pretty quickly.

I'm not sure what some people mean when they say exploits, but using the smithing, enchanting and alchemy system to optimize one's gear is not an exploit and it does make the game easy on any setting other than Master.

Making a potion to heal oneself is not an exploit.
Crafting armour is not an exploit.

However, crafting a bajillion daggers, making a million identical otions that will never be used and destroying every magic item you find to enchant those bajillion daggers so you can max your perks and stats and then make a potion to improve your smithing and enchanting so you can make "uber-armour"... is an exploit.

Not judging... it's a single player game and you can play it however you wish, there's no right or wrong.

To me... It simply makes no sense in a "character" perspective to do so. I am most certainly a "role player" in these games, and I avoid the min-max manner of playing.

In this case, role-playing a pure mage that uses no weapons is a hell of a difficult game. No need for master difficulty. Which was my original point.

vincent said:

@Barazuka - Respectable but in the end, where enemies level up as you do, how much of a difference does leveling up smithing 5-8 levels at a time really make? Sure you are able to upgrade/make the armor your enemies are already wearing but it only progresses you faster to the end game that we are all inevitably going.

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somewhat true, but with smithing you can over power your character very quickly, i had daedric at lvl 25, dragon at 30, and found i could sit and get bashed around for quite a while on even master difficulty with no consequences. now if i picked up the armor as i found it, at level 30 i would most likely (since im going with a heavy armor theme) have half ebony half orcish, or something along those lines. and if you didnt have any points in smithing you could have 5 (take or give) more points to use on whatever the hell you want.

Barakuza said:

somewhat true, but with smithing you can over power your character very quickly, i had daedric at lvl 25, dragon at 30, and found i could sit and get bashed around for quite a while on even master difficulty with no consequences. now if i picked up the armor as i found it, at level 30 i would most likely (since im going with a heavy armor theme) have half ebony half orcish, or something along those lines. and if you didnt have any points in smithing you could have 5 (take or give) more points to use on whatever the hell you want.

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yeah i had my dragonscale at lvl 20ish. but i was still getting beat up pretty decent till i started getting all the light armor perks. i found that it didnt matter who i fought i wasnt gonna die anytime soon. which was fine and dandy for almost 30 some more lvl ups. then i found i the nightengale armor. and the first dungeon i went through i had forgotten what i was wearing and almost died. im still wearing the nightengale armor. i kinda missed having to be tacticle to learn what i was up against my guy was getting soft.

Im level 60 and I play on the lowest difficulty, course I wont be going too master until after I get my Destruction mastered.

brandon said:

yeah i had my dragonscale at lvl 20ish. but i was still getting beat up pretty decent till i started getting all the light armor perks. i found that it didnt matter who i fought i wasnt gonna die anytime soon. which was fine and dandy for almost 30 some more lvl ups. then i found i the nightengale armor. and the first dungeon i went through i had forgotten what i was wearing and almost died. im still wearing the nightengale armor. i kinda missed having to be tacticle to learn what i was up against my guy was getting soft.

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i find this game so much more enjoyable when it pushes you to really do your best performance wise.

Fate said:

Im level 60 and I play on the lowest difficulty, course I wont be going too master until after I get my Destruction mastered.

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i swear by master lol. seriously, if you ever make a new character, try starting on master and dont take it off, i know it will suck that you cant kill whatever you want whenever you want. and you will be forced to run from many battles, but when you come back later and kick their ass you feel accomplished. (at least i do)

Barakuza said:

i find this game so much more enjoyable when it pushes you to really do your best performance wise.

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yeah i was thinking of upping the difficulty for awhile. then i almost got killed wearing the nightengale armor. and was like wow i aint had my ass kicked like that in forever. but my character is getting soft. i went through a forsworn area and didnt realize he had left his weapons on the weapon rack because i wanted to see how they looked. i ended up having to find some laying around.