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well it really depends on your preference, you COULD use all three, One handed, two handed, and archery. I am right now actually, 1H for sneak attacks, 2H for melee, and archery for long distance. archery should take up the most perks imo.

also I would go with enchanting, but you could do smithing also, since it doesnt take too many perks.

oh and also, if you plan on becoming a werewolf, youll want to invest in One handed and light armor

a well rounded approach would be to take the archery damage boost along with one handed and light armour, take the sneak damage perks on the right side of the sneak tree to make your first attack count for the most, dont put too much other than eagle eye and the first 4 perk damage boosting into archery and save the rest for 1handed and smithing.

That will make your ranged strikes sting, your first attack (when sneaking) cripple/kill your first target and you can overpower with quick 1handed swords and smithed armour... seems like the most well rounded none magic fighter going.

Well if it was Oblivion, there would be a lot to discuss regarding those issues.But since it is Skyrim,none of that really matters,you don't really need to overthink about this. However i'll try to analyze your choices,as i see you are trying to create an optimal character:

The only differences in quests regarding race and gender i've encountered so far are:
1)To enter the orcish strongholds you will require to do a quest if you are not an orc.
2)During the main quest you will require to sneak into somewhere, and it is easier to do it if you are a high elf.
Race and gender also change a bit of dialogue (you won't obviously hear the line "Be careful, elf" if you are playing a Nord.)

Each race starts higher in different skills,but all of them have +10 in one skill and +5 in five other,so if you plan on reaching the cap level,which is level 81, it really doesn't make a difference,as you will have to hit 100 with all skills.However early game that +10 or +5 can give you a boost.
If you care about the +10 and +5 skill differences, since you are trying to create a warrior character the best choices are Orcs (+10 heavy armor,+5 Block,One-handed,Two-handed,Smithing),Redguards (+10 one-handed, +5 Archery,Block,Smithing) and Nords (+10 Two-Handed, +5 Block,One-handed,Smithing.)

Powers are unique spells that can be used once per day (in game day of course).Abilities are passive effects.

As far as abilities and powers are concerned,for a warrior good choices are:
1)Orcs: Berserker Rage power doubles your damage and reduces damage taken for a minute.
2)Bretons, they have a great 25% resist magic ability and they also have a power that gives them 50% spell absorption for a minute.(this means that if you activate this power,you spells that hit you have a 50% chance of refiling your magicka(even if it's full) instead of damaging you.If a spells still hits you,it does 3/4 damage as you have the 25% resistance.)
3)Argonians, they have the histkin power which gives you tenfold hp regeneration for a minute.
4)Redguards: Adrenaline Rush gives you tenfold stamina regeneration for a minute.

Finally, regarding quest optimization, the order in which you do quests can not be optimized.However, many quests can be completed in more ways than one, so it may be optimal for your character to complete some quests the one way, not the other. (for example if you have to choose between helping two people and the first one rewards you with a mage robe while the second one rewards you with an orcish armor,your character would obviously prefer to help the one that offers the orcish armor.)

Edit:About perks, i would suggest a weapon and armor tree of your choice,block if you use shields,smithing (daedric weapons armor are the best and you rarely find those.By getting perks in smithing,not only can you create them,but you can also upgrade them even more) , enchanting (double enchants are priceless.I guess recovering magic charge for enchanted weapons is also great.) and later on you could also consider speech and lockpicking as they are usefull for all characters and make your life easier.

I hope i was helpful ans sorry for any grammatical errors.

Thanks a bunch guys, so far so good. Finished up everything in Riverwood and I'm heading to Whiterun now.

Your most recent post (besides the one right before this) sounds a lot like my character. I focused on Stealth, Archery, One-Handed, Block and Light Armor. I also had high Alchemy, Speech and Lockpicking, but those were non-perked.


Archery perks:
* Overdraw is nice, but to use it, you do have to draw the bow further back.
* Crit Shot triggers a fair bit. Not necessary, but nice.
* Ranger is pure convenience, as is Eagle Eye. Don't bother with Steady Hand.
* Power Shot, Quick Shot and Bullseye are all awesome, and make a pure archery character possible. Until then, you WILL use your blade to finish stuff off, or you will sneak like crazy.

Stealth perks:
* The base skill is unimportant as long as you sneak on your own.
* The most important skill in stealth is Silence, which unfortunately is a skill of 70, but well worth it. The skills leading up to it are all quite useful.
* Get Backstab and Deadly Aim. Don't bother with Assassin's Blade if you don't plan on wielding a dagger. It's a nice bonus, but only if you're going to be using a dagger.

One-handed perks:
* You are only interested in the base perk, Bladesman, and Fighting Stance. Maybe Dual Savagery, but I was sword and shield.

Block perks:
* Although depending on how often you actually block, I find the skills here nice. I didn't get the middle perk or the final one, but I took pretty much everything else. They're definitely dependent on how much you actually block, though, and you can use a shield just fine without anything but the base perk.
* Elemental Protection is the one perk here I would highlight, since it allows you something you might not otherwise have -- armor against non-physical damage. Your worst bane is a powerful mage. The weak ones die easily, but the strong ones will chew you up. Also works against dragon breath.

Light Armor perks:
* I only started putting points into Light Armor when I realized that (a) hits that got past my shield HURT, and I basically had no useful places to put any perk points until I raised my skills higher. So I started making my armor more useful after working on the other four. If you go dual wielding, you'll need these much sooner.


When I got to really high levels, I had perk points left that wouldn't go anywhere in these trees to any noticeable effect. At that point I blew the ones I had on Speech so the vendors would actually have enough money for me to unload some of my junk to them. That wasn't until after level 50, though. However, you WILL end up splitting your points across four or five trees, so even if you don't use Block, you'll still not progress in the others much faster. Most of the time I leveled, I was looking for if anything had actually unlocked, and often it hadn't. I eventually stopped looking at the skills screen so I could use level-ups for free heals.