How do you level your Character? (Powerlevel or Natural)

[Ice]

Before you get on that poll, let me explain:
With 'power-leveling' I mean increasing a skill by doing things like buying all leather and leather strips from merchants, making dozens of hide helmets and then selling them, thereby increasing your smithing and speech skills. Basically something you're only doing to increase a certain skill.
With 'natural leveling' the opposite is meant. Not doing anything solely for a skill increase.

I've recently noticed that most of my friends which play skyrim really like to, as I like to say it, exploit the three crafting skills. They level up quite a few levels simply by spamming keys at the alchemy lab, making a few hundred iron daggers, enchanting all of these and then selling everything produced in the process. Now this is very different from my playing style. Personally I like to have my character level naturally. Making only potions you need, echanting specific weapons and armor for different enemies and of course making my own armor and the armor for my followers.

Of course I level much more slowly, but I find it much more fun. I always get the feeling that I'm wasting time and could just be cheating when 'power-leveling'. I guess it's different for everyone, which is why I made this poll. I'd really like to know how you guys play.

A note on smithing:
Smithing is kinda tricky. Since you actually have to craft random equipment to increase this skill, making a hundred iron daggers to do so shouldn't be considered power-leveling. Going from town to town to buy every iron ingot and leather strip is though.

Doing such things as letting oneself be attacked from multiple enemies while on low difficulty to increase the light/heavy armor skill is also power-leveling.

[skullclutter]

What I tend to do is let the raw materials accumulate naturally, and then spend a bunch of time processing them into potions, or refining weapons and armor before selling what I'm not using. I don't tend to buy more materials from vendors other than what I pick up.

I think it makes sense, role-play wise, to spend some time gearing up and making preparations before venturing out on a trek cross-country.

[Avron the S'wit]

Excellent question. I absolutely love to let my characters evolve "naturally:" my goal is only to play them in accordance with how I created their personality in my head, and so they do what they would if they were a real person. They don't hammer out a thousand potions to "get smarter;" rather, it's something that happens naturally over time, as real learning would. My only real goal is to enjoy the game, and I find that not thinking about numbers or leveling up helps me in that.

I remember with Oblivion where my main character followed the "efficient leveling" system, where I got a +5 successfully on each level up. It was fun and I was able to do it, but it grew to be a little annoying to sit there and calculate exactly what I had to do each level, and to not choose to level up until I reached that goal. I play games for fun - when I want to think, I'll go back to my studies!

[Mauin]

It depends on the character I'm doing.

Recreations of past characters (in other words, all of my current characters) just use the Scroll of Perfection mod to instantly jump to level 81 (or higher, depending on how I'm feeling. Though I usually just stick with 81). That way I don't have to focus on re-leveling them again and again. Leveling gets annoying after a while when you're doing the same characters over and over again. Some of them are going on three or four reincarnations now. I've also found that using the Scroll of Perfection to jump to level 81 gives me more time with their saves since I don't have to spend the 30 or so hours power-leveling.

Other characters tend to do what skullclutter does. Verina Fire-Mane, for instance, gathered all her materials from her travels (ingredients, pelts, and ore), then refined them into what could be used for making armor or weapons. This included chopping all wood by hand... Which takes a long time if you've got 100 or more ingots to turn into arrows. Once I've got enough materials gathered, I power-level, then gather more. I generally then sell what is made to increase my Speech while I'm at it. I usually just use alchemy for that since I can make fairly valuable potions.

My first three characters were leveled naturally and it took me about 300 hours to bring one of them up to level 81 (not every skill was at 100, either. I think the only one that wasn't at 100 was Speech, and it was probably 89 or 90). The other two didn't make it. Neither did the fourth, but she power-leveled most skills. I've done it before, and now that I'm around 1850 hours into Skyrim, I just can't be bothered to anymore.

[CBR JGWRR]

On Xbox I've gotten to level 81 all skills at`100 3 times - twice with my favourite Altmer, and once with a dunmer vampire character.

Generally, play normally until I want to do something special which requires power levelling, usually Crafting skills.



With the PC version I skip the whole levelling bit really, done it all already on Xbox, especially for Jenn. Who as it happens, maxed out Smithing, Enchanting and alchemy fairly recently again via powercrafting, giving her literally tons of Banish enchanted Ebony, Glass and Elven bows, and some 600 Giants toe, Blue Butterfly wing and blue mountain flower potions. None of which she can sell because Beth "fixed" Lucan Valerius...

Despite the powercrafting, she's still rocking Elven or Blade's armour, she doesn't get Dragonscale until she finishes the main quest, as a reward. She looks brilliant in it on Xbox, can't wait to find out for PC...



Some characters use a mod to bump up certain skills to 100 - Vanaz, my dremora character, maxed out via a levelling mod Smithing, Two Handed and Heavy Armour, as they are the skills corresponding to the ones he maxed out in Oblivion as an atttempt to beat the levelling problem - Blade and Heavy armour, with athletics to get his speed up a lot. Smithing because I wanted him to have his daedric armour again, even though Vanaz in Oblivion stopped using his Daedric armour not long after joining the Blades, and switched to a Sauron replica armour mod by the end of the main quest. It suited him rather well...

Of course, his stupid statue in Burma had to use the enchanted mage robes he forgot to dump in his out of town hovel by Lake Rumare... Honestly, someone messed up coding that statue.


My current more for messing around characters, Attila the Redguard dunmer, Ulesi the dunmeri nightingale, Mirabelle of the Forsworn, and Tymvir (definitive dovahkiin character) vary, Tymvir maxed out all skills from start of game via mods, an aside from the smithing, alchemy and enchanting supplies mods, is played as normal, the others are levelling up as they go along.


TL;DR - depends on character.

[Belthazor]

For the most part, my characters level naturally. The only exceptions are the crafting skills, since you have to grind them to get them up. In case of enchanting, though, I usually buy empty soul gems and fill them up myself. Other than that and paying for some training every now and then (e.g. if I want the Necromage perk for my vampire, who doesn't use a lot of Restoration), I don't powerlevel at all. I did that a lot in Oblivion already, up to the point where I got so bored by it that I just used the console to increase my skills.

[Zephyr]

I take the natural route, although a character who's seriously invested in smithing, for example, could dedicate some time to it beyond what they use. There's no prize for maxing everything, or getting the most powerful stuff. It's all about the journey.

[Abishpulu Shand]

Natural. I don't plan my characters or believe in 'builds'. I just let him get good at the stuff he does most often.

Usually, that ends up with my dude being a spellsword who is really good at making his own enchanted jewellry from scratch. I suppose it's kind of ironic that he fits the spellsword class so closely (apart from the smithing), given my dislike of 'builds', but the Elder Scrolls class list does cover damned near every possible character.

[Witchery]

Naturally, absolutely! Power-leveling just takes the fun out of the game.

[Br3admax]

Naturally, absolutely! Power-leveling just takes the fun out of the game.

And the point, since why else play games but to have fun?

[Witchery]

Naturally, absolutely! Power-leveling just takes the fun out of the game.

And the point, since why else play games but to have fun?

... huh? That's what I said. . . why am I playing the game to rush through leveling? I like to experience things. It isn't fun to me to power-level.

I don't know what wasn't clear about what I said, Bread.

[Dohva.]

The only time I ever power-leveled was to get my mage from 90 conjuration to 100. It sucked but I wanted her to have double summons to beat Morokei with. I roleplayed it as she finally decided to hit the books.

I agree with Witchery in that its much funner to let things develop naturally. Much more immersive.

[Street_Assassin]

All the skills i actively use (Smithing,Enchanting,Heavy Armor,Light Armor,One Handed,Two Handed,Block) i level naturally. Other skills i use Oghma Infinium book exploit so i level magic and stealth skills along combat skills after each single level-up but only after overall character level is 50. This way i can encounter tougher enemies,dragons and do certain quests that require high enough skill. Otherwise i'd be stuck at level 60 or so and fight same enemies over and over. So its more fun this way and i don't consider it cheating since i don't use magic or stealth at all (for my current character that is). You should try it

[noobishlord]

I let my character level naturally. Sure, there are times I spam a crafting skill, but that's because I personally collected the materials I needed (though I will buy ores/bars if I'm trying to make something I'm personally going to use RIGHT that second.)

Yeah, it does take a lot longer to level up, but it does feel so much better. Not to mention, it lets my combat skills keep up. There's some tasty perks in there.

[Br3admax]

Naturally, absolutely! Power-leveling just takes the fun out of the game.

And the point, since why else play games but to have fun?

... huh? That's what I said. . . why am I playing the game to rush through leveling? I like to experience things. It isn't fun to me to power-level.

I don't know what wasn't clear about what I said, Bread.

It's called agreeing. Bet you didn't know I do that sometimes.

[DikaSmausha]

I do a mix of both. There is some grinding, but mostly just exploring the map.

[Theificka]

I pickpocket the money after training, but otherwise I don't cheat for skills.

[KryptonianBlood]

How else can you level those skills?

I mean with enchanting, of course I just use the weak enchantments until it levels naturally because they serve a purpose, they make my weapon stronger than it was meant to be.

But crafting? Why would I ever need leather armor when it looks so ugly and I can pick up elven off any thalmor, or almost as good and better looking off any forsworn? (not sure on stats, hell, maybe forsworn is better)

Theres no way someone with light armor would ever get to the next tier without training smithing for the sole purpose of training it. Hell all the heavy armor guys would probably be running around in guard armor. Game simply doesn't leave you any options.

and potion making? If you don't look up the ingredients online, or have memorized them from various playthroughs, your going to be mixing random things in order to discover new potions, and then simply making whatever potions you have the ingredients for, because well, what else is there to do with the ingredients that don't make health, stam, or magic potions? I always collect every ingrediant I see, then make as many of every potion I "know" and then just start randomly mixing the rest together to try and learn all of their effects. Is that power leveling? What if I simply make all the health potions I can and then start mixing random stuff to try and learn the effects? I certainly don't think its power-leveling because I never can get my alchemy high, because i'm way too lazy to look up the 4 effects on everything.

[TheOogyBoogyMan]

Naturally the first few play throughs. After that there were specific things I wanted to accomplish and power leveling was the way to get there faster and over with.

[Belthazor]

Not to mention, it lets my combat skills keep up. There's some tasty perks in there.

The sad thing is, though, enchantments of the appropriate weapon skill boost your damage much more than a fully perked weapon skill does. In terms of damage output, you're actually better off developing your crafting skills first. I don't do that myself, although my crafting skills usually max out before my weapon/armor skills do. I'm just mentioning it since some people seem to believe that they would be too weak to face the higher level enemies if they focus on their crafting skills too early on, which couldn't be further from the truth.

[Mauin]

The sad thing is, though, enchantments of the appropriate weapon skill boost your damage much more than a fully perked weapon skill does. In terms of damage output, you're actually better off developing your crafting skills first. I don't do that myself, although my crafting skills usually max out before my weapon/armor skills do. I'm just mentioning it since some people seem to believe that they would be too weak to face the higher level enemies if they focus on their crafting skills too early on, which couldn't be further from the truth.

That can depend on a lot of things. It's more than possible to make yourself too weak for higher leveled enemies though power-leveling certain skills (like crafting skills), especially on higher difficulties. I've done it before.

One character, fresh out of Helgen, leveled nothing but her crafting skills, then made a set of gear that was nice and powerful (no fortify one-handed/archery/two-handed enchantments, though. Those make things too strong). She had virtually no combat skills, and no armor skills. Got into a fight against some higher level Draugr and they were doing hefty amounts of damage. I kept having to run off to heal, and even then I didn't always make it.

I had another character who power-leveled her crafting skills before anything else. She did have some combat and armor skills, though. I recall her gear was nicely enchanted for boosts to health/magicka/stamina and their regeneration, as well as strong resistances to all elements (around 90% for each, with a 50% resistance to magic). She was killed in one shot by a Dragon.

I think what it really comes down to is player (and character) skill, and the distribution of health/magicka/stamina. That becomes more important on higher difficulties, especially when not using any enchanted gear. Other times it's a matter of circumstance. Skyrim seems to like spawning high-leveled enemies for low-leveled characters (for me, anyway. I still haven't forgiven it for spawning that Legendary Dragon for my level 30 something Altmer mage) and that can be a rather bad thing.

Edit:
Though I'll admit making myself intentionally underpowered has its uses. It gives greater opportunity to level skills like Restoration, which I don't have much reason to use.
For power-leveling Restoration, though, nothing beats those Forsworn Briarhearts. Yikes.

[sevenindasun]

I would say a bit of both, I usually collect everything of value at the start... I make gear potions and disenchant everything I find.. Sell everything I'm not attached to, make lots of health, magicka, and fortify potions... I raise everything I kill, I cast muffle in caves a lot, stone flesh before every battle, kill an enemy with a sword, then a hammer, then magic... If the enemy is humanoid I use illusion on them, use healing hands on my follower and stand behind her while she fights... But I absolutely never stand at a lab, enchanter, or forge for an hour leveling... I use a system rather than spam...

[Belthazor]

That can depend on a lot of things. It's more than possible to make yourself too weak for higher leveled enemies though power-leveling certain skills (like crafting skills), especially on higher difficulties. I've done it before.

One character, fresh out of Helgen, leveled nothing but her crafting skills, then made a set of gear that was nice and powerful (no fortify one-handed/archery/two-handed enchantments, though. Those make things too strong).

Well, of course, if you don't use these skills then to boost your damage, you will be too weak. That's obvious.

[Ice]

How else can you level those skills?

I mean with enchanting, of course I just use the weak enchantments until it levels naturally because they serve a purpose, they make my weapon stronger than it was meant to be.

But crafting? Why would I ever need leather armor when it looks so ugly and I can pick up elven off any thalmor, or almost as good and better looking off any forsworn? (not sure on stats, hell, maybe forsworn is better)

Theres no way someone with light armor would ever get to the next tier without training smithing for the sole purpose of training it. Hell all the heavy armor guys would probably be running around in guard armor. Game simply doesn't leave you any options.

and potion making? If you don't look up the ingredients online, or have memorized them from various playthroughs, your going to be mixing random things in order to discover new potions, and then simply making whatever potions you have the ingredients for, because well, what else is there to do with the ingredients that don't make health, stam, or magic potions? I always collect every ingrediant I see, then make as many of every potion I "know" and then just start randomly mixing the rest together to try and learn all of their effects. Is that power leveling? What if I simply make all the health potions I can and then start mixing random stuff to try and learn the effects? I certainly don't think its power-leveling because I never can get my alchemy high, because i'm way too lazy to look up the 4 effects on everything.

Well, I already explained that to increase smithing, you will have to make random stuff to ever get to a good perk. However, there is a difference between doing it over time with the resources you naturally get, or traveling from town to town buying all leather, crafting it all into hide helmets, and having smithing at lvl 70 by lvl 15.
And potion making? Well, if you only need Health, Stamina potions and few other potions, then you probably aren't investing in any Alchemy perks, and if you are, then not much. So if you think about it, your character really shouldn't have a high Alchemy skill should he? Unless of course your character has a specific reason for making all those potions. But if you're making all kinds of random potions just so you can level Alchemy, thereby level up and spend a perk in some other skill, I'd say it's power-leveling.

It depends on how you look at it. It's kinda hard to explain. Basically you have to ask yourself: "Do you do things to level up or do you level up by doing things?"

...
Man, now I'm confusing myself

[sevenindasun]

Spoiler:

since they added hearthfire smithing has gotten easy to level, making one fully loaded house can level you up quite a bit...