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For a long time I have been unhappy playing skyrim, and I realized why...

Smithing especially feels like it's got me in chains, I know the way to power-level it, by training and placing paralysis poisons in people's pockets to get the gold back, and crafting much jewelry, but my problem is that I think "this is leveling my character too fast", and it just seems so time-consuming, and a bit confusing even, I'll want to wear a full set of similar armor, so I'll want to get the perk in heavy armor, but no you need 70, so now I've got to power-level that too eh?

I just think that every time I play the game I'm always thinking about it, and I'm working on it more than quests even, what I seriously want to know is:

If I don't exploit smithing, and always be focusing on it and just play the game how I want to and do quests as such, (which doing all this earns a lot of gold, soul gems, ingots, materials, weapons and such) say if I'm level 45 by then, and want to level smithing to make daedric armor, will it be impossible, did I screw myself from the start because I didn't choose to power-level and not play like a normal person would?

That's what my major concern is, through experience I've learned that it's easier to do stuff the more quests you've played and the more your character has developed, since then you can afford to furnish your manor instead of flipping waste 1-2hours getting all the required materials and stuff to make it all yourself, and you'll even have nearly every type of ingot there is, and all the smithing materials you could ever want.

I just want to know if I can not think once about smithing and just play the damn thing, and smith when I see fit. I hate it when this game becomes work instead of play

You can absolutely do that. I have played a number of characters where I either a) didn't do smithing at all or b) did it late into the game.

I totally understand what you mean -- I get locked in that loop of grinding and grinding and not really doing quests and then I get up to where I want and I'm bored with the character HAHA!

So what I decided to do was SEVERLY limit myself. I decided to be a Bosomer Alchemist. I picked archery, sneak, alchemy, speech with a side order of smithing (up to 100, but only the steel perk at first) I literally only used smithing to make arrows. I cranked the difficulty up to Master and had a go. Let me tell you -- it was hairy! Because I was so weak -- I had to rely on poisons to keep up. But what I found was that the more I "played the game" -- the more fun it was.

I basically tied Alchemy and Smithing together with my Archery and Speech in a way -- I made a rule for myself that I would keep archery and smithing levels as close as possible -- and no more than 5 points higher/lower than each other -- and my alchemy and speech skills together the same way. (so when my archery was 20 -- smithing was between 15-25, and when my speech was level 20 -- alchemy was 15-25) So when my archery when up a level or 2 -- I grinded up smithing a level or 2. I found a really nice balance that kept me protected enough to survive -- and vulnerable enough to have to stick to my strengths (poisoning foo's) to survive. I also decided that I would only use material I hunted (thus raising archery) or purchased of the avails of alchemy (thus raising speech).

It took planning to build my house as to not shoot up my smithing too much. Likewise I had loads of potions I had to wait to sell until I reached 100 speech so I wouldn't mess with those level balances. I soon found that I needed weapon ugrades -- but I "didn't know how to do it". I eventually did the Aetherial Crown quest and thus "unlocked the secret of dwarven smithing" and took the perk.

It may sound dumb to intentionally keep yourself nerfed -- but I have never had so much fun running for my life and pulling victory out of the clutches of defeat by the skin of my teeth

Lol, great stuff, Good to hear your story, this is just the other aspect of the game that is not always looked upon, the rewarding feel of a balance within the game, where you do what you feel is right, and it returns the favor as you have evidently put

Oh absolutely! The real intricacy and beauty of the game comes out when you're scratching by to survive in Skyrim. It's fair and balanced, but unforgiving and not easy. But the payoff is well worth it!

I've levelled up Smithing from level 15 to 100 a whole load of times - can't even remember off the top of my head how many times I've reset it on my main character. The main thing I do is to keep EVERY weapon and piece of equipment that I pick up. I have a series of safes in Heljarchen Hall, for:

• ores that haven't been made into ingots yet
• ingots
• unmodified weapons
• unmodified armour
• weapons that have been tempered but not all the way (e.g. Fine, Superior)
• armour that has been tempered but not all the way (e.g. Fine, Superior)
• weapons and armour that are Legendary and ready for Enchanting

I'm sure some people would think of it as power-levelling, but it seems fairly natural for my character to go home after adventuring and spend a couple of hours (game time) working on improving the equipment that they looted on their travels. Then they rest, and head into Whiterun to sell it all. (I favour Heljarchen because there are so many vendors in Whiterun, especially if you have the Speech perks that let you sell any item to any vendor).

Speaking of Heljarchen Hall, you can level your Smithing pretty well by building an entire Hearthfire house and furnishing it yourself. All of those iron nails and brackets and locks go a long way.

Actually, power leveling Smithing on a low level character is a bad idea. Simply because you can level your character up with just smithing but none of your combat skills have increased at all. You might be level 5 or 10 now but your still trying to fight enemies that are your level with combat skills you had as a level 1 or 2. On easy difficulty this isn't much of a issue. But, on anything besides easy your going to find yourself having to run for your life a lot, or just plain dead.

I too have favorite sets of armor and weapons I like to use. But I have found power leveling up just so I can make and use that gear takes the fun and sense of accomplishment out of the game. Sure I can get my gear but then I am standing there with no goal in mind and get bored really quick.

I started using a mod called Alternate Start - Live Another Life to put some challenge back into the game. It lets you skip the vanilla start in Helgen and pick from several custom made starts. You can start out as a mugging victim and left for dead at a random spot in Skyrim. You start out with no weapons or money. Everything you find just feels like a accomplishment and adds to your chances of making your way to civilization get better.

When using mods like that... stay aware of WHAT mods you have active. Frostfall and one of the starts in Live Another Life is actually a death sentance.

Khali wrote:Actually, power leveling Smithing on a low level character is a bad idea. Simply because you can level your character up with just smithing but none of your combat skills have increased at all. You might be level 5 or 10 now but your still trying to fight enemies that are your level with combat skills you had as a level 1 or 2.

Yes, I absolutely agree. Made that mistake once already, never again. That's why I suggested that it's best to increase the skill slowly and naturally, by improving every item that you pick up over time - rather than by attempting to craft 500 gold necklaces in one session . I guess that wasn't entirely clear. Alternatively, you can store everything and power-level once you're already level 45 and need that Daedric Armor. Although, if you do that, good luck finding people to buy it all! You'll be roaming Skyrim, travelling to every town and Legion Camp and Stormcloak Camp looking for vendors.

Smithing is one of the skills I leave towards the end. My assassin is level 58 and she has a smith level of 50. So she's done little by little. I prefer this because it allowed me to focus on her magic and battle skills. More important than smithing. But she's had to lower her expectations of wearing fine armor. Smithing is now her focus, but she does it by collecting daggers when she adventures.

jewellery is pretty good for smithing levelling later on.. if you have the transmute spell you can convert iron and silver ore to gold and then by the later levels when you start finding flawless gems, you can make things like diamond necklaces which are embarrassingly useful for leveling smithing

some gems combine with silver ingots so keep them too if you find em

Don't forget to use warrior stone (+20%) and sleep (+5-15%) to increase exp gain

Collect dwemer metals and melt em into ingots then make as many bolts or arrows to raise ur smithing skills but chopping woods takes awhile.

Dwarven alloy is actually pretty easy to gather in large quantities. Basically pack rat through a known dwarven ruin, selectively try to carry Bent Dwemer Scrap, Large Dwemer Plate, and Small Dwemer Plate considering how light they are and can be very cost effective. As per actually using all that lovely metal? See about collecting plenty of iron ingots from your nearby black smith. I personally do this just so I can make plenty of bows all at once.. temper them with whatever remaining ingots I have, then start selling them off. If you turn around and sell them to the black smith.. you can easily buy more material to make more stuff so that you can just turn around and sell again. Plus side, experience and plenty of coin.. downside.. finding people who can afford to buy your junk.

If not for how annoying it is to get firewood, I too would recommend making arrows or bolts... which is something I try to avoid. As per making tons of building material, helps you out in the long run if your building a house.. but sadly it's rather demanding on supply

Early on I Find iron ore from looking around and clearing out mines. Then when I have time I also create stuff for building the house latter on this way its done over time not a boring all at once. This fits with doing over time and not power leveling