Difficulty creating the ideal character to my liking.

[NCwilde1]

What sucks is that I'm on Xbox 360, so I'm limited to which exact skill sets I want since there are a lot that I really want to level up. I don't think my laptop can hold up to Skyrim on PC. I plan on getting a gaming computer soon though, I knew nothing about all the awesome mods until just recently. Man, am I missing out! I've been using Redguard though. Maybe I should switch it up since I like Stealth, and Archery, but I love melee combat as well and I want to max out smithing too. It's very difficult for me to make my ideal character with all the possibilities. I guess this is something I need to figure out on my own though. I'm still open to any advice though.

[Achilles_lucky_5]

the perk planner really helps to plan what you want, my advice is to pick 2 or 3 main branches that you want to concentrate on,then when those are at a satisfying level then pick some other skills, powerleveling can help if you're having trouble.

[Blake]

I could help with the Perk Planner, but what exactly do you wanna focus? As Achilles said, it is best to focus a couple of trees and put some perks in some you aren't focusing in as well.But to help you specifically, are you interested in one handed, two handed, a sneaky/archery build, mage, etc. I always put smithing and enchanting in all my builds though.

[NCwilde1]

Maybe I'll ditch stealth and do one handed, archery, alchemy, and smithing for my main. Then add to that once I strengthen those to my liking. It's possible to still be pretty good at sneaking without perks, right?

[Blake]

Maybe I'll ditch stealth and do one handed, archery, alchemy, and smithing for my main. Then add to that once I strengthen those to my liking. It's possible to still be pretty good at sneaking without perks, right?

Well you should at least put a perk in the very first sneak perk as the first one you put into it makes you hard to detect by 20% and only goes up by 5% for every other perk into it. Also, you may want to get the backstab perk as well, but that is up to you.If you tell me what perks you have so far, I could work on a layout for you.

[NCwilde1]

Well you should at least put a perk in the very first sneak perk as the first one you put into it makes you hard to detect by 20% and only goes up by 5% for every other perk into it. Also, you may want to get the backstab perk as well, but that is up to you.If you tell me what perks you have so far, I could work on a layout for you.

Oh okay I see what you mean. I could just use enchanting or even Muffle to make up for that then seeing how a 5% increase isn't really that much. And yes, I always incorporate backstab. I haven't created my new character though, I'm going to do that in a little while. I think I want to be a Kahjiit this time.

[Huygens]

Do you guys really advice enchanting, to be honest? I never had it on any of my builds, coz it seemed to much of hard work to actually get something.

[Achilles_lucky_5]

It's possible to still be pretty good at sneaking without perks, right?

if you have equipment that fortifies sneak or muffles you then yes

[Blake]

Do you guys really advice enchanting, to be honest? I never had it on any of my builds, coz it seemed to much of hard work to actually get something.

Yeah. The enchantments to smithing is pretty much the main appeal.

Well here is a build I worked out for you if I was doing a one handed and archery build. I made this one to level 48, but you easily take out whatever perks you want and rearrange them to your liking.

http://skyrimcalculator.com/#146160

[*]Choose the left side the left side of the Archery tree as that is the side I prefer.

[*]I made you a Light Armor build, but went up the Heavy Armor side of the Smithing tree. If you have Dawnguard, you have access to Dragon weapons, in which case, go up the Light Armor side of the Smithing tree.

[*]Only put a couple perks in the Light Armor tree. With smithing, alchemy, and enchanting enchantments, you should reach the max armor rating no problem

[*]I had a couple of left over perks, so I picked up Deadly Aim and Assassin's Blade in the Sneak tree.

[*]Added Enchanting. If I were you, I would not worry about Alchemy and just stick with enchanting. For the layout I made for you though, I put both if you are feeling determined for greatness.

[NCwilde1]

I've checked it out and I like the whole build. Thanks a lot, Blex. You've given me a really good perspective using the perk calculator. Now just one more question. What is a quick way I can level up enchanting. It does take quite a while.

[Blake]

Yeah, enchanting does take a long time. First of all, disenchant all of the enchanted items you find. This can power you through the early levels. I usually level smithing and enchanting side by side though. Basically, you first want a house or another safe chest to store stuff in. After that, during the main quest and your other adventures, collect all the soul gems you see. While doing this, also be on the look out for a weapon with a soul trap enchantment, a sure-fire way to do this is the mace from the Molag Bal quest. Just make a habit of killing non-human NPCs with the soul trap weapon.Everytime you notice you have a lot of soul gems, go to the mage stone for it's blessing, sleep so you are well rested, and just enchant the items you smithed with whatever enchantment you've encountered that gives the item the highest value. Finally, sell the items you've enchanted to various store keepers.

[NCwilde1]

Thanks for the advice!

[Unknown ProbLem]

if you want to, wait till around level 20 and find the Banish enchantment as well, it is proven to increase your value the most over any enchantment.like Iron dagger going from around 10-20 gold to about 800-900 gold.

[NCwilde1]

Whoa, that's valuable, So around level 20? Will it just show up randomly at a vendor or is there a specific place I can acquire it?

[Blake]

Whoa, that's valuable, So around level 20? Will it just show up randomly at a vendor or is there a specific place I can acquire it?

It shows up around 20, but randomly at shops that such an enchantment would show up at, like weapon shops, fences, etc.

[Motorboatingboy]

I'm not really focused enough to use the perk planner because I always forget I made a setup so I just kind of wing it which probably explains why I'm so underpowered and don't have my weapon damage over 100 except for dragon bone bow which does like 104 or something so I might try to plan it on my next build but I don't think it's gonna happen. I've also never found the banish effect and just use paralysis on my weapons to sell.

[Unknown ProbLem]

I'd have to say, the easiest way to level enchanting (though smithing will probably suffer more in the long run) is just level till around 20 and you'll be set when you find a banish enchantment. Now if you head to Dawnstar and are able to find the invisible Khajit caravan chest, loot it for a bunch of soul gems then just enchant one for a soul trap and run around murdering everything until you need more, then you'll probably be able to head back to the chest and re-aquire more soul gems. Or doing what blex said works wonders due to you being able to get up the original skills you wanted, plus store up a small armory of soul gems (which you could somehow craft them via an enchanting table or some other worldly magic)