So, Skyrim's out 11/11/11

[kandrathe]

I did learn a valuable lesson on this character: smithing breaks the game's balance if you powerlevel it by making a pile of leather bracers and iron daggers and then making a full legendary dragonscale set. I heard enchanting has the same effect.

Well, if 50 is the realistic "high level" (81 is about max getting 100 in everything without trainers), with leveling happening more slowly after that, getting your main skills to 100 by 40-45 seems reasonable. I'm level 42, and just have crafted Dragon Plate for me, and Dragon Scale for Aela. And, I will enchant them, but I go for more utilitarian enchants, like carrying capacity, faster stamina regeneration, faster magicka regeneration, bigger magicka pool.

My philosophy is that like with the other TES games, the higher level you are the better the opponent, and the better the treasure. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

This is true in my own house. My elder son is level 18, and after tonight he's about 90% finished with the main quest. He might have done it earlier had he not been side tracked by becoming the Harbinger of the Companions first. He wants to improve smithing too, but I think he's taken up with the story and he wants to know how it ends. My char has earned about 100K, and spent about 90K of it on houses, horses, armor, crafting materials, and bounty (after witnessing the events in Solitude I've become pretty radically anti-empire.) The bottom line is that we are both having fun. I don't understand his style of play, and mine is way too boring for him. "Dad, do you really need to pick up every Chaurus egg in the dungeon?" I reply, "Yeah, but I can only get them here!"