Thought I'd share some of mine, but also would love to hear those of others. Of course, everyone has different play styles, so most strategies change depending on whether you are a melee guy, magic guy, or archery type.

FOLLOWER LIMIT
While you can only have one follower at a time with you, if you've gone far in the Dark Brotherhood Quests, you can also summon the Ghost of Lucien LaChance (and he won't count as your follower). You could also summon something to fight for you in addition to this, if you are magically inclined (I'm not, I'm a stealthy assassin archer type).

STEALTH FOLLOWER
One reason I don't usually use the followers, is that they will give me away while sneaking, etc. However, with the Dark Elf Assassin gal in Whiterun, she'll go stealth when you do, and if you give her a bow, and one good arrow, she'll do missile fire as needed also. I married her, so that I don't have to pay her 500gp each time, hehe...

MAD GUYS AND ARROWS
I've noticed that many foes sometimes get tripped up by ramps, stairs, walkways, etc. and if you are close to them (just barely out of melee reach), you can arrow them until they die, all the while they try and swing at you, vs. trying to actually go the path and get to you...

FOES AND FALLS
I just love using my dragon shout to knock somebody off a cliff to parish on the rocks below. Don't do this on someone you want to loot though, unless you're up for a long climb and search.

DRAGONS
I've found that with my female follower, and the summoned Ghost of LaChance, taking down dragons isn't too bad, especially if I fast travelled to a non-walled settlement. The nice thing there is, some guards will likely help with the dragon (or at least serve as targets for the dragon). Often, there are also porches that can help keep you from getting the brunt of the breath weapon,

POTIONS POTIONS POTIONS
Fast way to heal up in combat, go invisible, paralyze foes, etc. Nice thing is, unlike Oblivion, you can make these right from the get-go, as long as you know what ingredients make what. Most are pretty common too. I carry a bunch of these.

TRAPS
I can spot traps well (and have the Sneak perk that keeps me from triggering pressure plates in case I don't see them). However, I love using these on the enemy. Put an arrow into one to get them mad at you, and have them run right into existing traps. Fun to watch.

ALCHEMY SHOPS
I noticed that many of the items on the shelves are there for the taking (i.e. they aren't stolen). Check this, if you haven't caught it before. Of course, I then come back at night and still rob the place of the potions that counted as stealing.

THIEVES GUILD
Early on, the chests in the thieves' guild have some decent stuff in them, free for the taking (not stolen), like potions, magic items, gold, etc.

PARALYZE, HACK, REPEAT
For really nasty hard-hitting foes, I'll often do a stealth arrow attack with some Paralysis poison just before they get too close for comfort. Either use more arrows or switch to swords and hack...then fall back as they get up, treat the next arrow or my sword with more paralysis poison, then go to work. Especially nice for Trolls who hit hard. I haven't been brave enough to try with Giants yet though. I typically leave them be, so far.

I'm holding off on getting this game for now, I have no doubt there will be a game of the year edition with expansions.

I will bide my time...

Best Strategy in Skyrim:

PUNCHCAT's name will always be in all caps.

PUNCHCAT solves all of his problems with punching if possible. Use of other skills is permissible if they are the means to the end of punching.

PUNCHCAT lives and dies by the fist and claws, from his first hit of Skooma until he meets the giant litter box in the sky.

PUNCHCAT is a simple cat, but he's not actually stupid. He has goals and knows how to accomplish them -- through punching.

PUNCHCAT will try to Intimidate whenever presented with a choice, and if that doesn't work, will predictably resort to punching.

PUNCHCAT has no interest in learning magic, since spellcasting would occupy a valuable punching hand.

All of PUNCHCAT's attacks are Tiger Uppercuts.

PUNCHCAT will max out heavy armor, except the last perk that reflects damage. This is because PUNCHCAT would rather inflict the damage personally.
PUNCHCAT views every brawl as a life-or-death situation, since some filthy hairless mammal dared to challenge him to a punch-fight.
PUNCHCAT will learn the trades of Smithing, Alchemy, and Enchanting, largely to facilitate the ability to punch harder.
PUNCHCAT believes that sneaking up on someone to punch them is a perfectly acceptable way to achieve the mission of punching.
PUNCHCAT's paws are hardened blocks of stone, ill-suited to girly hairless mammal things like lockpicking.Legends tell the tale of a skeleton key that punches through doors, this is good enough for PUNCHCAT.

PUNCHCAT cannot block, but that doesn't even matter. He heard that shield-punching is possible; this is relevant to the interests of PUNCHCAT.

PUNCHCAT can do science. He eats flowers and bugs and doesn't give a damn.

PUNCHCAT distrusts white people, but will gladly bed their women. Since a Skyrim wife provides food, money, and a skill-up buff, PUNCHCAT fully embraces such a one-sided proposition.
PUNCHCAT considers the donkey punch to be the highest form of amorous expression. Yes, Lydia, you will be allowed to wear a helmet.

PUNCHCAT'S bukkit list:

--punch out ghost
--punch out robut
--punch out giant
--eat flowers
--punch out mammoth
--punch out dragun
--has cheeseburger
--PUNCH ALL THE THINGS

I will say that in the last 2 games (morrowind and oblivion) I was always a sneaky type character. I will probably be one when I get skyrim as well. Right now I am replaying Oblivion and am a thief mage.

I'm holding buying this game for now as well, as I want to get a better system to play the game on my PC as I like modding a lot (heavy modding made Oblivion so much better). And the more time goes on the more awesome mods by talented people will be out for the picking

1. Become illusion rogue
2. Get invisibility & double backstab damage gloves from dark brotherhood quests
3. One-shot everything without even using any kind of exploit or cheat
4. Realize game isn't fun
5. Do alchemy/enchanting glitch and permanently give yourself millions of health and magicka
6. Realize game is even less fun
7. Find something else to do

It was just too repetitive and boring. I don't see why everyone is obsessed with it. I've played better rpgs.

Hats off to ATS this is the first Skyrim thread I have seen on the net that doesn't include taking an arrow to a certain part of your leg

Oh man. I'm in a lesbian relationship in skyrim! I blame my daughter who gets to make my character when I play games (its a deal thing...). So, she made me a women.... Then, I find out you can get married! I was like, damn! So I spent a hundred hours or so trying to find a good looking guy to marry, of which there wasn't any. Then, kapow! Out of the blue Ysolda comes up and its on like donkey kong!

As for strategy? I always have my follower, because I cant help but loot EVERYTHING! When you cant hold any more weight, you can use the directions function and make the follower pick up something and its total does not get added to their weight limit either! So he's like a mobile chest for me!


Next time I get to playthough, I read somewhere online about a guy who is playing it as honest as possible. He's making sure he avoids fighting at all costs (and therefore game-progression). He's just kind of 'moved into' a persons house in Riften, and spends his days chopping wood or selling salmon he's caught. Whenever he travels to sell his wares, he must find the safest way to avoid all possible fighting. Its an awesome read actually, but I forget where I saw it online!

I've never used followers.. never had a reason to when you can backstab for 30x dmg and one shot with a bow most times.. slower paced game, but a lot less chance of death

Yep, I've got the 30x backstab also, but usually, a get one or two shot kills with the bow (at least for the rank and file enemies). The followers help when you have groups of enemies though, especially if the follower can sneak. Hard to backstab someone when there are 3 people in the room.

I don't think I have the patience (or want to spend the perks) for blacksmithing, when at level 22, I use a decent Dwarven Sword along with the Blade of Woe dagger. I like the look and bonuses of the Dark Brotherhood Armor. Sure, I guess I could learn Enchantment too, but again, more perks I could spend on other things.

I equipped my female follower with a combo of Shrouded and Thief armor, along with a Dwarven Sword, nice Bow, and Dwarven Arrows.

The only spell I ever use is healing, and that's just when I need to heal out of combat. My magic is all from potions.

For gold, I steal...a LOT...

Originally posted by Gazrok
The followers help when you have groups of enemies though, especially if the follower can sneak. Hard to backstab someone when there are 3 people in the room.

Nope, that's what illusion/invisibility is for. Cast invisibility, backstab, cast invisibility, backstab, repeat, repeat... You're an invisible one-shot killer. There's no challenge whatsoever.

Boosting.....

You wanna get smithing up make daggers... hundereds of daggers... cheapest easiest leveling up

alteration (i think i ti s however whatever one the spell for quiet footsteps) will get you up very quickly just keep casting it when your walking about (muffled steps i think it is called)

put on heavy arour... go down to the water keep healing yourself with magic healing and let a mud crab attack you...

this will increase (possibly alteration again) and heavy armor...

im not saying cheat im just saying there are options.

I started out as a one handed sheild wielder.
I then turned my sights on all things magic.
CLose wounds is the best healing spell I have come across and it works perfectly for me.
Fire bolt (duel shot) is taking down the enemies easily enough in most places.
If need be I pull out my orcish shield and Dawnbeaker Sword.

I don't like staffs but do use one on a semi regular basis, "The Wobbajack" it can do almost anything to the enemy and at random too.

I use Savos Arens amulet, Arch mages robes, I interchange a couple of rings and use my Wolf Boots and thieves guild gloves that I leveled up (though I wish I leveled up the main armor piece for extra carrying space).
I have 3 bound weapons that I use, Sword, Bow and Battleaxe, with the perk to make these stonger they do quite well, esecially Sword and close wounds combo, with a little flame cloak and Stoneflesh.

What I did was get my blacksmithing and alchemy up and made potions to increase blacksmithing and find gear and that increase my blacksmithing to make my weapons/armor with are all legendary. Nothing enchanted as of yet but I can pretty much 2 shot dragons.

Become a master smith...

1. Go to a blacksmith.
2. Buy all of their Iron Ingots and an equal number of Leather Strips.
3. Go to the forge and make Iron Daggers. (your skill should go up about every 3 or so daggers you make).
4. Sell the daggers to the blacksmith.
5. Go to a different town that has a blacksmith.
6. Repeat the above steps.

After hitting a few of them, your skill will have gone up leaps and bounds, and WAY cheaper than spending gold on training.

I went from 16 to 60 in like no time at all. (I wanted to improve my magical armor, so needed 60 to get the perk).