I used an enchanters potion that said item enchantments would be 20% stronger. I then enchanted a ring to fortify pickpocket, but it was only 22% instead of what it was before the potion--21%. I'm bad at math, so maybe I am missing how this works, but shouldn't the potion make the enchantment around 40%? Also, for some reason when I equipped the ring my chance to pickpocket was less on a specific item for one of the fishing quests. Does the increased percent chance to pickpocket show when apparel that increases chance is equipped?

40% would have been almost 100% more, not 20%.

Enchants are also affected by quality of soul gems, for one, so you probably picked a different soul gem, which is why the result was probably lower than the expected result explained next:

Secondly, 20% stronger than 21% is 25.2% (21 * 1.2), so rounded down the expected result would be 25%. The % bonus is not added, it is multiplicative.

Lastly, when you go to pickpocket someone the % chance shown in the UI is determined based on all your enchants and/or potions you're using at the time, it maxes out at a certain % but I don't remember it right off hand.

Enchantment?... ENCHANTMENT!

What Shadow said. Also, if you wanna get the most out of Enchantments, just find yourself the Soul Siphon spell or a weapon that can steal souls, buy all the shitty empty soul gems you can find, then suck the souls of any fox/rabbit/wolf you come across while you're traveling, then just smith a few dozen leather bracers, enchant them with whatevs, and voila, instant level like... 60... pretty quickly. Plus you can sell all of them bracers for mad chedds

@Renahzor said:

Enchants are also affected by quality of soul gems, for one, so you probably picked a different soul gem, which is why the result was probably lower than the expected result explained next:

Secondly, 20% stronger than 21% is 25.2% (21 * 1.2), so rounded down the expected result would be 25%. The % bonus is not added, it is multiplicative.

Lastly, when you go to pickpocket someone the % chance shown in the UI is determined based on all your enchants and/or potions you're using at the time, it maxes out at a certain % but I don't remember it right off hand.

Ok, this makes perfect sense, thanks. I was adding. Didn't know what it was 20% more of.

I raised both alchemy and enchanting to 100 just to get some nice mage gear. Now my Magick never ticks down and I'm bored... ye olde minmax trap.

@Shofixti said:

Enchantment?... ENCHANTMENT!

Congrats, I read your post in Sandal's voice.

Best new character of the past five years.

@ManiacMaysin: Not entirely related, but important to note: from reading stuff on the Skyrim wiki, apparently some skills have enchantment "bugs", ie. as you get closer towards 100% in a skill, the more an enchanted piece of equipment for that particular skill will have a detrimental effect. I think Lock-picking and Sneaking were two of them... I can't remember if Pickpocketing was one of them as well.

I'm contemplating whether to min/max the enchanting loop. My dude is 100 enchanting but only 70 alchemy. A part of me wants to max it out so my magic never goes down but I find that most of my enchanted gear does the trick anyway. Destruction virtually costs nothing to cast and I have 400+ magica stores. The only real challengers to my character's awesomeness are mages and dragons. Speaking of dragons why do two appear now instead of one?

@mikey87144 said:

I'm contemplating whether to min/max the enchanting loop. My dude is 100 enchanting but only 70 alchemy. A part of me wants to max it out so my magic never goes down but I find that most of my enchanted gear does the trick anyway. Destruction virtually costs nothing to cast and I have 400+ magica stores. The only real challengers to my character's awesomeness are mages and dragons. Speaking of dragons why do two appear now instead of one?

Don't bother. Alchemy is tedious to grind out and not worth it. As you said, you kick everyones ass anyway.

@mikey87144: It really depends on how much overkill you want to have with your character - if you max out enchanting, alchemy, and smithing, you could pretty much ruin the game for yourself, even on master difficulty. The game gets stupid easy if you have all 3 of those maxed out (with the proper perks included also, of course).

I maxed those 3 on my character, and things are pretty much dying in 1-3 sneak shots from my bow now =/... on master difficulty. It might be different for a mage though, seeing how you can't increase spell damage...

I also maxed enchanting, smithing, alchemy, and largely agree with previous posters regarding the futility of min/maxing. The grind out nature of it actually disengaged me from the game itself after a while. But I'm back on board now that I'm doing the Thieve's Guild stuff...

In regard to min/maxing, if you want to do it, you only really need 100 in smithing and enchanting, and 80 with the 7 perks in Alchemy will do it, there is no need to go to 100 in alchemy. I made alchemy and smithing gear at 80, potions, rinse and repeat, made my play gear and ta da stupid awesome play gear. Then attempted to do it again after I made the 100 in alchemy and the result was a bunch of wasted grand soul gems and time for +48% sneak over the +47% I had before. Everything was double enchanted with different properties, but you get the idea, very minor gains. Clearly a point of diminishing returns happens. For me, my potions ended up being smithing +144% and enchanting +37% but I'd have to look at my game to be sure, but that sounds right.

EDIT: I thought I would throw this out there to anyone reading this thread that is under the seduction of speed-leveling enchanting, smithing, alchemy super gear...it will change your game experience! You will one kill everything and you will never feel any real danger with the ridiculous armor rating, and on top of that, you will gain levels like mad. Even on the highest difficulty setting. The gratification of gaining the level and getting your perk one at a time has a certain reward system to it that is just sorta discarded out the window. It's like playing D&D and starting your character at level 20. The sense of development of your character is lost entirely. All in all, it just upsets the balance and flow of the game, ultimately making the game not terribly enjoyable. If and when I start a new character, I wouldn't do it again. Just a thought, or warning, concerning the "trick."

@Shofixti said:

Enchantment?... ENCHANTMENT!

@Christoffer said:

@mikey87144 said:

I'm contemplating whether to min/max the enchanting loop. My dude is 100 enchanting but only 70 alchemy. A part of me wants to max it out so my magic never goes down but I find that most of my enchanted gear does the trick anyway. Destruction virtually costs nothing to cast and I have 400+ magica stores. The only real challengers to my character's awesomeness are mages and dragons. Speaking of dragons why do two appear now instead of one?

Don't bother. Alchemy is tedious to grind out and not worth it. As you said, you kick everyones ass anyway.

It is a great mid to late game skill. The amount your alchemy goes up is based on the price of the potion, so if you have been collecting ingredients the whole game and storing them somewhere, and eating them to find out their effects, you can make incredibly expensive potions (especially when wearing enchant alchemy gear) and it levels up in no time at all.

Personally though, I only levelled it up to make enchantment and smithing potions.

@AlisterCat said:

@Christoffer said:

@mikey87144 said:

I'm contemplating whether to min/max the enchanting loop. My dude is 100 enchanting but only 70 alchemy. A part of me wants to max it out so my magic never goes down but I find that most of my enchanted gear does the trick anyway. Destruction virtually costs nothing to cast and I have 400+ magica stores. The only real challengers to my character's awesomeness are mages and dragons. Speaking of dragons why do two appear now instead of one?

Don't bother. Alchemy is tedious to grind out and not worth it. As you said, you kick everyones ass anyway.

It is a great mid to late game skill. The amount your alchemy goes up is based on the price of the potion, so if you have been collecting ingredients the whole game and storing them somewhere, and eating them to find out their effects, you can make incredibly expensive potions (especially when wearing enchant alchemy gear) and it levels up in no time at all.

Personally though, I only levelled it up to make enchantment and smithing potions.

It's good to have a few trick up your sleeve when you get into the tough fights, I'll give you that. A +131% damage with destruction is pretty neat, though not often needed. And once I made the most optimized gear for my character I never used enchanting again. I prepared for the game being much tougher in the end but it never happened. Thus, I think it's a waste of time to grind alchemy or enchanting.

But, of course, you can always bump the difficulty a notch.

@Shofixti said:

Enchantment?... ENCHANTMENT!

I feel obligated to say this line every time I go to enchant something.

I maxed out enchanting and smithing on my warrior and made myself some ridiculous dragonplate armor. In retrospect that was a bad idea because being invulnerable isn't much fun.

My advice is to try to keep your crafting skill levels to about twice your character level. That way you won't hit skill level 100 until your character reaches level 50.

@Bane: You're really not. Your character has very little protection against magic. My character would destroy yours. Armor offers no protection against magic. Also were did you get fortify carry weight? I want to make a ring and necklace for the bigger dungeons.

@mikey87144: not to insert myself in the brawl, but you can simply double enchant things with resist magic, and/or resist shock, fire, ice, and then be under the Lord Stone, magic will not hurt you anymore. At least, that's what I did. I think with all enchantments and everything, my resist magic alone is like +127% (+34% x3, plus +25%). Even on Master difficulty destruction magic doesn't do anything.

@mikey87144: It's been my experience that yes, mages are the only NPC's I have to pay attention to. However, it still took two or three Arch-somethings attacking me at the same time to get my health down far enough for me to drink a potion. Their spells really didn't do enough DPS to prevent me from running through their assault and putting my sword through their face.

Like @INV2 said, I could always change the enchantments on my gear to something more balanced between physical and magical protection.

Don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem with the crafting system. I'm glad we're able to make some demigod gear if we want and if it's something you like then by all means. It's just not for me.

Edit: the fortify carry weight question. I have no idea. It was either loot or a vendor item, both of which would have been found randomly. Sorry.

@Bane: I could go down your path. Except for Alchemy I pretty much have the components to make over leveled armor. It would just sap some of the fun for me. That being said though not putting any points into health has come back to bite me against more powerful mage types.

I admit to simply avoiding the internet in general, but after dumping a lot of time and testing into breaking +144% on Smithing potions and +37% on enchanting potions, I discovered the Restoration potion glitch and it has sort of broken my interest in the game....I spent all that time leveling that stuff, searching for ingredients, grand soul gems, making equipment, make new potions, making more equipment, and more potions, and more equipment, etc and someone can do it in 5 minutes exploiting a restoration potion effect....

Gotta take some time away from this game. Maybe I will play another character completely raw, meaning with no alchemy, smithing or enchanting. Making this stuff is really and truly, "game breaking," in the bad way.