This same scenario, albeit with a few differences, happened to me in Fallout 3. I spread myself too thin, and restarted with a more focused build.

I've made my character, and I've been fine being a conjuring, sword and ice using, battle mage, but now I've realized that I've tried to do to many things, and now enemies are steam rolling me. I know I could just lower the difficulty, but I'm not a pansy.

I was wondering if any one else was doing this as well.

I ended up going back about 5 hours on my character and have been playing differently.

Yeah, I was thinking about it but found the right console commands and appropriate codes and redistributed them to somewhere more useful. Putting points into shields as a two-handed weapon user doesn't work out the way you might think. And that was going to trash the 12 hours I had put into the character at the time.

I feel like I'm a little unfocused now that I'm being destroyed constantly but I'll soldier through and put more points in light armour.

i think i like the way my character is going. mainly restoration, one handed and destruction. Haven't come across much difficulty yet, but I'm still quite early in.

I don't really like to use spells in role playing games (stupid statement, I know), so one handed weapons, restoration, shield and heavy armor. But now I consider using light armor, because whenever I find heavy armor it doesn't have any magic effect on player and I feel left out.

I planned on setting out a really focused build prior to purchasing the game, but once I started playing I found far too many interesting factors to consider. I've spread out a good deal of points already, but I think I'll try to refine my choices from now on so I don't need to restart. I definitely learned a good deal that I'll consider on my next playthrough though.

No. My character kicks ass, and I have a load of points in Destruction, Sneak, Lockpick, Pickpocket, Light Armour, and Smithing; with some in Archery and Restoration, oh and speech too. Well rounded? Yes. Focused? In a way, yes.

The vast majority of the time I've redone characters in Bethesda games is because I realize they look absolutely dreadful somewhere at about 10 hours in when I actually stop and look at them. This is probably been the first time in any RPG with a fairly deep character creation system that I've been happy with the appearance and can't find anything wrong with it. I lucked out by staying in a fairly narrow focus with my skills and dumping points into two hand, heavy armor, and black smithing.

Hehehe, quite funny. I thought for sure I'd be the only person crazy enough to restart the game for character build reasons. Anyway, I did about 5 hours into the game. First went magic, then realized there's a lot of synergy goodness to be found in a more melee oriented build. I'm quite happy with restarting, the new character suits my preferred combat style much better.

I still haven't made a character that I've been satisfied with, but that's a problem I have with all rpgs that let you make your own character.

I'm pretty happy with my first build. I saved about 3 perks for later and watched where the game took me by watching my stats grow. I like destruction, single handed sword and light armor. I adore alchemy and smithing, so I might go that direction with a few more perks.

I like my character, but I have used "showracemenu" a few times to do cosmetic touch-ups.

I'll probably play this game more than once anyway, so whatever.

After this amount of time playing, nope though now that I'm richer than starting I'll definitely be buying all 5 skills from trainers before leveling up as well as making a few different characters to play around with different guilds in the game that not going to mess with too much in the first run through.

50hours in I realised that while cool, the Assassin wasn't much fun as you just instantkill everything unless you get seen and then you're boned. Wizard just hit level 30 and so far no such problems, much more enjoyable.

@Arker101: If you're playing on PC, just redistribute your perks/skills via console. Don't waste going through the first part of the game again.

I was going to move away from destruction, but now that I beat the mage college storyline, you get some good spellcasting gear so I'm totally sticking with it

Nah, I enjoy using the bow and daggers. Every once in a while I'll use double swords against a tough enemy, but that's about it.

Kinda being a sneaky battle-conjurer. Heavy armor, sneaking around with a bound bow does tons of damage, and if they get close, hit em with my magic mace. They've really simplified the enchanting and potion making system, which I'm enjoying quite a bit. I don't ever use them, but they sell for a good amount of dough. I feel like I'm cheating walking around with over 25,000 gold though.....

@project343: Sorry, I'm on Xbox.

No, I'm very happy with my character, but I will start a different character when I feel I've done what I wanted to do with this one.

Hell no.

I started out focused enough, I liked two-handed weapons and destruction magic.

Smithing and Enchanting seemed like no-brainers. And I actually haven't put any perks in Heavy Armor, but I will maybe...maybe not.

But that being said, I will do another stealth character for Thieve's Guild and Dark Brotherhood. Not that my character is a goody two-shoes or anything, he's pretty neutral and just goes with the flow. But his skill sets aren't really up for that.

And I want to dual-wield, use bows and have alchemy potions.

I was super tempted to at first, but after realizing how slow of a burn magic is, once I started getting more magicka to use, and gear with insane regen rates, it's been a blast. Currently I'm focusing on Restoration, Conjuration, and Destruction. Never used Conjuration in an ES game before. Damn is it so much fun. I cannot wait until I can summon two Astronarchs (sp?) at the same time, just to sit back and watch them tear shit up.

Maxed out archery, sneaking and lockpicking. Got all I want from one handed, focusing on speech and enchanting now. Very happy with how my dude turned out, doubt I'll roll another character for a long time yet, if I do I'll make a pure mage. 100 hours on this guy already though and I've no want to make another dude yet.

Nah I've been pretty well focused. Though halfway through I started prioritizing bows and arrows, as well as sneak on top of my usual battlemage. And I stopped using destruction magic, and just use it to heal myself.

I've restarted too many times.

I have completely memorized the order to all the puzzles within Bleak Falls Barrow by now.

My most current character is focusing on Alteration/Restoration/Destruction (lightning focused), with a bit of Illusion and One-Handed (maces only).

It's working okay so far, I expect it'll be a lot better later on like all magic based characters are.

Feels like Skyrim follows Baldur's Gate II's lead in terms of melee vs magic, melee starts out reasonably strong and gets a lot stronger then stays there. While magic starts out somewhat under-powered and then you become a god later on.

I re-did my character early on to become a full mage.

I restarted my first character because I didn't know I would enjoy Conjuration so much when I started him and mostly focused him towards Destruction. My new mage is like a magical assassin that combines Illusion and Conjuration talents to systematically eliminate a room full of dudes without ever being seen. And if I ever need to take a group head on I just pop out a Frost Atronach and throw a Rally on him while I sit back and pluck a few bound arrows into dudes.

The Bound weapons are really underated, Bound Bow basically gives you infinte ammo and I've been getting decent damage with it.

As I've gone along I've noticed I'm not particularly interested in "maxing out" any of the trees, so I'm getting all of the bonuses I want/use most. For instance, I'm a one-handed fighter who can backpedal and cast some serious magic, but I don't want any part of half of the One-Handed tree. Bleeding damage with axes? Eh. Ignoring armor with maces? Sure, I see the appeal, but eh. Critical Strikes with blades? Perhaps the most immediately appealing, but still. Eh. 
  
I'm much more content focusing on a broader range of skills that more constantly benefit my character and play style. Restoration is a good example. I use Restoration magic rather infrequently, but I've dumped enough perk points to reap specific upsides. Regenerating Magicka at an increased rate, for instance, directly influences my ability to conjure beasts or deal out Destruction damage. Archery happens to be another case; I use archery only as a means to thin numbers before diving headlong into a fray, but I've boosted the damage output in the Archery tree so that I can function as a ranged combatant with optimal efficiency. Yet I have no interest in slowing down time as a zoom in, or staggering enemies. By the time I've shot another arrow into an enemy I haven't already one-shotted, I could've run up on the guy and felled him with an attack from my mace.  
 
In a sense, I play these Elder Scrolls games a lot like I play Halo. Different situations necessitate different loadouts, different approaches. Thing is, like Halo, those "situations" cycle and change on a moment's notice. Within seconds I'll have gone from a scenario that played advantageously to a ranged warrior to a direct, weapon-on-weapon/weapon-on-shield/weapon-on-magic/magic-on-magic confrontation. Having a Sneak perk that prevents me from setting off traps doesn't help me.  
 
EDIT: I will say that Smithing seems like the one skill you'd want to take a serious look at, if you were at all curious about maxing out a tree. Dragon and Daedric armor pieces don't exactly fall out of the sky. To that end, Enchanting isn't a bad way to go either, if you've got the wherewithal to get the experience. 

@evilrazer said:

I don't really like to use spells in role playing games (stupid statement, I know), so one handed weapons, restoration, shield and heavy armor. But now I consider using light armor, because whenever I find heavy armor it doesn't have any magic effect on player and I feel left out.

I'm a lightly armored - to no armor mage, and all I find is enchanted heavy armor.

Too bad we can't make a trade. :P

@AndrewB: I think that it is opposite of what GTA has, you find rare sports car and they start appearing on streets, but here if you put some time into Heavy Armor the only thing that will be in chests is Light Armor with crazy restoration effects. :D

I've spent a few points here and there, I spread myself a little too thin. I'm just soldiering through everything to catch up on those perks though. If I can't beat a certain area, I just go into werewolf form and tear shit up.

I was going to move away from destruction, but now that I beat the mage college storyline, you get some good spellcasting gear so I'm totally sticking with it

Will probably make another character later on focuses on sword + shield, seems like a lot of fun. 

1500 damage sneak attacks, why would I respec?

Krom is the first character in a  Bethesda game that I don't want to reroll. I decided early on to play him as a 2 handed greatsword and light armour wearing Nord barbarian. I've been picking up a few points in archery as well to round him out a bit with ranged attacks and he has been devouring any spell books he can get his hands on(just because he's a blood drunk barbarian doesn't mean he can't enjoy a good book)  but he rarely uses spells other then healing when he's in a bind. It was a tough beginning, but as more foes lose their heads or are impaled on his greatsword, the stronger he becomes. When I get bored with him I'll start a new character but I don't see that happening for a long time. 

Nah, my first build is actually really good. I'm nice and specialized with my 2 handed weapon level nearly twice as high as my next highest skill. Add to that a bunch of Stamina and other 2 handed buffs, and most normal enemies go down in a swing or two.

@TheDudeOfGaming said:

@CJduke said:

I was going to move away from destruction, but now that I beat the mage college storyline, you get some good spellcasting gear so I'm totally sticking with it

I thought the same thing (lvl 19), until I had seen my character getting savagely beaten to death by an ice troll and sabre tooth cat. Get heavy armor, and enchant it. Also, how did your fight with Morokei go?

LOL Morokei was nuts. What I ended up doing was hitting him with fireball, then running out of his line of site and going into sneak mode. I would keep hiding behind pillars and walls in various parts of the level and sometimes because I was sneaking I would get him to lose aggro on me. Another time I got him to stand in the same spot, so I could keep popping out of cover once my magic regenerated enough to hit him and then hide again. Every time he found me i would just sprint away. Also I saved various times during the fight lol. I figured all this out of course, after I tried various ways of straight up fighting him and getting 2 shotted every single time. The simple fact that I found a way to beat it even though he was way more powerful than me makes me love this game even more. Also, for long term purposes I am trying to become a battle-mage. I have put a lot of time into enchanting and smithing, hopefully that pays off. But I was extremely pleased with the Morokei mask and the arch mage robes, they are really good and look cool. Now that I have apprentice level spells with this gear I can kill bears and sabre cats pretty easily.

I love my current character. He's a beast at both 2handed melee and with a switch of gear is the ultimate stealth killer. Just can't use magic really so if I made a new character it would be all magic. I can't beat the name Kael Draegarn though.. love it!

I knew exactly what type of build I wanted to go for even before installing the game, so I've been assigning my points accordingly ^^

I find putting all my points into my orc's 2 handed hammer, heavy armor, and healing, while upgrading my health 99% of the time works out very well for me....in close up, metal on metal combat. As soon as ranged combat begins, I am at a huge loss. Maybe I'll invest some points in archery...

I already had to. I made what was basically purely a thief and had levelled him up doing only thief-related things, but no combat, and ended up not being able to kill any enemies.  I restarted as a mage but with a few thief characteristics and it has worked much better. It's too bad you don't get sneak bonuses with magic.  I had to level up 1-handed combat for the Dark Brotherhood so I could get easier stealth kills. 
 
I'll probably end up doing a playthrough with all three types. I'm next going to do a fighter, then lastly something archery based since it is apparently much more viable than in Oblivion.

I'm surprised how many people say they've managed to level incorrectly. On adept, I did just fine splitting my skills between sneak, archery, one-handed, light armor, and smithing, with a fair number of points from speech and lockpicking. I guess it could have been worse if I had really gotten more than a few points in any kind of magic, I suppose, but I would have had to consciously go out of my way to mix up my attacks to do that.

I spread out a bit into sneak, one-handed, and light armor as primaries with occasional forays into destruction, archery, and smithing. So far I don't feel underpowered except in a few cases. With good archery and one-handed, I either snipe or backstab my way through things. I've gotten swamped a few times, though, and had my ass handed to me.

Can I just say how fucking awesome the archery is in this game, by the way? I'm loving it.

That said, I may well do another build, knowing what I know now about how the game works. I'd have made a few decisions differently early on, but nothing major.

Hmmmm, level 13 after 12 hours as a pure magic but unsure whether to restart and go sword shield and archery, or to just try and respec......

good thing i'm early with my Nord, Eddard.

heavy armor and 2 handed weapons for him, with a slight nod to some magic

My guy started out as a "vanilla-warrior" with axe and shield but after doing the thiefs guild-quest line I really got into the whole bow and stealth-approach so I might continue down that path now. I still revert to the axe and shield when shit really goes down tho...