Skyrim V: Skyrim

[Tergon]

Once you divert into what is easier over what is better, you've pretty much missed my point. I'm not saying light armour is easier to obtain/skill up, I'm saying that it's both cheaper in terms of perk investment, and better in terms of overall protection and utility. And as for leather and iron taking ages, they're still the most cost-effective way to gain smithing skill, and if you think it's more efficient to lug back a ton of dwarf metal than to buy out your local smiths, then I'm not sure what you're doing with your money.

Well... actually I do whatever I want with my money. I go to trainers, I upgrade my house, I purchase items for disenchanting and for the sheer glorious fun of it, and I buy out the inventory of Alchemists to upgrade my potionmaking abilities. Those Dwarven Daggers sell for considerably more than Iron ones, but the ingredients? One Iron Ingot and one Leather Strip, purchased from the blacksmith. The difference is that for the Dwarven one, I get far more experience and far more gold, and all it costs me is one scavenging trip to a Dwemer ruin with my loyal sherpa. Like, five minutes.

When you think about it that way, hell. Why wouldn't I do that?

[Razgriez]

The archmage robes, goofy-looking as they are, will be a great perk. Speaking of perks, though, choosing them is painful in Skyrim. There's just so many of them... right now, on level 19, I'm torn between Adept Destruction, Adept Alteration and Apprentice Illusion.

General rule of thumb with perks, is upgrade what you use the most. And of course, if you're a big time user of certain magic schools, buy any of the perks that reduce Magicka cost. More spell casting = more fun, and save on cost of making Restore Magicka potions

Well... actually I do whatever I want with my money. I go to trainers, I upgrade my house, I purchase items for disenchanting and for the sheer glorious fun of it, and I buy out the inventory of Alchemists to upgrade my potionmaking abilities. Those Dwarven Daggers sell for considerably more than Iron ones, but the ingredients? One Iron Ingot and one Leather Strip, purchased from the blacksmith. The difference is that for the Dwarven one, I get far more experience and far more gold, and all it costs me is one scavenging trip to a Dwemer ruin with my loyal sherpa. Like, five minutes.

When you think about it that way, hell. Why wouldn't I do that?

I'm of a similar view. If you have free crafting materials from an excursion, why not use them. When I return to a town from a quest, and if I have silver/gold ore (or iron ore to Transmute), and some gem stones, I run to the nearest forge and start making jewelry. That way, I get XP for smithing, and gold by selling jewelry, or to practice enchanting on (for more profit even!)

[nhbdy]

The archmage robes, goofy-looking as they are, will be a great perk. Speaking of perks, though, choosing them is painful in Skyrim. There's just so many of them... right now, on level 19, I'm torn between Adept Destruction, Adept Alteration and Apprentice Illusion.

... So you're a pure mage? Illusion is a very all or nothing school and if it falls behind it stops working, I don't know how far ahead you are with it or if you use it constantly. Destruction is obviously useful. The Alteration seems to be the least priority as it doesn't have AS much utility in combat, but then again I don't know how you play and what you like.

[Zale]

Anyone posted this?

[Calemyr]

... yeah in skyrim it isn't hard to rush questlines, the pacing makes it harder not to if you buy into their "urgency" hooks (granted the DGMQ is rumored to have some link to the vamp attacks so it actually does have some urgency to it but I digress)

Yeah, Bethesda isn't very good at setting up pacing. If you're trying to roleplay it at all as someone who takes the main quest seriously, there aren't a lot of windows to see other parts of the game, and the other parts of the game tend to have the same sense of urgency. Still, it's much better than Fallout 3, where the pressure to pursue the main quest is only eased twice, really (finding vault 112 and locating the GECK).

With Skyrim, I find the guild lines easier to pursue as a consequence of the main quest, usually right after defeating a plot-based dragon. I see that as a perfect excuse - the battle was "too hard" and "too many other people died", so the Dragonborn seeks training in a field they favor, such as actual combat or magic.

Other ties I found handy:

Spoiler

Show

Fighting the giant near Whiterun: Sets the Companions up as an ideal force to learn how to fight from, which is clearly important after the first dragon fight.

Looking for the Elder Scroll: Introduction to Winterhold, the university, and the Librarian.

Diplomatic Immunity: Can net you an unusual stone (possibly your first) and then dumps you in Riften searching for Esbern. A perfect setup for getting tied up in the Thieves Guild.

The Dark Brotherhood assassin who comes for you: A good excuse to start looking for them. Even a paladin would consider dispatching Grelod to be a service to humanity.

[Morty]

... So you're a pure mage? Illusion is a very all or nothing school and if it falls behind it stops working, I don't know how far ahead you are with it or if you use it constantly. Destruction is obviously useful. The Alteration seems to be the least priority as it doesn't have AS much utility in combat, but then again I don't know how you play and what you like.

I'm a pure mage, yes. Illusion is very useful if used right, so I'm trying to make sure it doesn't lag behind too much. I ended up taking the two perks that make Illusion spells work on higher level targets. This way, by summoning Atronachs and casing Fury, I hope to let enemies bleed out before they can attack me.

[nhbdy]

I'm a pure mage, yes. Illusion is very useful if used right, so I'm trying to make sure it doesn't lag behind too much. I ended up taking the two perks that make Illusion spells work on higher level targets. This way, by summoning Atronachs and casing Fury, I hope to let enemies bleed out before they can attack me.

In that case I'd vote for the illusion perk, as it is a full grade lower than the other two and it is the most dependent on it's spell level

[Razgriez]

So question for those versed in the Warrior melee weapon perks. Obviously, the bludgeoning type weapons perks are pretty self explanatory, as are swords. But what about the axe type's "Bleed damage"? It seems the best answer I can find so far, is that it causes 1 to 3 damage/second for 4-6 seconds, with higher ranks favoring towards higher numbers. Is that really all it does, and is it at all useful compared to others (Sword type perks, boosting Critical, and thus useful for other perks, and Hammer/Mace perks ignoring armor)?

[BladeofObliviom]

So question for those versed in the Warrior melee weapon perks. Obviously, the bludgeoning type weapons perks are pretty self explanatory, as are swords. But what about the axe type's "Bleed damage"? It seems the best answer I can find so far, is that it causes 1 to 3 damage/second for 4-6 seconds, with higher ranks favoring towards higher numbers. Is that really all it does, and is it at all useful compared to others (Sword type perks, boosting Critical, and thus useful for other perks, and Hammer/Mace perks ignoring armor)?

Actually, all three of them are more or less completely useless for different reasons.

[Razgriez]

Actually, all three of them are more or less completely useless for different reasons.

Sword is debatable, especially one handed swords (The math boils down to about a 5% Overall damage increase, for every rank in Swordsman, not the greatest, but as some perks also require for a critical strike to take effect, it's useful. And for a Dual Wield build, dual swords speed means more chance of success.) Obviously, the hammer and mace "Ignore armor" is questionable, given that so far, it seems light armor is favored, and typically low/mid tier versions.

But still the axe "Bleed effect" is the one I'm not sure about. Does the effect stack with each strike? Is it 100% chance to anything not immune/resistant to it? Does it even, at max rank, only mean I'll still be doing somewhere between 4 and 18 points of extra damage over time, with just a greater likely hood of better duration/damage? Or should I just simply save a perk point, and just swing the axe for another 18+ base damage?

[BladeofObliviom]

Sword is debatable, especially one handed swords (The math boils down to about a 5% Overall damage increase, for every rank in Swordsman, not the greatest, but as some perks also require for a critical strike to take effect, it's useful. And for a Dual Wield build, dual swords speed means more chance of success.) Obviously, the hammer and mace "Ignore armor" is questionable, given that so far, it seems light armor is favored, and typically low/mid tier versions.

But still the axe "Bleed effect" is the one I'm not sure about. Does the effect stack with each strike? Is it 100% chance to anything not immune/resistant to it? Does it even, at max rank, only mean I'll still be doing somewhere between 4 and 18 points of extra damage over time, with just a greater likely hood of better duration/damage? Or should I just simply save a perk point, and just swing the axe for another 18+ base damage?

Axe "Bleeding" does stack, but only for a few seconds. However, both the Bladesman and Hack and Slash are based on the BASE damage of the weapon. That is, the damage it would be doing with 0 one-handed skill and no smithing.

Which means that even with Daedric Weapons, in both cases you've basically spent 3 perks for an average of 3 extra points of damage.

[Tergon]

Yeah, Bethesda isn't very good at setting up pacing. If you're trying to roleplay it at all as someone who takes the main quest seriously, there aren't a lot of windows to see other parts of the game, and the other parts of the game tend to have the same sense of urgency. Still, it's much better than Fallout 3, where the pressure to pursue the main quest is only eased twice, really (finding vault 112 and locating the GECK).

With Skyrim, I find the guild lines easier to pursue as a consequence of the main quest, usually right after defeating a plot-based dragon. I see that as a perfect excuse - the battle was "too hard" and "too many other people died", so the Dragonborn seeks training in a field they favor, such as actual combat or magic.

Well, there's also a few other tie-ins with other things. Asking at Taverns for bounties, for example, which take you to the Hold capitals for the rewards once you've collected them. The Civil War questline is another obvious one, given that you're given that plot-hook right from the start of the game, and it actively encourages you to visit Solitude or Windhelm. And of course from there you go all over Skyrim. You're still right in that the Guild questlines don't really jump out and grab you that much, though. I can understand why the main questline stands out more, what with the whole Apocalypse thing happening, and it's hard for other plots to outshine that, but... well, I can't help but remember that in Oblivion the Thieves' Guild and the Dark Brotherhood quests pretty much chase you down and make you join as soon as you get arrested and/or kill someone. Whereas it could easily happen that you'd play through Skyrim without ever properly starting either questline, if you didn't take up Brynjolf on his offer or sleep after killing Grelod the Kind.

[Morty]

Yeah, Bethesda isn't very good at setting up pacing. If you're trying to roleplay it at all as someone who takes the main quest seriously, there aren't a lot of windows to see other parts of the game, and the other parts of the game tend to have the same sense of urgency. Still, it's much better than Fallout 3, where the pressure to pursue the main quest is only eased twice, really (finding vault 112 and locating the GECK).

With Skyrim, I find the guild lines easier to pursue as a consequence of the main quest, usually right after defeating a plot-based dragon. I see that as a perfect excuse - the battle was "too hard" and "too many other people died", so the Dragonborn seeks training in a field they favor, such as actual combat or magic.

Other ties I found handy:

Spoiler

Show

Fighting the giant near Whiterun: Sets the Companions up as an ideal force to learn how to fight from, which is clearly important after the first dragon fight.

Looking for the Elder Scroll: Introduction to Winterhold, the university, and the Librarian.

Diplomatic Immunity: Can net you an unusual stone (possibly your first) and then dumps you in Riften searching for Esbern. A perfect setup for getting tied up in the Thieves Guild.

The Dark Brotherhood assassin who comes for you: A good excuse to start looking for them. Even a paladin would consider dispatching Grelod to be a service to humanity.

I think Morrowind did a pretty good job at setting up pacing. It helped that your progress in guilds was limited by your skills, so at some point you had to train. I kind of miss it, to be honest.

[Androgeus]

I think Morrowind did a pretty good job at setting up pacing. It helped that your progress in guilds was limited by your skills, so at some point you had to train. I kind of miss it, to be honest.

The main quest even tries to encourage you to do the guild quest lines by telling you to build a cover story.
It may be a bit lack on the pacing at the start of the main quest though, seeing as all you are doing for the first 4 or 5 quests are fed-ex quests to gather research notes.

[Morty]

I think it was fine, really. It let the tension build up slowly and made it feel natural to wander around doing jobs for people, joining guilds and exploring.

[Tergon]

As far as I'm concerned, Bethesda screwed up the guild questlines when they came up with the designs and decided not to follow a few simple concepts...

- Is it possible to complete the Mages' Guild / College of Winterhold questline without casting a single spell?
- Is it possible to complete the Fighters' Guild / Companions questline without putting any work into weapons or armour?
- Is it possible to complete the Thieves' Guld questline without actually using stealth?

If you can answer "Yes" to any of these questions, get back to work.

The Dark Brotherhood lets you kill your target as creatively and as publicly as you decide you want, with bonuses if you do it in a certain way. So I can't fault that. And, in Oblivion at least, if you failed to sneak past someone during a Thieves' Guild quest, you generally failed the quest.
But the other two... look, if you can become head of the College of Winterhold without knowing any spells other than Flames and Heal, then that's just not right. Becoming Harbinger of the Companions without having any armour or weapon perks is slightly less ridiculous, but only very slightly, and it's definitely thematically inappropriate.
Yes, I know, sandbox game where you built how and what you want, I get that. Really I do. But it's bad enough that the main plotline gives you zero practical reasons to start those questlines. Allowing you to follow the questlines until you lead the respective factions, despite your obvious and mind-boggling incompetence in the appropriate fields, that's just terrible.

[The_Jackal]

Well... actually I do whatever I want with my money. I go to trainers, I upgrade my house, I purchase items for disenchanting and for the sheer glorious fun of it, and I buy out the inventory of Alchemists to upgrade my potionmaking abilities. Those Dwarven Daggers sell for considerably more than Iron ones, but the ingredients? One Iron Ingot and one Leather Strip, purchased from the blacksmith. The difference is that for the Dwarven one, I get far more experience and far more gold, and all it costs me is one scavenging trip to a Dwemer ruin with my loyal sherpa. Like, five minutes.

When you think about it that way, hell. Why wouldn't I do that?

Because light armour is better.

Defending heavy armour on economic merits falls apart when you realize that money is free in Skyrim, so the economic benefit of anything can be reduced to a very marginal convenience fee. And I put it to you that making money with soul gems and iron daggers is easier than hauling out 1000 pounds of dwarf scrap out of Mzulft.

Look, if you really WANT to use heavy armour, go ahead. But you're basically spending the same or more perks for less utility and protection, in the long run.

[Tergon]

Because light armour is better.

Defending heavy armour on economic merits falls apart when you realize that money is free in Skyrim, so the economic benefit of anything can be reduced to a very marginal convenience fee. And I put it to you that making money with soul gems and iron daggers is easier than hauling out 1000 pounds of dwarf scrap out of Mzulft.

Look, if you really WANT to use heavy armour, go ahead. But you're basically spending the same or more perks for less utility and protection, in the long run.

You'd be right, except that I'm not defending heavy armour on economic merits at all. I'm just saying that if you're going to improve Smithing at all, even if you follow Light Armour, putting a perk into Dwarven Smithing is a viable choice.
You smith better and faster, and make considerably more money at lower levels which is when you need it more and when it's much harder to come by. You can make some decent heavy armour to give to your followers who use it. Yes, you gain money faster, but more to the point, you gan smithing experience much faster as well and with less fuss.
If you check over the thread, I've been singing the praises of Light Armour all along, same as you. I'm just saying that in this specific instance, using a single extra skill point to learn Dwarven Smithing is a perfectly viable choice. You only sacrifice one perk, but a great many things are better for it, and with Dwarven Ingots being as easy to craft as they are, you exert minimal effort to do so.
Light Armour is indeed better than Heavy Armour, unless your character has thematic reasons for using Heavy. But I'm not talking about defensive virtues - I'm talking about smithing, both for economic and experience-related reasons. And in that context, I put to you that Dwarven Smithing is worth it. Sacrificing a perk on that might not be 100% optimal in the long run, but early game, I'd call it a perfectly reasonable thing to do.

[The_Jackal]

So question for those versed in the Warrior melee weapon perks. Obviously, the bludgeoning type weapons perks are pretty self explanatory, as are swords. But what about the axe type's "Bleed damage"? It seems the best answer I can find so far, is that it causes 1 to 3 damage/second for 4-6 seconds, with higher ranks favoring towards higher numbers. Is that really all it does, and is it at all useful compared to others (Sword type perks, boosting Critical, and thus useful for other perks, and Hammer/Mace perks ignoring armor)?

Only bone breaker is worth using, and even that's not very good, in the scheme of things. The bladesman and bleed perks only add a fraction of base weapon damage, and are unaffected by skill, forging, or enchantments. The bone breaker perk seems like it would be better, except most enemies are poorly armoured, and have no skill. An NPC in full Daedric armor has a 108 armour rating, which means that with 3/3 bone breaker, you're doing ~18% more damage than you otherwise might. Most of the time, their armour is far, far less, and so is the extra damage you'd be dealing.

[The_Jackal]

I'm just saying that if you're going to improve Smithing at all, even if you follow Light Armour, putting a perk into Dwarven Smithing is a viable choice.

Whoah. Yeah, given my observation that money is a waste product of having fun in the game, I'm going to say that's a sub-optimal choice. YMMV, but I have waaaaay better things to spend perks on than making skilling my smithing cheaper. I've never found money to be hard to come by at any stage of the game. Perks, on the other hand, have lots of uses. Honestly, you'd be better served, if earning money is your aim, in putting perks into Speech.

That said, by all means, Dwarven smithing is a fine way to make the dough, and ANY armour can be made to reach the resist cap if you like the cool looks of it. That's actually one of the things I like best about Skyrim, it's not tuned to a nicety such that you HAVE to minimax everything to 99th degree.

[Lamech]

- Is it possible to complete the Mages' Guild / College of Winterhold questline without casting a single spell?

Nope.

- Is it possible to complete the Fighters' Guild / Companions questline without putting any work into weapons or armour?

Magic is a completely valid way to kill people.

- Is it possible to complete the Thieves' Guld questline without actually using stealth?

Yeah, this one is just sad. You can fight your way through everything.

[Beowulf DW]

As far as I'm concerned, Bethesda screwed up the guild questlines when they came up with the designs and decided not to follow a few simple concepts...

- Is it possible to complete the Mages' Guild / College of Winterhold questline without casting a single spell?
- Is it possible to complete the Fighters' Guild / Companions questline without putting any work into weapons or armour?
- Is it possible to complete the Thieves' Guld questline without actually using stealth?

If you can answer "Yes" to any of these questions, get back to work.

The Dark Brotherhood lets you kill your target as creatively and as publicly as you decide you want, with bonuses if you do it in a certain way. So I can't fault that. And, in Oblivion at least, if you failed to sneak past someone during a Thieves' Guild quest, you generally failed the quest.
But the other two... look, if you can become head of the College of Winterhold without knowing any spells other than Flames and Heal, then that's just not right. Becoming Harbinger of the Companions without having any armour or weapon perks is slightly less ridiculous, but only very slightly, and it's definitely thematically inappropriate.
Yes, I know, sandbox game where you built how and what you want, I get that. Really I do. But it's bad enough that the main plotline gives you zero practical reasons to start those questlines. Allowing you to follow the questlines until you lead the respective factions, despite your obvious and mind-boggling incompetence in the appropriate fields, that's just terrible.

Well, my warrior joined the College on the grounds that he was the Dohvakin, and thusly had great magical power by virtue of the the Thu'um. So for me it felt more like I was simply using an older and rarer form of magic.

[Partof1]

With the Companions, I figure the values and honour and whatnot are more important than the method of combat, so I don't have a problem there

The College is a little off, though as is the main portion of the Thieve's Guild questline. Though to be fair, to fully restore the Guild, there is a large bit of stealth and actual thievery involved.

What annoys me most is the Bard's College stuff :P I have all these instruments occupying inventory space, but I never learned to play them.

[Tergon]

Alright, I'll give you that the College of Winterhold does on three occasions require you to cast a spell. You have to pass the entrance test at the bridge, in which you're asked to cast a low-level spell that you can purchase then and there if you don't know it already. You're asked to cast a ward during Tolfdir's lesson, and he'll give you one if you don't know it already. And in Under Sarthaal you're asked to cast a spell on the enchanted wall to destroy it and gain access to the Eye of Magnus, for which literally any spell will suffice. But unless I'm forgetting something, there's no other point at which you actually have to cast a spell for the entire questline. It's entirely possible, and in some cases actually easier, to not be a mage for all of the College-related quests.
And hell, at least Skyrim gives you those three occasions in which you have to know a spell. Oblivion didn't even give you that - in one quest you had to cast spells at a stone pilliar to access an Ayleid ruin in a specific order, and the specific scrolls you needed were in a nearby box. You didn't need to learn a single spell for yourself.

As for the Companions or the Fighters' Guild... yeah, okay, magic is a perfectly valid way to kill enemies or defend yourself, but is it thematically appropriate? The whole point of those guilds is that they're warriors of great physical strength. The only reason they're not on the front line of a fight is because they're firing arrows into the enemy's front line. They're all hard-drinking, hard-working, hard-fighting bastards, and they're all damn proud of it. Becoming their leader when you can't tell a sword's point from its pommel, and thinking that Daedric Plate is something you serve a demonic supper on... it's just not right, y'know?

I admit I'm a picky bugger and I think about this way more than I should. And I'm aware that lots of other folks don't care about this. But I just look at these immensely immersive games Bethesda made, I look at the massively scripted backstories and traditions they wrote into their own universes... and then I see that in the case of the character, they toss all that aside and say LOLNOPE, screw the traditions and do whatever the hell you want. That disappoints me somehow.
I mean, I get it. Bethesda's saying that they won't stop me from becoming Arch-Mage just because I'm a heavily armoured brute with a battleaxe who hates magic in all its forms. And it's kind of them to not stop me. I just really wish they would.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Aye. The guilds in Morrowind feel like actual guilds: it takes actual SKILL as well as DEDICATION to become the best.

As opposed to in Oblivion and Skyrim, where it feels like "Welp, you cut down all our problems with your big axe, let's call you ARCHMAGE", which just feels cheap. I don't feel like I did anything worth being called Archmage for, partially because it often feels like you're just running errands for them as if they were any other random quest-giver, not actually being a part of their organization up until they declare you archmage.

[BladeofObliviom]

Aye. The guilds in Morrowind feel like actual guilds: it takes actual SKILL as well as DEDICATION to become the best.

As opposed to in Oblivion and Skyrim, where it feels like "Welp, you cut down all our problems with your big axe, let's call you ARCHMAGE", which just feels cheap. I don't feel like I did anything worth being called Archmage for, partially because it often feels like you're just running errands for them as if they were any other random quest-giver, not actually being a part of their organization up until they declare you archmage.

To be fair to Archmage Traven, he was getting pretty damn paranoid and as far as I can tell seemed to be convinced that you were the only person he could really trust.

Even if Mannimarco's incarnation in Oblivion was a pushover to such a hilarious degree that I mistook him for a random necromancer. How did I do this? Because I poked him for Drain Health 100 right before he entered conversation...

[Morty]

Alright, I'll give you that the College of Winterhold does on three occasions require you to cast a spell. You have to pass the entrance test at the bridge, in which you're asked to cast a low-level spell that you can purchase then and there if you don't know it already. You're asked to cast a ward during Tolfdir's lesson, and he'll give you one if you don't know it already. And in Under Sarthaal you're asked to cast a spell on the enchanted wall to destroy it and gain access to the Eye of Magnus, for which literally any spell will suffice. But unless I'm forgetting something, there's no other point at which you actually have to cast a spell for the entire questline. It's entirely possible, and in some cases actually easier, to not be a mage for all of the College-related quests.
And hell, at least Skyrim gives you those three occasions in which you have to know a spell. Oblivion didn't even give you that - in one quest you had to cast spells at a stone pilliar to access an Ayleid ruin in a specific order, and the specific scrolls you needed were in a nearby box. You didn't need to learn a single spell for yourself.

As for the Companions or the Fighters' Guild... yeah, okay, magic is a perfectly valid way to kill enemies or defend yourself, but is it thematically appropriate? The whole point of those guilds is that they're warriors of great physical strength. The only reason they're not on the front line of a fight is because they're firing arrows into the enemy's front line. They're all hard-drinking, hard-working, hard-fighting bastards, and they're all damn proud of it. Becoming their leader when you can't tell a sword's point from its pommel, and thinking that Daedric Plate is something you serve a demonic supper on... it's just not right, y'know?

I admit I'm a picky bugger and I think about this way more than I should. And I'm aware that lots of other folks don't care about this. But I just look at these immensely immersive games Bethesda made, I look at the massively scripted backstories and traditions they wrote into their own universes... and then I see that in the case of the character, they toss all that aside and say LOLNOPE, screw the traditions and do whatever the hell you want. That disappoints me somehow.
I mean, I get it. Bethesda's saying that they won't stop me from becoming Arch-Mage just because I'm a heavily armoured brute with a battleaxe who hates magic in all its forms. And it's kind of them to not stop me. I just really wish they would.

Aye. The guilds in Morrowind feel like actual guilds: it takes actual SKILL as well as DEDICATION to become the best.

As opposed to in Oblivion and Skyrim, where it feels like "Welp, you cut down all our problems with your big axe, let's call you ARCHMAGE", which just feels cheap. I don't feel like I did anything worth being called Archmage for, partially because it often feels like you're just running errands for them as if they were any other random quest-giver, not actually being a part of their organization up until they declare you archmage.

I agree with both of the above. Getting the necessary skills could be a pain in the ass for some characters, but not too much. And since in Skyrim it's a lot easier to level up certain skills, it would work even better.
Also, would anyone care to tell me why Thalmor mages have twice as much health as their soldiers? Seriously, a soldier takes three single castings of Chain Lightning to go down. A wizard needs to be pounded for at least tiwce as much even if they don't put up wards.

[Tergon]

For the Thalmor that's justified. Their entire society is built around magic-users and the fact that the Thalmor are the superior race because of their magical ability. So even the grunts in armour are actually mages, they're just not that good at it. Once they prove themselves they get the promotion and become Justicars.

So don't think of the Justicars as squishy mages; the ones in armour are the squishy ones, because they actually need the armour. The Justicar are the elites who've proven that there's nothing squishy about them, and so the armour isn't something they see as necessary.

[Triaxx]

The thing is that the College quest actually has at least one quest, where you're better off swinging an axe. The magic anamolies are actually nearly immune to magic, and take more damage from weapons.

As for the companions, they don't use the term Battlemage for no reason, but it's really no more than just a different type of skill.

As for the thieves guild... it's so much more FUN to sneak around that I never bothered with trying to fight through, except one occasion where I forgot to acquire the Throw Voice shout.

But high sneak makes the last mission or two much, MUCH easier.

[The_Jackal]

Okay, I can see the merit in complaints that you should probably be good at magic before you get made the Archmage. But sneakiness being a pre-requisite for being in charge of the Thieves' Guild? There's plenty of scope for straight up violence in being the leader of a gang of criminals.