Here's a novel Idea I thought up recently. You can use it if you want. Not sure if it has been mentioned before, haven't seen it so far, so I'll mention it. Paying someone to do your smithing/enchanting etc. for you. Heres an example: So, you want a set of Dragonbone armor. You have the dragonbones, but you don't have the skills. How about you take the resources to a blacksmith, pay him 1000gold to put your armor together and/or wait a day, and voila! Dragonbone armor. Each set of armor, or enchantment will be ranked in how much it costs, therefore trying to add balance: ie, Armor -Orcish armor - 200gold -Ebony - 500gold -Daedric/Dragonbone 1000gold (the prices are not fixed, just placeholders) Enchantment -Enchantment strength (100-500gold) -2 enchantments on 1 item (700gold) The ability to create certain armors could be related to the skill of the blacksmith/enchanter: Ie: Eorland is "the best blacksmith in all of Skyrim" and therefore the only one who can create Dragonbone armor. Or members of the College are the only ones who can place 2 enchantments on one item. Prices could also vary according to the fame of the enchanter/blacksmith. Ie: Eorland is famous, so his price for making Ebony armor is 700gold, but Balimund isn't so his prices are 400gold. The player could also be told to wait a certain amount of time til their items are ready. Just a quick idea... Tried to balance it, but its probably just a stupid idea in practice though...
