New way to play using one simple mod.

[CONTRABARDUS]

I've found an interesting way to play Skyrim using a pretty simple mod that has breathed a little new life into the game and made it more engaging.

 

That mod is "Unlimited Rings and Amulets".

 

It's not as overpowered as it sounds. You can only wear one of each level of each enchantment for rings and amulets. For example, you can have Regen Health I, II, and III rings, and Regen Health I, II, and III in necklaces, but only one of each can be used.

 

The thing that makes it interesting is that you only use found items. No Smithing, Alchemy, or Enchanting. No armor of "That Enchanted Daedric Sword Tickles", no "Butter Knife of Finger of God", while fun for a bit, using such items gets boring fast.

 

This makes progression as you level much smoother instead of a huge spike into Godhood once you max out Smithing, Enchanting, and Alchemy, all of which can be power leveled right away. I highly recommend Ordinator Perks for this as it helps that progression even more.

 

I wouldn't go higher than expert difficulty unless you're looking for a serious challenge. Expert is just about right for this, but Master is completely doable as well if you want a real challenge. I wouldn't try it with Legendary unless you're a gaming sadist who wants a punishing experience.

 

Enchanting and Smithing are overpowered, especially when you through Alchemy into the mix, and they make the Daedric quest and unique items pretty useless. This fixes that, and is an alternative that provides a nice challenge without breaking the game either way.

 

This makes the enchanted gear you find more valuable, and doing the quest to get the unique items a lot more rewarding. It also makes exploration more rewarding, and high level enemies, dragons, and bosses dangerous, without making it so that you're too underpowered to handle them.

 

If things are too hard, and you don't want to play on adept or lower, you can level and put perk points in smithing, but can only use it for upgrading gear. You can only use workbenches and the grinding wheel. So no power leveling the skill and crafting Daedric armor or weapons, you have to find them as loot or buy them from merchants if you want them.

 

As you won't have any perks in enchant or alchemy, you won't be able to create god armor and one hit kill weapons by exploiting them. Found enchanted gear would be better anyway as you won't be able to enchant anything you make.

 

If you want things to be a little tougher, no merchants. You can only use what you find as loot. You can only use gathered crafting materials to upgrade things, and only potions and items you find as you explore.

 

Suddenly those daedric quest items and unique items are a lot more appealing and worth getting, enchanted loot is more valuable and interesting, you have more options for roleplaying a lot of builds as you don't need to dump perk points in smithing, alchemy, and enchanting to handle the endgame, exploring is more rewarding, you'll be plenty powerful enough to handle the late game without being an invincible god, and progression is more natural as you play as you'll be relying on leveled loot.

 

Think of getting rings and necklaces as similar to leveling individual skills and attributes in Morrowind or Oblivion.

 

I've done my last three playthroughs this way, and it makes the game a lot more interesting and engaging than when I was grinding those three skills and putting half my perk points into them. It's funny how a small simple mod like this can have such a big impact on the game and how you play it.

 

This greatly expands roleplaying options, as you now have 2-3 trees worth of perk points you can put elsewhere, making for more interesting builds.

 

Seriously try this out. It turns Skyrim into a much more interesting game.

 

EDIT: I also highly recommend Apocalypse Magic for this. Without the addon that gives you all the chests in Riverwood, this kind of playthrough works better if you find them as leveled loot. Especially if you're using a mage character. Be sure to nab the compatibility patch for Ordinator as well.

Edited April 21, 2018 by CONTRABARDUS

[audiodef]

After reading your review of Unlimited Rings and Amulets, I'm going to try it out!