Yes, gather around children, let me tell you a tale of the dragonborn. Ahh, yes, the dragonborn! So strong, so powerful, so... err, you get the picture. Well one day mr.dragonborn goes hiking up a mountain when a terrible frost dragon appears out of nowheres! And it's all big and scary, with a mouth full of fffff- er, ice! Terrible, biting ice! And the dragon's all flying around, blowing ice on everyone, and the dragonborn's like "No you didn't" and starts volleying arrow after arrow in the foul beast... Ok, it doesn't seem to be doing much but, you know, A for effort. And then the dragon swoops down and lands! This is the dragonborn's chance! He charges forward, shooting wave of fiery flames from his fiery hands. The dragon laughs a cold, cackling laugh and meets the dragonborn in combat, but by now our hero has pulled out his really flippin' sweet elvish great-sword-of-shocks and it's going bzzzzrt-bzzzrt and the frost dragon is all like FOOOOOUUUUURRRGGHHHHH and the dragonborn sides steps the ice-blast and starts slashing at the dragon's side like WACK-WACK-WUMP and children, that health bar was dropping like nobody's bees-wax!

But then the dragon was all like PYSCH and whipped around and bit the dragonborn in half before carelessly tossing him down the mountain. "Shhh-itake mushrooms!" exclaimed the dragonborn as he died and then reloaded for the fiftieth time in a row.

Ahem Seriously though, I'm level 24 playing on Expert and the game isn't easy. Well, at least compared to Fallout 3 and New Vegas. For one, there's less health just lying around, and potions actually have weight. Enemies can take a beating, and a lot of that combat is done up close and personal where they can and will instakill you if you miss a block.

I know that I need to specialize in certain skills in order to become more effective, but deciding what play-style to focus on is tough. I want this character to be my "main", so to speak, but it seems being a jack-of-all-trades is impractical. So far I've been decidedly choosing only a handful of perks so that I don't paint myself in a corner, character-creation wise. That means I've been taking perks that seem useful for most standard builds: smithing, enchantment, alchemy, sneak, archery. At this time I still have 10 perks unspent.

But spending them means that I have to decide where to specialize, which leaves me with all sorts of questions:

• Should I go sword and board or two-handed? Doing both one and two handed is obviously a waste. Dual wielding lacks defensive capacities, and feels a bit too much like flailing wildly to my tastes. That said, the benefit of one-handed is that it's quick and versatile since you have a hand free. The benefit of two-handed is the damage and the chance to stagger, but it's slow to both attack and defend.

• Is the block perk tree worth it? I mean, are shields and shield bashes a viable/enjoyable way to play the game?

• Are any of the weapon specific perks worth it?

• Is it worth investing in destruction? Destruction seems to fill mid-range role in combat, nestled between the bow and close quarters combat. Since I am doing some archery, can I gain anything more from destruction? Are the magic-type (flame, frost, shock) perks worth it? Do shouts make destruction less important by comparison?

• I tried the archery perk "steady hand" but found that it sort of through off my aim. If I get used to it, does it make archery noticeably more effective?

• Conjuration is fun because I like watching NPCs fight for my amusement, but does it pay off in the long run?

• What other perks should I shoot for in a long-term "main character" build? Keep in mind, I plan on keeping this character around for a while and leveling him considerably.

And most importantly: How did you decide how to specialize your character?