Quickest way to level 'legit'?

[Brechnor]

With the unofficial patches too.
What's the best way to level in this game without using commands or anything?

[Hamsterbytes , bits and nibbles]

Elbow grease. and if more specific. Which things are you trying to level? If just your character then it's back to elbows(hard work).

[Dexter]

The quickest way to level is to do the quest Lost to the Ages for the Aetherial Crown.

Once obtained go to the Lovers Stone near Markarth and touch it to obtain the stones power. Fast travel to the Guardian Stones near Riverwood.

Equip the Aetherial Crown and save your game.

Then touch the Warrior Stone and quickly remove the Aetherial Crown then touch either the Mages Stone or Thief Stone. Make the Aetherial Crown a favorite to help you unequip it faster if necessary using the shortcut.

If you do it right you will have the Warriors Stone and one of the other stones together. That will give you 20% bonus to both those types of skills.

Requip the Aetherial Crown and you will activate the Lovers Stone for another 15% bonus to all skills.

Doing this makes the Warrior Stone permanent and requires console to remove it FYI.

Combined that is a 35% bonus to skills and exp. You can combine this with the sleeping bonus of 10% by unequipping the Aetherial Crown before you sleep for a maximum 45% bonus to exp.

If you install the mod Sophia, you can beat her up while she is laying down in the stables with a dagger or bow and raise your skills and gain several levels before starting the Aetherial Crown quest which can be difficult at a low level.

A little advice. Here are three other quests you should try to do asap.

The Book of Love quest in Riften Temple of Mara.

The Heart of Dibella in Markarth Temple of Dibella.

Go to Ansilvund, far North of Riften NE of Shor's Stone. Take a follower with you if possible for a nice One handed sword early in the game. It has decent damage and will help your carry weight as the weight of the weapon is only 1.

[LP the SPY]

I think alchemy was quite fast to level up and make money. With the money you can then buy training.

You could use a low mana spell for illusion or alteration to level up to from time to time while you're walking around. But youll probably want to get a spell mod to have useful spells in those schools of magic.

You could crouch and press Q behind a wall to get sneak levels from an NPC. You leave the PC 1 hours and you've just level up a couple times.

then you can start fighting ♥♥♥♥

[fran25]

I usually level first in Two Handed weapons. I use one as soon as I can buy one. I love the Battleaxe. Archery is also a must and just takes hitting the target. But as a Nord you start with only 15 on Archery. It just takes work finding a trainer is good also. Join the companions and use Aela on the bow and Vilkas on Two Handed when you have a few extra septims. Rember as Hamterbytes said hard work using a Skill will improve it. You can get Muffle and get to 100 by using the spell over and over but that is not really fair.

[MyProfile]

Check out this guys channel.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjFztUZFRTDd1HTHxTFIXfQ

He has a way to level anything.

[Brandybuck]

Originally posted by Brechnor:

With the unofficial patches too.
What's the best way to level in this game without using commands or anything?

Your character levels come from skills, so it really depends on what skills you are leveling. Every skill is different, so head on over to the wiki and read up on them.

In more general terms, the appropriate Guardian stone will help a lot. Most combat oriented skills (weapons, armor, many spells, etc) require you to be in combat, so finding a staff of summoning gives you an endless supply of sparing partners.

But overall, I would not worry about leveling. Enjoy the journey and stop trying to rush to the destination.

[Vita, Mortis, Careo]

Progression in Elder Scrolls titles is utterly broken, even moreso in Skyrim. Want to level fast? Cast muffle over and over again to get Ilusion up to 100. Then do the legendary thing and reset it over and over again. You'll get all the points you'd ever want. Skill-based progression rewards rote action only. Dumbest thing ever.

[Brechnor]

yeah. that's towards the extreme i'm not too keen on. I'm basically on level 12 after a week because quests feel like slow levelling. RP'ing doesn't help in that regard but it is fun!

Wondering if there is a place with a high concentration of enemies to wail on?

[Vita, Mortis, Careo]

Originally posted by Brechnor:

yeah. that's towards the extreme i'm not too keen on. I'm basically on level 12 after a week because quests feel like slow levelling. RP'ing doesn't help in that regard but it is fun!

Wondering if there is a place with a high concentration of enemies to wail on?

Which is just as artificial. Instead of being rewarded XP for actually doing things in the world like completing quests and discovering locations, you are only rewarded for smacking things with your mace.

What you are coming to see is that skill-based systems are fundamentally flawed. Progression is more of grind than ever.

[Mormacil]

Turn down the difficulty, the higher the difficulty the slower you level.

[Brechnor]

BTW off topic which of these mods would be the best to get if I had to chose 1?
I don't HAVE to chose 1... but don't want to keep all 3 around to keep chance of conflict down.
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/61028/? - player shop
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/50992/? - player farm
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/57879/? - player mine

I ask too many questions sure but skyrim is so BIG! :D
Thank you every one for the advice so far...

[Brechnor]

Thanks i'll go with your vote and download.
Can't believe I have 88 hours in skyrim but comparitively played nothing of it too :o