Enchanting loop breaks early game balance way harder than smithing ever did

[DragonbornVet]

I keep seeing people say smithing is a trap perk investment, but nobody's talking about how enchanting basically soft-locks your difficulty curve if you know what you're doing. Like, grab a few soul gems, enchant some iron daggers with Banish or Paralyze, and suddenly you're one-shotting stuff that should take actual effort at level 15.

The weird part is smithing actually requires you to commit resources and time. Enchanting just needs you to loot a handful of soul gems and suddenly your gear is permanently better. I'm not even talking about the exploit loops, just vanilla gameplay where you can trivialize encounters before you hit level 20.

Has anyone else noticed this? Or am I just bad at restraint and actually using these enchantments when I find them instead of hoarding them like a normal person.

 

[WhiterunModder]

nah you're onto something real here. enchanting is genuinely busted in early game because the effect scaling is just way too aggressive compared to enemy HP. a single paralyze proc basically means you win the fight, and that's not even a rare enchantment if you know where to loot soul gems.

the thing about smithing though is it requires you to actually engage with the crafting loop - you need ore, perks, time at a forge. enchanting lets you just... apply it to whatever garbage weapon you're holding and suddenly it's a god-tier tool. and yeah, you can hoard, but most people don't on a first playthrough, they just use the good stuff.

i think the real difference is that smithing at least feels like progression because you're watching your armor rating go up and it takes actual effort. enchanting feels like you just lucked into power. both break difficulty, but enchanting breaks it faster and with less friction. that's probably why it gets less discussion - it's almost too easy to not notice you're doing it.

if you want to actually challenge yourself without mods, you kinda have to self-impose rules about enchanting. or just... not use the paralyze/banish stuff until you're already overpowered anyway. which sounds dumb but it's basically what you're already saying.