Enchanting – the ability to bind magic to weapons and armor. Alteration – makes your magic stronger for affecting the world around you, like giving yourself the ability to stay underwater longer or paralyze your enemies. Restoration – the ability to use healing and protective magic. Destruction – the ability to cast harmful natural spells, like fire, ice, or lightning. Conjuration – the ability to cast spells that bind, such as Soul Trap. Illusion – the ability to cast spells that mess with your enemies’ minds, such as fear, calming, and invisibility. Alchemy – the ability to make potions and poisons. Speech – the ability to get better prices when bartering and to persuade people to do what you want. Pickpocket – the ability to get away with stealing from others without them noticing. Lockpicking – the ability to open chests and doors without keys (there are some chests and doors that you cannot pick, but most of them are fair game). Sneak – the ability to maneuver around Skyrim without being seen or heard. Light Armor – lets you work better in the lighter types of armor (Hide, Leather, Elven, and Glass) Archery – determines how accurate your shots are and how critical the hits will be. One-handed – lets you increase the damage inflicted and agility when using one-handed weapons (daggers, swords, maces, and axes). Two-handed – lets you increase the damage inflicted when using two-handed weapons (great swords, battle axes, and warhammers). Block – the ability to stop an enemy’s physical attack or to ward off negative status from a strong attack (such as staggering). This does not apply to magical attacks. Heavy Armor – lets you work better in the heavier types of armor (Iron, Steel, Dwarven, Ebony Armor) Leather Armor – lets you work better in the lighter types of armor (Hide, Leather, Elven, Elven, Orcish, and Daedric). Smithing – the ability to make different types of armor (both heavy and light).
For example, the Lockpicking matrix lets you make it easier to open different skill levels of locks, starts the lock pick close to the opening position, or even makes your lock picks unbreakable.
For example, to open the Golden Touch perk (you find more gold when you open chests), your Lockpicking skill must be at least 60.
The more often you use a skill or equip something associated with a particular skill, the more it will level up.
If you want to be harder to detect but have not taken the time to sneak around towns and the wild, you may not be able to open the Muffled Movement perk, which means you will continue to be noisy when you are trying to sneak.
Take your weapon of choice into battle, and take every available opportunity to work on skills that require a particular environment (such as alchemy, enchanting, and lockpicking).
For example, there is a book on Stealing in the Bleak Falls Barrow.
Don’t forget to “read” the book once you buy it because unlike finding a book, buying a book does not automatically mean you read it.
