yap.
this doesnt happen to me as i dont use pets
my play usually is: on the way to riverwood fully clear embershard mine -> get all loot. sell everything that is not used and get all ingots/ore. clear black falls barrow sell all loot and get all ingots.
go to whiterun and kill dragon at the watchtower. sell loot get all blacksmithing mats from traders. craft equipment if i miss anything. store all materials in the house. full clear fort greymoor. sell loot and get mats.
small drinking contest for fast ride to markarth then deep into the dunmer city. get all dwarven metal i see. once i've left the ruins with 2800/400 weight. back to whiterun and craft dwarven gear till bs is lvling up
ride to major cities and trade dwarven gear for ebony. craft ebony weapons and kill some daedra for harts (or buy it if you are lucky).
full daedra armor with axe and mace with cold and fire chant and ebony bow with ancient arrows (endless supply from the borrows) so i dont have to lose my breath to cheace pesky archers/range casters.
hit everything in the game like freight train.
dragon???
no problem
just land your ass to the ground so i can fill up my supplies of dragon steak for next week.
Ahahaha, nor do I, unless quests make me do it
Otherwise I only bring one when I use a mule. But typically I grab the Steed Stone and stick with it until my stamina is high enough to combine with a couple of good carry weight enchants and give me ~500 capacity.
I've done similar runs, though I almost always skip the main quest. The dragons just make the game kinda tie you down to getting the shout to ground them, and even then, there are certain builds that are great with everything but them... so that's no fun. The Blades also just piss me off. One of the dumbest organizations in the game, next to the Skyrim Nationalist Resistance Movement.
Still get the golden claw and just lug the dragon burial plate thing around though, since it has no bearing on carry weight. I always collect all of the claws.
I never buy any of the houses in towns anymore... I used to do the Dark Brotherhood early and pocket all of that sweet "guild building" gold to buy Proudspire. I figure I'll make the money to rebuild the Brotherhood back later, but ya boy needs his Solitude mansion if he gon' be gangsta enuff to drop the emperor. Gotta really be livin that life, you feel me? Nothing is more gangsta than assassinating the leader of the free world just because the price set, and embezzling every penny a legendary guild of assassins has with no feelings, just so you can live in a badass mansion while those fools shamble around in a dilapidated cave
I'm small-time now. I go straight for Anise's Cabin outside of Riverwood. She's the second person I murder, after the hunter camping by the standing stones. Fun thing happens a little later... somebody sends 3 mercenaries to kill you and they'll all have steel armor/weapons... which are very valuable at level 5ish lol.
Once I rob everyone in Riverwood *cough* I MEAN
sell all of my dead stormcloak swag (hail the imperial legion amirite?) I go back there to stash my loot in the cabin's secret basement. Cuz when I hit a lick I don't just hit the safe, I snatch the whole place. I'm comin for yo house! TRY to hide that shit from me! It's a great safe spot, complete with alchemy and enchanting. Just a place to hide out until I build my home in Morthal and start my alchemy gig grow op. Once I'm making those waterbreathing potions, I can pretty much buy anything I need. I get most of my materials for that by routinely robbing Balimund and Beirand for their massive supplies of iron and steel ingots. They're good dudes. I often visit Balimund, just stopping by to see him perform miracles with steel. He tells me only genuine fire salts will do - and that the forge knows the difference. I greatly enjoy our talks. We're such good buddies, he even lets me walk into his basement unsupervised every time I come by, even though his stuff goes missing every time I do! He never even mentions it! That's trust. Can't put a price on things like that.
Another thing I do is steal every pelt I find. You can get a ton of leather early and skip the dwarven stuff that way. Just make leather armors and sell em off.
This is kinda my starter op while I work my way through the Companions questline. I also rob them, of course. But mostly I just want lycanthropy... for one reason only... you can't contract vampirism. I have a lasting phobia of it from the pre-Dawguard DLC days, when it was pretty much just a curse. By that point, the Nord Hero weapons are also cool to have and actually use.
From there, all bets are off as to what build I do or what quest lines I go for. They all present side-opportunities to build a rediculous character. You almost can't avoid it. I usually stick with light armor for the simple reason that in the end it is still OP, but in the beginning it is lighter/stealthier. I only do heavies because I generally like the looks of them better. I just can't get away from moving faster, consuming less stamina, quickly gaining more and by default using less carry capacity... it's nice to be tanky at first but that's also not that valuable to be compared to the aforementioned and you lose that advantage later. But otherwise, I pretty much level what I feel like and work out how to pull it off as I go.
EDIT: Did I really say 'bandit stones' instead of standing stones? I wish I could say I was just drunk or something, but no... that's my sober self. Scary!
