Skyrim, or, How I Ruined My LifeFollow

I do agree with that. I almost wish they were more like (dare I say it?) the companions in SWTOR. While not amazingly lifelike, they at least have more than three lines, make witty lines during quests, and have some personal quests.

Ideally, they'd have the same kind of interaction that you get from the companions in Dragon Age. God, can you imagine running around Skyrim with Morrigan? Oh man, someone mod her into the game right now!

Ok, additional effects are cool... I just wish we had some additional quests and lines as well. That could be fun to mod in... who wants to do some voice acting?

Too true, but unfortunately I have such a hard time justifying even using full heavy armor without it. For this very reason, my "thought out" character will probably be using light armor almost exclusively and the difference made up with magic. Plus, with the exception of Ebony Mail, there really are not many unique heavy armor pieces or sets. Since I'm aiming for a build that will allow me to take on any roll (mage, warrior, thief, etc.), I've budgeted enough points to allow for me to pick the perk up again, but those will be the last ones I spend most likely.

Speaking of the wedding ceremony, I was disappointed by the lack of attendees. I've helped everyone, everywhere, with everything, but only three people showed up to my wedding. What the hell?

Damage reduction is capped at 80%. If you are wearing all four pieces of armor, this occurs at 567 displayed armor rating. If you have 100 skill and all relevant armor perks, this requires a tempered armor rating of about 135. You can increase your tempered armor rating by 1 roughly every 2 points of Smithing with the appropriate perk, or every 4 without. Therefore, at 100 Smithing you will need 85 base armor with the appropriate perk, which is not achievable without a shield with Light Armor (though Dragonscale comes close at 82 for the set) and requires at least a Steel Plate set for Heavy Armor. With Fortify Smithing enchanted apparel and Smithing potions you can boost Smithing even further, which can potentially allow any material for which a Smithing perk exists to reach the cap. At the extreme end, you will need about 126 Smithing to make Steel Armor hit the cap, and about 154 Smithing for an Elven set. Unfortunately, Fur, Hide, Studded, Leather, and Iron armors are not affected by any Smithing perks and so cannot be improved as much.
With the aid of enchanting (fortify smithing) and pre-made enchanting and smithing potions, and of course the appropriate armor perks, you can reach the armor cap with any style or type of armor in the game, even hide and iron armor. All without even using a shield.
Shields, spells, and the Lord Stone can reduce the base armor required to hit the cap even further, but these require more management.
There are several in-game effects and perks that ignore or bypass a given percentage of armor, so there is some value in having an armor rating that exceeds this cap.

On that note, my game has taken to spawning dragons that don't aggress. They'll zip around and roar, but no amount of arrows, spells, or shouts will make them pay attention to me. They don't appear to attack other NPCs or creatures, either.

That's the great thing about Skyrim...every week it's a new and interesting bug.