You're actually not locked into any specific way of playing which is pretty cool. From what I've seen, the skills you use are the ones that get better - so if youre swinging swords around a lot, you'll naturally get better with them, and if you're always trying to talk your way out of trouble your speech skills will improve. I really like how you can mix and match different approaches, like maybe start off focusing on combat but then realize you enjoy sneaking around more and switch things up.

The nice thing is that while some skills like fighting tend to improve naturally as you play, others like making potions need a bit more focused practice. Something interesting I noticed is that when you level up different skills, you get these perk points that let you customize things even further. So even if you and your friend are both going for a combat-focused character, you might end up with totally different builds based on which perks you picked.

Really helps keep things fresh since you can try out different approaches without feeling stuck in one style - I actually ended up being way more into the diplomatic route than I expected at first!