Jack of all trades or one way guy?

I will point out that the only way to max your level is to get 100 in all skills. There's advantages for the generalist, and the specialist. A specialist (Like my Pures) can get a damage advantage in the mid-game by keeping the character level low, while the skills are high enough to do more damage in less time. A generalist can play Rochambaux by picking the tactics that best counter the strengths, and weaknesses of the enemy. I'd say generalist, because that's the only way to complete all the quests in one save (only one side of the Civil War, I think those are the only 2 directly conflicting factions.)

Or actually, I've settled on the middle ground. For perk efficiency, the butter zone seems to be 3-5 skill trees, depending on how many perks they have, and how many you actually use. This means neither opening up more perks per level than you have available to spend, nor having to wait for points because your skills are far ahead of your character. If you fill just 3 trees completely, Archery, a weapon Skill, and an Armor type does the trick nicely, or for spellswords, Destruction, 1 handed, and an Armor (including Alteration, if you want to stick with Robes.) All you need for combat is 1 ranged, 1 melee, and 1 defense to be versatile enough for the entire game, though you will probably want Sneak/illusion for many of the stealthy oriented quests. Beyond that, you can skip around some of the useless perk branches to fit more in. You can also level skills you don't need to perk, like Lockpicking, and Speech to open up more perks if they're not coming fast enough. Conversely, you can use non-skilled techniques like beast Form, Unarmed, and Staffs/Scrolls to retard your advancement.

For this, the best skills to pick are the ones with multibranched trees, like Destruction, 12handed, and Illusion. There's also ones that come back around at the top, like Block, Archery, and Smithing, so you can go around 1 side (like Heavy armor on the Smithing tree) and skip half the perks, so 2 half trees about equal 1. Alteration is pretty unique in that you can run right up the middle, and just take the branches you want, like Magic Resistance instead of Mage armor, or whatever.

I tend to just play as a pure and have 3 saves for the main ones. Warrior, Thief and Mage. If I try to change my playstyle then I find that i'm too underpowered, but thats probably because i never plan out a playstyle and just pick the most fun perks.

Either, or.

The game is meant to be played that way afterall.

And you can dual-enchant up to 5 items, which will give ten ability 'trades' - plus those that have already learned.

quote oni_hero

My Nord Warrior named Sparrow is an Axe wielding bad ass, but when I reached Riften & Winterhold respectfully He started to Dabble in Magic and Thieving(and bows). I still stick to axes mostly, but he will pick up a bow or cast a spell if needed. No reason to limit your combat prowess right?

That's the best way I think, keep adding to your play as you go along.

quote 4 Aces

If i level my Archery, Destruction, One and Two handed up plus my heavy and light armor then i'm essentially all the classes in one.

Ok, having enchantments fortified to give 147% of norm. I think you could say that you are then a Jack-of-all-trades - wearing those enchantments and without changing you apparel. You should level-up that much faster as well.

One Fortified Archery/Destruction enchanted item.
One Fortified 1 and 2 handed enchanted item.
One Fortified Heavy/Light armor enchanted item.
One Fortified ? enchanted item.
One Fortified ? enchanted item.

The Destruction would be best joined with the Destruction/Fortified Magica - that would then give the +47% effect of less cost for Destruction. Same if you wanted to get that effect with the other types of magic. Think I've said all that correctly, without double-checking ... some coffee I think.

quote Kommando

Take my Khajiit Nightblade for instance- She has mastery of one handed, illusion, archery, sneak, and light armor, but I started off only sneaking around with a bow and illusion spells.

I have mastery of 1h, Destruction, Illusion, sneak, and pickpocket. I definitely think it's possible. Why do people hate Khajiits, are they jealous or something?