It really does not sit well with my role playing fantasy that my light-armored assassin who actually sneaks great and shoots well – is also a master blacksmith and an enchanter! In a real setting, such a person would not have any time to waste with forges and enchanting tables.
While wishing that Skyrim provided a way to give 'orders' to blacksmiths/mages to custom-smith or custom enchant my weapons and armor (I'd pay a mountain of gold to Eorlund or Festus Krex if they can just upgrade my Daedric bow to legendary and add a couple of choice enchantments), and idly surfing the 'net, I found information about the atronach forge!
I can make Daedric weapons now without having to waste perk points on heavy armor smithing. However, I would like to know if wearing enchanted smithing apparel (bought from radiant raiment), and downing a blacksmith's elixir and going to work on the grindstone, will give me the same level of improvement as having the perk point for Daedric artifacts? If it won't, will the gap be too large to ignore despite having the entire archery tree?
Best Answer
According to UESP, in order to improve an item to Legendary quality, you'll need to increase your Smithing skill to 168 (since you won't have the Smithing Perk for that armor type). Given that you also won't have any Enchanting perks, I don't think that you'll be able to find/make a set of armor and Fortify Smithing potions to get your Smithing that high.
So no, I don't think that Smithing and Enchanting skills can be entirely replaced by potions.