At Helgan, the guards are hard and I had to completely rethink how to play. I'm still experimenting with play styles to see if I can get thru Helgan without dying once. So far no luck. But I'll tell you, I have a whole new respect for imperials in heavy armor.
Actually one useful thing Bretons have is the ability to conjure a familiar from the very beginning. Familiars always seemed garbage to me until I had the chance to use them from level 1 on legendary, where they're actually extremely useful. Very handy to have until you get the flame atronach
Otherwise you could use movement to make sure your imperial/stormcloak friend is the one being attacked, then swing at the enemy from behind. I'm pretty sure those guys are essential so they won't die. Alternatively why not just equip a shield and healing, then make a run for it?
I started Legendary last weekend and rolled a Nord 2H warrior with light armor (Idunn - Lass of the Stormcloaks Lvl. 22 ).
Sounds like suicide yep. I found myself abusing sprint, power attack, stamina potions to stunlock heavy armored bandit chiefs. Their enchanted weapons HURTS A LOT.
I haven't figured out how to fight high level mages that are tough as steel with their flesh spells that can kill me with two or three fireballs.
From my experience:
-Followers are very useful for not getting mobbed.
-Vegetable soup is a must
-Lord Stone ASAP
Some interesting points here! I'd never considered the lord stone before and always take one of the three stones outside Helgen until my character reaches a point where leveling isn't so important. The lord stone looks pretty good though! For early magic resistance and the +50 health you could use a Breton, activate the lord stone, then do the agent of Mara thing for 65% magic resistance. Pretty good considering you wouldn't have to do any real fighting to achieve that
I'd never heard about stunlocking before, so from your post I'm guessing you do power attacks until your stamina runs out, then drink a load of stamina potions and continue power attacking and drinking potions until they die? I'd never figured out a decent use for stamina potions before but that sounds awesome!
I've seen vegetable soup mentioned on here a couple of times now, but I can't see what's so good about it. 1 health and stamina per second? I know it lasts a long time but that health regeneration seems negligible to be. I can't imagine that's worth carrying food ingredients around