I read up to book 6 and took a break. The rest of my family has finished the series now, except the final book which I'm getting delivered soon.

If you're waiting on the next book, I recommend checking out The Name of the WInd by Patrick Rothfuss. It's the best book I've ever read, fantasy or otherwise. The sequel is called the Wise Man's Fear and the final book in the series (The Doors of Stones) is coming out eventually. There might be a copy at your local library if you can't pick up a copy yourself.

I considered going for a Two-Handed build and using Greatswords, and maybe the Ebony Blade as well, but three things made me choose one-handed and block instead.

1) Matt is very agile, and two-handed weapons simply swing too slowly. They open you up to enemies rushing or bashing you, and Matt prefers not to get hit in the first place.

2) The Block perks give you a lot of flexibility, dodging power attacks, ignoring arrows, and even resisting elemental spells. Those all sounded like things Mat would do in a fight.

3) Shields offer another level of customization. Auriel's Shield, the Aetheruim Shield, the Targe of the Bloodied, the Shield of Solitude, Spellbreaker... all of them have very powerful and useful benefits, and they add a whole new layer to his tactical options.

In your own example you illustrate why shortening the build is a bad idea.

Stone: Warrior, it improves your main skills.

This is NOT what I am recommending at all. The Warrior is a good choice at the beginning, but it's not the best choice in the long-run. When your skills start to get into the 60s and 70s, you'll find leveling up faster is not always a good thing. The mid-game of Skyrim is really fun and slowing down a bit can make things more exciting, I find.

The Thief helps with the Pickpocket and Sneak skills, as well as the crucial Alchemy and Light Armor skills. It's a good choice, but taking it WILL make your One-Handed level slower.

The Lover and Lord are important as well, the Lover is an across-the-board skill boost, but it's hard to find and not available unless you hunt for it (which you shouldn't) The Lord stone is a recommended end-game stone, since it increases your survivability against sword and spell (which Mat has in spades), but again it's out of the way and should be chosen only if you're looking to boost those elements.

I already DID parse what I wanted to say down, as you can tell. What you're asking for is not condensing, but the removal of important information for the player. Who says the player will know what all the stones do? Why can't I post the level 35 perks to further guide the player? Why in the hell should I remove the paths, when other builds have gone into much further length with their own paths and presented even less substance behind them?

No, I think we are at an impasse here. I'm not going to compromise the content and quality of the build so that it saves someone five minutes of reading. I'd rather they take ten minutes and get a complete and flavorful idea for the character than have them read a gutted, bland set of stats and equipment.

Besides, the build is based on the bloody Wheel of Time series, 14 books long and each around 800+ pages apiece. It would be unbecoming to have anything other than a wordy, descriptive build for that, wouldn't it?

Absolutely, two-handed weapons have their merits, there's not denying that. If spears were in the game, I'd use those in the build, but I stuck with what felt right in their absence.

I'll admit I tend to use shields and one-handed more frequently than two-handed, but that's because I find the ability to dodge power attacks and move quickly while defending myself from magic and melee alike a more tactical approach. Extra reach is always good, but I tend to favor a more defensive tactical approach, especially since I play with the rule that death resets the entire day and I have to play everything over again.

I could probably whip up a Perrin and Rand build fairly quickly, they're a lot more suited to the mechanics of Skyrim.

Light spoilers below for the Wheel of Time series

Perrin: Nord werewolf with Wuuthrad and Volundrung, takes the power to call additional wolves and werewolves in alternate form. Two-Handed, Light Armor, Smithing, maybe some Alchemy to keep him alive... that's about it. Sneak and Archery could be perked as well, but would be a backup rather than his main tactic of running in and crushing everyone's skulls in. Get a female housecarl as your companion, preferably one with dark hair and a proud nose.

Rand: Redguard (make the skin pale and hair red with grey eyes if you can) mage using Bound weapons and fireballs. Conjuration (bound weapons only), Alteration (paralyze, mage armor, and magic resistance/absorb), Destruction (fire and shock focus), One-Handeded, and Speech. Special tactic is to get some spell cost reduction for destruction and bust out Lightning Storm with the Disintegrate perk, i.e. Balefire

I might do those later, but I wanted to do Mat specifically because I enjoy him as a character and I felt it would be more of a challenge.

The Lady stone is underwhelming. 25% faster stamina and health recovery never made seemed to do very much for me in any of my games. I usually just substitute it with a ring of stamina recovery / Wind Walker / potion of regenerate health if I'm in need of it.

Not a bad suggestion though, Psi. I think it goes with the Steed and Shadow stones as "nice to have, but not as useful as the other options'.