Smithing is barely leveled at all, just grabbing the Steel Smithing perk to improve Blades Swords and using potions to buff up the Smithing skill when improving. The Ebony Blade's total damage after the absorb is slightly less than the (unenchanted) Blades Sword as I mentioned, making your Blades Sword the go-to weapon for normal fighting and the Ebony Blade extremely useful for the sweep perk in group fights and to regain health given there's no spellcasting and we don't want to be spamming potions.
Since in his past life Martin would have trained as a priest he would have most likely received some basic instruction for potion-making. Plus he was a capable mage, and seemed quite intelligent. Alchemy seemed like a natural choice for that background on top of someone wanting to make use of their mind in a more warrior-centric style.
Smithing is barely leveled at all, just grabbing the Steel Smithing perk to improve Blades Swords and using potions to buff up the Smithing skill when improving. The Ebony Blade's total damage after the absorb is slightly less than the (unenchanted) Blades Sword as I mentioned, making your Blades Sword the go-to weapon for normal fighting and the Ebony Blade extremely useful for the sweep perk in group fights and to regain health given there's no spellcasting and we don't want to be spamming potions.
Since in his past life Martin would have trained as a priest he would have most likely received some basic instruction for potion-making. Plus he was a capable mage, and seemed quite intelligent. Alchemy seemed like a natural choice for that background on top of someone wanting to make use of their mind in a more warrior-centric style.