Why am I going to use this effect, which is generally considered worse than Fortify Strength?

1. With the help of a Fortify Alchemy 800 spell, I have some potions of Feather 415 points for over 1200 seconds. Therefore, the lack of power isn't an issue.

2. Fortify Strength, from what I have read, has one major downside; it makes your weapons break faster. Also, it does not allow you to reach 0 encumbrance.

3. I am obviously using what could be considered a major exploit, and I am worried that Fortify Strength would make things too easy. When the game has tons of major exploits, it no longer makes sense to play optimally, and instead play the game in the manner that is the most fun, which sometimes means holding back.

By the way, I have Restore Magicka 83 for 248 second potions; is there a way to realistically use that much Magicka?

I just tested this, and it didn't seem to work that way.

First, I put the assassin's cuirass I had down. lowering my encumbrance from 221 to 215. Then I drank my Fortify Feather 415 point potion, lowering my encumbrance to 0. Finally, I picked up that cuirass and still had 0 encumbrance.

I am liking Feather so far. With it active, not only do I move noticeably faster, but I also use much less Fatigue when running. I can actually run all the time and still have enough stamina to deal with all those cliff racers and other enemies that appear.

Of course, I have had one potion run out, but I can fortunately make more.

Also, if you have a way to deal with limited Magicka reserves (and there are plenty of methods, as it turns out), using magic becomes really fun. My current character has every magic skill as a major or minor skill, and it is quite fun, even if it sometimes seems like spells level slowly.