This isn't really a roleplay idea, it's more of an idea for strategy, but I don't feel like starting an entirely new thread. This idea is going to be called
Using your Follower to limit Leveling Speed.
Um...so although I don't have any major problems with the way Skyrim levels up, there are times I find myself alarmed how much of a railroad it is. Know what I mean? The game levels up, no matter what, as long as you participate in a number of activities. there are no Major or Minor skills to play with, like we had in Oblivion. Here's a for-instance...
In Oblivion, I used to place Major skills that didn't get used as often to slow this sort of leveling down. The reason I did this, my main peeve with this game, started with all the glass, ebony, and daedric wearing bandits that eventually showed up once my character got leveling into the teens. I was also annoyed by all the advanced creatures that entered the game: minotaurs, spriggan, land dreughs (etc) started to show up EVERYWHERE, when the previous week they were nowhere to be seen. I didn't have a problem with these creatures, what bothered me was how frequently they started showing up.
This totally broke the game for me. It didn't make any sense. It was as if all these additional creatures and high-rolling bandits were hiding off behind a curtain somewhere, and now they're on stage, only because my character hit a magic level number. It would make more sense if the game eased-in a few of these extra enemies here and there. Whatever though...
I was new to Oblivion at the time. I think I had only been playing 2 or 3 months. But once the game (Renee Gade I's game) started leveling into the teens, I coudn't take it anymore, and put Oblivion aside for months, until I learned about the "Minors for Majors" idea, which artificially slows leveling down in vanilla games.
Now in Skyrim, we don't have Major and Minor skills to mess with. If we participate in the game, therefore, the majority of activities will keep us leveling up. Well here's the thing. I'm not in a hurry to level up! I don't mind seeing my character
grow over a longer period of time.
So what can be done about this? Again, I'm on PS3, which means no mods!
Answer: get a follower!

Let him or her take a fair share of the workload!
As Crystal Beth's current follower Belrand gets his rocks off, rushing into battle, he winds up taking more and more of the enemies head-on. Beth tends to hang back, summoning a fire elemental, perhaps, and only getting involved in actual combat when it's safe to do so, or if Belrand actually needs her help. This winds up slowing her leveling significantly, if I want it to.
Besides, I think I read at UESP that NPC followers are only good for a certain amount of time. I think Belrand is useful until Beth's game gets to about Level 40. After that, he won't be strong enough to keep up with the game. Since Beth is currently Level 18, this means she'll be able to keep effectively Belrand as a partner for a very long time.