Skyrim , how to set level?

You Must level up once you enter the Perks screen.

But you should be able to Not Level up when reach the level you want BY NOT going back to the Perk Screen.

The advantages of not going above level 4 is unworthy of playing the game.

Leveling is a part of the game, and how you do it is key to advancement. You cannot improve your health (which should go to at least 200) nor the Stamina (which should be a minimum of 150) and Magic (which should be 130 minimum to get into college).

You can only baby the game for a while.

At level 10 you should be powerful enough to explore (with a Follower).

At level 30 you should be able to explore alone.

Above level 33 you should be able to take on any of the Boss Priests without too much concern. With a Follower it should be relatively easy to take on anything.

At level 40 and up your Dragonborn should be all but invincible, with or without a Follower in the basic game.

Your pusillanimous attitude must be making for very poor game play attitude.

Make solid Manual Saves, and then try doing things. You can always go back by loading the save if you find you have made an error.

I understand from reading many articles that once you enter a cave or ruin the spawns inside will remain locked to the Dragonborn's current level. So you might try exploring and just entering the locations without fighting the content spawns.

since you use the pc version why not jyst download the dragonsouls to perks mod so you can have all the perks. you cant just become lvl 4. not even with commands. or instead of the mod you could add the perks through commands but thats not really fair imo.

Have you tried the command 'advlevel'. It is supposed to advance the level by one each time you use it.