There aren't many "boss" fights in Skyrim, but there are some upper-tier enemies like Bandit chiefs.

In your opinion, should these "boss" enemies be only somewhat more difficult than their counterparts, kinda like in vanilla Skyrim, or should they be enemies with huge health pools that require 100% on your part and possibly multiple attempts / reloads?

Discuss!


I have a bit of an ulterior motive in asking this

Unchanged...Some are easy...others...[censored] dragon priests.

I think vanilla is balanced well.
But...
Use the in-game "Difficulty Slider" whenever you want or need the game to be harder/easier.
This is what it's for.

I'm one who enjoys it when the bosses are scaled to be a bit stronger than my character. But I do realize I'm nearly alone in this desire.

I wish it wasn't as simple as flailing at them until they die.

Oh man, you haven't thought Vaulreth from Dawnguard have you?

I just don't like how they are given blatant and behind the scenes scaling boosts. It would be much better if they actually had in game reasons to be stronger. Such as having better equipment and equipment that improved. Because it's just stupid that a bandit chief with Iron weapons suddenly is out damaging me with Deadric ones. I'm not saying we should return to the days of OB where they suddenly had deadric weapons and armor, but having say A "superior" crafter steel armor, and weapons.

Uh, who? <.<

Sorry I might have spelled it wrong, DON'T READ THIS IF YOU HAVE NOT PLAYED DAWNGUARD.

I like my bosses to be more challenging than the usual enemies. The bosses are tougher but not by much. Later on in the game it gets kind of easy. A few examples of what I mean are you have loads of potions but never lose enough health to really need alot of them, you end up having so much money but nothing to spend it on, etc. That's why I crank the difficulty setting way up. It's not exactly what I mean when I'd like more of a challenge but it does help.

Although dragons are strong, they're not exactly difficult to kill. I look at them as one of the main bosses in the game and I want dragons to strike fear into me when I hear one roar in the distance. And that's why I've been using a PC mod that makes the dragons harder to kill and more like what I'd imagine them being. It's unfortunate though because not everyone can do this.

So with that being said, I would like bosses to be more difficult to kill. I don't necessarily mean give just them a health boost but somehow making them tougher to take down would be nice. Also, what's you're ulterior motive of interest in asking this question by the way?

I'm toying with the idea of making a small quest mod while learning about the Creation Kit. I'm trying to get a general idea of what people like so that, even if I never release it, I can at least enjoy it myself

Oh yeah, that was a great fight. Dawnguard did have some nice scripted encounters, I have to give it that.

The bosses are perfectly fine. What needs a boost are the generic enemies. I plow through them, even with AI enchantments and the such on Master difficulty.


I never got to do it. InstaCTD on entering a specific area after the Glacial Crevice.

Bosses, especially dragons should always scale a little higher than your character regardless of exploits, armor cap or difficulty level so the victories will be more satisfying even though some of them do put up a fight depending on your level and play style. I'd rather get my ass kicked a few times only to savor a well earned victory later than plowing through everything in sight.

I'd like bosses to take 10-15 minutes to kill. Where it's not just a case of hitting them till they die really quickly, or they just spam you with their powerful spells (Dragon priests, I'm looking at you. ) I'd like them to have a bit more strategy involved.

They are fine the way they are now!

Exactly, it should feel like an achievement

Unchanged. Those high level draugr, Dragon Priests and mages are hard enough as it is!

I died lots of times by Chaurus..
I died even more times by random mages killing me in 2 seconds from the moment of eye contact.
I always sneaked away and ran away from Dragon Priests....

But Alduin... I killed him without loosing a life,only had to drink 2 health potions.

Working against a deadline cripples ES games in the end, in oblivion it was the same if you had your high level char fight the last arena battle against that Orc Prince who never got beyond level 13. It would take a level 30 character to 1-hit kill the poor Orc.

I think they should be harder. Especially dragons. I can't get over how easy dragons are.

That was hilarious, my cousin was watching and she blurted out "really WTF that's it?"

Boss - UNCHANGED

I would like Dragon Priests to be harder to kill. It usually takes me 5 seconds on average to kill them from when they exit their coffins.

Well, what sort of strategy would you want? Because from the way i see it, TES games don't really have much "strategy" in the battles. The only thing that comes close to strategy is probably using all the schools of magic.

Unchanged. Why? This isn't a button masher geared toward teens with nothing better to do for two hours or more than fight the same boss fight over and over again. This is an RPG. You WILL die, but you will only die a lot if you don't use your head (early on). Later in the game, when you're level 50, give or take, you SHOULD be wiping the floor with most everything. For RPers out there, think about it. The world is populated mostly with guys like you (when you escaped Helgen), level 1 people who will never adventure and never be heroes. Bandits, wolves, bears, etc. SHOULD be the same, and your level 50 char SHOULD be able to wade through hordes pretty easily. I just finished a companion quest at level 10 or 15 that I had not previously done with a mage (the locked room where Draugr after Draugr is released, including a Deathlord, some 2 dozen of them maybe. Vilkas (or was it Farkas?) was useless and spent most of the time on his knees. I must have died (as a mage no less) a good half dozen time before I slowed down, took my time, and used ALL of my resources. Now, same fight at level 25, well that SHOULDN'T be the same experience (and it wasn't). The same holds true for Alduin, fight him at level 20 and he's a LOT tougher than if you fought him at level 40.

Anyway, IMO, the balance is there, and the IDEAS behind battles are in keeping with the type of game you're playing. RPGs are more about using your head than being a great button masher, and they always have been, and probably always should be, at least to still be classified as RPGs. Think about games like DAII and ME3, these were BARELY considerable as RPGs. And another game that's sold as an RPG, Dark Souls, is nothing of the sort. It's pure action/button masher with some RPG and adventure elements. There's a very good reason WHY RPGs play this way. Stopping for a six-hour marathon to fight an uber-boss interrupts story and flow, and will (VERY QUICKLY) unbalance the player to all other aspects of the game. Such a fight, with such a tough creature, would cause skill levels to increase many times during the battle, and every one of these battles would level the player at least twice. You could do a couple of bandit bounties, then, and be level 10-20 before even fighting your first dragon. Level that high that early, with a level soft cap around 50, and the game will be done before the stories have even been told.