Ok, at first, even on MASTER difficulty, I was under the impression this game would be quite easy to beat. Everything from bandits to wolves etc seemed easy to kill with a few sword strokes, despite doing some decent damage in return, however. Anyway, I spent quite some time chopping wood and buying every iron ignot the guy in Riverwood was selling. After a bit of time and fighting everything in the surrounding areas, without deviating too far, I levelled my smithing up massively, which in return levelled me up too. Now, at level 19, I figured it was time to get on with the game and venture much further. Having killed some bandits near the mountains just up from Riverwood back when I was around level 10, I was popping upto the mountains again, now at level 19, and I stumble upon a Frost Troll. Ok, pulls out my Exquisite AXE and approaches him, after using all my magic first in a fire attack on him. I start laying into him and I notice his health has barely moved even 1/20th and he whacks me on the head, killing me instantly. Tell me, have I screwed myself starting the game at this level, because I imagine there are things much stronger than this! I'm now very scared!

What would happen if one started from the max character level before venturing, levelling using smithing and spells etc. It would be crazy!

Your combat skills are a bit lacking, but I think you will be okay. Frost trolls are pretty much the hardest creatures in the game.

I don't find the frost trolls all that hard.

OP, get a companion and work on a combat skill. You'll be right. One of the wonders of the new leveling system is that its impossible to truly break the build.

My combat skills are good, trust me. I'm coming from a 75% difficulty on Oblivion where I dealt with ridiculous difficulty. I was hit once, which killed me. This is the emphasis here, the fact this thing can kill me at my level with one hit. Being level 19, I can only imagine what things would be like at 50 and above. Loving this game, must say!

My little Breton Battlemage/Healer is a pretty balanced character leaning mostly to magic and the only Frost Troll I ran into was tough. It took some time and some dying to beat it even with Lydia. I'm just about to Level to 13 and I think I ran into it at about Level 11.

To be honest, I think the hard stuff comes around level 30+. When suddenly every draugr(?) encounter is hell. <_> Though I'm a pure mage, so I lack versatility. Sorta. Sanguine's rose is really convenient. (Hoping none of this is really spoilers.)

Yeah I'm a level 13, and I know exactly what youre talking about.

I really dont know how my health becomes strong enough to not die from a frost troll hit. I guess we'll find out.

Someone needs to redo the entire Skyrim Trailer to change it from being about dragons to being about the return of the Frost Trolls. They svck.

You did not screw yourself, but game balance is pretty bad overall. The game varies from far to easy, to suicide based on what your doing at master level. The problem is the npcs/mobs get huge bonuses, while you take penalities, and item generation/scaling is horrible, without using a combo of smithing and enchanting. that combo also has the ability to break the gameplay completely in your favor. A frost troll is level 22, with 460 health and deals 65 damage per hit. On master level, probably mobs do 200%-300% damage, while you do 50% less. So without enchanting your going to struggle since you dont have the hit points to survive as well.

Its possible to play through, by using followers, and summoned minions, however its still a challange and tedious at times. I recommend you take enchanting to enchant armor,and upgrade your weapons and pick up followers. If your playing the thief role, then conjuration might be more useful,but you will suffer with it till you reach 2nd minion, which is a melee tank minion.

You should be aware, if your going to use smithing and enchanting to its fullest, it will completely break the game, and its far quicker to just toggle god mode through the console. I did not realize how broken it was when i figured it out early on, but after being able to one shot everything in the game at level 33 i restored an old save and put limits on what i enchant, and how i smith items to still allow combat to be a challange.

No, not Frost Trolls. Hardest enemy I've faced is definitely Draugr Deathlords.

I'm only levelling with smithing, I haven't unlocked the smithing perks as I'm saving them. So enchanted goods happen by chance or bought through a merchant, which I'm minimal on, wearing only +20 stamina boots. lol. As for the console command, I am playing on Xbox, so none of that there. My recent attempt at the Frost Troll really upped my heart beat. With the 55 inch Sony and Surround adding to he immersion, I raced into a stone tower and looked out a window with the bow ready. The Frost Troll was no longer in sight, but I could hear it and with it's monsterous voice suddenly behind me, I turned and literally felt my heart freeze, being surprised at how quickly it had caught up with me. I can't explain how scary it looked coming at me so quickly. My character was felled by a single blow. Love the atmosphere in this game!

Werewolves make work of Trolls quickly, you might want to become one...

im nearing lv 40, and the sneak perks are just crazy, still run away like a [censored] when im facing a lich though, they kill me in one hit..and yeah the draugh get insanely hard at higher lvls on high difficulty [censored] YOU DEATHLORDS!!!! but as long as i stay in the shadows and throw me voice now an then i do pretty well.

I think you misunderstood. Not your combat skills as a player, but the combat skills of your character. If you've reached level 19 with Smithing then you're likely to have the combat skills of a level 5.

Ok, I just hit the troll with everything I had, magic, using potions to replenish and continue attack, all of my arrows, hack and slash, replenish stamina, hack and slash. I got him down to about 2/3rds health, and guess what... noticed his health was regenerating very quick. Remember the DREAD ZOMBIE from Oblivion. Oh no, this Troll must be ran away from until I learn shouts. hahaha.

Oh god the liches.. I found one in the mountains today, took me 3 hours to kill him. At the time i was level 15, i play a 1h/shield warrior, this made things incredibly difficult. Not to mention im playing on master difficulty.

Sorry, I should've written more clearly. I am skill 75 with smithing, so not all of my levels are from that. My combat skills are high 20's, 30's. Archery is around 40. Tell me something, why would my combat levels affect my defense against this troll? Surely it's entirely based on your level and armour rating?

He meant like your ingame skills, like One Handed, Block, etc. Not your ability to play the game well. You got to lvl 19 on smithing alone, meaning your level 19, but your fighting skills are still that of a level 10, so your a bit behind the power curve. Also, frost trolls are VERY hard. There are things in this game that will own you instantly at lower levels, so save before fights and if you get owned, avoid that fight for now.

Still, imagine if those smithing levels (and perks) were instead combat levels (and perks). Now are you starting to see? Huge power difference.

Higher heavy armor skill = higher armor rating. higher one/two-handed skill = higher damage.

I haven't used any perks with smithing. But, yes, you make a good point with the perks, because I am yet to use any. hehe.

Oh damn. I'd apply them to Barbarian, Armsman, or Overdraw right away. Can't really go wrong with that choice.

You ran into the same problem as me, I massively leveled up my smithing and alchemy effectively leveling my character up at the same time and my combat skills were low, sure I had decent gear from smithing but such low armor/weapon skills it didn't help at all.

Best advice I can give to level up your defense is get a decent amount of money, attack some town guards and let them beat the crap out of you for a while to level your block/armor, then you can leave and come back later and pay a fine (usually 1000g) and all is well.

More to the point, you physically can't use most of the Perks that will allow you to survive because your combat skills are too low.

I am almost level 21. I have 50 Archery, 48 One-Handed, 36(?) Light Armour and 47 Sneak. My Armour is 40% stronger. My sword does 40% more damage. I am 20% harder to detect while Sneaking, which means I get more Sneak Attacks in with a Bow that do x3 damage, and x6 with a sword, thanks to Deadly Aim. My Bows do 60% more damage (and I have a Helm that adds a further 20%). I have 10% chance that my criticals do extra damage, I stagger my foes 50% of the time and time slows by 25% when I zoom in. On top of that, my Healing spells heal 50% more and cost 50% less. I haven't taken any Block Perks yet, but I could make my Block 20% more effective, and I could also improve my One-Handed further. This isn't even counting my Smithing (I'm wearing a full set of Flawless Elven Armour), Enchanting, Alchemy, Speech and Lockpicking. The fact that I have 21 in Pickpocket, after only using the skill a couple of times (I paid for three Ranks and it's a Favoured Skill for Bosmer) says a lot considering you say your combat skills are in the 20s and 30s.

I have only faced one Ice Troll, on a certain stairway, and found it much, much, easier that the Snowy Sabrecat I met earlier on the same path.

My combat skills are decent, I have already stated that. I'm in 30's/40's with them. I did a test game with the 40% perks and this troll still killed me in a single hit. I think some people have lower level locked Trolls because this thing I'm against is very damage resistant and it packs a serious punch. MASTER difficulty too, remember. I love the challenge, so this isn't a complaint, but I dread encountering stronger enemies, especially as I level my character even more. I fought this troll with a companion and raise zombie and it killed them with a single hit. Faendar was no good as an archer companion, lol, he got wasted! I may have to just run by this Troll for now.

Does that hold true if you don't exploit potions? I'd like to stick with smithing and enchanting, but I have no interest in using potions to arbitrarily boost it. Will the game still be too easy?