I've got the game set to expert because I want a challenge, but I seem to be getting my butt handed to me a lot all of a sudden. I like to consider myself pretty good at these types of games. I'm lvl 14, One handed, heavy armor, destruction, conjuration, armorer..... Both Lydia and I are decked out in Superior Dwarven armor. 160 health, 130 stam, 180(with bonus) magica. For example, I'm trying to do Swindlers Cave for a quest and there is a mage in there that just blows through us like nothing. Theres also and archer in there that I swear one shotted me. (I got that quest about 3 levels ago, maybe I need to level up more, I dont know.) Also, I have the first quest for the Companions clan to clear a can of Felgan, and boy, youd think they would send me on something a little easier as a first quest. Dont get me started on Dragons. Those of you saying 'dragons are way too easy' : aree you playing on expert difficulty?

Sorry, just a before bed time rant I guess....

You want challenge, so why are you whining?
If you can't handle the fuzz, turn down the buzz! Err.. Lower the difficulty

You're playing on the second highest difficulty then complaining it's too hard.

I don't know, maybe play on a lower difficulty?

I've been playing on Master since the beginning. I cry myself to sleep every night.

Playing on master. The dragons are still easy.

Impact talent from Destruction renders single targets a pushover.

Also judging from the skills you mentioned, you're trying to be a bit of everything. Heavy armour means no mage robes. Swords means no dual-casting. Magic skills mean less focus on melee ones. You're just gimping yourself playing like that. Viable, yes. Ideal? No.

Cant remember the name.. but there was a cave that had 6 enemies in it.. one was a mage that threw fireballs down the hallway every .5 seconds.. and they oneshot me.. not enough room to dodge either.. so i used scroll of dread zombie on a bandit.. let the zombie go in first.. whirlwind shouted behind the thing, popped orc daily.. and killed the mofo in 3 hits.. this is on master

and my 12th try at him.. if you want the challenge.. play for the challenge

I somewhat disagree here. I'm playing with conjuration and one handed. I haven't leveled any armor perks, but wear some leather armor and a shirt(or something similar) with some conjuration spell cost reduction. I'm level 15 and on the "medium" difficulty. The game hasn't been a cake walk, but it hasn't been frustratingly hard. I think perk allocation has a lot to do with how hard the game appears. I know I was getting my ass handed to me in one battle, leveled up during it, put a perk in to bring me up to 60% more one handed damage, and then I steamrolled right over the guy.

I'm playing as a pure mage on master difficulty, so I know that feeling. I can pretty much destroy anything that is far enough away, but if someone gets too close I'm toast.

Yeah, seems most caves/areas aren't level scaled, otherwise I'm doing something really wrong I'm on expert and some caves/forts are really easy, others take me hours to get nowhere. I play as a battlemage (spell/weapon) with cloth armour and I regularly get 1 shotted by uber necro's and lions/bears.

The thing is I love this and it makes you think about tactics. If somewhere is too hard, I'll come back later.

[censored]in' lions...

Is there any benefit to upping the difficulty? Because I am thinking about my gameplay being a little too easy on default

I'm playing on the default with a two handed nord warrior and I am level 6 so far. I often one shot bandits and the only real problem I have is when there are more than two guys because the 2 hander just swings so slow.

I find if you choose to play somewhat of a "hybrid" character, you will have to resort in being creative in how you play them. It can be done, you just need to have patience.

I'd say the issue is you're taking more than you can handle especially with a character that is very unfocused in build.

I'm playing on Expert and the only time I have any issues is when I have to deal with a Dragon, an Ice Troll, and a Frost Dragon back to back.

My first character was a Spellsword build where I use a 1H weapon and Spell with Heavy Armour. I found that it wasn't ridiculously tough per se but it was very inconsistent. You would be going along fine, killing baddies fairly well and then one leader or a dude will a 2H weapon comes along and 1 or 2 hit kills you.

I tried switching to using a Shield with Block and it turned into a cake walk, a lot easier using a shield with block. I'm now not so sure if it was the extra armour provided by the shield or the block skill. I'm now working on my Heavy Armour skill and concentrating on Heavy Armour perks to boost armour rating so I can see if it was purely the Block, the armour rating or a bit of both. The reason I'm doing this is because the lower level guys now barely hurt me and I put that down to my armour rating and skill increase.

I'm playing on Adept with a mixed talents character and I also get owned a lot. Unlike Oblivion, in Skyrim some caves are a no go if you're low level. Don't try to tackle a Troll, a Falmer or an elder vampire unless you have a good strategy. And by good strategy I mean finding a spot where you can use sneak damage bonus modifier, coating your weapon in poison and have a lot of health potions or enough magica to regenerate your wounds

On the good side, the rewards for such difficult battles is usually worth it! I found a steel plate which grants me a +15 heavy armor bonus when I was level 9!

Sorry if it sounded like whining. I just had a rough night out there. I went to a few other caves this morning and easily dispatched handfuls of Trolls. The reason behind my skill choices is: my character is an Orc disowned by his warrior family for practicing magic. He is tempted by magic, but still has not forgotten about his Orcish roots. (heavy armor, smithing)

My current strat is to summon a Fire Atronach, maybe drop a Fire Rune, switch to a Destruction spell in offhand and One Hand axe in the other. Then Lydia and I jump and start swinging. No good?

It's a good strategy except for when it doesn't work. The key thing to keep in mind is that there will be times when after failing several times in a row the solution is not to do that same strategy better, but to do something different. Just keep that in mind and when you find something very tough, change it up.

I found myself in that situation yesterday. I was doing a quest for the mage college and the final boss seemed way over my head. My char is orc, level 15 at the time with 100 magicka, 180 health, 180 stamina. Perks spent in heavy armor, 1 handed, block, restoration and alchemy.

This boss, a ghost who dual wields a magic sword and magic axe (both named items) would chop me down in about 3 seconds. After failing 10 times in a row I changed it up. I had a staff of summon flame artonach and stood far back and summoned them right next to him. He would kill them in about 8 seconds but they did take a fair chunk of his health out. 8 summons later he was down to 15% health and was charging at me now. A shout to knock him down and chop chop and I won!

You know what, I think I heard a quote somewhere......"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." I think I went insane last night. Thanks for that story.