[Ross Zombie]

Add Deadly Dragons, Wars in Skyrim and Warzones. No more easy game.

[nath]

I can't think of many Rpgs that are truly 'difficult'. Linear action/adventure games can be difficult because developers know the limited path that will be followed, but being that you can do anything practically in Skyrim, there will be ways to become overpowered. I'll admit that i play on Apprentice mode, using skills that i try to keep balance and i already was killed once and had many close calls. I can't imagine Master being easy, and if it is, you wouldnt be using some skills fully being that you'd want to dodge most attacks instead of using armor or block, and you'd feel like the most pathetically weak 'hero' of all time...why play an rpg if everyone is going to be tough and challenging?

To the bolded part: we don't want everyone to be like that, since that would be ridiculous, but we do want some enemies to be like that.

Case in point: Dragon Priests are supposed to be some of the most difficult opponents in the game, but because they have no counters to our perks and enchantments, stacking magic resistance renders them trivial since they don't really do any physical damage. Dragons themselves do both magical and physical damage, however they don't do either in a sustained fashion until they land, which allows time to heal between attacks; granted they can kill in one hit on higher difficulties and at higher ranks, but they, too, lack counters to stacked armor and resistances, which makes it possible to almost completely negate their offense as well.

What opponents like these should be doing is using spells/shouts (respectively) that either reduce or remove such protections (Weakness to X or Marked for Death, for example) and then laying in with the heavy artillery, like we do to them. Unfortunately the AI isn't up to tactics like that, so instead they just spam said heavy artillery without regard for whether or not it's actually doing anything to the target, nor whether or not said target is doing the same thing to them.

At least the Priests know to use Wards every so often, but they tend to do so to the exclusion of their attacks rather than in tandem with them, which leaves openings with which to lay down heavy hits of our own that break the Wards and stun the caster. Since a stunned caster cannot reestablish a Ward, they drop like a sack of potatoes after a few hits once that happens.

Now, I know that a fair number of people would be understandably upset at getting chain-stunned rather than giving it out, but in its current state that's the sort of tricks the AI would need to have a chance against an optimized character. That doesn't mean that everything should get such tricks, since that would be stupid; rather, they should be given to those opponents meant to remain dangerous no matter how strong a character gets. This can be implemented by editing the higher-tier creatures' leveled entries (albeit it's a fair amount of work, given the number thereof) to add perks, gear, spells, etc. to make them more effective in combat, although tweaks to the AI would be needed in some cases to make sure they were used properly.

That leaves the lower tiers completely unchanged, so doesn't hose people over at lower levels, but that still leaves difficulty settings to be accounted for. One way to handle that would be to have the setting cap the tier from which higher-level creatures are drawn, such that on Master you'd be pulling Tier 7 or 8 creatures from said lists while Novice wouldn't go above Tier 3 or 4. Said Tier 7 or 8 creatures would have most or all of those counters to character advantages, so would be tough fights even for optimized builds, as they are meant to be.