This has never happened to me. Usually every single character I make has no problem in TES games. Usually its the opposite were I have to bump up the difficulty.
But now I'm finding that this character kind of svcks the proverbial big one.

I just tried to fight the ice troll on the way to High Hrothgar and got utterly ROFLstompped. My attacks barely did anything and I was incredibly squishy.

Breton
Level 18

Magicka: 250 (with enchants from clothing)
Health: 210 (with enchants from clothing)
Stamina: 110

Main skills
Conjuration-50
Destruction-35
Restoration-27
Enchanting-46
Smithing-42
Heavy Armor-38
One Handed-45

http://www.ign.com/builds/the-elder-scrolls-5-skyrim?d=00000000000000000000000000000001000000011010001000000100000010100100000000000000000000000001000001000200010000000000000000000003

Superior Dwarven armor with adept's hood.
Enchanted Ring (20 health)
Galdur Amulet Fragment (30 Magicka)


I mainly dual wield bound sword/firebolt for main attacks. Along with the Level 1 Fire Breath shout. I'll occasionally summon a flame atronach if it looks especially hard.

I feel that I underlevel'd my character and spread out the skills to much.


Right now my biggest problem are Silver Hand members. It seems to take about 20 hits and they can take 1/4 of my health with one hit.
I also have a big problem with Bears. I always die whenever I encounter one.
Dragons aren't so hard, but do take time.



I really love the character and don't want to start over, but I don't want to bump down the difficulty either.
What should I do?

Keep at it and make sure you buy health potions when you're not working on your smithing (which you should at any Hold that has a smith/forge. I usually have orcish armor by your level, at least before I downloaded the Complete Crafting Overhaul mod). Get a follower, try to get enemies one at a time or in pairs, and make sure to BACK UP when you see the telltale signs of a power attack.

My High Elf spellsword has a worse perk skillset than you- she's all over the place. Conjuration, Illusion, destruction, one handed, light armor, shield, sneak, smithing, enchanting... and those are the skils I'm putting perks into! I will admit that at times it may take me several tries, but usually things aren't too bad and deaths are usually because I'm not careful, not because I'm taking on too-tough things.

Also, when you can, get the Marked for Death shout and the Talos Amulet- the shout pretty much cripples an enemy's defenses at full rank, and the Talos Amulet will increase the recharge speed of your shouts.

I had a level 39 wood elf I finally retired. First play thru. I also spread my skills about a bit. I only used nightingale armor, so I didn't have the greatest armor set for toe to toe battles. I used swords and fire/shock as my 2 wields. Here is what I found.

I used a lot of potions until the late 20s. It seemed to slowly level off. By level 33, I could handle a lot more without potions or using the healing spell (restoration). My weapons didn't increase that much in power, but my ability to use them did. I continued to use the nightingale blade (even after its magic was drained) up til level 35. I began to add more magic and use more and more of it- atronachs were first used on level 35 or so.

Oh and I also had the same problem with bears. Up until the mid to late 20s.

Just be patient. Use a follower to absorb the attacks coming at you. Erik the Slayer was a good mid level follower for me. Keep collecting, buying and making potions. I recommend using poison potions on your weapon before going into a fight. It really does help.

A battlemage is going to be tough to play for a while. Frost trolls and Silver Hand members are some of the toughest early-game enemies. If you can beat them, you can pretty much beat anyone early on. Tough it out, or turn down the difficulty. I know you said you didn't want too, but...

A follower is very helpful as well. Marcurio from Riften will tear up that Frost troll all by himself.

My advice would be to add alchemy to this build - you don't need to invest any perks in it for it to be effective. A battle mage with a weapon in one hand and a spell in another really benefits from having poison. Even single cast unperked flames spell will destroy anything if you hit it with a weakness to poison followed by weakness to magic followed by weakness to fire poisons . I always have them in my favourites for easy access. Sounds like too much work? Make a stack of paralysis poisons instead for an instant win button. Fortify destruction potions are essential, IMO, to any build using destruction as they're the only thing that increase destruction damage.

Your stamina score seems like it will empty out with a couple power attacks wielding two weapons. And with wearing armour your magicka regen is basically nil in combat. A follower helps. Also, one of my mage's favorite shouts was Ice Form. Very helpful to provide you some breathing space. Or, use unrelenting force alot....this will toss an Troll far enough for you to attack more from range, or allow your health/stamina to regen. Just my two-cents.

Try the Frost Atronach instead of Flame. They are much sturdier. I always kept some kind of conjured creature up at all times!

That frost troll in high hrothgar is one of those monsters that are significantly more difficult than most other monsters. Many people choose to go around it and do fine. You will be able to handle frost trolls without problem a bit later. I think they are more difficult than dragons at this stage of the game. The frost trolls have very high damage and super high regeneration rate, but their total health is not too high. So you have to kill it quickly without getting hit by them too many times. If I'm careless, it can kill my level 40 character quite quickly. They are vulnerable to fire damage. So if you want to fight him now you may want to try fighting him by starting with conjuring a flame atronach and pelt him with flame and the Fire Breath while dodging.

I think your perk distribution looks good and your character should be fine in the long run. I think the source of your problem is that you are a melee character who does good damage, but cannot take much damage yet. That's because you are a mage you have been putting relatively little into health and you are a dual wielder who can't block. So you have less room for errors at the moment. You can solve this problem temporarily by drinking health potions more liberally in battles for now. I would also work on raising armor skills by purposely getting hit when encountering weaker enemies, and investing more points to health. Because you don't get hit that often in battle because that's the way the battle is supposed to go when you concentrate on conjuration, your armor skill is pretty low.

Just for comparison. A pure warrior at your level would have 100 Magicka, 350 Health, and 150 Stamina or so. And would have better armor rating because he probably gets hit a lot more than you do. So he has 50% more health, and 20% more damage reduction. That probably means he can take 8 hits from the frost troll instead of 4. A sneak archer at this level would probably be able to kill the troll without getting seen. A destruction mage with impact would roflstomp the troll.

I'm same level, more or less, dark elf. I am full arch-mage. If you insist on hand to hand with these creatures you will lose. You should get a follower and use your flame atronach spell a lot.
I never ever raise a sword to my enemies. Frost Trolls, bears, giants will all one-shot kill you. Use all you have, atronachs, everything. I'm surprised, it should be easier than it is for you. Change your play style, fight behind your spells. Run and dodge, never stay still. Spell cast, run. Spell cast run. When their health is down then you can move in.

2 things I see in your perk spread right now.

1. You are not getting the 25% armor bonus due to not wearing a heavy armor helmet.

2. You haven't gotten any of the power attack perks for one-handed. The dual-wield power attack is extremely powerful, Fighting Stance, Savage Strike, and Dual Savagery synergize with eachother perfectly and vastly improves the damage.

Does a bound weapon's damage increase with the Conjuration skill? I know the One-Handed skill and it's perks increase damage, yet a bound Sword for my sword n shield Nord does about 40 damage (last time I checked) while my Daedric Sword (Legendary) does 117 (ish).

That's because of smithing. You can't smith a bound weapon. When your smithing skills get high, most of the damage comes from improvements, rather than base damage. I don't think weapon's damage increase with the conjuration skill, as far as I know.

A bound weapon is good for low-levels, though. At 20 conjuration plus three levels, you have the equivalant of a weightless Daedric Sword/Axe that you summon at-will. High Elves START with 20 in conjuration, for instance... so by level 3, they have a sword that pretty much outclasses everything out there at that level. Not sure which type of weapon will start to outclass it after improvements, however... Ebony, maybe?

Not sure how often monsters level up, but you may have just hit a hard spot where the critters have just gained several levels. The dragon at the watchtower near the beginning is pathetic at level 7 but really friggin' tough at level 10, then easy again around 13-14. Try doing something else for a level or 2 and come back.