Wassup fellow gamers. This is my first post on these forums and I just started playing Skyrim about a week ago and been having a blast. I almost always play my RPGs with this Dead is Dead playstyle and its worked out well for most games which is why I continue doing it but always with the default/normal setting. Only Dragon Age and Mass Effect were done on Hard.

I was surprised to see that their is a small community focused on this and even more to find out people are doing it on master, wow. So my questions are directed at them.

My issue is with one-shot kills.

I wasn't expexcting things to one shot kill in this game so you may understand my brief sense of frustration and sadness when my level 27 Redguard Mage/Warrior Hybrid was crushed in one blow by a Silver Hand 2-handed beserker while I was trying to steal some plans for Aela on Adept difficulty.

He wore (Superior) steel plate armor and had two perks in Juggernaut with a skill of about 36, Health was about 280 with a ring taking it to 320. He also used one-handed weapons and specialized in Alteration/Conjuration/Destruction. Some in sneak, archery, enchanting and smithing. Almost a jack of all trades type as this is how I always start my first playthroughs. Was my armor not good enough? not enough skill in heavy armor? health?

I am aware of the blocking perk that slows time, but I dont use shields at all, and rarely 2handers and almost always have a spell out on my left hand. I know I could have side stepped his blow but I thought I could soak up some of the damage. He was too close for me to use magic, although I did not cast stoneflesh yet, and I always do before a fight. We were also sneaking in a very tight corrider behind a door and my follwer (Marcurio) or something alerted the beserker to my presence, he opened the door I took one hit from an arhcer behind the beserker and boom one hit kill from a greatsword I think it was. My health was about 90% or more from that arrow.

The point is, I would like to know if I wasn't protected enough for his blow or if there are many people and creatures that can one shot you out in the world and the only ways to avoid them is clever use of magic/shouts and dodging to avoid the actual blow/claw/fireball. Or untill smithing and enhcanting are high enough plus quality and skill of heavy armor that you can actually soak up some of the hits that would one-shot you otherwise.

I apologize for the length of the post but I just want to make a decision. whether to just continue playing knowing that things will eventually one shot me or trying someone new with improved perk selection and skill advancement knowing to avoid a 2 handers power attack, a giant, a death trap ... anything else? lol

Welcome to the forums! 2 handed enemies can be particularly dangerous. My advice would be to avoid power attacks at all cost.

Thanx for the welcome. Are they still deadly at higher levels with dragon armor equipped, which I am yet to see but heard a lot about

Another welcome to the forums from me. First off, mage warrior is hard to pull off. Thats a lot of attribute points to spread really thin. Therefore, points spent on magicka capacity boosts will give less to health, and all of those skill points in magical skill trees mean less in armor skills. Just a few possibilities. Enjoy the forum and don't let the trolls get to ya.

Im going to love it here if everybody is so welcoming!

Welcome newcomer, I am a lvl 23 nord and have similar problems with the silver hand. Some times when im raiding there forts for aela they all go down really easy and im playing on expert but other times I get killed almost instantly. You would think transforming into a werewolf would solve that problem but I die just as fast as a werewolf. Is there ways to increase werewolf strength or is it because they attack with silver weapons being the reason I get killed so easy.

Ah I never of though of that, though they specialize in werewolf hunting. I know silver weapons are effective against undead, maybe against werewolves and vampires? I'm not sure, but from reading around and some helpful tips here I know for sure that without enough health and high armor skill, 2-handers are one of the enemies that will almost always one-shot you.

My strategy is fight fire with fire. If they want to attack me with 2-handers I”ll swing my 2-handers right back at them it usually works pretty well.

Haha and those death-blow animations for 2-handers are quite awesome .

Jack of All trades dont survive too long in Skyrim. Although you can do whatever you like, choosing 5 skills to concentrate on and put perks into makes a more powerful, durable character. At level 27, going toe to toe with the now tougher enemies, you shouldve had more perks and skill in your armor tree, as well as being able to dish out decent damage with whatever weapon youre using. Finally, although Adept is the 'normal' difficulty it still is quite easy to be killed in some parts. Im happy on Apprentice mode and although i had some close calls, i haven't been killed yet with a level 20 warrior based nord

Basically, everything everyone here is saying is a solid reason why. You either need heavy healing, heavy blocking, or heavy armor. Some good combos are blocking + Light armor, Heavy armor + dual weapons/2h weapons, or of course the magic for everything route. I roll a lv 45 Nord, very light armor (i.e. not the best light armor in the game) but go really fast with dual weapons. Pretty dangerous with no blocks or armor, but if you kil fast enough, you can make it. What matters most is making a character that suits you.

Edit- Also, I play on Expert for one, but don't think for a second that I've never shot it down to novice for a really cheap enemy It doesn't matter what others play. Play on what makes it fun for you.

I assume he did a finisher on you? As frustrating as this can be, i support it. After all, that is exactly what you are doing to them. You simply met a very powerful enemy. [censored] happens.

With the next patch mages and archers might do the same thing as meele units. Finishers, i mean. This i do not support at all. You can avoid meele guys in a number of ways, but ranged guys?

Your armor and HP are nowhere near high enough for melee play, which is why those 2H users are dicing you. In order to tank melee hits you have to build accordingly, which means a significantly more focused spec. This is especially true if you're not going to be blocking, since you're giving up a chunk of mitigation by doing so and have to compensate in other areas.

Since you're using Conjuration you can use an Atronach summon to distract the 2H-wielder, although if you don't have the buff perks for that summon line it'll die pretty quickly. There's also Impact stun-lock with Destruction, although that's hard to maintain without (almost) removing magicka cost from the equation. There's also the '-skin' spells (Oakflesh, et.al.) from Alteration, with which you can boost your armor rating for a while, however they get prohibitively expensive if you don't employ heavy cost reduction.

Those of us who play on Master tend to have very focused builds, as you cannot afford to do otherwise and still hope to survive. Some of us also engage in extreme crafting; both to avoid long fights, as the probability of being one-shot therein approaches 100% the more the fight drags, and to avoid summary one-shots in ambush scenarios or dragon fights. Neither of those is particularly necessary on Adept, although a least some crafting tends to be a good idea as starting gear will not cut it at high levels.

Crafting or enchanting isnt that necessary on master. My warrior have perked neither, and hes doing fine. I use restoration extensively thou. He is using basic ebony armour and weapons, a greatsword. Shouts has saved my butt a load of times thou. Speaking of which ,OP, did you use shouts? Ice form is fantastic!

I see. Thank you all for your excellent advice, it was very helpful. As soon as I was one-shot I knew it had to be my armor skill. When it happened I quickly realized that my half roleplay / half power building style of dead is dead playing RPGs wont work in Skyrim for my first playthrough. I think I understand enough now to start my second playthrough which is still going to be Adept dead is dead with some magic but I wont neglect my armor skill and will put less in magicka, the rest of course is based on skill, tactics and quick reflexes. If I do bite the dust then thats that and will eventually svck it up and see how this game ends.

I only had Firebreath, Unrelenting force (2 words) Whirlwind and Kyne's Peace, I thought I could soak up the damage from his first blow and go toe to toe with a bandit-type npc so I didn't thiink of shouting him down, yet, but it seems my character was a little gimped, which is hard for me to say, lol.

Superior steel plate armor may as well be toilet paper once you get to level 20 and beyond. I play dead is dead on master difficulty and with 400+ mitigation and 300 hps i rarely ever drop below half health even when fighting the strongest of enemies. I don't use potions or restoration, either.

You definately need to upgrade your gear.

Personally I like my shield. It works extremely well in Skyrim and is a lot of fun. I wasn't sure when I started my warrior how it would go but it's really a very fun class to play. A good shield offers a lot of protection and greatly reduces the damage from big hits. You can also disrupt those big swings with a quick shield bash followed by a shot with your own weapon. It's very effective. I know when my shield is down I take a whole lot more damage from those power swings.

As an example: I was messing around tonight with one of the Ice Bears and with my shield up I could stand there doing nothing for a very long time before my health started getting low. The bear was bashing me over and over and I was losing very little health. When I dropped the shield it only took him a few hits to drop my health to a dangerous level.

I have a very similiar playing style to yours, so I can comprehend your problems. I had many problems on this level as well.
I suggest you continously cast Frostbite or another frostspell while you slowly retreat backwards. If you use Conjuration, try summoning a Flame Atronach, which helps you quite a lot. You can also use a slowing poison (Deathbell, Salt Pile, River Betty, Large Antlers). Do anything possible to stay away from him, fighting such enemies face to face is far too dangerous, go with a hit-and-run tactic

Isn't the 25-30 level range the most dangerous? A bit of advice i f you want to make a mage-warrior; Dont start developing your magic skills until your warrior skills are stable. Screw destruction, use bows for long-range combat. Restoration and conjuration are nice. Keep in mind that you don't need alot of perks in restoration for it to be effective. 4 or 5 should do it. Dont underestimate wards, they can be very helpful.

For a DID play through on master I would certainly want some crafting, I'd need to be at the armor cap. I don't play DID and my lv50 two handed warrior has 400 health but only 170 armour (using light armour till it gets to 100) which isn't enough to stop me from being one shotted.

I know its self-gimping because frost spells are useful in almost any situation, but my Redguard warlock soul stealer who's orgins are from desert lands refuses to learn frost spells! Lol I know I know but thats how I roll! Once I learn more recipes for various poisons and find that awesome Paralyis spell for my second playthrough, no filthy bandit 2-hander will stop me! I'll go on 2-hander killing spree only hunting down and ridding skyrim of 2-hander bandit scum.


Now thats some great advice! What I did was advance my magic skills too fast for a mage-warrior, what can I say I love magic!

Werewolf form is always that weak. You need to use power-attacks as a werewolf and use the terror-roar. Otherwise you won't survive as a werewolf.

honestly if i was playing dead for dead and i got death camed by a2 hander id make an exeption and reload a save. they do enough damage with power attacks that it might switch to 3rd person to show you dying and not let you do anything before they even swing, and it can happen when your health is relatively high

True, they're not required, but I'm a big fan of passive protections since they can't be removed unless the opponent has some special ability that bypasses them. Shouts have the issue of being on a common timer, which means that using one with a long recharge locks out the rest for the duration, however some of them are pretty handy in a tight spot (or in preventing being in one in the first place).