Set myself the challenge of going solo, no companion and at Master difficulty ( I,m level 22, an archmage dark elf).

Now, no problems so far, but I have to fight four cave bears at once. I want to use more archery skills with my Elven Bow but all it does from a distance is alert them to my presence.

Is a low level bow a realistic way of taking down bears. Approaching them with my bound sword gets me killed in seconds.

Any thoughts ?

Poison is probably your only option. Paralysis and slow poisons will be your friends in this situation. If your archery level is low, you will need a lot of each...probably three of each per animal. If your alchemy skill is good enough you can make a frenzy potion. You might be able to find a high enough level frenzy potion for sale. Invisibility will help you escape and reposition for more shots.

Invisibility is the best for now. You can reach a higher place or better spot to get them one by one or even avoid them.

Find better arrows - elven to daedric. Sneak will allow for a at least one "free" shot at some extra damage. Also, you can fire arrows at a higher rate with the lighter bows at some cost on the damage dealt by each individual shot. I only use smithed long and hunting bows now.

Can you attack from an elevated position? Conjuring even something as small as a familiar can help.

Hmmmph, i really hate bears, get some fireballs and roast their fat tubby bodies to oblivion!

So you are doing this as a challenge? You can fight bears one by one but you are choosing to fight 4 bears at same time?

Low level bow is fine if you can find a ledge where they can't get to you.

If you are doing sneak archery. Hit one of them with sneak shot run away pretty far and hide until they stop looking for you. Repeat. Time consuming. Perhaps tedious, but gets the job done.

Use become ethereal if you have it. I'm playing master and that's basically my favorite shout. I use it all the time.
Other than that bring more potions? Also you CAN poison bound swords in case you were wondering, so its not like you have to use your bow to poison them.

Just summon 2 dremora lords and be done with it, bears is still only bears if you have leveled only conjuration and journey summons works too it's your best bet at such low level, frost atronach won't win for you but it does atlest take some heat off you.

Dremora Lords are great fun!! Very powerful, and I love the commentary they so generously provide while they kill things for you.

Great comments true but you forgot decap, i love it

Do you have the impact perk? What's your school magicka reductions?

When I have several opponents to defeat, I drag them to a narrow place so that I can fight them one by one.

If you hate bears, do not go to Riften. Apparently they harbor hatred towards people so much that they travel in packs. They can be quite a deadly force for the unexperienced traveller.

If this is that cave that is quest related and you have to deal with the bears, then there are places in that cave you can safely snipe the bears from. Use Invisibility to get to the upper areas, and then you can take them on.

However, until you get Archery Perked up, Bears are going to take a few arrows to kill. Even at higher archery levels with some Perks, Bears are a two/three shotter, unless you can get sneak shots in.