I have just found a great staff at level 4, the staff of Paralisis. If you head East from Ivarstead following the north bank you will come across a tower on part of a mountain. Turn to your left a bit to see a cave icon, this is snapleg cave, after going through a room of sherbets then two spiders you come into a room with two very weak witchs to the left of that room on a boulder with a box of things, some soul gem fragments and the staff of paralysis. The staff only has about 15 charges, I only use it where there is an enemy who is lethal up close and can 3 hit kill you. An Orc wearing steel plate with a battle-axe. You can just paralyse him then get him or run to heal. Also useful if there is too many people for you too deal with. (I'm not high enough for good illusion spells or alteration so the staff is great)
Very use full in situations for low level players.

All staves that have a name like "Staff of " are generated randomly as leveled loot. The fact that you managed to get one so early is nothing but blind luck and unless other players are extremely lucky too, they won't find the same loot as you did.

Ouch your post stabbed the heart of many hopefuls.

Though yea, its probably only luck.

No, I'm pretty sure it is in that same place always.

Have you found it more than once in that exact same place? If you've found it three times then it's a lock, but if not it's random loot that you got "lucky" with. I put the lucky in parentheses because that staff is seriously OP. A level one character with that staff can pretty much beat every enemy in the game. Hit them, slash at them when they're down, hit them with the staff again before they can get up and attack you, repeat. Game over.

Dragons resist it but I don't think anything else does.

Hmmm ... But I've recently found it there too. So it's possible it's a fixed item there. Or pure dumb luck we both found the item there.

/edit: the UESP also says it's there apparently. So no luck, it's a fixed item.

Was curious about this when I came across this thread and since I already had the Creation Kit open while working on something I checked for you. The item mentioned is indeed a placed item, not a random spawn. It is out in the open and not in a leveled chest so it will always be there everytime as it is not a random spawn based on a leveled list. A screenshot of it in the CK for confirmation purposes:

http://img11.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=55464_editor1_122_241lo.jpg

It's also the only placed paralysis staff in the entire game, if you're at all curious. All other such staffs are completely random.

You're right, this is a great staff. I gave it to Lydia and she uses it often, while I use the Paralyze spell in Alteration. I can't remember if it's this staff or not, but I think it's the only one that requires more than 1 grand soul gem to refill when empty. I could be thinking of another staff, as she uses several. Regardless, this staff has saved my hide countless times.

You must of have Luck of eleven out of ten if you found that.

If that is in fallout3 or you putting perks in lock pick.

Why I typed that there is a perk in lock pick when spent it you have minimal chance getting rare object from chests.

When playing my mage i always get a evil laugh out of paralyzing someone then roasting them alive with wall of flames

Definitely fixed, I got it on my level 45 yesterday as well.

Does Giants resist them aswell? If not i'd presume they would be very useful against them.