First off let me make crystal clear I LOVE and have bought (near release which is rare for me) every Beth game since Morrowind blew me away, including both FO3, etc. and EVERY add-on, and they do amazing work. I was also on these boards years ago under a different name helping people with tech probs, etc., so I'm not a newb and I am a long-time fan of TES. But nothing is perfect. Here we go with this example which is currently frustrating me:


How can it be, that a level 38 char, with an armor rating of 203, etc etc (I'm not saying this is a super-power char...I realize they get much much better, but he's no Lvl 3 with an iron dagger and a novice fireball either).. can be killed IN ONE GOOD BLOW by a simple Forsworn dude? He is not a special one, just a "foot soldier"...sorry I can't remember the exact name. Oh and on top of that at this time (among other times when this happens..you all know what I mean).. I am being attacked by a powerful mage with the frost spikes, a troll, a frost atronach, and at least two other forsworn (that i know of).

This seems to happen in all these games...it's (sometimes not all the time) either way too easy or way too hard. I realize I can just run away and come back another time, among other options, but it's just so unrealistic...all of a sudden. That's my point. Everything will be normal, challenging, some easy kills, some frustrations with eventual wins (these are all fine)...but then BAM I run into one of these situations where it's just unreal odds and/or wayyy too high leveled NPCs against me (who are otherwise on my level or easier in another situation..I don't mean some super-mage in a high level dungeon or whatever. If I'm not strong enough to beat him that's cool, I'll be back.) But when the "regular crowd" of baddies all of a sudden can impale me and show a death cut-scene out of the blue? That svcks.

I also realize it's hard to balance things always when there are SOOO many player options in such an open world, but it really ruins the fun for me often. I have 120+ hours and just getting started, so it's not a game breaker, I'm just saying...it sure is frustrating...and NO I don't want the leveling system like before as much where the baddies pretty much mirror your progress either! So am I right to say this should be fixed, is it just me???

ps I will go right back to Skyrim now and find a way just like before, so this game is still awesome and I would buy it again in a sec... I'm just sayin' !

pps Earlier in the day I killed an "Elder" dragon just outside of Falkreath, and now they are against me. Could it be that a stray arrrow of mine hit a guard or something silly like that, or is this a bug that is known?

Im assuming you were fighting a Briar-Heart. Those guys are pretty lethal. I happen to like it that way although I am also currently playing a mod for STALKER that is literally called MISERY and lives up to its name since i usually never have more than 40 rounds of ammo on me at a time. Once I get to the point in a game where nothing can kill me anymore then I lose all interest.

sorry my last post was supposed to be for another thread but for some reason it was sent to this one.

@BIggles: Well thanks for replying, I guess nobody else is interested in answering my question...

People are too busy complaining about how EASY melee combat is - have you looked around the forum?

just you

At level 38 your armor should be a bit better then 208. I stay away from the armor cap myself but 300-325 would help. Also how many points do you have twords health.

I would answer, but...I can't stop staring at your avatar...

Phoss: ya I know I found this online and couldn't help myself. Sooo sweet...

That-guy: i suppose u are right, and though i played mw and ob with focus on one-handed and light armor, i was trying to do skyrim more towards magic-use for a change. so in that vein i was leveling with points going to magicka. probably got a point on the health.

sometimes i like the challenge of it. but sometimes after i take down a couple tougher foes and then all of a sudden get popped before i can save it can be frustrating. i get the feeling that it don't matter what level or gear or whatever you have. some of these foes (and sometimes they are just bandits or something) are just way overpowered. after you get them you find they just have a rather low damage axe or bow or something , yet they do like 250 damage or more with one pop. so something is nerfed there. it can be hell of a challenge though at times.

I rather suspect that it's NOT a simple footsoldier, whatever you think. While Forsworn are pretty dangerous at low levels compared to some other groups, the amount of damage being dealt by a weapon sounds unlikely. As other have suggested, a) your armour is too feeble for you level, and b ) it's probably a higher-level Forsworn type.

Yes, it annoys the crap out of me, but for me it's the other way around.
I thought they said that enemies' health would remain fixed and only their damage would increase with the difficulty settings.
But in order to have challenging gameplay now I need to nerf myself and put the game on Master which just means that they become damage sponges.
And it's come to the point where instead of fighting Draughr Deathloards which I know I can kill as I've done it before oh so many times with ease I just use the kill command in the console.

I'm basically using Finger Of Death whenever I face damage sponges because it's less fun to fight them.
It's not a good sign when I have to use a cheat because the ordinary gameplay is too tedious.

But [censored] it, when the good mods start rolling out I'll mod Bethesda out of the game and only raise Health to 300 at most and never use Ebony or Daedric armor that are improved.
I just feel sad for the console players that are forced to play with this unbalance, both ways.

@OP

Stop complaining about silly things. Like life, sometimes it's easy and sometimes its hard. I am aware its a video game but some principles are universal.

Just face the challenge and overcome it.

I agree. Skyrim is an unbalanced piece of rubbish.

Thankfully we have mods to smack the game back into place.

This again? The fact that you have to work to be effective against %mob_name% by finding, buying or making proper equipment is UNBALLANCED? Oh my...

Mods = cheat codes. Don't win, play.

I quite like the combat balance on Master, which for me mostly means insta-killing lots of low-level types then having occasional tough battles where I get killed. However, I would actually like the tough battles to be somewhat tougher. I like having about one battle ever hour or half hour where I get killed five times in a row and really have to think hard. The rest of the time I am OK just cruising along.

This is talking about once the character is fully developed. At lower levels, tough battles should be more common.

The most important balance adjustment I have made is not getting too much elemental resistance. I think about 70% seems a good amount on Master. If you are too resistant to magic the game is too easy. Layering too many damage increases is also not a good idea, but this is only a problem for Smithing + Enchanting characters I think.

I do believe the combat levels of the monsters in dungeons are kinda screwed. Sometimes i would breeze through this dungeon crushing all the minions that inhabit it, only to reach the end and find this super duper uber boss there which just refuses to die.

Though yea you probably need more armor. And maybe magic resistance.