everyone is acting like it's not a big deal, but it pisses off the player, it's rather unfair when i have a character move out of the way of a 2handed power attack twice before the game locks me in place to lob of my head in a otherwise one-side battle with high outlooks for me. I agree with you, sir!

It doesn't "lock you in place" the shot that kill's you and starts the animation already happens. So even if the animation didn't play the hit that killed you would still have killed you. Your only "locked in place" because the animation is playing. Haven't you seen the 2h hammer slow kill animation? Didn't you always wonder why the enemy didn't move out of the way? Because he is already counted as being dead.

Agreed. I'd really like to see some specific information provided so we can figure this out.

And by specific information, I mean things like your health status, armor rating, the shield you're using, relevant perks, enemy at issue, distance from enemy, weapon they are using, the range/reach and damage potential of that weapon. I'm sure there are/may be more things that would be relevant here that I don't know about.

Basically, give us the info so that someone - who is smarter than me, since I don't know how it's done - can work out whether the hit would have killed you anyway. Without this, this thread is just a rant with related attacks.

For instance, dragons can perform a finisher on your even though you're standing on higher ground where it should miss; instead you teleport down to his level so he can kill you.

thats just a quark of the engine and attack animation actually. since I don't think there an snap jaws attack that points up. Also that the kill animation doesn't have any directional up snap and thrash target that right in front of it animation.

So, from further comments it is safe to assume that :

Damage plays a factor.

Armor plays a factor.

Location plays a factor, obviously.

Carry on.

I don't think magnetism makes you get hit when you move far enough away. I'm almost positive it doesn't, because I've dodged many attacks and power attacks. The magnetism is for when you're swinging, and a hit covers both an ally and enemy. If the enemy isn't too far off center compared to the ally, the attack will ignore the ally and hit the enemy (as opposed to hitting the ally and ignoring the enemy).

Dodging. The best defense against a weapon is to not be there when it strikes. I do it all the time.

Around 120 or 150, depending on what items I'm wearing. I can't say precisely how much health I had when I had a finisher done on me, but it was a lot. Much than 75% for sure, where I'd be in no immediate danger if given a fair shake.

The enemies that do it to me most often are some of the 2-handed bandit types. I don't really recall the naming scheme the game uses to say when one bandit is stronger than another.

Such as staying out of range, and getting back out of range if they get too close. I do. I'm very good at avoiding damage. But when a finisher happens, it doesn't give me the chance to get away because the time it would take for the attack to hit (which is heavily relied on for my character type) is ignored.

I'm not taking damage and dying a lot. Without finishers occurring, I have no problems staying alive and keeping my health up. When they do occur, I'm slaughtered. Same enemy types, same tactics. The problem is not that the game is too hard, it's that the finishers are essentially a cheap shot against you.

The OP says in his first post that finishers (executions) should never happen to the player. This indicates to me that the OP is a sore loser.