I'm on my first playthrough of Skyrim. I'm playing a pure mage on master. I am L17 and woefully outclassed by many things. Can't beat a dragon. Bears can one-shot me. Random enemies in dungeons are very difficult to beat.

But I like it. I want the game to be hard.

But I'd also like some time to hone my skills without leveling up and the enemies getting tougher and tougher.

Right now, I am eligable to level up from level 17 to level 18. My question is, if I hold off on leveling up (even though I can level up), will enemies stop scaling in their difficulty?

Let's say I earn enough with skill increases to level from L17 to L25, but I don't actually 'level up' and so my level is L17, will enemies still be scaled to L17? Or will enemies continue to scale up to my level-up potential of L25?

They should still be lv17 I think.

I believe it should stick to scaling to the level that you are actually on. As long as you DO NOT select to Upgrade your Health/Magicka/Stamina.

Be careful. Some people have reported a bug which drains a skill when you save several level ups. Nothing in active effects, but a skill of, for example, 67 in two handed is for no apparent reason now displayed in red and right down at 20.

I just killed vokun at level 7 doing similar things, I level up but no perks, no potions, no healing spells, no followers or conjuration, no HUD on master. I'm trying to sort out the recording if I had any idea how to movie edit )