Orchendor was the greatest enemy I've met. I was a pretty low-level pure mage at that point. He teleported, and he healed to the point that I couldn't hit him hard enough even with the best of my spells! So I had to do what I never before - and never since - have had to do with this character: use a two-handed weapon to actually kill someone! Luckily I had such in my inventory; it must've been random loot from that dungeon, otherwise I would've sold it or otherwise gotten rid of it already. Fought him a good half an hour plus with my summoned Atronach and a companion.

Also that one particular hagraven at that one forest east of Helgen (I think it was, can't bother to do the search), who lives at the top of that cliff, if you will, was ridiculously hard when I confronted her somewhere at level five with my first all-round Nord guy. I think she had Fireball back then, even. One full hit on me = I was dead. Had to sneak, run away, circle that cliff until she lost the sight of me, and then hit her again mainly with arrows. I remember the conclusion finally came after a careful timing. Once she noticed me, I got out of her reach behind the rock, began to load the-fire-scroll-that-does-112-damage, and unleash it JUST as she reached me and didn't get to attack me. This required about 1-2 second timing. Eventually the scroll (over)killed her off, though (she was at pretty minimal health already).

Those are some of the most epic battles. Although many group battles have been great as well, 3-5 different animals and NPCs fighting everybody against everybody. Lately I haven't really experienced any memorable battles, since I've only played that pure mage character who is invincible at level 40 (although some high-level archers can one-shot him) with 100 Destruction + the staggering Impact perk, and my thief/assassin is even higher and he cannot be seen.

Sabre Cats at low levels - sneaky buggers, they are.

I don't understand the people who say they have problems with the Falmer... I've always found them really easy myself

Falmor, chaurus, mobs of magic-weilders, and TROLLS always get me. I hate when I'm in a great dungeuon with some story behind it and I have to reload or run away.

Any enemy is joke if u wear enchanting+smith gear. And alot enemys will give you challenge if you are low lvl and not using overpowered abilities like ench,smith,1handed.


Toughest enemies is - bosses that can kill you with 1 hit, and big groups of mixed mobs/npcs

any super high level vampire

Yea though I walk through the ... wilds of Skyrim ... I will fear no evil for I am the meanest SOB in Skyrim.

A paraphrase from my acid days.

Dragon preists. No question. Even on apprentice difficulty they will give you a run for your money.

Nope, not wussy at all. The second time I faced Nahkriin (main quest priest,) I went all the way to the beginning of the dungeon to find a bow and a bunch of arrows, then I found a spot where Nahkriin couldn't seem to reach me, and shot him from that point. It took me several dozen arrows. I swear, he could kill me in three hits, but one hit from my hammer would only do a sliver of damage off his health bar.

toughest iv'e found on all my playthroughs has always been with the three mercinaries that will come for you early in the game. it's particularly tough if you don't have a follower to take some of the heat.

dwemer centurion masters because they refuse to die and will boil you alive and snowy sabrecats because they are silent as a ghost and nearly invisible in the snow and the hit like a freight train

depends... on low lvl a lot of enemies are dangerous. sabre cats destroy me in low lvl. they hurt a lot more than trolls, because trollattacks are easier to avoid. dragonpriests destroy me till i have at least a little bit magic resistance. on higher lvls only high lvl mages are dangerous and even that only if you don't have enoigh magic resistance.

I'm guessing people will say I'm just overpowered (which I probably am), but at level 58 on master with quite high health and stamina attributes, 630 daedric armour, fire and frost enchanted daedric bows, fire enchanted daedric sword and warhammer, all of which are 179 to 230 damage, I only find combat a bit tricky now if there's more than one of anything. Two ancient dragons simultaneously, dragon and a dragon priest simultaneously, 3 or 4 draugr deathlords all at once, or maybe several mages and necromancers at once, or forsworn leaders. But those aren't as hard as they used to be. Other than that, trolls and snow trolls, bears and giants have become 2 to 3 shot kills. Spiders, chaurus, wolves and sabre tigers, 1 hit. Mammoths, about 5 or 6 hits I think. Those big Dwemer Centurions, they come down in 2 or 3 hits, usually breaking their legs. Dragons are generally done within a minute, particularly by keeping it grounded with dragonrend. Elder or Ancient fire dragons are still a bit tougher than the frost dragons though, but nothing this dovahkiin can't handle.

I remember weeks ago, on low level, only on adept as well, it would take me about half an hour to kill a centurion, running around him, trying to avoid being hit. Amazing how things change in the game.

I ran into an Ancient Vampire outside Ustengrav around level 16 or so. I had 40% magic resistance and she absolutely WRECKED me with Ice Spikes. They are super aggressive. No joke, I beat Morokei a couple of levels later while taking very little damage, but this vampire just wrecked shop on me. She killed me once and took my health below 20 points at least 5-6 other times. I used 2/3 of my potions in that fight; I use PISE and pick up every potion off of every enemy I kill (which is a lot). I had a follower, and we each had a summoning stave versus her and her Vigilant of Stendarr thrall. That was EASILY the toughest battle I have fought in hundreds of hours playing this game.

Yeah the difficulty curve is quite screwy. I just about couldn't die with sword and board on master.

Frost mages are my bane. Even with Spellbreaker I find them a nasty challenge. Powerful archers are also really dangerous to my character also and make a relatively straightforward melee into a rush to take out archers before they turn me into pin cushions.

I don't find archers "tough" in that I have trouble beating them, but they definitely do the most disproportionate amount of damage in the game. The Gauldurson brother with the bow does over 250 damage per shot on expert and I've been 1-hit by the Ebony bow-wielding Deathlord archers that are in Lost Valkygg, Volunruud (lvl-dependent), and Wolfskull Cave (lvl-dependent). Even high level bandit, Forsworn, and Falmer archers can wreck you and they all seem to have the stagger perk.

I found mud crabs and even slaughter fish to be extremley difficult any elder dragon or dragon preist is a cake walk

We got a demigod here!
Seriously though, try the game in clothes with nothing but a plain sword. I think you'll find it fun, but watch out if there's more than three wolves, it's best to run!

Had forgotten those(commes from almost never fighting falmer I guess), but they are indeed dangerous. Their high poison damage over time is bad news unless you are a redguards or bosmer.

Early on, Sabre Cats tore me several new ones.
Ancient Dragons are always a threat.

It's not just you. I have to use the whole bag of tricks when fighting them, especially the reapers. You can go from 75% health to dead in the blink of an eye.

Boss bandits with heavy armor has been mentioned but it bears repeating. Yesterday I had one that kept killing me with just one hit so I was really looking forward to finally killing him and getting that weapon. When I finally beat him, I was very gratified to get the much sought after weapon that everyone who plays Skyrim wants: the Steel Mace.

DiD to level 65. Are you playing on Novice?

Briarhearts, especially if you're already engaged in a fight. Falmer if you're already engaged in a fight at higher levels -- you will die.