Hey so i just completed one of my quests I was saving up for. It was the wolf queen quest, and i was really excited by the story and lore, i had read all the wolf queen books and was really looking forward to the quest. I found the quest very well done and exciting. The way it was set up made the quest fun and everything. The only thing that bothered me was the actual end fight against potema. I found that she was easier to kill that a drauger lord or what he is called( the guy with the helmet with horns). Seeing as i have fought him many times, and only get to fight Potema once, i wish that she was more difficult than the rest of the normal enemies.

This made me think about Skyrim in general and the final bosses. I decided that none of the Final Bosses were very difficult or in turn very rememberabe. I don't know if there is a way to fix it, but that is just something that i noticed. I wish that the bosses were a little more distinct and difficult so that we could remember our battles with them for a long time. anyways just some of my thoughts.

and the difficulty is on highest so that isnt a problem, nor do i like the idea of gimping myself (even though i do) so that isnt a solution for me.

Does anyone agree or disagree? Are the Skyrim bosses lacking in difficulty or personality?

Yes. Bosses in Skyrim often die so quickly, or are so unremarkable that you can kill them and not even realize it was supposed to be a boss. Alduin is probably the saddest of all, he doesn't even have more health or damage than a random Ancient dragon in the wild.

Yes bosses are very easy, even the final boss. I think it might be because you fight the bosses one on one (or with extra help from your allies), but when you fight normal mobs there are usually more than one of them.

I'm sure this should be in the SPOILER section.


SPOILERS FOLLOWING:


I really wanted that quest to be epic also.

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/imageshare/images/649591-1331900272.jpg

Unfortunately she was pretty lame. She kept saying she was going to add me to her army. I thought, "that would be cool", but alas she was just teasing me.

But in answer to the OP, yes bosses in TES are seldom tougher than the creatures guarding the boss.

Morokei, Malkoran, and Orchendor or all pretty hard bosses. Also at low lvls. a lot of bosses are near impossible to beat I find. Some though should be harder

Dragon Priest are the exception. I haven't met an easy one yet. But they are more like random encounters than a quest ending boss.

Briarhearts can kick [censored] when they want to, when one runs at me I can count in my head ''3 2 1 . . . and I'm dead, [censored]!''

Edit/ I didn't even realize that was a swear word, my mum says it!

I don't know, the dragon priest Ai seems to have a very bad habit of getting stuck in corners/objects and not being able to move. Also, in my opinion Morokei, for being the boss of the mage questline should have had teleportation, and immunity to non magic damage, along with a few unique spells that only he would have.

Skyrim has bosses!?

As a full Mage though he was a sob

There should be a patch that adds 3,000 more health to ALL bosses, named Dragons, named Dragon priests, all of them. Maybe even give Dwarven Centaurions a little more health. That should make things a bit more interesting around here.

At their core, TES games are not about combat, but resolving a situation. The path to the fight is the real challenge. The fight is just the final act of the quest. Dagoth Ur was not difficult to defeat, but getting to his lair to have the fight was the real challenge, same with Akatosh in Oblivion, the final fight was not even really a fight, you let Martin do all the work.

Sorry, but that's a copout in my opinion. There is no way that a game can somehow not be about combat when over 50% of its content revolves around or involves it.

It is not a cop out, it is the way it is. I know you want it to be different, but reality is not a cop out. TES games have never been about combat. Combat is a means to an end. TES is about immersing yourself in a world and doing what you want. Combat is just one of the things you can do. You can play the game and never have a fight, if you want to. Might not be as much fun, and what you can do gets limited, but most places and a large number of quests can be done without combat. Combat is just the easy way to do things.

The core of all rpgs are their combat and player progression, in which all other things are in one form or another, made to service or enhance, sometimes even disguise it.

You fight enemies, you skills go up.

Your skills go up, you level up.

You get perks from leveling up, that overall make you better at fighting in one form or another.

You wander around, inevitably something engages you in combat.

You do radiant quests, they mostly send you to dungeons to fight.

You get loot, that makes you better at fighting/surviving.

The entire tutorial of the game, is more less comprised of combat.

I'd hate to have to strafe in a circle for a whole lot longer whacking away at a Dwarven Centurion for it to finally fall.

It's not so much the difficulty itself as it is the difficulty compared to other things. There's a running joke amongst Fable fans about how an ice troll is harder to kill than the end-boss. It's the comparison that annoys us the most. It dissapointed us all. Another issue is the fact that you dont feel like you accomplished much, a common theme in Skyrim. If the battles were a bit more elaborate and dramatic, they'd be much more satisfying. All I did fighting Alduin was lob some fireballs at him. The end. Great job hero. Given the buildup, I was expecting a massive climactic battle, with the heroes of sovngarde firing arrows at Alduin while I hijacked a ride on his back and held on for dear life as I stabbed him and wore down his strength until we crash landed in some remote part of Sovngarde and we fought one on one. I dont care if that fight was easy, if it had played out like THAT I would've been so much more satisfied.

Yeah, http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=GS18FZDyzqw#t=11s from an upcoming game pretty much trashes Alduin on being an interesting/challenging fight.

Yeah. the problem is it can get a bit hackneyed - end of dungeon - boss - gazillion health - hit repeatedly while healing until dies. i kind of agree with CCNA that it's about the path and I personally think it would be better if the game did your head in by mixing it up more - chuck in some really nasty enemies when you aren't expecting them outside of the linear 'you're building up to teh boss' routine. After all, why does the boss always have to be the most powerful? It's not like your average general is ultra powerful compared to his troops. I'd like to see totally feeble bosses hiding beyond killer armies who cower pathetically when you get to them, just for a change.

My full mage has had no problems beating Morokei or any of the dragon priests (I've beaten 5 so far). With Morokei I just hid in the water and popped out every once in awhile to hit him with thunderbolts, till i got annoyed at what a wimp he was and walked up to him and blasted him with incinerate. Hell, I used the staff of magnus on Rahgot and he just stood there like an idiot and died.

I fixed that for you. Player Progression is the core of any RPG, combat is just one way to accomplish the mechanic. It is not the only way to progress your character. In fact, in some games, combat or other activities has nothing to do with your character progression, but quest experience does. Namely, Fallout 3 and FO:NV. In fact, in NV, you can complete the game only killing one character, and that is not a person, and in Fallout 3, it is possible to complete the MQ and not kill anyone. All the while, progressing your character.

Most quests in Morrowind did not require combat, in fact, some quests even rewarded a peaceful solution. Same with Oblivion, many quests could be done in a peaceful manner. Some quests did not even require the consideration of violence.

I guess we generally agree! The bosses or final guys should be harder in relative to other creatures in skyrim. I did find Morekai to be the hardest charecter i fought in the game. It was because i came upon him very early in the game and it seems that the early game is more difficult. I always liked dragon priest but they do indeed get stuck. And I really dont buy the fact that this isnt a combat game, because it is. I just walked through this whole dungeon killing everything on sight including humans, without talking to them, checking if they were neutral or anything, because i knew my only objective was to kill them. so the boss should be included in the combat aspect, and not only the story. The story by the way is fantastic, just need a little balance in battle!

I've never quite understood the theory that bosses have to be the most powerful opponents, although if you look at individual cases it does make sense sometimes. For example: bosses in Diablo II tend to be tough fights, especially Act Bosses, however they are Demons so it makes sense that they'd be hard to kill.

Skyrim's bosses are a mixed bag, so it wouldn't make sense for all of them to be difficult fights, but some of them probably should be. Adding a ton of HP is not the way to do it, though, as all that does is cause frustration and/or boredom.

Maybe not a ton of hp but how about a higher defense? higher armor, make us have to work for it. My sword should not be doing the same damage to a full plated armored draugr deathlord that its doing to a shirtless draugr standard. Bosses should be tough and hardasses hence the name bosses. Sometimes its good to have a cinematic story boss die alot like Lucien in Fable 2 which IMO was a good example of a good story. But the whole point of growing strong in combat is for the final pay off in the end. Example, if I spent 100 hours making the strongest warrior, I want to fight something that merits me growing to that strength. Fallout had Death-claws which where a real [censored] to kill not because of HP but defense and just the damage output and fact they shred through armor like paper. If im fighting General Tulius it shouldn't be indoors 3 on one fight it should have been out doors roman field style 200vs 200 all out death fest and when you finally clash it should have been fn hard to kill him unless you were at equal terms which then merits moderate difficulty. Alduin should have been a real [censored] for anyone who hadnt at least learned to defend themselves and let the 3 nord heroes take him down while you cast supporting spells. At anyone who says bosses shouldnt be hard, why are you playing an RPG, or a videogame? 90% of games are meant to challenge what you learned through out the game, hell even if you focus on speech it should be difficult end game to talk to anyone and end game it should have made it so if you dont have the right information you couldnt talk your way out of it, like IRL. You cant talk your way out of everything, everyone has fought 1 time or another. This is why Teeth of Naros DLC from KOAR has one of my favorite quests. In that DLC world to actually debate something is to fight someone physically and if you win, well your will was stronger therefore you are right. Such as in real life. Because being right is only from perspective.

what is war but frustratingly boring? The whole point to a lot of health is to represent endurance, I would rather the enemy be like Demon and Dark Souls were they will likely dodge your attacks and dish out something nasty in reprisal.