Ancient Dragons still provide epic battles for me at level 65, as do Falmer Shadowmasters, Draugr Death Overlords and the tougher Forsworn - particularly the dual-wielding variety (the latter three are especially tough when there are multiples).

Have you fought a wispmother????

Master Volkhair(sp?) Vampires. These guys know how to tango. They mess me up at level 52.

The only enemies I fear are mages. They can take me down very quickly. Did that cave the falmer broke into and there were mages along with warriors and it was ugly. If not for the demon-spitting rose I would have been screwed. Follower also drew some aggro off me.

There isn't much in the wild that can threaten me but for random Mage encounters. Would be nice if there were some über-trolls. The problem with fighting mages is that they are so powerful with range attack that you can't play cat and mouse.

Compare that to a low character cat and mousing trolls. Trolls can't three shot you at range.

Funny thing is, i encountered two Deathlords, one with an ebony warhammer and the other with ebony bow and arrows in Silverdrift Lair's final chamber. The warhammer equipped one couldn't kill me once despite getting hits on me, the one with the bow killed me five times (And i did back away and heal after killing the warhammer one).

I agree with this. Fallout 3 and New Vegas are excellent when it comes to enemies. You just have to run for your life if you face a deathclaw early in the game, but the Fallout series are better on survival gaming in general.

I remember at early levels doing an "oh crap" everytime a Frost Troll jumped me!! ... I remember seeing my first one at L8 and getting smacked down hard numerous times.

The problem is that the Fallout games also had uber-powered equipment (maybe even moreso than Skyrim) and were still able to create scary monsters. The issue is one of making enemies that deal effective damage vs making hp sinks.

Some way of making dangerous opponents:
1) Give them an attack that bypasses armor.
2) Give them the ability to sneak up on the player.
3) Make them evasive.
4) Design potions to work over a timed period rather than instantly and cap them at 4 at any one time.
5) Give them an attack that cripples the player (crippled limbs in Fallout 3 or NV, or Greater Bonewalkers in Morrowind.)
6) Give the monster a draining attack that can be countered. (Poison & antidotes, curses, soul draining, etc.)

There are many other ways of making dangerous enemies, too. That's just a short list.


I find them rather easy to take out. Do you not have magic weapons, or do you try to attack the shades? Just hack away at the mother with a fire enchanted weapon and ignore the shades (they die when the mother dies) and they go down pretty easily.

Dragons are the "Oh crap" enemy. As in, "Oh crap, can I carry all these bones/scales?"

To me they're the "Not again" enemy.

You for sure don't want to run into Giants or Frost Trolls on low levels assuming your stupid enough to stand next to the Giant long enough for him to attack you or if you attack him first.

I'm at lvl 27 with a greatsword wielding, steel clad Nordsman, and I get in plenty of trouble. I still have to run from some battles and reload every so often. Plenty of 'Oh crap!' moments for me!