What the hell?

I have a 25th level battlemage with 200 health and a Mistwatch Bandit hits me 3 times with ice bolt (single cast) and kills me? Even though my ice bolts have 40 pts each with all things MAXED???

So that would be at least 5 ice bolts.... meanwhile I hit him with over 10 (10!) maxed out firebolts and he still stands?? That's .... 400+ damage.

This is BS!

Ergh.

I think you were hit with Ice Spear instead. Ice Spike is the weakest ice spell(the one you used). Ice Spear is 121pts of damage including perks(going by my char stats). So yes, it would take about 3 of those to do you in.

Try the incinerate spell, much more powerful than firebolt

Knees take extra damage.

NPC mage spells are stronger than yours. And they near endless magicka.

Install magic scaling (mod).

Sounds about right to me, ice spears are one of the deadliest strikes I've ever received. Even rolling with maxed dragon scales 3 can do it.

You need frost resistance not armor to protect yourself from it.

NPC mages are overpowered to be honest. Their spells hit harder, they have nearly infinite magicka, and they have a ridiculous amount of hit points considering the crap gear they always have on. None of the melee enemies are nearly as threatening and take about the same amount of damage to kill. Not sure why they made it that way but at times it can be very frustrating.

That is an example of one of those random times in Skyrim where the difficulty will vary from easy to insanely hard.

well to be honest man... 200 health aint a whole lot. NPC attacks are a little different from your own in damage. bu yeah man... 200 health your asking to get killed thats a pretty low amount.

You must not be playing a Nord. 50% frost resistance comes in handy, along with the magic resistance shield perk.

There are also alteration perks which can boost magic resistance, along with ward spells and enchanted equipment.

welcome to the wonderful world of magic in skyrim

No wonder the Nords fear magic with all their warring heart.

Reminds me of my first encounter with a master necromancer. Gave a whole new meaning to "chain lightning." I mean damn, it was like "left hand lightning, right hand lightning, two-hand lightning, repeat, dead," all in the course of like 2.5 seconds! XD

mistwatch bandits, in my experience, are one of the toughest enemies in skyrim. At lvl 55, my 1 handed sword + shield, with about 300 armor on master, can get 4hkoed by a mistwatch bandit. They also perform loads of killmoves and the mages are annoying.

Yes environmental cover is my best friend in those situations if i can find it in time Along with a paralysis potion.

That sounds about right to me. 200 is not alot of health you know.

Also...
I think I know the mage you're talking about. Is this the argonian mage you encounter going up the stairs in the first tower? Cos even I had difficulty facing him and I have well over 300 health and an armour rating of 423.

This. This so very, very, very hard.

I dont think armor rating has anything to do with Magic Resistance or protection

Sometimes Skyrim seems to throw a curveball at you with some random GOD enemy.

I mod a lot. But having played extensively, I know the rythym of the game by now. And every now and again you just run into some guy that is grossly out of whack. I've been one shot by an archer on my Paladin. Repeatedly. As in, can't let the guy even get a shot at me or it's Lights Out.

The strangest bit about the whole "random spike of supermob" is that when you finally finish them and go loot them.... they got crap on. I thought that archer that was one-shotting my tank would be wielding Artemis' bow herself... and it's a regular longbow. Or some mage will give you fits with his machinegun like spellcasting where 2 land and you are gonzo; and the guy is wearing worse stuff than your typical Whiterun beggar. WTF?

Archers are also very dangerous, change from Oblivion where enemies did little damage, bosses just had load of health.

Just like how you need good armor rating to not get slaughtered by Bandit Chiefs, you need high MAGIC RESISTANCE to act as your "magic armor". It is less straight forward to achieve though. Agent of Mara gives you permanent 15% passive, Lord stone 25% passive, and then you can use rings/neclaces/shields to achieve more.

Honestly find a Bandit Chief and let him hit you wihthout any armor on. It is the same with mages if you don't have magic resistance. Though the way the player scales differently from enemies is wierd.


Edit: My grammar svcks. Since the newest forum update my browser (Firefox) spellcheck hasn't been working ONLY on this site. Anyone else have this problem?

You say that like it's a bad thing. Dangerous enemies = fun. Enemies that tickle you = boring.

I made a mistake and overpowered my Weaponmaster...by a lot. The game became way too easy and nothing, not even dragons, posed any kind of a threat...except ice mages. God, how I hate ice mages.