I smith and enchant my own stuff. I have a sweet Glass axe that absorbs life, coupled with my legendary steel plate armour I seldom encounter much difficulty as I am regaining life as I wail the shit out of whatever.
The biggest issue I had was one of the bosses on that Gaulder Amulet quest, the one that replicates himself and can shout you over into ragdoll, sometimes disarming you. I would have a panicked tear around looking through the water for my axe while getting pelted with arrows. Really sucked. Ended up just using pedestals as cover and fireball spell. Took a lot longer than I was used to, I died several times fighting him.
Well, I guess anything that has high-damage ranged attacks has generally given me pause, as I will sometimes die trying to get close in, and while dabbling heavily in destruction magic, it's not anywhere near my one-handed and heavy armour skills. Keeps it exciting, being ripe with overconfidence in regards to close combat, than suddenly having a third of my health bar burned away in a single explosion by some special named, mask wearing liche asshole. Yeah, someday soon all of those mother-fuckers' faces will be lining a shelf in my house.
I love this game.