Poll: Are Skyrim enemies overpowered?

[Private Custard]

I just had a massive melé fight with a load of cultists for a quest (I'll spoiler it if anyone's curious). One guy in the group of about eight enemies was awesome with a sword, he almost wiped me out and I'm currently in full enchanted ebony armour and was wildly slashing away with an ebony greatsword..........he was wearing fur!

I'm a tank though, making a shedload of health potions and using them in major fights is part and parcel of the role. I have minor restoration and above average one-handed skills for regular dungeon crawls.

 

[nuba km]

it really depends on the player, for instant my friend is playing as a rancher and he finds that pretty much any melee enemies by himself to be extremely easy while a large group of even weak enemies to be a problem, while I find the opposite to be true, mowing down a large group of enemies with barely a scratch while the individual though ones can destroy me.

so I think this just shows a good thing about the games design your character actually has strength and weaknesses according to your play style, so often the toughest of enemies just need a switch in play style to be nothing more then child's play.

also another example is my friend is screwed when dragon are on the ground while I can barley hurt them if they don't land

 

[The Black Ghost]

If I ever find an enemy too hard to take on I leave it be. If I have to fight it I bring a friend and attack it from a distance with arrows and magic to weaken it first, then use a poisoned blade

 

[Javarock]

Nope, I actually really like the difficulty level of Skyrim. I find myself relying on my powers, potions, scrolls and spells. You know, like I should.

Yeah, For some boss battles specially hard ones I am forced to throw and exhaust my supplies, It's awesome.

 

[Tay051173096]

Vampires can be a pain...

 

[Axyun]

I'm enjoying Skyrim but some fights are hard because they are cheap, not because they are hard.

A good stealth game is designed so that a smart player that knows how to apply his skill set can remain hidden through an unknown area and accomplish his objectives while introducing unforseeable but manageable obstacles along the way to increase difficulty.

The same principle should apply to a good combat game: a good player should be able to asses the encounter (one more more enemies? casters? melee? both? etc.) and develop an engagement strategy, engage and adapt (is the enemy casting spells? is he casting frost or fire? is he meleeing instead?) and then combine his skill set and resources in creative ways to overcome the challenge (this includes drinking potions and using scrolls).

A lot of times, I feel that your only option in Skyrim is to die a few times to get a feel for how to "game" the AI and then perform an overwhelming yet completely unsatisfactory victory by "gaming" said AI.

The root of this problem is the horribly simple AI that can only rely on spike damage to appear to be challenging. Even worse, the AI is so bad it doesn't even switch the type of spike damage it deals. Krosis is a good example of this simplicity. If he were smart, he would burn you down with frost if the PC is melee or lightning if the PC is a caster then switch to fire for the extra damage after you've been incapacitated. Instead, no matter what you are, he just runs back and shoots fireballs.

If the developers would have taken the first approach, they could have toned the damage down and make him hard because he is smart and keeps you incapacitated, instead of hard because he 2-shots you and your companion. Also, given the first approach with reduced damage, the player would have a bit more time to react and change strategies. The end result would be a fight that would be just as hard if not harder yet more satisfying to win because you won on your own merits, not on the limitations of the AI after dying a few times.

A well designed encounter should kill you when you fail to react and execute properly. Encounters can vary in difficulty by increasing the complexity of the response required by the player and reducing the marging of error on the execution of the player's strategy. Destroying the PC in two hits without warning does not involve a complex reaction or tight execution. It just means you have to die a few times before you realize you just have to run behind a pillar and spend the next 10 minutes pecking away at him with spells and arrows at your leisure.

I love all of the improvements Skyrim has made over Oblivion but I hope that for TES VI, Bethesda decides to focus on enemy AI and make a truly challenging game instead of a cheap one.

 

[snagli]

I'm doing pretty well as a mage/thief archer, provided I get the element of surprise. However, the enemies that are a HUGE pain to fight (though still fun) are the enemies with high health, and mostly the high level Draugr. The Scourges and Deathlords are bad enough, but those Dragon Priests, they kill me in two lightning bolts. Luckily, there are only 8 of those in the game and I've killed 7, so I'm doing fine. Challenging, but not difficult to the point of throwing my pc out the window.

 

[Drops a Sweet Katana]

Considering I'm a batshit insane dual wielder of an ebony and dwarven sword clad in full upgraded steel plate armour most of the time, I'm usually sorted. If whatever I'm looked at hasn't been turned to lunch-meat when I've unleashed my hacky-slashy-spinning-man-nado power attack they generally get torn apart by a second flurry of shit. I can still wreck some adequate shit with a bow, and I have upgraded my flame based spells to essentially make me a human flamethrower. In other words, I'm generally sorted, EXCEPT when I'm hoarded by high level shit wreckers like the Draugr Wights in one undisclosed story mission which I won't mention as to not spoil anything for anyone. Other than that I'd say the enemies are pretty fair and balanced, although Bandit Chiefs are still pretty ridiculous.

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

Besides giants......


Me: HA HA! GIANTS! -runs at a giant-
Giant: HA HA! HAMMER TIME! -launches me into orbit-
Me: HA HA! Poorly scaled physics system.....

I'm pretty sure that's one of those glitches they decided to keep

I love it so much!

I saw them kill some bandits once. One of the went flying in the air. I decided to run in and kill the giants. After the battle was over and I was looting the corpses I see that bandit land next to me. It was a good 2 or 3 minutes he was airborne!

For difficulty I don't know what I'd do if I wasn't an Orc. Berserk has saved me countless times!

 

[El Poncho]

I've only had problems with Wispmother's (because these 2 guys started talking to me inbetween the fight! and that it could kite me) and Draugr Deathlords which could 1 hit me.

 

[Jimmy T. Malice]

Skyrim can be unforgiving at times due to the almost complete removal of level scaling. Some dungeons are just too hard at lower levels so you should save them for later. (They're generally ones at higher altitudes)

 

[sinterklaas]

I find the difficulty very nice on expert level. However, the superstrong bandit leaders are a bit out of place though. I kill dragons, but a bandit chief kills me in three hits?

 

[Chezza]

I have noticed various enemies are considered quite different in terms of difficulty to most posters here. My observation suggests it has quite a bit to do with choice of builds and understanding of how very challenging enemies can appear quite unexpectedly.

Funny enough, I hear most posters claim Dragons are weaker than they should be. Meanwhile Trolls are the *****. In contrast I am the exact opposite. Reaching at level 30+ I still find dragons very very difficult with one breath taking down majority of my health, bites removing large portions and not too long after biting me in half and throwing my body across the map. Meanwhile Trolls, challenging sure but just at the cost of all my stamina I can take them down without breaking much of a sweat.

I am a one handed, light Armour, stealth specialists drowning in Stamina (A dedicated Assassin character) who can one shot giants dead with a stealth kill. I can go through most dungeons crouching around all my victims, doing the mac-arena in front of them and then instantly slashing their necks 9.5/10 times.

The only situations when my stealth gets spotted are:
- Killing a victim in close proximity to another
- Guards at watchtowers always good at spotting me close by
- A few particular powerful bosses that immediately spot me at a specific proximity
- Any annoying companion (including stealthy assassins and thieves) always gets caught and unable to follow my lead without getting spotted

My most serious weaknesses are:
- Dragons
- Elite Undead
- magic damage, in particular frost (Don't know why)
- giants if caught (like everyone else)

But one thing I really got going in close combat is dodging all melee enemies if they only wield one handed weapons as its just a matter of walking back and forwards to trick them into swinging aimlessly into the air and allowing you to get a couple hits in, over and over.

 

[Nemesis729]

I haven't had much trouble yet, I can kill most human enemies from one stealth shot with my bow, I do have trouble with trolls though, they're to fast

 

[Ruwrak]

The enemies range from low to high in every level. They have marginal better or worse stats then you and those stats differ from eachother as well. So one time you can be fighting a tough bear, the next one.. not so much.

 

[HalfBakedCheeto]

The only enemy i found hard, almost unbeatable were the (spolier) Daedric mages when you enter the black star (spolierend) so i just killed the main guy and ran, so then i'd get teleported outta there

 

[Keava]

I'm kind of waiting for a proper slower levelling mod, because currently it just goes too fast, especially if You decide to fool around with crafting/stealing without progressing the main story line. That and removed level cap should make everything more enjoyable and perhaps even challenging.
So far the difficulty only seemed to be pretty linear/level-locked rather than "Damn, how do i beat the crap out of this thing"

 

[Robert Ewing]

Some magicka users are overpowered.

And trolls... Trolls are freaking hard. I shitting run with my heal spell in both hands casting constantly in case that ************ hits me.

 

[galaktar]

"Whats this? A cave?" I walk in "Oh look, a big kitty!" Mauling ensues.

 

[RedDeadFred]

Not really, aside from that motherfucking troll.

Agreed. 1st time I fought a troll was when I was climbing up to High Hrothgar. I was like: oh my first troll, this won't be so bad.
Troll runs up to me, I hit him with a power attack, it does almost nothing. He kills me in 3 hits... I then suddenly realize that maybe having a companion with me isn't such a bad idea after all.