As far as I can tell, there's only two kinds of enemies in the game.

Enemies that I can one-shot.
Enemies that can one-shot me.

There appears to be an extreme lack of enemies between those two extremes.

They reason why they were tough was because you probably stole from someone and its a scripted event where they were told to teach you a lesson if you read the note on the bodies so they are a bit tougher then normal enemies

if you use one hand block or use spell. if use two hand try to keep distance since reach is much much better, not to mention impact. I've noticed when using two handed weapon enemies don't rush at me as much as when i used one handed weapon.

edit: just saw your post. damage is normal. even heavy armor at any point of the game(unless you mastered smithing and enchanting and imrpoved your gear) will receive significant amount of damage especially by power attacks from two handed weapon. your case is normal

It's not you. I'm level 11 with 1h in the early 40s, Block in the mid 30s, Health around 160 with an Amulet, and Snowy Sabre Cats absolutely wreck me with 2 or 3 Power Attacks. I faced 4 Witches and a Hagraven just up the road from Helgen. The Hagraven was level 32!!! The splash damage alone from two of her fireballs took most of my health. This is all on Adept difficulty.

Level up a little around Whiterun, as someone else advised. There are several dungeons that you should be able to manage in the area. And as stated already, potions, potions, potions. I find them everywhere. Poison your weapons for added effects. Carefully consider your Perks when you level up. Don't hack and slash. You need to fight smart, not hard. Use the terrain and surroundings to your advantage whenever possible.

True, I just read the note. But, this was happening with wolves and the easiest of enemies. This is surely a bug due to me switching my difficulties around.

I've also noticed another problem when I deleted saves and started from the beginning - it's still kept my individual skills for two-handed, one-handed and heavy armour. So I'm only level 6 but have a massive advantage in two-handed :S

Yep, it's definitely not just you, until I hit level 19 or so I felt very frustrated in some battles, and the Riverwood thugs attacked and killed me too...each time in about ten seconds. Then I managed to run inside a shop and when I died that time, on reload they were gone. Not sure if that was a glitch, but if it was I'm not gonna complain! Those three were insanely tough...sheesh!

Also, for fights with magical enemies, if you find you're dying too fast I thought I'd mention checking if you are under the influence of the apprentice stone...it was the first one I found and even though I'm not a mage character, I thought cool! I used it and then forgot about it. I couldn't understand why low level enemies could kill me with a few fireballs and then hours, and much frustration later, I happened to notice that I had 100% weakness to magic effect and thought OH! :facepalm: Anyway, needless to say it made a big difference removing it.

NORDS NEVER RUN FROM A FIGHT!!!

This is something I have noticed as well, or well until I turned things up to Master setting after Expert got dull - now every encounter is all of a sudden very lethal again.

But on a note regarding difficulty that I think most here need to know. If you initiate combat with an enemy, decide you'll never beat it and so you turn the difficulty down - nothing will actually happen. Difficulty for all I have noticed only works upon spawning or whatever you're supposed to call it. Now I don't know if that applies to Novice as I have never even touched that diff, barely Adept either for that matter but the few times I did change between Expert and Adept inside a dungeon it helped nothing until I left the area and returned. I could be wrong, but this is not based on a one-time thing. Also Master seems to do very little to "bosses" and rarer enemies, while it absolutley beefs up regular adversaries.

Pro-tip: Get into a position where you only have to deal with one of them at a time, like a small alley or the like, then block-bash and hit as much as you can while he staggers. You probably won't be able to do this for long, but you can do this once or twice before you need to heal in which case you either use potions or make a sprinting run away to get a heal in. Repeat until you succeed. Also if you can see if the guards or something can't help ya, even a wild wolf if you're out of allies. And if nothing else works, run like a cowardly dragon. Never seen a dragon run? They do when I play.

Hmm. Yeah. I've been dying a lot lately. It's on Expert, Level 21, Two-Handed skill is 60ish using Axes, 230-240 HP, and I'm still dying/getting pissed. Anything from Snow Bears, to Thalmor agents, to Falmer/Falmer Skulkers, and to Bandit Chiefs. With only one of their power attacks all my health is gone. I've been quaffing my entire stamina potion, and health potion, stores after just one dungeon. It's ridiculous. I'm honestly considering restarting my character. Only way I can do a good amount of damage to enemies is to power attack, thus leaving me open for another death and another reload. I run out of stamina rather quickly, and health even quicker. My axe is a Honed Ancient Battle Axe, enchanted with fire damage 10 points, 58 damage, with specializing perks. My armor is also like 110-120. Smithing and Enchanting are 20ish. And yet I'm still svcking.

Any advice? Should I start over or keep going?

Something you might try as well is to blend your skills. You could try using magic to burn down enemies that are closing in, and then then pull out a melee weapon when they get close (for example). You can also use magic to buff yourself or summon help before engaging in melee. You can also find an NPC hireling or follower to help even the odds.

You could go furry.

Solutions are available to you.

What kind of armour are you using? At level 21 in Heavy Armour I smithed my own set of Orcish Armour (without Shield) and I had around 290 Armour.

You don't move enough for one. Use tactics you would use in Real life. Move them to a small opening limiting their ability to attack you 3 at once.

Hired thugs? Did you steal from the wrong person and get caught? Because some shopkeepers will send hired thugs after you if you steal from them.

You're level 5 right? With only putting points into HP and having 150. I have to ask like others have, where did you find thugs at that level? Looked just like the first time I found a Frost Troll at level 8 and got my ass handed to me.

I've also had some pretty good results with back pedaling and then coming in with a power attack. Human enemies seem apprehensive (at lower levels at least) to try and go for the flank.

More as I level up, more I feel like I'm weaker and weaker. I'm level 44 mage/warrior. Destruction 100/ enchanting 100 - I have all my weapons and armor heavlly enchanted and i was just doing some quest in that museum in Markhart or whatever is the city..
Guard two shot kills me with a bow and I have like 280 health, 430 magicka and 280 stamina. And that just one guard there are 4 of them in that room. I had no choice but bring out my beast mode - werewolf And then another room another 4 guards. :S

More as I level up, more I feel like I'm weaker and weaker. I'm level 44 mage/warrior. Destruction 100/ enchanting 100 - I have all my weapons and armor heavlly enchanted and i was just doing some quest in that museum in Markhart or whatever is the city..
Guard two shot kills me with a bow and I have like 280 health, 430 magicka and 280 stamina. And that just one guard there are 4 of them in that room. I had no choice but bring out my beast mode - werewolf And then another room another 4 guards. :S

^ This. My PC has been man enough to back out of a few areas. Still haven't gone through an entire Falmer area. Bloody crush me. Mebbe time for revenge at this point.

:wink_smile:

Level 23 with an 430 armor rating, and still I′m gettin` my as* kicked :facepalm: . Damn daedras lol.

There are some encounters that scale entirely with your level and those can be tough if you've spready yourself out. I have a couple of suggestions:

1) Often times when you're encountering 3 mobs in an encounter they're not all created equal. There's usually one or two that are much weaker. You might want to see if you can even the odds a little by taking one or two down quickly

2) These are the encounters we hoard potions for. Potions can be surprisingly effective. I usually keep block buff potions and 1 handed buff potions but even a large stock of minor health potions might be all you need (I've had some encounters that used half my stock of health potions just because I was taking so much damage)

Minor resurrection, but just this morning I've hit exactly the same problem. However, I'm not looking for answers as to why I get my butt kicked, it's on master, I'm level 9 and I switched from 1h to 2h at around level 5 so neither is as high as it could/should be.

What I would like an answer for is why there are hired thugs after me at all! I'm still in Riverwood, not been to any other towns, and have cleared out Embershard Mines and completed the Golden Dragon Claw quest (cleared the barrow all the way to the bottom). I checked my stats sheet and have a good deal of assaults against my name, but I haven't done any fighting with or around the towns inhabitants! The only thing I can think of is that since Sven is my companion, I may have hit him in battle, but even then I don't know how I could have done it as many times as the game tells me I've committed assault! I'm actually pretty careful in battle not to hit him. What the fudge is going on?

I find that too actually.

i love how ppl are all it's so hard here and other threads it's all I play on master and it's soooo easy lol

which is it ?

I play on the 2nd easiest and still get my ass kicked if I take on multi enemies . and I've levels many perks

I had some harsh encounters aswell, including hired thugs at lvl 5 (stole an Elven bow from Whiterun barracks). Yeah, i died a lot, but eventually, after trying different combat tactics i mastered them. Using shield, lots of circlestrafing/backpedaling to dodge the power attacks, and a small amount of hp potions, i came out on top. Eventually it's mostly about combat skill, not just stats.
And since you are a seasoned player, i don't have to tell you that using a shield (properly) in the first couple of levels increases your survivability noticeably.

its a sad fact that humans are pretty fragile...even when wearing armor...just grab a 2-hander and swing it at a guy in your street and look how fast he will go down...

Your still a total noob and probably trying to take on more than you should just yet. You need to level up more. Go hunting along the river near riverwood killing wolves and wild life. Craft some things, pick flowers, make potions. Make lots of healing potions and you'll do better.