Nothing's getting easier as I level, I can't kill wolfs or bandits faster than I could before, and I'm struggling with all the new monsters the game's throwing at me. Just now, I actually had to retreat out of a dungeon just because I couldn't possibly kill the boss.

I'm doing a battle mage build. Primary skills are alteration, heavy armor, block, destruction, one-handed and enchanting. I haven't done much with enchanting yet though. I have enchanted 2 axes (with petty soul gems), one has soul trap (an iron axe, I use it to kill wolves for petty souls), the other has 5 fire damage (a steel axe).

I primarily rely on firebolt to deal damage, but it eats through my mana insanely fast. My attribute spread is 30-20-30, but even with a novice hood that gives me 50 mana, or a circlet that reduces my destruction mana cost by 12%, firebolt still eats up probably a fifth of my mana. I can't even cast stone flesh because it takes off nearly half my mana, even though I have the apprentice casting perk.

The dungeon I'm talking about is some mine in the reach (something about a sinkhole...) that's infested with drauger. The restless drauger each took a while to die, and the final boss, a drauger wright, I simply can't kill because he keeps healing. I can't get his hp below 90%, no matter how many times I hit him with firebolt. Flames barely does anything, and my other two damage spells don't do any noticible difference at all! I have the fire perk in the destruction tree. The only time I got him below 90% was by using scrolls I had to summon storm atronochs, but they could only get him down to 50%. I think he also has a frost enchantment on his battle axe. I was literally dancing around that room for probably half an hour and made NO progress. I can't even complete a flipping quest I'm so weak.

I'm also limited in where I can go because I can't even handle sabre cats, even though I'm level 11. They just slaughter me. So I've been pretty much stuck in falkreathe and whiterun hold, the only area where sabrecats and bears don't seem to spawn.

It takes me too damned long to kill anything, and everything can easily take off 1/3 of my hp with a single attack. hell, this drauger boss can take off half my health with his axe, even though I have 35% spell resistence, and block. I'm wearing steal armor with dwarven gauntlets. My shield is also steel. I was using banded armor because I prefered the look, but I was just dying so easily to bosses that I decided to start wearing steel. One boss, a bandit boss, took me probably 10 tries to kill, because he just hit me so damned hard. And several times, he did a finishing move on me, when I was half health!

What's wrong??? I've never had this problem before playing as a pure warrior or mage, but I try to combine the two and for some reason I'm not getting any better at fighting. I did kinda focus on leveling my alteration for a bit, so I could get spell resistence (was having a mild problem with mages), but other than that I've mostly been leveling destruction, heavy armor, and block.

And no, I haven't been doing smithing. Decided to NOT do the overpowered smithing grind again. Besides, I didn't do it wit a paladin character, and he did fine (minus the fact that the build fudgemuppet suggested had me wielding a warhammer, everyone could hit me 3 times by the time I swung the stupid thing).

I'm used to dodging attacks, I normally use light armor, but that doesn't do me any good here because everything just hits me so damned hard. I'm playing on the standard difficulty too.

What's wrong??? Why is my character so pathetic??? Is my skill set too broad? My normal build is one-handed, archery, enchanting, light armor, and smithing (that's the one I used to do the main quest). My paladin build was essentially just two-handed, heavy armor, and restoration.

Do you have any shouts you could use? Unrelenting Force, even at its weakest, is a good one to stun your opponent and get in with a whack or a spell before they recover.

A novice hood or a circlet doesn't give anything in the way of armour protection. An amulet or an enchanted ring might be a better bet to boost your mana. Get a good, solid helmet.

Also maybe you could find a better one-handed weapon?

I don't have any shouts, avoiding the main quest actually, because I already did it once. And besides, didn't really use the shouts other than dragonrend and the fire one (and that was purely bc that fire shout is REALLY good for hunting, can one-shot deer and reaches them in an instant, unlike bows). Actually, I'm contemplating installing the 'live another life mod' so I'm not forced into being dragonborn, and so I don't have to do the tutorial over and over again.

And I haven't seen any weapons better than steel yet. Besides, I'm mostly relying on magic to deal damage, the weapon is just a back-up for when my mana runs out. I eventually plan to enchant it with drain magicka, even though my armor will be enchanted with enough fortify destruction to make my destruction spells free. But I still use flesh spells, and I might invest in conjuration later. I've also been forced to use restoration a lot, luckily it doesn't level very fast...

And no, I haven't found any one-handed enchanted weapons, my soul trap came from a cheap bow I believe. I also disenchanted a two-handed weapon at some point.

What level is this character? Race/Stone? What difficulty setting?

I've found that a battlemage character works really well with Conjuration. A Bound sword would probably do more damage than that axe, and a summoned helper is worthwhile. Even a fire atronach will help against that Draugr, because while he's chasing you around, he'll be hit by fireballs. You also might see if you can get a staff, which gives you another ranged attack without using up all of your magicka.

The other thing about mages is that you really need to invest in Magicka. I don't think that 30-20-30 approach is going to be worth much if you don't have enough magicka to keep you going through a fight.

I'd change your stat distribution from 30-20-30 to 80% mana-20% health. Mages don't need any stamina, and not health beyond 200-250 hp.

I'd also take on the Atronach Stone or Lord Stone. 50 armor always helps, and +50 mana and magic absorption for mages also helps. Magic absorption also absorbs shouts and other energies as well as magic.

Have you put perks in armor or weapons? Both those are needed to keep pace with enemies.

on expert at L11, one with 40% damage 1-h can kill a wolf with one regular swing and 1 powerswing with most steel weapons. if you were hitting the approaching wolf with fire you may only need 1 additional regular swing.

as well, with regular iron armor you can sit there and take all the damage for quite some time before dying.

in fact, wolves/bandits with the hud on are great skill-increaser enemies to level-up, since, they won't be able to defeat you until some time into the combat.

you should be having zero problems with basic wolves and bandits and, therefore, i suggest you learn to use all the skills you have and take those perks that up the damage output.

at L11, with the 1-h perks, maybe a block or 2 and a bash, one in heavy, and, one each in alt/destruction, should have you kicking their boots.

so, it would be very interesting to see what your playstyle and character build are.

There's no mana in Skyrim! Level 11 is not really much up from the start,,so I would not expect to tackle tougher dungeons and certainly not Sabrecats at that level. If you won't smith your armour it's gonna stay at its very poor protection level. As you get hit, the armour skill goes up and the armour gets more effective.....but very very slowly and you're gonna die long before your armour skill rises enough to help offset an inadequate armour rating. If your using a fire bolt spell to kill things then your one handed skill is going to stay low and if you won't smith up your weapons either, then you can't expect them to work well. Then your giving health boosts the minimum raise.....well if you haven't got good armour, a decent high health is the only other thing that might save you. As for Flesh Spells.....well you need a crystal ball to go with it I'm afraid, because enemy archers aren't going to send a post card before opening fire. You'll know when to cast your Flesh Spell because the Kill Cam will tell you!

Sorry to be blunt, but in short....your not improving your armour or weaponry' you're only level 11, and your dropping into Soljund's Sinkhole, or tackling bandit chiefs. Well, you're gonna die then arn't you!

Breton, right now I have the warrior stone (had the mage stone at first, switched because I thought I might have had a leveling problem). I plan on getting the lord stone as soon as I find it, but I can't go into the pale right now let alone the mountains. I've never changed the difficulty setting. I did come across the atronoch stone (sadly though, I died to a sabre cat and ended up back in white run where I started...), but I didn't take it anyway since it would impact my magicka regen. And with me relying mostly on spells for damage, I had enough mana problems as it was.

I was trying to combine a warrior with a mage. I dislike being fragile and overly reliant on mana as a mage, but disliked how I couldn't handle huge swarms and ranged enemies as a fighter, so I decided I would try to combine the two. It worked fine the first few levels, but hasn't gone too well since then. I did encounter a few staffs, but I sold them to get money, don't even know what they did. No, I've never thought about using staffs, maybe I should start doing that. I did fine I believe a lightning staff at some point, guess I should've kept it. Don't those things require two hands to use though?

Thinking I"m just gonna have to re-think my build and start all over. Maybe I should just not come up with my own builds and just use other peoples. Obviously I can't design one. And no, I don't know how to do a point spread. I can't find anything anywhere about it. Normally I just invest half my points into health and the other half into either stamina or mana (depending on if I'm a mage or not). I think I read somewhere about using a 4-2-1 spread, which is what I did with the paladin, seemed to work okay.

Don't be disheartened, there's nothing wrong with a battlemage build.....in fact in the later game they kill everything too easily and your only decision is which devastating weapon or ability to try next.

However, like all builds the early game requires patience to build up the characters offensive and defensive capabilities and you have to play to their strengths to survive. Later on that's not important, but right now it is!

To begin with put all your level ups into health. It can save you if you get into fire or take a fall and if you won't get decent smithed armour you have to have good health to compensate. High Magicka is of no use if you're dead!

There's no Mana in Skyrim, or any Elder Scrolls Game!

I missed the "level 11" somehow in my first reading.

I think you have to decide if you're playing a caster or a fighter. If it's a caster, you need to really invest in magicka, and you need to be perking those skills. Then you're going to have to develop a mage mentality about fighting, because you can't go toe-to-toe in a boss fight and expect to survive with a caster. You don't want to get hit.

I'm playing an unarmored mage right now with 100 health, 100 stamina, and over 400 magicka. She's an Altmer in the low 20's for level, has the Atronach stone, and most of her gear is enchanted to fortify her magicka and magicka regeneration. She uses Conjuration at least as much as Destruction; she uses a summon as a meat shield, and fights from the shadows, using both her own spells and a fireball staff. She also uses runes strategically. Played at default difficulty, this character has never died. She rarely gets hit at all.

To answer the question above: No, a staff is one-hand in Skyrim.

I used to invest only in mana, kept getting owned by that woman in that one quest for the mages college (why the hell does the game have give you urgent quests one after another even though you need to gain like 10 levels in between each of them!!!! I mean seriously, that caller quest has you facing lvl 7 boss who dual-casts lightning magic, when you're still level one!!! haven't tried to do that guild since then btw).

edit: And is the game seriously designed so that you're screwed unless you make yourself overpowered with smithing and enchanting??? Pretty poor game design in my opinion. I mean seriously, why would they design the game so that you HAVE to be a blacksmith AND an enchanter, regardless of what you're playing???

sabre-tooths will destroy. thus, buy a horse:) seriously, attacks on horseback do more damage and you can always run out of their range.

if you're finding it tough, don't worry, you will get better. horse-combat in skyrim makes things too easy once you get good at it.

mages (and, the caller) will destroy characters, until, you get used to tactical combat: bash/staggers, dodges to lower their magicka, hide, repositioning and approaches until mages are forced to deal with you in melee.

remember, damage output and major quests will have more difficult bosses at the end. come back later when your skills are improved and, thus, setting the interior to the level you were at when you entered.

i suggest making restoration a perked skill.

for comparison- my current paladin at L11 on expert was 150/150/100 ish with perks in restoration, alteration, 1-h and block mostly. he would wear/use steel weapons, and, if i didn't use potions while on the ground a sabre could kill him quickly, lol.

Yeah, you have to take the "urgency" with a big helping of skepticism. My characters generally avoid going very far in the big quest lines until they've done some bandit-bounties for the jarls, killed a lot of wolves, etc.

Of course, the bosses only get worse if you wait, but it helps if you're put together a working "modus operandi" for your character, and then just keep improving it as you level up.

I'd also note that Tolfdir taught you that Ward spell when you first go to the college, and warned you repeatedly about the dangers of magic. He wasn't kidding.

On a battlemage type character I would do something like at least 70 / 30 Magicka and Health with maybe the odd level thrown in to Stamina if you feel you really need it for power attacks or carrying capacity. Might even go higher on the magicka end of the scales if you feel you're always running short on the spellcasting front as you can always try kiting or using summons as distractions or meat shields, 80 / 20 is perfectly viable once you get some better skills. Don't play like a warrior at least at first, play as a mage and build up your skills a bit more before you try and enter into close range fighting.

Concerning travelling, find an Imperial or Stormcloak patrol and follow them for a bit, they'll aggro and draw fire from any nasties and you can loot up what they leave behind, even loot one or more of them if they come upon multiple bears or sabercats. I wouldn't do any Nordic ruins until you build up a bit more, do some minor hunt jobs for Jarls concerning bandits maybe or wander around in some of the "starter" holds and areas looking for some easier pickings. Try picking up some spells in Illusion, it can really help turn a fight in your favor if you're struggling when dealing with some of the more aggressive melee enemies in the game.

The way I was thinking of my character, I was going to assume that he was primarily a melee combatant who used spells to supplement his abiltiies. Flesh spells to boost armor, cloak spells, magic resist from the alteration tree (was planning on giving my character maximum magic resist, thus why he's a breton). If he needed to attack from range, he would use magic rather than a bow and arrow. And besides, aren't the destruction perks supposed to increase the damage of your enchantments too? I've also found candlelight to be invaluable, makes dungeoneering as a melee a lot easier when you don't have to carry a torch. I figured enchanting also fit his theme quite well, being a warrior who used magic to make himself even more formidable, made sense that he would enchant his equipment.

I was hoping flesh spells would compensate for not taking smithing, but I don't know the actual math. I was also thinking about putting fortify heavy armor enchantments on my gear to give some more armor.

Thinking about this, I've realized I've been playing him wrong. I should've been relying mostly on my axe to start with, rather than my destruction spells. After all, your skill in destruction does NOT effect your spell damage like weapon skills do. All they do is modify your mana cost, and since I'm planning on getting 100% destruction fortification, that's kinda irrelevant, at least in the long run. And I am finding it annoying having a high-mana set-up while at the same time relying on spells to deal damage.

Thinking about this, I should've probably have invested my attributes as 3-2-2, maybe 4-2-1. I probably wouldn't have focused on spells so much, if I had known that I could make a decent weapon enchantment even with a low skill level and a petty soul gem (very surprising, considering that you can only make a 1% skill increase on an item at this level). I mean, I was able to make an axe with a 5 damage enchant that has 20 something charges I think (could've done 10 damage, but then I would've only had like 15 charges). Maybe I should've collected a lesser soul from a spriggan and just made a weapon with that. And maybe find myself a decent staff too.

I'm thinking I may have to start all over with my character, I don't really think he's salvageable. Unless maybe I want to just run around the woods all day grinding my one-handed on wolves for the next several levels.

Personally, I see it like leaving a lover... There must be 50 ways to play these kinds of characters, and each of them are viable under the right circumstances. For myself, with an altmer who is primarily mage with some one or two hand capability, I usually go with two magicka to one health. That being said, one must remember the natural boosts that are available. A blessing of Arkay grants an additional 25 health, and if you acquire an amulet of Arkay, that's another 10 for a total of 35 extra health. You almost automaticlallyget a novice hood that ads what, 30 to magicka? ...and a novice robe that gets you increased magicka regeneration.

I usually disenchant both of those last two items, so that, as my enchant skill progresses, I can add rings and things to boost magicka and regen. (Also, I much prefer the black Mage robes to the novice college style, and they give 25% more regen. All you have to do is take one from a mage somewhere...

In combat, conjuration is essential for most mages, so that the bad guy has something else to beat on besides you while you try to hit him with spells or whatever. When it comes to spells, dual casting destruction spells is generally a huge waste of magicka unless you're counting on impact staggering your foe. Myself, I tend to use two spells at once instead, like firebolt from one hand, and ice spikes form the other. That makes your magicka stretch out a bit.

Avoiding the main quest guarantees there are no dragons to deal with, but at the same time, that makes it impossible to acquire shouts... which can make a lot of difference in the end. I really don't like to try the more difficult dungeons until I have all three "Fus Roh Dah" words, because being able to fling your opponent across a room while you turn and run can be invaluable.

Anyway, that's all just me, like I say there are a lot of ways to play your characters that will work... either better or worse, eh?

Your problem? Your build is unpractical or you're using too many skills, maybe both. It's not like Skyrim is hard at adept.

Don't put fortify heavy armor enchants on anything! It'll only give you a tiny increase in armor rating that is certainly not worth it. You're better off fortifying your magicka or health. Neil's advice on getting a blessing before you go out anywhere is good.

Anyway, isn't the boss in Soljund's Sinkhole quite a high level? I remember spending ages with my first character trying to snipe him with arrows from a little alcove where he couldn't reach me

How were you facing the Caller at level 1? That would mean you got to Winterhold and went through Saarthal without levelling up...

You most certainly do not need to enchant or smith to be powerful in Skyrim. My current orc mage character is level 32 with 600 magicka and 200 health. Nothing touches him before they are disintegrated by lightning. The only self-enchanted piece he wears is gloves with +20 magicka. However, if you're planning to go melee then you'll need a decent armor rating to allow you to do so, so you might need to do a bit of smithing.

Or.....go down the illusion path with muffle and invisibility appearing behind your enemy just long enough to attack then hide again. If you insist on fighting the caller at some really weak low level, then concentrate on her not her summons.

There is one way to stop her in her tracks totally.....render her completely helpless.......paralyse poisons.

Go invisible, go silent, use a fast weapon like a dagger with the best paralyse you can find or make. Once she's down keep her there with fresh paralyses and in between use strong poisons to help sap her health. I guarantee that will work and is one of my chief reasons for skilling up alchemy.

BTW......there is still no mana in Skyrim, we use Magicka. I think mana is the term used by a few other games, but not in Elder Scrolls.

xBlackWolfx, I wouldn’t give up on this character yet. In my opinion you’re experiencing the normal growing pains of a battlemage. This character has a massive skill set, and that takes longer to develop. My favorite character is a battlemage close to what you describe, just swapping Conjuration for Enchanting and switching swords for your axes. I love the versatility and challenges that come with a battlemage. Here’s some brief (I hope) advice.

Attributes: I might even out the attribute spread and put a little more into Health at this point. You should be using all of your Magicka and Stamina (shield bashing, sprinting to reposition) during your fights, and it sounds like you need to be sturdier to survive them. Eventually your Enchanting/Destruction synergy will pay off and you won’t need as much Magicka as a mage or as much Health as a warrior, so don’t go too far in either direction. This character is about balance and versatility.

Combat: I’d switch back to good old Flames as you close and use short bursts to conserve Magicka (and not miss). Use your shield to get some space and keep moving to avoid those two-handed enemies. I would train Block to get up to the Power Bash perk. As long as you have Magicka you can fight with a spell and blade or a spell and shield. When you run low you can use a staff instead of the spell or just fight as a warrior. Or retreat if you’re dying. Switch according to the enemy.

Passive abilities: I think you’re on the right track with Alteration and your Breton resistance to magicka. The Lord Stone will help, but it’s a dangerous trip to get there. The Atronach Stone is my favorite. Not being able to rely on spells keeps your weapon and armor skills growing and prevents you from becoming a sorcerer. Plus it’s great fun to sprint up to a mage spraying elemental death while they fill up your magicka reserve for you, then bash the hell out of them before you… But I digress. The Steed Stone is another choice to keep you nimble in heavy armor since with lower Health than a pure warrior you have to keep moving.

Other stuff: I would pick up a follower who uses mostly ranged attacks to get through this rough patch while your skills build. No dogs, they get in the way. Even better is a ranged follower with a summoning staff. Remember your scrolls and use them. Keep a summoning scroll for emergencies if you can afford one, or even add Conjuration to your skill set. Don’t let the quest-givers fool you with their sense of urgency. There’s a reason they’re not going to go do it themselves. Finally, as a Breton the gods gave you the awesome power of Dragonskin. Don’t forget to use it.

Also: Soljund’s Sinkhole at level 11 with your attribute spread is a death trap. Don’t let that experience discourage you.

I did forget to mention, I do have an amulet of akatosh or something giving me some magicka regen. I've also been running around with the blessing of kynareth, but I touched that shrine solely bc I got infected with rockjoint from a wolf.

The reason why I was up in that area in the first place was because I was trying to find some forsworn dungeons. Ran out of bandits around falkreathe and whiterun, and for some reason they wouldn't give me anymore bounties so I decided to go up north of falkreathe and see if I could find some forsworn. Half for money, half for grinding my combat skills.

The way I was planning my character in the long run, I would be able to cast my destruction for free, my one-handed weapon would have magicka drain and fiery soul trap. I would have all the cloak spells, along with the relevant perks. I would have the max magic resist, though I might top it off with an enchantment other than the mara quest (don't really think that quest suits my character). Also, the dragonhide spell looks like it essentially gives you the armor cap for its duration. But you can't get that until you get your alteration to 100, so I was relying on heavy armor until I got to that point. Once I got dragonhide, I figured I could just wear whatever I wanted. In the end, the heavy armor would be more for looks than anything else.

i'm with grits- after a measly 11 levels or so there is no way you can possibly muck it up, let alone, to the point of no return.

even if i purposefully picked "incorrect" perks for my character the build isn't far along to matter nor a couple more levels away from getting righted.

the biggest obstacle i see is that you need to improve your tactical gameplay, get a little help in steed and companion and focus the build from this point forward.

Level 11 as a magic user on Expert is a pretty difficult game to play. My suggestion is to either lower to Adept or only bite off what you can chew until you can level higher. My mage at Master was a weakling until about level 30... then things started to change. Keep at it and you'll be well pleased. Get a meatshield companion as well so that you can use magic to pick off guys from a distance.

I decided to just continue with my character, this time I'm relying mostly on my axe to deal damage. Was able to handle forsworn well enough, briar hearts proved to be a bit of a challenge, however I stumbled upon a forsworn mage who kept casting ice storm at me, and I didn't stand a chance. I didn't complete that area. I did clear out that mine near markarth though.

I managed to get another perk in one-handed, so now my axe is dealing a lot more damage. Think I'll actually focus on my destruction next, and try to get it high enough so I can buy a cloak spell. Might also invest a few more points in block, mostly so I can protect myself from arrows better. As for magic, I guess I'll have to try and find the lord stone. Either that or find something with magic resist.

I did buy a steel helmet, but its that thing with the cartoonishly large horns that just looks aweful and rediculous. Think I may just sell it back after I enchant it. I actually quite like the way my character looks now. Oh, and I may try smithing my gear after I max out my enchanting, and make a few items with fortify smithing. I think that'll let me level it faster anyway, right? Granted, smithing would be kinda pointless once I get the dragonhide spell, but eh. It only has a duration of 30 seconds anyway, be nice to have a back-up.

I seem to have encountered a bug. No one will give me anymore bounty quests. I thought it was just because I had cleared out all the viable dungeons in the area around Falkreathe and Whiterun (even though I still found a few bandit holds here and there).

I travelled to dawnstar, so I could get the lord stone, but even they wouldn't give me a bounty quest, and I had done no dungeons up there! I just circled around that mountain trying to find a way up, got the lord stone, then went to dawnstar to rest and warm up (I have the frostfall mod).

What is this???