You know, I think that little encounter must assume that you've got Fawkes as a companion. Fawkes is an absolute tank. I'm not convinced there's anything in the game which can kill him - near as I can tell, he's barely hurt at all from damage which would kill me 2 or 3 times over.

First time I encountered a Reaver, I didn't have Fawkes yet, but I *did* have dogmeat, who seemed able to take a beating for long enough to allow me to kill the reaver. Poor dog was more than 1/2 dead I think.

But, to respond to the original poster: There is a point of putting what seem like 'ridiculously overpowered enemies in the game'. Take as one example, the fact that the game has locational damage. If you can kill everything fairly easily, then there's never a point in trying to cripple something instead of trying to kill it (or use other tactics).

Very tough enemies give you incentive to try using some of the more advanced tactics in the game instead of just trying to get headshots against every enemy. They give you incentive to use things like grenades and mines (to try to cripple the legs first) instead of just shooting the enemy with your submachine gun or sniper rifle, or even your ($favoriteHeavyWeapon) - by having such a tough opponent, you might find it advantageous to first cripple it, then use your weapon while kiting it.

The main thing about Reavers that svcks, though, is that after going to all that effort to kill them, they don't have any worthwhile loot - it costs way more to kill them than what you 'earn'.

ha! I killed that green bastard. back at raven rock. I was alone. sneak and sneak crits with the
apropriate perks are your best friend.

it is a matter of matching weapons with the nasties. machine guns are good against raiders and slavers but you might a weapon like vengeance against an overlord.

Yes, that was my problem to, played original fallout 3, without broken steel, came back with the game of the year version and got a shock in vault 87 against the overlords.
You need some serious weapons, botlecap mines and nuka grenades work nice, sneak attack with shotgun out of VAT do wonders. Vengeance works well, has a bonus of paralyzing the enemey because of damage.

The other plugins helps; get the point lookout perks +10 damage bullet, metal blaster is extreme in sneak attack out of VAT, novasurge work well in VAT and the alien epoxy helps keep hard to repair weapons like vengeance running.