I played this a bunch before all the DLC's came out, and decided to give the DLC's a try, and I missed the game. However, it seems a lot harder now, and honestly, more buggy than before. Am I crazy?

The DLCs are simply harder.

For one, it's common knowledge that each of the NPCs has a weapon type it's not super-friendly with. For example, Dead Money hates gun users, Honest Hearts hates energy weapons, Lonesome Road DEFINITELY hates unarmed and melee, and Old World Blues is kind of a struggle if you use anything but energy weapons.

Second, each has it's own challenge. Dead Money is a puzzle challenge and the Ghost People wielding throwing spears are definitely dangerous. Honest Hearts in theory isn't hard, but the enemy spawns are SOOOO [censored] that you end up with three giant Yao Guai suddenly spawning directly in front of you. Old World Blues is FO3 style difficulty; the enemies aren't particularly deadly or dangerous, however they ARE bullet sponges so they really press your resources. Finally Lonesome Road you....just try not to get friggin' hit in Lonesome Road.

Finally, enemies in the Mojave generally don't scale to your level. The DLC enemies do, to an extent. Not completely, but they do. I believe Honest Hearts enemies will scale all the way to level 40, Dead Money enemies can reach 45, OWB scales til 36 or so and Lonesome Road enemies scale all the way to 50.

I just meant in the base game. In days past I could kill the Legion in Nipton, then easily dispatch of the assassin squad. Now, they wipe me off the map in no time flat. Plus I used to do the prison mission early, and it wasn't too hard. This time, I barely survived. Just seems different, almost to the point of forgetting about playing and just playing Skyrim.

Well, I dunno about that. I do know that the developers said that they made sure that "several important Mojave Wasteland encounters" would scale to Lvl 50

-Nukeknockout

Hmm. Well, I decided to start over, since I hadn't gotten too far along, and this time I'll just let the Legion walk out of Nipton alive. I had even tried a stealth boy, and they saw right through it. Sill a bit disappointing though.

Dlc's are a lot harder.

-Cheers

In a patch they added sometime, deathclaws had their health doubled, so I hey hoer patches have made the game harder as well.

Just to add to the what those above have pointed out: the ai's skill in Caravan has definitely been patched. No-Bark especially seems much more competent. No longer are ALL (certainly a lot still are) NPCs super easy to rob through Caravan gambling.

Lonesome Road doesn't hate Melee/Unarmed, thats what I use all the time and I've gotten through there twice and once was a D.I.D playthrough, a combination of the right perks, weapons, aid and timing its actually quite simple......Those Deathclaws on the Highway though :swear:

The tribals in Hnest Hearts scale with your level, their weaponary also advances with their level. I tend to go to Zion when I am near lv.30-40 so I can get my hands on AMRs, 12.77mm Subs, Hunting Shotguns and a few other high tier weaponary