I was just thinking to myself while clearing a cave here, and thinking about all the discussions on difficulty. The problem with the modern TES games, not that it is too hard or too easy on an individual level. Some people will find it harder than others, and others will find it way incredibly easy but for one simple reason:

You rarely fight more than 2 opponents at once.

In terms of difficulty scaling, the game does two things when you move that slider:

• Increases/Decreases the AC of your enemies
  
• Increases/Decreases the damage of your enemies attacks

IMO, this is a terrible method of controlling difficulty, at least in this type of game. You're still only going to be in more 1 on 1 situations (2 on 1 if you have a follower) and it can become quite easy for many players; it just becomes more time consuming. Or it can be frustrating to not-so-skilled players who are getting killed in a single blow very often.

In a game like this, where there is more focus on close quarter fights, a better way to scale difficulty is by increasing the spawn rate. More enemies fighting you at once. You could also couple it with a toned down version of the two items above to make it even more challenging. It would be especially nice to have larger crowds for the AOE spells in the game. I've been saving all these Mass Paralysis scrolls and I have not yet needed to use one, because the most enemies I am fighting in a single room/area is only about 2 or 3, and they are only ever the weakest types of mobs that are felled in a single hit. Even in some of the Draugr infested crypts, where you end up fighting about 15 guys in one room, they only come out 2-3 at a time and never en masse.

TES games have always allowed you to become a jack of all trades character if one wanted. A self supporting Mage, Tank and DPS machine all in one. True difficulty will come down to the individual player and the restrictions they place on said character. Personally I like to make challenges within by not rolling an all you can be toon while others love that playstyle ala Pull with Fireballs to soften the enemy up, When the Enemy gets close you tank him in Heavy armor and proceed to finish him off with a 2 hand weapon.../yawn

Yes, more enemys at once would make it way more interesting.
The only challenging fight I had in the last 20 or so gaming hours involved 2 Cave Bears, an Ice Mage, an Spriggan Matriarch, 2 medium Frostbite Spiders and a couple of Wolves.
Such fights you sadly only get by accident in the open.

AFAIK the didficulty slider just increases mob health and makes mobs have higher skill sets.
possibly increase base dmg of their weapons aswell? (not sure never played bellow master)

the game is VERY challenging if you dont exploit multiple crafting combos, I played a pure mage perking only enchanting and a pure sword and board warrior perking only smithing, and the game was pretty hard on both chars and gotten significantely easier as I leveled and my chars became more powerfull, but still challenging at the end, especially bosses.
as for numbers of mobs, my mage's main "awesome point" when playing it, was how much control and aoe power he had against multiple mobs, tthere are TONS of situations where you fight 3 or more mobs really, you prly havnt played many quests?

anyone who says he plays the game in master without exploiting and the game is easy, is prly BS'ing, I even seen people saying they "two shot everything" on master, so clueless >_<

play on expert, no HUD, no music and use basic low level non enchanted gear. I play like this and the difficulty is perfectly balanced. Fights with bandits are epic battles of skilled swordsmanship rather than big smashy hammer that kills in 1 hit whilst setting fire to things.

I pity people who want everything Daedric.

Iam playing it on Master, being a level 32 Mage, wearing level 10 to 20 random armor. Cant see an abuse, it is still easy, just takes longer to kill the "enemys".
When I replaced my Ice Atronarch with a Dremora Lord it went from easy to pretty much god mode again.
Its like the starter said, to few enemys at once make the fights boring and easy.

play the game more.. if you are 1v1 or 1v2 enemies by level 32 (wich should net you at main skills between 50-75 already) with conjuring its bound to be easy... when you get deeper into the game and get to the more j00cy quests, you will be majorily fighting 4+ mobs, that either go for you thn just your summon or downright kill it.

having that said, you are playing a no effort buildup, speccing into conjuring allows you to basicly spam spawn minions while running away from the action... its true, its not an exploit (its the whole point of conjuring), and makes any difficulty easy... but meh.. fight yourself and you'll see more of a challenge.

Well I played a Melee character before that one and it was even less challenging.
What you suggest would come down to just casting destruction spells and that would be extremely boring.

yeah right...
without exploiting? at master difficulty?
you played a melee char and wasnt chalenging? either you are incredibly pro or BS'ing, like most do...

Master difficulty, melée, and easy should never be in the same sentence. No one cares about your epeen. That fighting style is nearly impossible on said setting.

pretty much this

its easy to spot BS'ers when they make absolute claims that just go against all observed experience...
if I ever level a melee char again I would be scared to do so without using a shield... dual weilding and 2 hander, even with well invested heavy armor, is pretty damn though, shield + blocking perks is the way to go.

Started as dual wield+light armor+destruction, changed to 1H+block+heavy armor+destruction at around level 15, in the twenties turned difficulty to master, finally scraqed that character around level 29 when I heard that mages are more difficult.
Used drop armor and weapons only, no alchemy, no companions.
The first spec was actually challenging at times, but not really fun to play. The second one, even with not having any block or heavy armor perks when I changed, was straight boring after a couple of fights.
When I made it a Vampire and fought in Daylight it got very hard though, but that was just stupid to play.

I can't count how many times I've been one hit on master difficulty. At level 14, anything from a bandit thug to Falmer anything are a struggle. There's no way I could have done it without alchemy/companion help like you claim.

Its not about epeens, it is about trying to have fun with this game.
If you just stand there and let yourself get hit while hitting back it is obiviously "hard".

sorry m8 those are incredibly inneficient builds, theresn o way in hell I believe you... really, all you been saying goes radicaly against my experience.
with those kinds of builds you should be getting one shoted even in heavy armor by lvl 15 in any same lvel power attack, while not being able to kill liutenants at all...

dividing skills between stamina magic and health? destruction with dual weild and light armor? and SWITCHED at lvl 15 to another buildup? just "WTF", theres no way anything you are saying can be true sorry.



how theh ell do you avoid getting hit with a melee or melee/caster hybrid build? seriously?
using light armor means you are faster, but you will always be getting hit by charge/sprint attacks once in a while, or surprised by bashes/staggers, that +bad skillup distribution with your awckward builds = you get 1-2 shotted easily...

sorry m8, I really dont believe anything you are saying at all

No alchemy dosent mean no potions, it just means found potions only.
But one hit on a Warrior Type character, just dosent happen.

Yes it does. All the time. Full heavy armor, perks and all.

Few Magicka, maybe twenty points, I stopped using Magic exept restoration when I went Heavy Armor and 1H+Shield.
I honestly do not understand why you dont believe me, its no bargging, I thought almost everyone experiences the game like this when he figured out how the fights work.

it does... even assuming you are at the armor cap (wich never happens before mid game (if you play with heavy armor+smithing investment) or late game (if you play with light armor+smithing) you still take 20% base dmg, aswell as full spell dmg, poison dmg, bleed dmg, and mace armor ignore dmg.
without a shield you can easily get two shoted by liutenants in light armor, easily one shoted with low skillup light armor like you will have if you have such a spanned buildup, and even in heavy armor there is danger of being 2-3 shotted by unblocked/flanked/stagger/knockdows/disarms etc.

the more you speak the more I realize you are either playing around with console without really experiencing the game's content, or just flatout BS'ing around for the kicks.

Obviously the plane mobs like "bandit" or "Orc" don't one hit, but those Falmer are not good sports. Blocks almost feels pointless. And forget about staggering them with any kind of two-handed weapon

Personally I think Skyrim's Difficulty should be setting leveled stuff at a certain amount of levels higher than yourself, at level 4 I tried out a level 50 Bleak hall Barrow today.
Used the console and temporarily set my level to 50 while I entered, then set it back to the original number), it was the most fun I've had in ages in a Dungeon, it was absurdly hard but manageable with Preparation and not to mention having the dungeon set that high also meant better loot, nothing too amazing but a noticeable difference.

I think it should be something like.
Adept = Game is leveled to your level.
Expert = Game is 15-25 Levels above you at all times, providing better rewards and a decent challenge.
Master = 25-50 Levels above you at all times, providing an extreme challenge and even better rewards.

The final Draugh boss in Bleak Barrow was a Scrougelord, he was pretty much impossible to me as when I hit him with my Superior steel, his HP barely budged, fun times.

Last setup before I scraqed the char.
Steel boots+Hands+fine improvement +1 Ebony drop Armor for the Chest I found. Imperial officer Helmet.
Weapon either Dawnbreaker or a to Superior improved Blades Blade without enchantement or one I dont remember with+frost damage and some Bow with+Shock Damage for the Dragons.
Ring and Amulet I dont remember.

Perks where mostly 1 Handet+Heavy Armor.
Race was Imperial, used the Steed Stone (reason why I switched to Heavy Armor) .
For every 10 hits or so I dished out I got one back, not by 2H though, they almost never hit me.
Obovioulsy died on some Boss encounters and difficult others, but the normal fights ( like 95% of all fights ) were just not interesting at all.

If you dont believe me thats your problem, I said about that what I could say about it.
No Idea why it is so unbelievable to you.

Im not 100% sure on the figures but, from the times I want in bleak falls barrow the times that I got a scourgelord was when I was above lvl 15, wich is odd because scourgelord is a lvl 30 liutenant innit?
when I was lvl 12-15 I got a wright wich I believe is a 20 liutenant and when 10 or bellow I got a restless wich is a lvl 10 liutenant.
so I think something about the coding went wrong that made the mob there become 10 levels above what is suposed to be if you entered the dungeon at lvl 15 or above? it should still be a wright or restless at lvls 10-20 innit? not lvl 30

Master becomes a cakewalk once you learn that you can keep someone constantly locked down with the dual wield power attack. My character is a level 32 light armor wearing, dual axe wielding psycopath with 50-something in smithing and the power attacks completely rips everything apart. Just continue running that mouth of yours, calling people exploiters but it's not really that hard to come of as an epeen-stroker with clueless losers like you around.

One way to set different levels of difficulty would be to use different leveled lists. Lower difficulty settings would bring a higher probability of encountering lower-level people and creatures, and higher difficulty settings would bring a higher probability of encountering higher-level people and creatures. This technique improves the challenge while keeping opponents just as weak or strong as they are naturally supposed to be.