Alright, a little background. I'm level 38, I've been playing for 60+ hours and generally I'm one and two-shot killing anything that moves with my sneak/archer build.

Never had two much trouble with draugr in the past, but in the dungeon I just entered there are a ton of draugr deathlords. Suddenly the glass arrows I'm firing from my ebony bow enchanted with 25 shock damage seems to be doing nothing. (I've almost maxed the Archery skill tree). I'm just shaving the barest of slivers of life off these guys. To make matters worse, I can't seem to do any sneak attacks against them. Regular draugr are taking the x3 sneak damage bonus, but draugr scourges and above suddenly seem to be immune, even if I am definitely hidden when I shoot them. No message appears for sneak damage and no sound occurs. I thought sneak attacks had glitched at first, but I shot some skeever rats and got the sneak attack bonuses like normal.

Even WORSE, my sneaking doesn't seem to work well on these guys. They detect me well before they should. (I'm Sneak 90 with magical gear that suppresses all sound.)

The deathlords kill me in 2-3 hits of their sword, and they swarm me in groups of three or more, shouting me down so much I can barely do anything. Just now a group of three of them attacked me and TWO of them summoned Frost Atronachs. I mean, for the love of all that is good and holy. How am I supposed to death with that? I summoned a draeda and they tore it to pieces in seconds! I can down Elder Dragons with little trouble, Master Constructs, Ice Trolls fear me! But these damn deathlords . . . . :banghead:

Anyone got any tips? Is this unusual? Have I run into a very ugly case of level scaling? Anyone else having trouble with these guys?

Marked for Death Shout is basically the first move you should make in a dangerous fight after stealth has been lost.

Personally, I shield bash them a lot to keep them stunned and slash like crazy. Damage Stamina enchantments also keep enemies from power attacking once you have their stamina drained saving you a lot of pain over the course of the fight.

I know your pain as I have a archer as well. They have MASSIVE armor value so sadly arrows dont do too much, i've really only had luck with my 2-H warrior. What I do is use stealth to my advantage, take a couple pot shots and run into the shadows and just chip away at them, if you go head first into a battle with a deathlord like you would a bandit you usually do lose, use your skills! :toughninja: also have a back-up plan if you happen to run into a room and are forced into close quarters combat i.e. run like hell and start using those alchemy tables for some stamina draining poisons (if you drain their stam they dont use their shouts for some reason, also frost damage slows their movements speed so you can try shooting, running, turning around shooting some more etc)

Remind me not to go in that dungeon, I like deathlords one at a time at most. I have to cheese the sanguine staff to beat them as it is.

I'm level 26 and they only mess me up if they actually hit me with the Disarming Thu'um.

Since that is usually how they open up a fight, I just stay back until they shout, then run in and kick their ass with my dual axes.

Unfortunately I don't have that shout yet. My only shout that is full powered is FUS RO DAH, which I use to throw them off me when they close in. I just can't seem to do much damage to them. I'm a little confused - I was sailing right along with combat that was easy - challenging depending on the enemy and suddenly it feels like I've hit this brick wall with these guys. I have no good counters against them apparently. That dremora I summoned to help was even from a daedric artifact. But I think I heard one the deathlords laughing at it before they chopped it to bits in about 3 seconds and headed for me. (Literally. The enemies laughed. That's probably always a bad sign.)

These aren't even bosses for pity sake!

I had a bit of trouble with those guys with my warrior with legendary dragon armor which surprised me and actually had to use heal for once. What ticked me off the most is their ability to shout and knock you down. annoying as hell.

maybe you should turn the difficulty down. It seems nearly impossible with your current setup to get past 2-3 of these guys.

I have two characters, and both of them have trouble with deathlords.

My warrior got one shotted by a deathlord with an ebony bow (wtf, he's only level 10!) and ebony arrows.
Which is especially weird because I've seen only one ebony bow on my 30-ish character, and 0 ebony arrows.

Being an orc, I just use berserker rage and fortify health potions. They go down with a fight, but it's harder for me to be killed.
On my other character I let my hireling tank him, and plink him with arrows.

Not really sure what other advice to give.

Ain't silver weapon work better against undead? just a thought :hubbahubba:

I've found that an excellent tactic is to run. Seriously. I can take them on one at a time, but when they group, I'm doomed (even on a mace + shield warrior with legendary dragon armor). I found victory over them by running until I have the opportunity to fight one of them alone. When the others get close, I use the terrain to my advantage to force them to run long paths, thinning them out again. Most useful shout, given these circumstances: Whirlwind Sprint.

Thanks for the advice. Trust me, I never run head first into ANY fight. But like I said, it's like the deathlords KNOW I'm there. And the bastards are clever. More than once I've had one break off and go around to flank me.


Haha. You aren't going to like this, but the artifact I was using that they laughed at? Sanguine Rose. Yeah . . . :sadvaultboy:


Good to know it's not just me. I'll keep plinking away at them then, see if I can come up with other strategies.

Sounds like you need to find or make a weapon or two that is effective vs undead. There are spells and enchantments designed just for such creatures. :yes:

Or at the very least... a weapon that leeches health, so you're healing yourself with each hit while you're banging away at him. Makes for long fights though.

Love these guys as an archer. Have to kite them back through the halls, them shouting Draconic stuff at me while I just barrage them with arrows as they trudge after me unphased honestly was alot of fun.

Melee though... not as much

Well, at one point they actually were bosses. One of my hardest fights ever was with a deathlord i took out at level 15. As for taking them out...honestly, it would probably be best to level your sneak skill up to 100 first. That level 100 perk would probably allow you to sneak attack them far more easily, and 3x damage would make your battles far easier!

Also, poisons(if they work? Maybe not.)

i know your pain buddy.just one is bad enough,but a whole dungeon full of them :facepalm: between them and skeleton lich's,they are the enemies i fear the most so far in the game :unsure:

3x? Nooo way. With a high sneak, you could get 30x by using two daggers, the Assassin's Blade perk, and attacking with both simultaneously. Wreak even more havoc by using a turn undead enchant.

Edit: ((base damage)*2)*15=(base damage)*30. Just in case you didn't believe me.

Well, i was just talking about archery, but daggers work too =P

my level 35 warrior seems to kill them pretty easily, maybe try poisons? if its impossible for you to get through them theres no shame in lowering the difficulty

Always shame in lowering difficulty...

Try silver weapons. They're said to be highly effective against any undead foe.

Every enemy in Skyrim reminds me of my first encounter with a Deathclaw in Fallout 3, instant deaths and painful memories. Every time I start to think I'm strong enough to take on those past enemies that kicked my ass, the field will immediately be leveled by some new beast capable of one shotting me (now at level 33 I'm really seeing the effects of good perk placement, the only thing that can phase me are magic users).

First of i have to admit, i never seen these fellah's yet, and from what ive seen here am glad for it
I have a few questions though;

1) Are they dual wielding?
2) Spellcasters?
3) Comes in numbers?

Cause my theory was equip one-hander + shield and do a hit and run tactic? Like skirmish? Hit -> Back off their swing -> Run in and hit.. (Perhaps combine with a destruction spell?)

Dont flame me for this please, this is just a theory i used to use in Oblivion and any other similar games when facing an enemy significantly stronger then myself

Im a noob (barely at lvl 15) and yeah i find that killing basic mobs is easy cause i just sneak attack kill everything but i am terrified of boss monsters for this very reason

I have similar trouble with them, the only way I can kill them without being killed quickly is to stealth up to them (I have max stealth and +stealth enchantments on my stealth set) and I use daggers with the x15perk while also using my DB gauntlets which turns that into a x30 bonus and I can nearly 1 shot them.

That's is about my only defense.

They are annoying as hell.
I usually run away and let my summons deal with them.(i know i am a coward.....)
The dremora lord is especially effective against them.