Not. Cool.

I built it before my char got to level 20. Right about level 20 got a visit from a hostile giant. I'm rather squishy and depend heavily on potions. Unfortunately, heading home usually means I'm running low or out.

Man that was a tough fight, I have high archery, but only one perk in my melee. Hope the giants don't show up often.

I hear you - I had a giant right outside the front door at Lakeview Manor once. I hadn't built the upstairs balcony so the front door was the only way in and out. That was nasty - I had to sprint immediately away from the house and it took several tries to figure out which direction was safe.

Try to get a follower as well as a steward. Tell them to wait here back at the house. They can often help.

I also stopped Fast Traveling to Lakeview. Instead, I'd FT to Pinewatch and then walk over. This helped with bandit ambushes.

Don't give up, though. It's a really good DLC, especially with alchemy ingredients (just plant a garden).

LOL! Happened to me too at Lakeview! I've also encountered Bandit Parties and wolves, if I recall correctly. Dunno why.

One time in an older game I was going home to Lakeview and I was attached by bandits (3 or 4 I think), a couple wolves and a dragon. That svcked.

Attached? Lol. Yeah, I've gotten the Bandits before too, tough ones too. Never a dragon though!

How funny - lots of fresh Curates on this thread.

I just caught that..lol

So what are you saying? LOL

Actually, I'm embarrassed to lump myself in with you guys, I got the threshold confused between 400 and 500. I'm the only really 'new' Curate.

I ran into a dragon at Lakeview only once - it was awful. The kids were running around, the cow, the chickens, my horse, it was a zoo. The kids had the sense to get out of the way but I think the cow died. When the dragon finally went down, its body was up by the iron vein and its head landed right by the workbench/lantern area. It was perfect but, of course, I left for many in-game days and, when I returned, the skeleton was gone.

Yeah, Bethesda said before release that the bones would stay there, but they don't. I'm glad for that actually. Thus, I always empty every dragon I kill, bones, scales, everything. Makes me over-encumbered often, but I usually just stick them in a nearby barrel and come back later.

Oh yeah, me too. That skeleton was completely in the way. I was getting ready to Fus Ro Dah it into the lake when it vanished.

Lol, I'd do the same to corpses, only with my Fireball Spell. I'll blast them off my property. Literally.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, forgot about Fireball, much faster than a Shout which needs to cool off. Good tip.

Speaking of blasting stuff, I was playing a PC that was pretty far along (had the Master level destruction spells) and one of the Thieve's Guild (or was it helping the people of Riftin?) quests involved retrieving a stolen horse and the docs that prove something or other. The horse was in the stable and the doc was in a mansion/house outside Riften. After entering, I realized there were tons of mercenaries and, given the enclosed space, I decided to fire off the brand new Master Destruction spell Fire Storm.

BOOM - off it goes, they're on fire, everyone dies.

Interestingly, everything in the house, I mean EVERYTHING, got knocked off it's table/shelf/stand etc. What a mess. The target document fell behind a night stand. The only way to see it was to jump on top of the nightstand and look between the wall and the nightstand. I had to use Telekinesis to reach it. I won't be firing off Fire Storm in a house again.

Ice storm works well on moving dead corpses out of the way as well.

All AoE spells will have similar effect, but this is still words to live by.

Yikes! I hear ya That can be rough!

FYI: Giants are attracted to your cow. Having one increases the likelihood you'll encounter a Giant.

I've had a few interesting combinations of attackers myself! The most entertaining (and hairy) was a bandit party and a group of Dawnguard. Bandits came at me from the north and the Dawnguard ambushed me from the south. Thankfully I had a high sneak so I was able to escape by the skin of my teeth and evade just long enough. They eventually lost interest in me and began fighting amongst themselves, Bandits v.s. Dawnguard. Add a well placed Frenzy spell I got to sit back and watch the two groups kill each other.

Good times!

I haven't had giants yet - I think I'll hurry up with getting a steward for Winstad so that he will be on hand to help Gregor (housecarl) and me in case we do get an attack. Vilkas just became my preferred candidate as he is level 50. This will complete my protection of my houses with both steward and housecarl.
I had 3 bandits attack Lakeview - they really are stupid! The 4 of us (my lvl 45 character, Aela steward, Rayya housecarl and Marcurio husband) who were all at home laughed and made quick work getting rid of them! Then I dragged them away so they werent on the doorstep for my daughter to see.

I had a giant when we I exited my house. And my steward was nowhere to be found.. Coward! I did manage to lure the giant away from the house so he wouldn't die nearby. He did kill a deer which laid by my smelter for days.

Have you tried just building the house as a single home without all the add ons? That has usually done the trick for me, no giants, no bandits, the sabre kitties usually look at you differently but they stay good kitties for the most part

Do you mean just the initial one-room house? I had that for a bit, then expanded to get an alchemy lab. (also, I wanted a cellar.) never got a cow, so that can't be it. In any case, I want to make potions and poisons, so I got to have the big manor house. Good news is, I haven't seen another giant and it's been close to a week of game time.

I have never had an attack of any kind at windstad manor(its my only house). No giants, no bandits, no nothing. Is there a reason for this? My steward is a housecarl decked out in ebony and fully enchanted... so does she just kick all their asses while im away? I havent even seen any corpses.

I walked out of the door at Heljarchen only to find a giant right there. I tried to hustle the kids back indoors, while trying to hold off the giant. They wouldn't get inside so I had to get between the giant and them and it was not pretty. I was loosing the fight, one more blow and I would have died, but then a firebolt (or lightning) came zooming out of no where and killed the giant in it's tracks. Turns out hubby (Marcurio) had come outside in the nick of time. Awesome moment.