No one seems to ever mention it in topics about hard dungeons but I find it crazy hard. The combination of trying to keep your ally alive with the necromancer pounding at you both while teleporting and resurrecting the multiple as far as I can tell max level draugr for you is a nightmare. I have far easier times with Ragvald , Kilreath,Volskygge and even Forelhost. Anyone else find it incredibly difficult or anm i missing something. If I'm willing to let my ally die, I can do a fighting retreat and pick them off them as I string them out chasing me then go back for the necromancer but to try in stay in the room to help him is just.......death!

I always have to lower the difficulty for this one which I hate to do.

My fragile no-melee mystic archer has her challenges, but this dungeon turned out to not be a big problem. It just so happens she cleared it with Golldir just this morning. I was pretty impressed that the big Nord stayed in stealth pretty well, allowing Buffy to snipe everything ahead of them on the way to the big fight. He did charge into a fight a couple times, but Buffy was able to sidestep and shoot around him pretty effectively.

Once she opened the door to the boss room, she crept in a ways and, even with Golldir crouched in tow, didn't trigger any response. She could see the necrodude in the distance, conjured her mystic bow and took him out in one shot from stealth. Then all Oblivion let loose as it seemed like more than a dozen draugr popped out of their coffins. Golldir charged into the fray, Buffy summoned a pair of flame atronachs, then her bow and opened fire. With three meat shields, the fragile elf could lay down a deadly base of fire from relative safety. Happily, Golldir survived just fine.

She's level 29 and we're playing on default difficulty.

I can certainly imagine that final fight could have been a nightmare with a melee character and/or not taking the necrodude out first from stealth.

I can never take him out from stealth. He always teleports after I hit him. I just assumed he was scripted to do that. I didn't know Goldir wouldn't rush into the room. I must always just move a little too close in. I always do have some mods that make the game harder, mainly AI stuff. Maybe I always choose mods that find a perfect storm in that dungeon. I was a level 34 melee character this time with Dawnbreaker and Spellbreaker and i got owned a lot.. In contrast, I just pretty much breezed though Ragvald with my only real hiccup being Otar and he only got me a couple of times. ( I have Revenge of the enemies but I'm very fire resistant)

Another one I find strangely hard ( but doable in this case ) is Treva's watch. I think immersive detection by enemies is the culprit there though. Everyone hears fighting and comes to see!

On that boss fight, Buffy could see the necrodude way in the distance as soon as she opened the door. She's a very skilled long range sniper and took a good shot at him. The game ignored the shot! That is, the arrow disappeared and the boss did not even react. She tried three or four times with the same result. I figure there's something wired into the encounter to prevent a 'one shot kill from the doorway'. Once she crept in to the room just a short ways, she tried it again and that did the trick. I'm sure that taking him completely out in the opening move made a world of difference.

Well I just tried it again and managed to get through with only dying thrice, which is cool. I found out this time that Goldir would retreat with me a little. It made the world of difference and may also be a byproduct of the AI mods which make the enemy so well . I organized. I never remember him doing that before. Anyway, I always find it pretty hard but it never get mentioned as I said.

I think I tried the same shot as you once come to think of it. I've always assumed he at least had to start his speech before you could damage him. Good to know for my stealthy characters. Taking him out would make a world of difference since he resurrects the dead draugr after you kill them the first time. One time I did do well in that tomb was when I had the ritual stone and beat him to the punch.

Strangely enough, I pass by it when I take that route to Ivarstad. I think I went in maybe once. I do not recall much of it except the NPC who is there

Just did this quest out of curiosity. Yeah, it's a mini Forelhost. With a nasty Draugur deathlord waiting and Draugur hordes. The necromancer boss enemy is a wimp.

I with my presently modded game as I mentioned Goldir will retreat with me so I can finish them off a few at a time.. That makes the world of difference. As I mentioned , the mods I pick probably come to a perfect storm in this dungeon. My necromancer is definitely not a wimp. I also had multiple deathlords

It depends at what level you do it, I did it with my Dragonborn Lucius at Level 30 and the final fight was extremely difficult, in fact it was the most difficult fight in the game so far because Lucius is a melee character and the necromancer kept hitting him with very damaging frost spells while teleporting around, healing himself and waking up powerful Draugr. Golldir died almost immediately.

However, when I did this quest with my rogue Aard at Lvl 6, the final fight was extremely easy, the necromancer didn't pose any serious threat at all and his frost spells didn't harm Aard too much, though he's a Nord so he was frost-resistant to some extent. Golldir easily survived the battle.

I find Hillgrunds Tomb very challenging, whether I first discover it at level 6 or 60. Keeping Golldir alive is tricky, and often depends more on the follower I've chosen than my skill level. I love Belrand in any draugr crypt. Well worth the coin to hire him.