Assuming that there will be highway men in this game, they should be A LOT harder than they were in Oblivion. My first time meeting one of them I thought to myself, "Oh Crap! I better give him my money." But I soon began to miss my money so I decided to try and kill him. And much to my dismay, he was just as hard as a regular bandit. If highway men are in Skyrim, Please Beth, actually make them something I fear.

Why would you suspect a highwayman to be tougher than a bandit?

That makes me also wonder if there will be guards roaming pathways. I remember many times a guard taking out a bandit for me lol

This. They're pretty much the same.

And Highway men are pretty much like common thieves today; They're horrible fighters, so I don't expect them to be extremely powerful.

Because they're demanding money from me. Saying "give me 100 gold or die" is a lot more threatening than a random bandit running at you with a warhammer drawn because you walked too close to them. So I'd think that they would have the skills to back that demand up.

Lol, and why were they all Khajiit in Oblivion?

Not really. They're mainly just desperate, and resort to that criminal behavior to get money. Seriously, do you expect some guy that nabs your purse, to turn around towards you if you're chasing them and go all Bruce Lee on your ass? No, the general persona of a highwayman is cowardice, not bad ass killing machine.

they should also make bandits tougher too, I don't really want to mow through these guys, would be nice if you actually had to think about whether you'd risk a fight, or just pay the gold.

The whole way highwaymen are handled is poor. The player character would have to be pathetic to loose to one of them. The way they go about trying to take money from the player is stupid. They're weak at close combat, yet they walk right up to you.

They should use traps and outnumber you, otherwise they are committing suicide. So make them clever and strategic not tougher.

EDIT: Criminals are predators. Predators go after the weak to stay alive. So why would a single bandit with the fur armor attack me when I've got companions, daedric armor, and a creepy looking staff (staff of worms)? That's stupid.

I was going to tell you to just adjust your difficulty settings, but I remembered that the difficulty slider isn't very good in how it works.

I hope you have to fear everything. Make a wrong step and die for it, but video games haven't been like that since the late 90s or unless your on a high difficulty of a game (bioshock on max difficulty *shudder*)

You could also play Demon's Souls for the same effect. :chaos:

I think they should actually flee. Just like in reality, a thug wants money and not to get in a fight. If you were a thug, wouldn't you rather mug an old lusty argonian maid rather than the champion of Cyrodiil?

Heres a story: My buddy got surounded in an alley by three thugs. He had a hammer which he was using to fix the electrical unit. They surrounded him, so he began brandishing the hammer at them. To his luck, the rubber hammer-head flew off and stuck one of them in the neck. Here he is with a wooden stick, and they all panick and run. (leaving the thug with a hammer head in his neck to bleed to death).

So, these highwaymen should have high aggression, but a very low willingness to fight.

EDIT: Yes, i agree with the poster below. Not all should run, but some should, depending on your fame/infamy. Even then, some fearless brutes should still challenge you.

I don't know about makeing highwaymen tougher, but I think, like Mr Frodo, some of them (I do not mean all or even most of them) should run away sometimes if you decide to fight, especially if your character is extremely famous or infamous.

The first bandits / highwaymen you meet at lvl 1 after coming out of the sewer were especially challanging.

I dunno but your name and avatar picture in conjunction with your statement makes me ROFL

Precisely!

All of which has little to do with their combat skills, and everything to do with them just being flat-out stupid, as highwaymen go. Better highwayman scenario: When you tell him "Take it from me if you can," his next comment isn't some bravado about taking you down himself, oh no...his next words are "Get'em, guys!" and then the other 6 open fire from the bushes and treeline, turning you into an instant pincushion.

Nothing there but Highwayman 101.

This seems much more like it. Very "Robin Hood and Merrymen". "You got to pay the toll or else we don't get no rolls!"