I'm designing my game so that I'm forced to adventure with a group. Bandits, Mauraders, Conjurers, Necromancers have all been made tougher. Levelled lists have been un-levelled, so I can encounter a lich at level 1, for instance. Obviously I need to take some tough companions with me. This kind of mod has been done many times. I'm just doing it to my liking.

So I began testing. I chose Gin-Wulm (The Best Defense smith) as a companion. I didn't know at the time he's one of the toughest named NPCs in the game at level 30. That's good, because I might be encountering some impossible odds (I was level 2).

Testing proved to be great fun. Skeleton Heroes and Goblin Warlords gave my companion and me some long, exciting battles. But then I visited a den of vampires. I'd already given them some of the best levelled lists from my extensively revamped list design, thinking they should be ancient and well-armed. Unfortunately, Gin-Wulm was killing them in two or three hits. So I made them tougher. Still, he was killing them in two or three hits. I should note that each time I went back in to test, it was from a save just outside the cave which I hadn't visited before, so there's no chance the game was remembering earlier (weaker) iterations of the vampires.

First I made the vampires level offset 24-30 with a Calc Min of 18 (meaning they were 18 at this point). Two hit kills for Gin-Wulm.

Then I made them straight levels 24-18 (no offset). Again the Argonian cleaned the floor with them.

Finally I unchecked auto calc stats and gave each type of vampire between 300 and 500 hp. Gin-Wulm was STILL wasting them with ease.

I took a look at some of the other creatures being fought in that dungeon. He fought a headless zombie and a Skeleton Guardian at one point. Those creatures have 175 and 170 hp respectively (No PC Level Offset for those ones). Gin-Wulm beat them, of course, but it took several hits and the fight lasted at least half as long as the battle song.

Can someone tell me what I might be missing? I would really like to make vampires some of the toughest, most feared creatures in the game. As it stands now, they would certainly devour my level 2 testing character (and did), but as I get higher, or when I bring high level friends, these 300-500 hp NPCs won't even offer as much of a challenge as a 175 hp creature.

Remember that part of vampires inherent advantage is that they resist normal weapons; however if Gin-Wulm's hand to hand is over 50 (Which I suspect it is), his attacks are treated as resistance ignoring weapons (ie. daedric, silver) which will make vampires seem easier. It still doesn't explain how he's getting through so much of their health so fast mind you...

Were the vampires in the cave of some special type that wasn't actually effected by your changes to other vampires at all? That's what seems most likely when other things you've done appear to work fine. Check the IDs of your weakling vampires and compare it against those that you've modified. Alternatively, check the particular cell you're testing in the TES CS, and have a look at the leveled lists in use to make sure it's the right ones.

Also, do you have any other mods that could potentially interfer with your work?

Thanks.

I'm not sure I undertand part of what you said though. Via Talkie's mod I'd given him a weapon, so he wasn't using hand-to-hand. I should also mention that the weapon I gave him was a cheap iron shortsword that I picked up in the Market District before we headed out. Even more unbelievable, some of the vampires were wearing glass and Orcish armor. As for the magic users wearing robes, he was literally one-hit killing them. I swear I'm not making this up. Maybe I need to start a fresh game with these changes. Is it possible these vampires had spawned in their typical weak levelled form from the beginning of the game, even though I hadn't visisted that cell? It's a longshot, but at this point I can't think of any other possibility.

EDIT: Forral: no, they were definately changed because I gave them custom lists and they were wearing armor and using weapons that never would've been available at that level.

I started a new game. That Argonian had the fight of his life against one of those vampires. He won, but it lasted forever.

I could have sworn I hadn't gone into that dungeon prior to making these changes, but either I had (and, amazingly, forgotten, despite that it was a brand new character!), or the game somehow maintained their initial stats even though the cell hadn't been visited. Anyway, problem solved. Now it's off to make those vampires just a little weaker.

Closed per OP request.