The best example I can think of in the books is Sul. When he comes to the rescue in the Infernal City, he makes mince of the bandits that have the Prince. For the rest of the story, despite doing many an amazing thing, he IS pretty much the closest thing to the main characters of the games as far as skill in battle goes. He is skilled with a blade, has powerful magics, such as destruction enough to make a being melt and conjuration to summon daedra. Yet... he STILL spends most of his encounters getting thrashed and bloody. Infact, pretty much everyone does, no matter how skilled or powerful. I'm not knocking Sul, infact he was my favorite character I think, even though the Prince grew on me. I may be downplaying him a little much, he did a lot of amazing stuff. However. Whenever a daedra appeared or something equally nasty people pretty much just wet themselves or got beat around.
Now yes, game mechanics and all that, but it doesn't change that lore-wise the main characters of each games become somethng special through no other descernable manner than enchanted gear and training, and being there. They all start out in rags and fall to rats if unwary.
I don't need to list what 'our' heroes end up doing, the legions of monster and deadra they slay, often multiple at once. I actually thought Daggerfalls hero was 'sensible' in terms of TES since in the scheme of things s/he fights no 'bosses'. None the less, many of the creatures they DO fight put most of the thngs in the books to shame.
I'm just going through Morrowind again; and I think the Nerevarine deserves a mention here. At the end of the main quest, artifacts aside, the hero is pretty much just mortal. Despite divine guidance, s/he hasn't really got any divine power. Frankly, I'm having a hard time even comprehending that initial bout against Dagoth Ur. Yes, there is Keening and Wraithguard, whatever artifact armor the hero got if any, and jewelery also. Dagoth Ur could even be weakened. However, that doesn't change the fact that this guy is (arguably) just as much a god as any of the Tribunal and potentially stronger in battle by Vehk's own admission. And... the hero curbstomps him, even if he does reform in the Heart Chamber. I find that encounter more believable; you can't so much as touch him, and you have to end him the same way as Jagar Tharn (in game terms, if not lore). It occurs that he is just playing with you at first, but I don't recall any direct evidence other than the Heart Chamber version of him. This same character can potentially go on to slay an entire base full of Dark Brotherhood assassins and their leader, kill the admittedly weakened but still horrifying Almalexia, and even battle and defeat an aspect of Hircine. And most of this before reaching their max potential. No wonder they head to Akavir: they ran out of challenges in Tamariel.
Oblivion is just as bad in different ways. Sure, one could argue perhaps that in one-on-one battles againts almost-divine and daedric beings that the Savior's Hide, Glass armor, Goldbrand, enchanted jewelry, and potions, may infact be enough to allow them to scraqe by a suprise victory. I'd argue that nothing like that is going to help you when you literally assaulting daedric towers, in that Princes own realm, are being mobbed who-knows-how-many to one. And wearing chain and wielding a silver longsword at first if they are lucky.
Skyrim I at least can somewhat swallow, because in the various lore sources its mentioned just how powerful Dragon Shouts (Thu'um was it?) actually is. It doesn't change the fact that lore-wise the dragonborn that is using a blend of powerful dragon shouts and long range archery from cover and the nutty l33t warrior-guy charging barechested with a hammer are both going to have slain the same amount of dragons by the end.
It can't even be put down to teamwork, because until Skyrim at least, the games heroes have been forced to go solo for the most part. Teamwork is all that keeps even half the cast alive in both books, and in quite a few ingame books also. I recall the vampire slayers in Necrom, I think it was.
In the books, magic seems to be rare to the point of being unseen, and some schools to not exist/are not shown entirely/at all. I don't think I ever saw a mage so much as use a restoration spell to heal a papercut, unless I missed something. When characters recieved wounds they used salves that did little to relieve pain let alone heal them in a suitable time for battle. No mention of the general potions freely avalable for afforable prices at the local alchemists. AnnaĆg seems to rediscovered Slowfall, which was fun, but that was one of the few recognisable things I noted from alchemy that was practical. Destruction magic was powerful when used, but seemed to leave people too drained to do much other than look pale if they overused it. With the fall of the Septim Empire has Tamariel entered a form of magical dark age or something?
I am able to put some of it down to a heroes gear, of course. Plain clothes and a steel sword, even a fully levelled character can takes some nasty wounds from 'moderate' (I.E. practically instant death if they had turned up in the books) beasties and bandits/soldiers. But thats the thing, a lot of it I can't get past. Restoration is practically the only viable reason for a 'main character' to still be standing, it seems it's not nearly so readily avalable, if at all, as it is supposed to be. I'm almost glad I didn't see it mentioned, because I have a feeling if I had that even healing a minor wound would have left a healer exausted. I understand it's hard to have tension when it comes to converting a game with uber-magic to a book format, but i'm not entirely sure that downgrading everything to rare and only-occassionally effective, and just not mentioning some things at all, was the best way to go.
Sorry if this seems to be bashing the book, because it actually isn't intended to. I love the books, both of them, and all the ingame books too. Infact I think the way Keyes wrote the universe makes it have that dangerous edge that is missing from the games, but they just don't line up well in some things if i'm seeing correctly. I'm a roleplayer and I like to be able to rationalize and have plausable reasons why my characters can do what they do. To build a coherent story. I'm about to write out in story-format my Nerevarine's encounter with Dagoth Ur, and I was already having problems with how easily Ash Vampires were falling. The character has Keening, Wraithguard, the Savior's Hide and thats about it. Late-Teens level wise. And the 'big bad' went down so pathetically easily that my only option is to make out he's going easy.
Then, this evening, I sat down and read Lord of Souls, and frankly i'm tempted to scrap my current Nightblade with her 1.7k screenshots and 200k+ word-count journal. Because aside from making lore mistakes throughout it (that can be easily fixed), what I can't fix is that if i'm to take the books portrayals seriously, the character is no less a god than a daedric avatar, even though i've made serious attempts to portray her mortality. And an inconsistant one at that, since storm atronachs gave her more problems than ash vampires. Rather than never getting seriously wounded, which was not plausable, I made the character with healing abilities and always carrying a few potions. The accomplishments a hero piles up was handwaved by her being 'one of, if not the' best warrors in Tamariel. Now, thats simply not good enough, because the books have changed the goalposts of what even a skilled warrior can do in TES.
I might regret posting this and have reconsidered by tommorow, I have only had a few hours sleep in the last 48 hours, and have now been up a very long time, but I found that after reading the book - as awesome a read as I found it - that I opened up my hobby and project of four months solid work, and just had no idea how to continue, since i'd been writing by watering-down versions of the universal rules the game set out. Powerful healing magic healed serious wounds, but having 1 hp wasn't always a mortal wound, while sometimes it was depending on the foe. Magic is avalable to anyone with enough study, and as such even in small communities it can be found, that while rare the tougher forms of armor are not THAT rare and allowed a skilled warrior to battle multiple deadric beings. However, now it seems that magic is powerful but limited, and exausting, battle against even the weakest things the games throw at you are almost certain death. Even so much as entering a daedric realm such as Mehrunes Dagon's should be practically instant death; let alone assaulting one alone.
'Classes' such as dedicated alchemists who have severe 'fortify' potion addictions, and scribe summon scrolls for a hobby seem like they might have a chance in some of the situations, but my mind boggled how I can plausably roleplay a (sufficently) mortal character (that is in the least bit relatable as a human/mer/whatever) that can fight toe to toe with some of the creatures they do with short blades and light armor.
I don't plan to throw aside my work. I just need help rationalizing the difference in tone.
Sorry, I know this is a rant thread more than anything, i'm just so frustrated. I have spent so much time on this 'project' and so much time getting the lore and details 'right' that its painful.