I know Daggerfall is scaled to at least some extent. Humans scale up in power, monsters have levelled lists where stronger ones spawn at higher levels, right?

Is there anything static about the main quest? Could you tackle the main quest at level 1? 5?

How is Arena scaled, if at all?

Just asking because I'm thinking of trying these but I hate level scaling and don't want to bother if it's heavyhanded.

Pretty much, but it's not unlikely to have monsters such as ghost/wraiths spawn at lvl1/2 (happened to me more than once), not to mention zombies, which at lower levels can kill you in one/two hits. As you may have noticed, better equipment starts appearing at later levels (this is also strongly influenced by your luck attribtute - for instance, I found dwarven equipment in Privateer's Hold, which is pretty much the best material you can find at lvl 1, with a char which had something like 85-90 luck). However, unlike Oblivon scaling, even at higher levels iron/steel equipment is much more common than adamantium/daedric/etc. Also, regarding armor, anything silver or orcish is VERY rare and if you find yourself with a full set of orcish armor you've really got too much time on your hands.


Random monsters are scaled, but there are also lots of fixed-level monsters which don't scale (for instance, Direnni Tower is full of vampires both at level 1 and at level 20, whereas Nulfaga's Castle has battlemages/spellsword (with the occasional zombie) at lower levels and liches/ancient liches when you're stronger.


There are level requirements for most quests in the Main Quest: for instance, although you get the letter from Brisienna as soon as you get out of Privateer's Hold, you won't receive the letters which allow you to start one of the first three quests (Nulfaga, Llotung's brother and the other one I can't recall right now) until you're level 3. Same goes for most of the later tasks - IIRC, you won't get the quest to access the Mantella Crux till you're 12-13th level (unless you're using the ship exploit, obviously).


Can't remember exactly, but I'm pretty sure the monsters aren't scaled at all, at least in Main Quest dungeons.

You're right about the Daggerfall scaling, and no, it's not heavy handed.

Most of the MQ quests are triggered by levels. The levels I remember are 3, 5, 8, and10.
(But doing the quests at the level that they are triggered would be difficult).

Don't know about Arena.

Thanks for elaborating on how Daggerfall works. Does anyone know how Arena does?

In Arena, the main quest dungeons have preset monsters. If you can find a copy of the hint book, the dungeon maps in that show the type and location of all the monsters in each main quest dungeon. I don't remember for sure if there were any random monsters in the Arena MQ dungeons, but I'm fairly certain there weren't any.

Outside the main quest dungeons, the monsters are leveled, but I didn't think it was too heavy-handed: low level characters will sometimes run into monsters they just can't cope with. In particular, very low level characters should not wander around Arena towns at night: after dark, tougher monsters come out who can easily wipe out a beginning character.

Free Arena hint ...

After you've explored the first dungeon and figured out how to get out of it: if it's not daylight, find a safe place in the dungeon and take a nap until daytime. Otherwise, you have a pretty good chance of dying before you find an inn or other safe place in town.

In both Arena and Daggerfall, some of the non-main quests may put a low level character up against a monster that's too much for them to handle.

e.g temples giving quests to slay liches .... now that was a bad experience

To be fair, the nastier quests that any Daggerfall guild/temple/order can give you require a level of skill or reputation that ensures that you've leveled up a bit before you get them.

The Ancient Liches infesting a random dungeon can happen to anyone at any level. Sometimes you just have to fail one.

I can take liches at level 1, assuming I stay out of melee range! Complete magic and elemental immunity FTW.

No, I do not play a High elf, either... but I probably shouldn't exploit the character creator - such as double-stacking complete magic inability and taking "Immunity to Magic" and "Critical Weakness to Paralysis"

It's my punishment for using the pre-made healer class