In Fallout 3 there was massive beast with huge deadly claws. A beast that all players would learn to fear. Although rare, most of the times you would immediatly turn around and run like hell in the opposite direction upon spotting one. These large beast are Deathclaws and they're known for striking terror into players.

When you came across a Deathclaw in Fallout 3, you'd either cautiously sneak around it praying it doesn't notice you, turn and run, or gear up and prepare for one hell of a fight. They were tough to take down and their massive claws could do some serious damage. Anyone who played Fallout 3 and dealt with these vile creatures knows exactly what I'm talking about.



In Skyrim, there's really no creature that you just hope you don't come across. Really no creature that you purposely avoid or just run away from after being spotted by one. I really think Skyrim could use a beast like that. Something that puts worry in us while adventuring and strikes fear in us upon witnessing. Maybe the dragons were meant to be that beast, but it's just not the same. A lot of people find dragons as being more of a chore than a glorious battle. Early on in the game feeling your controller shake as a dragon flew over and watching the ground rumble as it landed was quite an intense experience. Firing arrow after it arrow at it while it hovers and working your way through it's fire to get in a few good shots while it was grounded was so fun, unfortunately it got stale after a while. After a while you knew what to expect and they just weren't that difficult. With a Deathclaw, you'd fear them at any level and never even go near one of their locations early on. Deathclaws were somewhat rare, at least in comparison to all the other enemies, and you would come to love their scarcity. Unless properly equipped, fighting one was sometimes a sure suicide.


Now I'm not saying put Deathclaws themselves into Skyrim, but just some sort of creature that made us second guess going out to explore and second guess going to investigate a location. I think a strong beast like this would add something more to the game. Especially add more to those absurdly tedious radiant quests the Companions give us after becoming Harbinger. What do you guys think?

Very early on giants are pretty scary, but it would be cool for some beasts to continue to do this later on in the game. Giant mudcrab perhaps?

That's true. Although Giants are mostly peaceful beasts and will leave you alone as long as you leave them alone.

I agree completely. Trolls are probably the closest to Deathclaws in Skyrim, but they should be faster and stronger to be a threat.

I thought the Chaurus Reapers were the Skyrim equivalent of Deathclaws: Fast, powerful, pretty rare, and damn creepy.

agree, it would be cool if there was one or two of massive and immensely powerful beasts wandering around Skyrim. Dragons are too much of random encounters and you can't really run away and say "I'll be back when I got better arsenal of potions and weapons".

although that would probably mean giants and mammoths become extinct

Deathclaws ended up being pretty trivial once you got a decent long range gun, and in FO3 the little dart gun was an "IWIN" button against them.

In Skyrim there are a few things that do put out absurd melee damage though, maybe not one hit kill like some Deathclaws but since FO3/NV were more gun-centric and some people for whatever reason like to melee in Skyrim I think that'd be overkill. Problem is, the most dangerous enemies are just level-scaling gone overboard enemies like Briarhearts, so they don't have the intimidation factor of a deathclaw.

To me they are a most fearsome creature. I get nervous just thinking about them. And in FO:NV
I can't think of anything quite as frightening in Skyrim, although Sabre cats (surprise attack) have scared me pretty bad a few times. I was kind of expecting dragons would be more like deathclaws ...

Did I mention I love this thread yet? Because I do, I very much so.

I respect Deathclaws. Hell, I wish I could be the Deathclawborn.

I can understand what you're talking about. Hell, I would literally avoid particular areas of the map that could possibly have Deathclaws. And when a Deathclaw would appear in an area that normally didn't have any... Well, a 'run faster' button would have been awesome at those moments. You just have a general respect for Deathclaws. You don't really have that in Skyrim. I mean, I don't think there's anything in the game that I say to myself "I really don't want to squabble w/ this so I'll just take the long way around to get to where I need to go."

They should have "rabid giants."

That would make things interesting. Giants that act like something from Dawn of the Dead or 28 days later.

FO3 Deathclaws were communist pansys compared to the NV Deathclaws.
And NV Deathclaws were pansys compared to LR Deathclaws.

Add Rawr to Skyrim. Preferrably Whiterun.

Frost trolls? Giants? Hagravens? Dragon Priests? Skyrim has plenty of dangerous enemies.