Hi!

I'm gonna start a new playthought, and I've like to ask your opinion about this...I'd like this time to make the game as close as "realistic" in terms of damage dealt/received as I can (because, you know, it's terribly lorebreaking - tedious having to smash 700 times your hammer in order to kill a mage), and although I'm a PC user, I wanna make it the Vanilla way (mainly because I'm very picky with my mods).

So I was thinking on leaving my own health always at either 100 - 150 points, and setting the difficulty to either Apprendice or Adept (Adept has 1x - 1x Damage dealt/received, but putting it at Apprendice would help with the issue of enemies gaining HP as you level up).

What would be the best choice? Do you have any additional suggestions?

Turn your HUD off.

..yeah, you know, I was asking for "additional suggestions", alright...but regarding the thing I'm discussing here..... (combat difficulty)...

leave health at 100 or lower it with PC magiczzz
set melee weapon damage to 1,000
set archery damage to 500-750
never improve armour
never pause game to heal
never drink/eat more than 5 things
no HUD
no fast travel
No 3D map. Use a real paper map instead
Limit your carry weight
no magic resistance enchantments
Legendary difficulty

I just play on adept most if the time. If you smith your weapons and take damage increasing perks you can take down most things in a few swings or one good power attack. Bosses and such take a few more hits.

I don't put more than about 350 into health for a melee type, 250 for a mage or sneaky type and I don't wear the best armor or even smith it all the time. And I don't take armor perks. I have one character who wears only fur armor and the crown of thorns and wields a honed ancient nord battle axe. If you don't have a high AR, enemies do plenty of damage on adept. Briarhearts and some of the higher level bandits can do more than 300 with a single power attack, so if you don't have a high AR, they can one shot kill you if you don't dodge or block.

Hm..that's one of the things I was wondering...if my chosen HP cap was a bit too adjusted...

And about armor and weapons, I pretend to begin the game with a Nordic Carved one (yeah, PC cheats ftw ), and then later use some modded, no-godmode ones. Same for swords, so expect Orcish/Ebony grade stuff for the rest the game (if not lesser).

Maybe I'll up the cap to 200-250 HP...

Perhaps play with no crafting of any kind? I actually started a game doing that and my assassin ended up doing alchemy because the enemies were just too much. And i was only on adept at the time. That could make a big difference in your game.

He'll be a mystic warrior, and relies on melee, shield and teleportation magic (Alteration) to quickly get close to his enemies and slaugher them. He'll also use both Heavy and Light armors, mainly depending of his mood of the day He'll also be a Restoration user, too. I planned on making him adept at Enchanting, too (fits with the character), but maybe not (or not too much) at Smithing.

Another option is to leave it at Apprendice level, plus 100-150 cap. So, Adept - 200/250, or Apprendice - 100/150? Or are still the limits too shallow?

I think if you take the armor perks and weapon perks, but only improve the weapons/armor you find then that might not be overkill. However if you increase your smithing and start crafting ebony and daedric, then I'd raise the difficulty to balance things out.

No crafting. All my weapons and armor will be modded ones, and the most famous ones are usually not overpowered at all (as I said, orcish-ebony-quality). The only exception to that is the Nordic Carved armor I'll be using at the beginning, and it's already of that quality.

Nonetheless, I've not the slightest intention of using overpowered stuff. My spells will do that trick (to an extent..).

Yeah, at 300-350 I've got a bit of a cushion. And i dont like taking potions during battle so i rarely do that. You could do fine at 200-250 on adept. I've got a mage that occasionally uses enchanted swords to engage in melee running around Solstheim with 250 HP at level 42 and he does fine. Occasionally gets taken down by Rieklings if he is not paying attention but for the most part, 200-250 should be enough if you can block and dodge.

Edit: you know you can always add HP as you level and you can smith your armor a little more if you need to, so if in doubt, I would put the points into magicka and stamina and only add to health if you really start to struggle. Once you put those points into health you can't take them back.

Need just enough health to avoid Cutscene instant-kill from enemies.

On Adept, this is 310 Health without armor. On Legendary, this is almost 1000 without armor.

I never knew the exact number -- how did you figure it out by the way -- but yes, I should clarify my post above when referring to briarheart and high level bandit power attacks doing at least 300 points to one shot kill you, this was what I was talking about. Those cutscene kill cams that don't really give you a chance to dodge or block.

Personally I would leave it at Adept/Hard but

Don't use Smithing/Enchanting/Alchemy perks at all. If you want to enchant basic things like a Waterbreathing Amulet or Muffle boots, that's an exception. If you just want to create basic paralyze poisons, that's ok too although you could consider it a I win button against certain enemies like Bandit Chiefs who I mostly use Paralyze poisons against.

Don't wear a helm/Circlet

Don't get the armor perks for both Light Armor/Heavy Armor or only get the 1st perk in Light Armor/Heavy Armor

Do the main quest up to the point that Dragons start appearing in the world

Leave your health at 200, 250 might be pushing it and don't have health boosting enchantments equipped.

Avoid Twin Souls

Damage ratings of the strongest enemies in the game, namely the Ancient, Revered and Legendary Dragons who all share a 300damage attack score. (Wing is only 150, but it's a lot harder to dodge)

In the case of a Briarheart, they don't do as much per-attack damage as an Ancient Dragon, but they attack much faster, and are harder to cheap out with Wards and well timed backpedaling.

Glad I don't pretend to go in the wilds of Skyrim without protection...(only in cities).

I think master difficulty without using smithing exploits would work. Don't craft fortify smithing gear, but you can get yourself to 100 and craft the best armor you want with just that skill. The balance seems pretty good at that point. You will have to spend most of your level ups on health, which should be in the 400 range.

I don't know if you're trying to make my game too difficult or too easy...

What I'm basically aiming for is for a somewhat realistic combat, without having to slash 7000 times an elder peasant in rags in order to kill him. And in order to balance, I'd have myself low HP, too, so if I'm not careful in combat, I'd die, too.

Master difficulty (0,5 damage dealt, 2x damage taken) doesn't seems to be the ideal choice for what I'm looking for. Even less hyaving in mind the health offset many NPCs have.