Hi

Just wondering how with 1200+ armor that sometimes I can pretty much 1 hit killed sometimes by AI Spells. Particularly what looks to be their versions of thunderbolt and ice storm spells. Whereas I don't do much damage with my destruction spells even though they are high level and look identical.

Thanx

Armor doesn't translate into magic resistance

The AI is notorious for "Cheating", even way back in Morrowind you had pc vampires get sunburn while the npc vampires were not included in that bad effect.

In Oblivion I saw npc mages get completely unaffected by magicka drain poisons/spells while I struggled...they cast high cost spell after spell...

In Skyrim I expected and got more of the same...little to no shout cool downs for the npc along with destruction spells seemed to level with them while we get the same damage points we got way back levels ago.

It's the same old same old for npc spellcasters and for the players in the Elder Scrolls...gotta work around it.

This.

To expound:

Enemy destruction spells aren't better than yours, per se. However, every enemy NPC has a perk that, depending on their level, increases the damage they do, regardless of the source of damage.

I look at those enemy AI advantages as some degree of compensation that still favors the player.

If enemy NPCs could post, I'm sure they'd complain about how unfair it is that they can't smith up their gear or use detect life and that fear/calm/frenzy spells are useless against those darn player characters. . . .

The http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Armor#Armor_Cap is only around half that.

Taking the Elemental Protection perk means blocking with a shield reduces incoming fire, frost and shock damage by 50%.

No, some enemies have perks that multiply the damage they deal (or in some cases, receive) by an amount independent of your level. Mages don't have anything other than the standard Augmented [Element] perks (with higher-level mages having the second rank).

However, NPC mages generally have much higher magicka pools, have a greatly reduced casting cost, and may not suffer a regeneration penalty in combat. As well, they have superhuman AI reflexes that allow them to strafe and cast spells faster than an ordinary human.

But strictly speaking, no, their spells aren't stronger per se.