I'm VERY late in acquiring the game...just bought it last week, Legendary Edition x360 version.

Anyhoo, I'm at The Staff of Magnus quest. However, I realized that I'm actually too low of a level to beat the Skeleton Dragon and its minions. I'm at Level 16 1/4, and from the book and online, it was said I should be at level 20-24. I do NOT want to cheat by making the game too easy by changing the difficulty nor doing any easy level grinding. I rather work harder on increasing my levels.

My question to you, will everything be OKAY if I just leave Labyrinthian and ignore Winterhold for a while until I reach Level 20-24? I'm just concerned about Winterhold and the residents etc after being attacked by the Magic Anomaly and any other things that will be affected if I ignore The Staff of Magnus quest. It may be several days to a week or so of game time before I go back to The Staff of Magnus quest. I do know that some of the side quests at Winterhold will not be available, so that's okay, not a huge deal.

I know I read somewhere that the majority of the quests doesn't have a time limit to complete/start, so I can just take my time even though the quest giver says, "Hurry up! You MUST do this now or he'll die!", etc...but I just am not 100% sure.

In theory, I *could* open the gate, fire some Destruction spells, but that is a bit more on leaning towards the cheating side. I need to get some higher levels in order to do some of the quests that I kind of stumbled across anyways, so it's a win-win.

Thanks for any help!

There should be nothing wrong in leaving the area and coming back when you're higher level. You might find that the dungeon has been reset and the mods you've already killed are back when you decide to continue the quest, but that shouldn't be a problem.

You'll be fine if you leave. Skyrim doesn't have any quests with a time limit.

I don't see how it's "cheating" to lower the difficulty. It's a single-player game, you're the only one affected, and surely it's better to actually enjoy the game than to get frustrated and cross. Still, there's no time limit, and you shouldn't run into any problems, especially if you avoid Winterhold as well.

You could also bring a follower. Between two of you, you should be able to handle Labyrinthian with no problems, even at level 16. Morthal's not that far; you can go brawl Benor and take him along afterward.

Good thing too, otherwise there'd be a lot of angry folks.

Not cheating in the sense of other people doing it...I don't care if they do, but for ME. I am not a very good gamer, and I used to change the difficulty the moment I'm faced with troubles vs working my way through. It's OKAY to die a couple times!

I have Lydia as a follower, for now (easier because I have a house in Whiterun). I have tried with Lydia as a follower, but I'm the one that keeps dying.

No worries about mods, I have X360 version. I have a save before I even entered the dungeon, so I don't care about anything being reset.

Thanks everybody for your help!

If you're set on taking a follower with you (very smart move on legendary) i would bring an essential one, like Mjoll. Lydia can die, Mjoll cannot.

I completed the Labyrinthian on the Adept difficulty using only the Flames spell when I was around level 10. And with my other charecter I completed the Labyrinthian using only the Firebolt spell on the Expert difficulty at around the same level. Both of those charecters were pure mages with no armor and they did not use any followers. Both attempts were quite frustrating as I died a lot but I think you can complete the dungeon fine at level 16. But I would bring a follower with me if I were You.

So it's really more for the personal challenge? That makes sense.

I think as you get more used to the game, you'll have less issues with dying. Objectively, you could probably finish the dungeon at your current level, but if you're dying all the time, it's apt to be more frustrating than fun, and what's the point of that?