Seriously, what the hell is this? I kill every bandit in Lost Knife Cave, and then this archer comes out and one-shots me. After about 30 reloads, I finally had to use an invisibility potion to get close enough to him to kill him (stagger is what saved me here, by stopping him from shooting at all). I looted him, and what do I find? Iron arrows and a hunting bow. A hunting bow and iron arrow do 250+ damage in one shot? I have 250 health, and 240 armor rating with x3 Mage Armor :-/ What the hell is going on? Are the enemy bows bugged????

no. he just trained ex-Legionnaire marksman that committed desertion and gone rogue

Maybe he shot you directly in the eye. I hear that's an insta-kill

I've heard that the mage armor may be bugged. I'm not sure if that's what is going on for you.

In fact, 240 armor rating is very low for high levels.

But I'm surprised by the idea that they could be doing that much damage at all. Even against no armor.

My guess is that that character had some interesting perks, assuming NPCs have perks like PCs.

I had a similar issue last night with my Steel Armored Sword & Board Paladin went into a Falmer location to get a quest item. I burned so many potions and died so many times in that place. The most armor they had was a shield. I also ran into an Orc that wanted to die in glorious battle, who one-shotted me numerous times (with my shield up), that wore fur and had an iron mace.

Granted, some of this is due to me still getting used to the melee combat, but I had to use every trick in the book in that Falmer location (like using a bow to distract a caster away from the melee that drop out of the ceiling, to using poison on every swing for a fight against 2 Falmer melee).

Hmm... What you mean by ''mage armor'' though?

It was in the shoulder the first time. The elbow the second... after that I stopped noticing. I would instantly ragdoll, doing fantastically impossible acrobatics. The dance of death.

The perk "Mage Armor" in Alteration. My armor spells are x3 more effective. With Ironflesh I have 240 armor rating. Now, this is my first game and I never wore armor, so I don't know if that's worth a crap or not. If it isn't, then being a clothy mage who uses Alteration for defense is plain weak and pathetic. Anyway, nothing else has one-shotted me. Dragons, bears, sabre cats, etc. And I have been hit with arrows plenty of times. I this is must be an oversight or a glitch.

Mobs seem to have their own level tied into their name, does not seem to matter what they carry for the most part. I've had tough ones that only have an iron sword and hide armor.

But seriously... being one-shotted by a stinking arrow? That's a little excessive.

heh like a jedi master using a butter knife and still killing a sith ive died so many damn time against a naked falmer while dual wielding chillrend flawlles and the nightingale blade flawless....not to mention i use mage armor as well...total bs

672 armor is the hard cap, it protects you from 85% of damage.

240 armor cuts off about 30% of damage.


True battlemages in TES wear heavy armor. Weaklings in snuggie robes get one-hit killed.

Am pretty sure they can, a few hours ago I saw a certain character do a silent roll and I've heard your PC can get decap'd at times. Unless its specially built into the NPC scripts, it would suggest NPC's use perks like the PC.. I'd even go as far as to say they can use shouts if a certain tick box is checked but we will find out for definite once the CK is available.

Well if that is so, I'm guessing this piece of crap has 5/5 on Overdraw, and some very good critical strike chance on top of that. But it's a bit STUPID for enemies to be strong enough to one-shot you. Bosses, I don't care... but these were run-on-the-mill trash mobs.

I one shot mobs in stealth mode, it's quite handy.

These guys are not in stealth mode.
I summoned a frost atronach, he was one-shot by the archer, too.
I am wondering if I had the single most powerful summon in the game, would it still have died in one shot? I am betting YES, more than likely.

I had exactly the same experience. It inspired me to quit playing a mage and start up a heavy armor warrior.

Some mobs have bugged out damage. I was on my archer who had 300 hp with about 500 armor, and this guard would one shot me if I was in stealth.

If I just stood up he would take 30+ hits to kill me.

As Gaizokubanou said, there are some mobs that are way too strong for the zone/mob group they are placed in. Just like a whole dungeon full of apprentice mages and then suddenly you face a master, or plenty of normal bandits and then you meet a 2H bandit chief that you can only kill in creative ways and using a dozen or more potions. It's something I'm hoping mods will address.

Just don't get hit by arrows. They're easily avoidable.

Says you. I was hiding behind a wall and the arrow came through it and killed me.
That was on the 15th reload, I thought I would try line-of-sighting him. Yeah. Didn't work.