Excluding the dlcs which are arguably tougher than the main game....


I reckon Forelhost....but what do others think is the toughest, most deadly dungeon, forts included

Avanchanzel is high on the list due to a trap in front of a door that pretty consistently kills me if I manage to accidentally set it off, but in terms of overall dungeons...I think Alftand is the most difficult because it is just so. long. Not just in having a ton of zones, but also that each zone is insanely long, so if you die, you lose a LOT of progress unless you're saving around every corner.

It's the long one that starts off with Falmer, ends in the Dwemer, and is so large that I cannot wait to get out after a while I just feel trapped in there. I am not sure the name of it either, I think its the one in The Reach though and you're.....going after an important artifact. I think a bow. IDK, I barely remember

Forelhost is by far the toughest for me, followed probably by Queen Potema's dungeon because of the final combat with her, but my memory could fail on this.

Queen Potema's dungeon is the one that gave me fits.

Nightcaller's Temple, due to the bug with saving on that one.

I'd make a case for Labyrinthian, especially if done by a pure mage type character, as is appropriate for the CoW quest line.

Forelhost. Especially if you have to go look for the well key.

Thank you, this one. I hate this one.

I'd agree with this. That is a rough one for a pure Mage.

If only looking for the word wall, I find that skipping the whole dungeon works well I agree that this dungeon is rather tough.

For me, Volunruud with Tongue Chieftain Kvenel is very hard. It may still be from the playthrough where the Graybeards sent me right off the bat (level 8-ish?), but that was tough

From the top of my mind, Sanguine's mage infested fort was a pain in the ass. I did have mods, but I imagine it's a messed up place without any too.

Too often during the College questline I wondered 'what the heck were the people at Bethesda thinking?'. You can complete the questline as a pure warrior in the first place, and it's even easier than as a mage!

No. You cannot. You are required to cast at least two spells during the College of Winterhold questline (this is not counting the possible third spell to gain admittance). You must be thinking of Oblivion's Mages Guild, which could indeed be finished by a pure warrior.

Irkngthand. Hordes of Falmer, automatons, and Mercer Frey.

Casting flames and frostbite once still makes you a pure warrior. You can just do it with 100 magicka and level 15 in all magical skills, without buying any spell books. Or use staves.

Basically any dungeon with hordes of Falmer.

My standard answer is "whichever your character isn't prepared for", which means Labyrinthian for a pure mage without a follower, or Forelhost at too low a level, or ,,,

If you're particularly vulnerable to fire spells, then Sunderstone Gorge may be in there. Dunmer characters will disagree.

Ok, Forelhost is a great candidate.

But in the end, there are different kinds of enemy's, and different builds.

Falmer are bind. Easy prey for a sneaky knife assassin with the armor of the dark brotherhood.

The school of healing contains the ward-spells and turn-undead spells. Good against drauge and not bad against dragon-priests.

Conjured Atronachs are always good, except against necromancers, Thalmor-Mages and dragon-priests, which just uses the command-daedra-spell.

So what for the one character is the pure horror, is for the other just his kind of garden for harvesting.

Some pretty scary places there guys, but yeah, I guess build matters. Though everyone has a special nightmare place where things turned very bad very quick.


High level Falmer dens with Warmongers....yeah....maybe worse than Forelhost for me....bad memories of Irkngthand....

Now...I HAVE sneaked through Irkngthand and Forelhost successfully, but.....if they latch onto you....really really bad!

Yes that one gave me fits too.

I am surprised no one has stated Bleak Falls Barrow since most of my characters that do it barley has any gear or skills. I think I have lost more Dead is Dead characters there than anywhere else.

That sounds more like a tactical error.

I'd agree with Forelhost. Deathlords chasing me everywhere! I had half a dozen Deathlords erupt out of coffins at once... in a tiny confined space.

Oh yes that was fun! Her what was it now? Council...

I always do Embershard mine first, do some trading with the Alvor and Lucan and I'm good to go.

Forelhost is probably the most consistently dangerous with a whole group of Deathlords almost literally around every corner. That can be a challenge even for higher level characters depending on your build and play style.


For one that hasn't been mentioned yet, getting out of Meridia's Temple can be a real pain if you take that quest early. Most of it isn't so bad, but Malkoran throwing ice storms through the narrow doorway to the final chamber can be a very quick death for lower level characters.