Straight out of helgen, i went to the bandit camp near the nearby talos shrine. For whatever reason i can kill all but one bandit who does insane damage and would take 30 arrows to take down.

Hes a bandit plunderer, why is he there?

That's where his camp is. Dude lives there, at least for the time being.

He is there because its his camp.

But also your only a lv 2. its not hard to get your butt kicked if your not careful. and what is your difficulty setting?

Bandit plunderers are somewhat higher level bandits, you likely went into a bandit camp where at least one of the bandits has a minimum level.

strange, i used to go there at an early level all the time and never had any trouble. Im just playing on adept.

3 shots kill sounds legit. I like when I encounter tough bandits, like any organization they're supposed to have higher ranked and tougher members.

I got one-hit killed by a bandit archer in Faldar's Tooth last night. Don't know what kind of bandit or what bow/arrow combo the bandit was using, because, I was dead and didn't get a chance to look. At level 25 many enemies pop up with Elven weapons. Add a few perks and I get one-hit killed now again.

So getting 3 hit killed is definitely pretty normal.

Oh, I should add that last night's one-hit was while playing on novice too.

This is why Organized Bandits in Skyrim (OBIS) is one of my favorite mods. You can encounter bandits many levels higher than yourself, or weak bandits ... you never know.

Speaking of bandits, does anyone else run across groups of bandits, including a couple of bandit chiefs, just strolling along? It's only until you're close enough to read their name that they go hostile, like they're just as surprised to run into you as you are to them?

Yup. Usually two chiefs and two outlaws. One outlaw usually runs and hides.

Your character can easily be one hit killed by the right type of Bandit at level 20. A three hit kill is very reasonable.

You can be one hit killed by a higher level bandit at level 40, even if putting lots of points into health and having a high armor rating... if playing at a difficulty above Adept.

One of minor complaints about the game is that there is such a wide range of enemies, like bandits. A regular bandit is trivial at higher levels, but some bandits can one hit kill your character which doesn't allow for much strategy.

I would think that knowing you can still get your a** handed to you at a higher level would make you use more strategy instead of just running blindly into a fight. But hey, that's just me.

is that the place that sends out the dogs when yoy gwt close on an island in the rift?

Yes, I run into them sometimes. The chiefs seem weaker than a chief you would find in a bandit camp, which is a good thing, since you're taking on two of them, plus a couple of underlings.

Being only a level 2 you will certainly encounter enemies that are much stronger than you are. This bandit plunderer is probably set up at his camp for the day, I mean, it is HIS camp haha.