Totally agree. I'd like to face off against an immortal vampire lord, only to have him effortlessly smack me across the chamber one-handed.
It'd be way more exciting than crouching up to them, picking their pockets and then slashing them across their knees.

I know many people moan when people bring it up, but Morrowind had good boss/dungeon master guys in it. They usually had a little health boost but what usually made them hard was the sweet loot they were wearing, which was yours once you managed to beat them. I also like the idea that was in post about Nehrim mod.

I would just like to see some modifications to the previous A.I. over Oblivion where monsters would run in circles trying to find a way up a hill to get to you while you sat and pluncked them with arrows or spells:

MONSTER'S THINKING PROCESS:
1) Kill the player!
2) Am I at least hitting the player? Has any of my attacks even struck the player?
3) If not, try another mode of attack (switch to bow and arrow, or line-of-sight spells) ...
4) If I'm non-humanoid and I'm A) taking damage and B) NOT giving any damage to the player, then C) I RUN AWAY (battle over).
5) If I'm humanoid and NONE of my attacks can seem to work after trying multiple modes of attack, then there must be some glitch that's unbalanced the combat situation that the Player is relying on to win (he's cheating in some way), so I now use my magical "teleport stuck enemy" spell to teleport ("blink") myself behind the character so I can go back to fighting the character. So if he's hiding on some rock far above me where my poor pathfinding A.I. can't reach, then I can now reach it so that combat is resumed in all fairness again.

Then we wouldn't need Bosses to have a challenge because we wouldn't be able to use poor enemy pathfinding A.I. or lack of combat sense as a cheat anymore.

If there were going to be bosses, I'd love it if they sometimes realized they were outmatched, and teleported out of combat with a warning to return. Then as you are looting their cave, on the way back out, the boss comes back with a few more minions he scraqed together to surprise you at the cave entrance, so as you're coming out to the "safety" of the outdoor world again, suddenly you see a group of enemies standing there, waiting for you, the boss you tried to kill grinning furiously at the look of surprise on your face...

I felt like human enemies in Morrowind had the opposite problem from what a lot of people are describing. They were all named, so you didn't really know who was important and who wasn't, unless one guy had uber equipment compared to all the others. :confused:

I did play Nehrim though, and I liked it a lot. You had waaaay more story-driven dungeons than in Oblivion. I remember one where you're going through a dwarven ruin, learning about an ancient weapon that's driving people crazy. You fight an insane blacksmith at the end, only to find out that the blacksmith's apprentice took the weapon and is heading to attack a nearby city! So you have to race out of the dungeon, chase him down in real-time and kill him before he causes chaos and escapes. It was pretty intense.

ArchMageSnyok, that is precisely where the use of the function SPOILER is supposed to be used. I haven't gotten to THAT part in Nehrim yet and still playing it fervently every day .. and now you just revealed the whole story of that entire event ... darn you. Use SPOILER next time, dude.

This isn't a Nehrim forum, and that isn't part of the main quest anyway. The spoiler function is for Skyrim spoilers only, though it's unfortunate that you didn't stop reading after you saw Nehrim being mentioned. :sadvaultboy:

And yeah, I remember that part in Nehrim and it was a great example of a boss. The more dynamic and unique the encounter, the better. I'm thinking having to run from or chase after a boss is an interesting idea as well, simply because of the non-combat intensity it adds. Most fights in the Elder Scrolls lack that intensity, with Dagoth Ur standing out as a notable exception.

I think TES games could greatly benefit from a Diablo or Borderlands type loot and NPC randomization. It doesnt need to be quite so flashy and colorful, but some dungeon variation would be nice.

Because TES games are essentially dungeon crawlers without a lot of dungeon crawler fun.

obviously there will be bosses

I remember that quest, that was just epic

I don't like the name "boss", because that would imply like a king.

Hm, Boss is a bit old-school I guess and tend to be mistaken for leader, which a Boss often isn't.
Maybe Champion or another term would be better suited?

That was me, not ArchMage. And I'm sorry! :facepalm: If it helps, it's only one of many sidequests.




Isn't it usually the leader though? Definitely when it comes to human enemies, and unaffiliated-stronger-enemy is more accurate for creatures, but I'd prefer sticking with "bosses." :biggrin:

Honestly not a huge fan of bosses;
A lot of modders use them heavily and then bump them up in skills and abilities far beyond the player.
Then surround them with hordes of micro bosses.

I don't mind small bumps or slightly better equipment / abilities, but if I don't min max a power build, and power game.
Why should some boss be able to do everything.