Is there anyway to make light armor and two-handed work???

[InDarkestNight]

Playing with Skyrim Immersive Creatures, Elemental Dragons, and Skyrim Underground, just for some context. I decided that for my Relic Hunter challenge, I was going to go light armor and two-handed. Two-handed is needed to get an item from Falskaar. Light armor is so I can carry more loot. I have tried to go heavy armor, but I keep getting overburdened due to my armor taking up far too much space.

No matter how many times I've played this build, I just can't get it to work. Archers are the bane of my existence, and even more so mages since I only have frost resistance being a nord (I was thinking of going khajiit for the relic hunter challenge due to them having bonuses in skills I need to get to a high level asap).

In the past, I keep getting owned by goblins and rieklings which SiC spawns in the northern and eastern edges of the map. I thought that maybe I could use Skyrim Underground to dodge them. I finally found an entrance to it and was able to explore it. However, so far things aren't going so well. The zombies were easy. Yeah, they took a lot of hits to kill, but they barely did any damage to me despite my lack of armor. Enemies I found later though weren't so merciful. They too took far too many hits to kill, but they hit me far harder. In particular, I ran into some hungers that seemed immune to my steel battleaxe, but could literally one-shot me. I tried to flee back the way I came, but I awoke some vampires sleeping in a room I passed though. I re-entered via a waterway, meaning I couldn't stop sneaking untl I was right next to them, waking them up as soon as I arrived. I already learned form the surface that I outright can't handle the things with my current build, and this time proved to be no different.

I keep having to chug healing potions to keep myself alive, and when I run out death soon follows. Right now I'm trapped in an area I can't escape from. I can't go one way due to those hungers, but I can't go the otherway before the damned vampires killed me. I popped battle cry, but they were completely unaffected. I'm starting to think I can't continue this way; I need to either abandon the playthrough or load the save I made before entering the underground.

I need this mod for my Relic Hunter challenge. However, I'm starting to think I can't do it. Why do seemingly all mods add overpowered creatures? Even Moonpath to Elsweyr, which is intergrated into version 4 of LotD are way too damned strong for their level. I can handle them, but that's because they're actually EASIER than rieklings and everything that seems to spawn in Skyrim Underground.

This build is just too damned weak. How do you make this work? Yeah, there's the distance thing, I know that. I've played two-handers and light armor characters before. However, those two-handers I did get to work all had heavy armor, and the light armor ones all had shields. I had more defense than I have. Its like I'm not wearing armor at all.

I'm starting to think this build simply isn't going to work out. Its ideal for Legacy of the Dragonborn. It has two-handed, which as stated I need, and the light armor means I have more carrying capacity (besides, there's mutiple light armor sets I could get early on that would be of great benefit to me). Also, I need a lot of stealth skills anyway, and obviously sneaking around in light armor is far easier than heavy. However, as a sacrifice for all this convenience, I'm ultra weak and can't handle anything. Even low-level vanilla enemies are far harder than they should be. And yes, I'm paying on adept. Keep in mind I'm used to playing expert, and with mods like Skytest too!

Again, I just see no way this can be done. You're a melee character and a glass cannon. If you can't one-shot something, you're dead. With the mods I need to have installed for this, such enemies are everywhere. Hell, you run into a freaking level 50 spriggan with over 3000 hp just after leaving Bleakfalls Barrow! The only solution I've found to s#*! like this is to just run. This seems to only be an option though half the time. The other half the time, they're in some narrow corridor I absolutely must pass through to proceed, meaning I have no choice but to hack my way through them.

I need the two-handed either way, but maybe going heavy armor would be the wiser idea. A breton would be good too, so at least I could handle mages.

What should I do here? Grind smithing so I have a decent armor rating? I did decide to add alchemy to my build just to try and buff up my character, but I can't survive anything to collect the damned ingredients. It seems like the only enemies I can take on are wolves and bandits, that's it.

I've realize now that Skyrim Underground isn't going to save me from the riekling chargers in the rift. So that plan failed, and I have no backup. I need to just be tanky as s#*!. I can't improve my damage anymore, so all I can do is improve my defenses. I need magic resist, and decent armor early on. Granted, maybe this build would work better without these mods adding stupid OP enemies everywhere. I did do this build once vanilla though. I didn't play it long, since I was just achievement hunting, but I do recall archers one-shotting me all the damned time. I did not enjoy that build and I was glad when it was over.

As far as I'm concerned, to make this build work, you need some balancing mod that makes the build viable. Its like spellblades; they just can't work without mods buffing the playstyle.

And yeah, I guess I could just turn the difficulty down to novice. I'm not the type of player that can handle master, let alone legendary. Maybe adept with these mods installed is just too much for me. Turning down the difficulty though honestly feels like cheating. However, the point of this challenge isn't about facing down stupid OP enemies, its about finding all the collectibles. Maybe I should be willing to install mods that buff my character, instead of trying to play it with a 100% vanilla build (or at least as close as I can with mods, I have found these mods do add new spells and potion ingredients to the game). I was more thinking of perk overhauls or spell mods though. After much thought, math, and research, I've realized that enai's v++ mods make you stupid OP. I've seen people claiming that using the set makes even legendary a joke even at low levels!

Fml, and I'm starting to question if this challenge is even doable (at least by me). How can I ever complete it when I can't handle the enemies two of the mods add? Maybe I do need to go heavy armor, and use the freaking steed stone to fix my carry weight problems. Of course, if I do that I can't get the lord stone to give me magic resist. Maybe its just futile? Would it be 'cheating' if I used mods to buff myself or turn the difficulty down? This is so stupid....

And sorry for the long rant. I've just been having so many problems that I can't seem to solve. If you need a TLDR: If you use light armor, you need a shield. If you use two-handed, you need heavy armor. Both two-handed and light armor make you fragile, so you need another defense skill to keep yourself from dying all the time. If you use both together, you're just too damned frail even for a 100% vanilla game. I just see no way to make it work.

Edited January 29 by InDarkestNight

[InDarkestNight]

And yes, I should probably stop with all this testing s#*! and play a build that's actually fun. Here I was trying to test out a build I was planning on using for the challenge. Its become clear that it will not work.

Besides, thinking about it, is there really any point in doing a specific build? If you have to max all the crafting skills to complete the museum. Why not just do that at the start to give yourself stupid OP items? You'll be level 35 about, but you'll have max armor, enchants consisting of fortify weapon, health, elemental resist, and w/e else you need, a weapon that hits for literal hundreds of points of damage. Let's see those stupid OP enemies from these mods deal with THAT. That would surely solve all my problems. If you can break the game like that, through perfectly legitimate means that you're required to do sooner or later, why not just do it from the start to make your life easier?

Of course, you're still going to need to kill keeper carcette somehow before level 10 (may not be necessary on SE granted, but I've found the mod that 'fixes' this doesn't work if you go too close to the hall BEFORE its destroyed, because the stupid weapon will be under the floor!).

So yeah, screw this build. I'm going to play through my quest mods, with a build that's actually fun. Of course, I'm probably going to have to deal with op enemies in those two, based on my experiences with Moonpath to Elsweyr, but at least I'll have a build that can freaking handle it. Now what to play. I like mages, and have done multiple playthroughs as them. I've recently found two-handers fun (ASSUMING THEY USE HEAVY ARMOR OF COURSE WHICH DOES WORK PERFECTLY FINE WITHOUT A HITCH IN FACT IT CAN BE KINDA BROKEN). I've also done quite a few stealth builds, because I just find the gameplay the most engaging. Of course, stealth builds probably won't be too helpful with most of my quest mods given that they seem to require open combat. I'm tempted to play something a bit more creative, but of course creativity tends to get me killed. Guess I should stick with a build that I know works, rather than trying to come up with new ones that simply cannot work without supporting mods. So yeah, what fun build can I do for all these quest mods I'm going to need?

Of course, this won't address the problem I'm having dealing with the creatures SiC and Skyrim Underground spawn, but again, if I really need to I could just grind all my crafting skills from the start so everything's a joke to me. Again, the combat isn't supposed to be the challenge; its supposed to be about collecting everything. I should play at a difficulty I'm comfortable with. In that light, why not just simply things and play on novice if I'm having this much trouble?

Also, I was mainly thinking about recording it due to the sheer amount of work that would be involved in doing this. Honestly, if I wanted, that, why bother with videos? Why not just write a diary chronicling my character's journey? Guess I felt inclined to do a series just to prove I did it 'legit'. Of course, if you can just grind your crafting skills at the start, I would probably get called an idiot for not doing so despite the struggle I was having. Screw the video series, I just want to experience these mods and finally get back to my normal playthroughs. I miss frostfall and skytest so badly, I just want to get this over with and get back to them. I'm really starting to hate LotD at this point. The stupid thing has prevented me from simply enjoying the game, all in a pursuit to complete it 100% just so I can have the fullest experience with it. I'm starting to realize why so few people play it anymore.

[anjenthedog]

One idea would be liberally applied enchantments. I often apply heavy buffs to my light armor elements to compensate for their heavy-armor shortcomings.

thought: I suppose a purist might snort "cheater" ,but whatever. At the end of the day, he who survives is the winner. Isn't that one of martial culture's most important things beyond face?

[LilRedMonster]

Dodge mods and a Souls game mindset will get you to a better place if you are aiming to be a nakedish/lightly armored heavy bonk-er.

Vanilla combat in es games to date has never been the friend of light armors until you can get your hands on the epic level loots.

I remember reading something, in an in-game book I believe, whilst playing Morrowind that mentioned how the Argonians were masters of combat in their swampy homeland because they used light armors and were able to dip, duck, dive and dodge (dodgeball style) around their more heavily armored invaders but the truth is... you cant dodge in es games. You cant do any of that s#*!. You can just stand there and swing and swing and swing and hope whatever is swinging back at you dies first... and that kinda makes anything except the tankiest of armors and the hardest hitting bonks all but obsolete.

[7531Leonidas]

My 'trick' is to concentrate on stealth first, approach as stealth archer to reduce # of enemies, then assault the lone survivor to take hits to lvl up light armor and block, and to build up 2H.  Smaller wild animals can boost your armor exp fairly quickly, as can basic bandits.  I have even taken the sadistic route of healing the bg, so I can hit it more.

[InDarkestNight]

I never did like dodge mods to be honest. I don't mind seeing light armor characters doing it, but I just can't stand seeing characters doing this while wearing an obviously bulky suit of armor. Also, I've never played Dark Souls or any game with combat like it. The only games I can recall playing that don't have the button-mashing combat like Skyrim would be the Arkham games and Shadow of Mordor (its combat system is essentially a clone of that from the Arkham games). The latter doesn't technically have a dodging mechanic, though you do spend combat zipping around the battlefield a lot like you're The Flash.

Also, when I did my first playthrough I did dodge a lot. You don't actually need mods to do that. Of course, I also had a shield, so when I did get hit the damage wasn't TOO bad. Also, I wasn't playing against suped up mod enemies that could one-shot me from full health even if I did have a shield and was wearing heavy armor (I learned that in my latest attempt). Also, I ended up just grinding all the crafting skills to max so I could progress further. For a time I thought it wasn't possible to play the game without using at least one crafting skill. Now, I rarely do crafting, and health potions constantly clog up my inventory. At least, as long as I'm using an actual defensive skill like block or heavy armor. Curiously though, I've never had a problem with unarmored mages. Maybe its because my summons take most of the hits, or maybe that I have healing spells. I did have healing spells in my last playthrough, but obviously healing spells don't do anything against enemies that can one-shot you. And yes, I'm playing adept here. I've actually been looking into tips on playing on legendary to take on these enemies, seriously. Doesn't help too much though since such guides tend to assume that your follower has an easier time than you, and other quirks of playing on higher difficulties.

When I do look up combat mods, I normally avoid the ones that add in dodging mechanics. Such are rare of course, and the ones that don't add that in seem to all increase lethality which clearly wouldn't help me much. Now, I wouldn't mind it if these mods made it so only lightly armored characters could dodge, but such mods do not exist. Honestly, lately I've just been looking for mods that improve AI because I'm tired of fighting the same dumb enemies again and again over the past 12 years.