Are NPC Mages too powerful, or is it me?

[Graxster]

Hi all. I'm kinda confused about the difficulty scaling... well, let me tell you why I came here. I had a quest to kill a guy in a cave. Went there, the cave is full of bandits. 2 were at the entrance (I'm playing a mage), I toasted them like they were weaklings. Ditto for the next 5 or 6 I ran across. Then this other bandit shows up casting lightning at me and he kills me like he's level 20 and I'm level 1. It was no contest. The second time I took a companion, and when I got to that part I dunno if she died or what, cuz I didn't see her fighting. When the mage showed up, I must have drank 20 potions to make it thru that battle, then some other bandit kills me, lol. This was near the starter city, and on normal (adept) difficulty.

 

So... two questions:

 

1. Are NPC mages overpowered?

2. Are some instances specifically made so that you'll probably get killed if you're below a certain level? Should I just save this particular quest for later?

 

P.S. I'm a Breton, so already have a 25% resistance to magic. Go figure...

Edited November 19, 2011 by Graxster

[GaiasDeath]

1. Kind of. They're the spikier spikes of the learning spike.

2. Yes and no. In the beginning, you're going to be chugging pots on difficulties adept+. If you find a splace is too hard, you can always come back to it. It's probably not intended, but that's how it goes. You're still level 1, so I would recommend loading up on health and some magic resist as you progress. If you stay on adept, or even expert, mages will become quite manageable without pot chugging. On master difficulty, they remain pretty OP.

 

This is speaking from my experience only. I have a 44 toon with 75% magic resistances who has played much of the game on master difficulty.

[wigle]

It depends what "level" mage you were fighting. Like bandits, who have various ranks from regular to Bandit Chief, Bandit Thug, etc., mages also come in a variety of difficulties.

 

Warriors can destroy mages with several arrows, and mages can destroy warriors before they even get to them. But I think mage vs. mage is on par with melee vs. melee. It is naturally harder.

[Pushkatu]

I'd look at the situation like this:

 

You're a mage, he's a mage. You're level 1, he's level 20. Fair battle = you lose. :biggrin:

 

1. No, they are not, try with an archer and you will see a difference. It's all about the skills you pick. I'm also a mage(level 27 now) and I'm specialized in destruction magic, more exactly fire magic. I can kill pretty much everything if not in close combat, but I'm having a hard time killing dark elfs, wich have 50% resistence to fire magic. The examples cand go on and on. It's normal to have a weakness.

 

2. As far as I know, if you find a place at level one, everything that will spawn there from that point on won't level up with you, even if you revisit the place later on. It kinda gets your level, then it stays like that. There might also be some scripted locations that have hard to kill if not imposible enemies, but you're only sent there once you advance in ranks and therefore you get more powerfull items to aid you etc.

Edited November 19, 2011 by Pushkatu

[dra6o0n]

Locations that 're-levels' the area exists too, like when you clear out dungeons and come back later on, since the Radiant Story engine will likely alter it.

[soot00]

Mages are very squishy early goin. Need to run off and try to pick them off one by one.

 

My present mage is level 13ish and had same issues as well. I made it a bit more difficult by rolling this mage RPG style, no melee weapons aside from mage staffs, no armor higher then cloth, so once he is out of mana, he is crap out of luck and needs to run, haha.

 

Main thing is to try to pull one at a time. If outnumbered....run and try to pick off the stray.

[QueenOfThieves]

At first I did think they were overly powerful. I faced my first necromancer around level 6ish and was a hair away from being done in. But they're getting easier. My char is a stealthy assassin type, and mages are actually pretty easily taken out with a well-placed arrow or two coated with a poison that damages magic. And my sneak is so high I can usually hide pretty easily from the stronger wizards.

 

As for your other question, possibly, or at least until you increase certain skills. Sometimes these scenarios require a bit of strategic planning though. I myself have never had to leave and return again. If I'm really struggling, I'll usually just take the difficulty level down a notch until I did what I needed to do. Cheap I know, but it works!

[dra6o0n]

Actually mage becomes extremely weak at lv30 because damage is based on fixed values and on Adept+ difficulties, the game 'balances' it out by giving everyone higher HP... Except you.

 

So a wolf would be 600hp if its lv30+, while you would have less than 300hp at that point.

[gamefever]

300 hp !!!? Man thats as bad as the glass clad bandits demanding 10 gold for using their road in Oblivion.

[Tropxe]

The strength of your summoned creatures actually goes up with difficulty level, as if they were enemies being scaled by it, so Conjurers actually benefit from higher levels since your atronachs and other summoned daedra will be very powerful. But yeah, I heard that Destruction-based mages become quite hard to use as you go past level 30 or so. I don't actually play as a mage, but I'm going to for my second playthrough, and it sounds like Enchanting (which will eventually make all spells free) and Conjuration are two skills that are very useful for them.