Any way to increase game difficulty? (Im on Master)

[blattgeist]

I play this game on master with the rule not to use the enchant/smithing exploit trick. Just do not craft anything that gives a bonus to alchemy, enchanting, smithing and you will still face a challenge in higher levels.

You can use a mod like "Empowered magicka" or "improved destruction magic" to balance magic to a level that is comparable to epic weapons.

Edited December 4, 2011 by blattgeist

[Jakeo]

I don't understand how you aren't taking damage on master. My armor rating is 460 and even Falmer pose a serious risk to me if they are with their centipede buddies.

 

As I posted under another Master Difficulty post:

 

I run and melee everything. My 30th level Shaman warrior considers both ranged weapons and sneaking dishonorable, and will only use poison on regenerating creatures or those that use poison themselves. I have hardly used enchanting or smithing, just a tiny bit, that came naturally, no crazy iron dagger exploits. This game is TOUGH on Master. With an armor rating of 460 (Steel Plate all around) and 400 health, some random enchanted items (ring, necklace and gauntlets of fortify one-handed attacks, so 60% extra damage) and almost every Heavy Armor, One-Handed/Mace, and Shield Perk and I still die in 2-5 hits, especially from Falmer and those centipede things, plus mages can also hurt. I finally can stand against Draugr Scourges or Deathlords, but I have to be very careful. It takes me 5-20 hits to kill the above.

 

Incidentally, occasionally just to experimentation, I have tried fire magic against trolls and archery against vulnerable opponents. I don't understand. My attacks do almost NO DAMAGE. (I have a 20 in Destruction Magic, no perks, and 25 in Archery, No Perks). Some people have posted arrow duels with similar archery scores, supposedly on Master, doing massive damage. DK how they do that either.

 

In summary, as a non-sneaking melee character, I find Master extremely challenging, often requiring tons of potions. I must have spent 50k on potions already in my 100+ hours of gaming.

 

Even at lvl 47 with full daedric total armour rating of 800+, I still take massive damage if I attack enough people at once. Mages own the s*** out of me unless I use a Greater Ward which I can only maintain for a short time...and since magic resistance is useless now, I pretty much die often, but its more about the game now being broken resistance wise than difficulty...