Level Scaling?

[bcgst5]

Hey guys I had a quick question in regards to leveling of enemies. I know that for the most part or at least I think, things do not scale, you just get higher versions such as Deathlords, etc. However, from my understanding from reading some things such as bandits? do scale with you for the most part. My question is, does anything (besides guards) scale with you past level 50? The wiki says no, but from reading on Bethesda Forums (which I know is a forum and not a wiki) they seem to say wait until you get to level 60, then level 70, etc in regards to destruction. I'm level 53 and doing really well still with my pure mage. I just wanted to make sure it was okay to keep leveling if I should choose to into the 60's without things getting alot more health or something.

[TomDD]

Yeah, you should be absolutely fine

Remember, this is not Oblivion, so you don't have to worry about levelling correctly or anything, just choose whatever!

Yeah, I think some enemies DO still level with you up until level 81, but nothing like Oblivion fortunately!

[Grove-of-Hares]

What TomDD said.

You will still find enemies that level with you, depending on their role in the game and what areas you enter into (at different levels), but for the most part things will feel more balanced. I'm not saying they are more balanced, but I can safely say that on various difficulties I was able to enjoy the game a lot more than Oblivion and it's horrendous leveling. I suppose Skyrim itself is easier as well, but that is aside the point.

So breathe easy and actually enjoy the game! No need to plan your leveling, unless you're building something more "complex", for lack of a better word in this case.

[Musicman247]

Most of the really hard enemies (which seem to scale with you) are named differently. With my Mage character I would frequently go up against Master Necronancers and a couple Arch necromancers! You will be fine with destruction. Just watch out for archers, especially if you are not wearing armor.

[azuarc]

I didn't do several of the major questlines until I was already essentially done leveling. The quests for the Legion and DB were laughable at 55, but the main quest enemies apparently level with you nicely. I was actually challenged in the last couple places I went.

[Syrkin]

I am working on the MQ right now, and I have just about sated my thirst for exploration otherwise (level 73 now). Early in the game I was getting beat pretty badly so I turned down the difficulty to level 2 (apprentice I think). I have levelled smithing to 100 (all perks) and enchanting to 100 (level 5/5 increased, and the bonuses to stats/skills/double enchant), and Alchemy to 95 (no perks). My weapons have been tuned up without doing the potion duplicate drinking, just with the available skills/47% Smith potion/Smith Gear/Notched Pickaxe, and it's too easy. I turned it up to Adept due to this.

Last night, doing the MQ and running into a

Spoiler:

Alduin at the top of Throat of the World

I killed him in two dual-wield standing power attacks. I'm a little disappointed, both in the level of power-gamering that the weapons and gear have gotten, within the rules of 'normal' skills and perks, and with the difficulty level changing.

I think the difficulty scaling has many variables: the actual selected difficulty (1 thru 5); your propensity for making weapons, armor and jewelry and the final stats of those items; and your actual playing skills.

Example: on Adept, I went to go check the skill increases of casting Soul Trap on corpses and Oak/Stoneflesh in combat. I went to the mine just West of Riverwood, and found a lone female bandit outside. She started hitting me, and I cast Oakflesh: I was taking NO damage, so I started taking off armor, and ended up wearing robes with mana regen (no armor values) and just Oakflesh. I was still taking no damage. So that bandit was obviously NOT levelled.

I walked inside the mine in the same robes and ran into a bandit and marauder; they hurt me really quickly in the robes. So they were levelled. I pulled out my Daedric Longsword and killed each in one power strike, so I don't believe they were fully levelled.

From what I can tell from playing and levelling, the damage output of the monsters and NPCs seems to level fairly closely to a player, but their hit points seem to lag far behind. They still die quickly at level 60+, but can hurt you pretty well. And casters like Pyromancers and Shock-casters hork out damage quite impressively.

As azuarc states that the final few of the MQ are challenging, I'm looking forward to that. I think I'll crank it up to Master for the rest of the game (now that I've broken it).

[JoeyDestructo]

Example: on Adept, I went to go check the skill increases of casting Soul Trap on corpses and Oak/Stoneflesh in combat. I went to the mine just West of Riverwood, and found a lone female bandit outside. She started hitting me, and I cast Oakflesh: I was taking NO damage, so I started taking off armor, and ended up wearing robes with mana regen (no armor values) and just Oakflesh. I was still taking no damage. So that bandit was obviously NOT levelled.

the bandit wasnt levelled because she was most likely spawned when you escaped Helgen, i.e. lvl 1

[Syrkin]

Soooo, as a follow-up to the idea of turning it up to Master now, it was what I needed to make the game challenging. I actually had to heal and use potions in combat, and I actually brought a follower with me, Riften Housecarl Lydia. I put a set of Dwarven boots, armor, gloves and sword on her, and a hand-me-down enchanted sword, but no helm so I can see she's pretty.

Got in a fight with some Magical Anomalies, was beating them up, finish the fight, turn around, and Lydia is dead! Poor Lydia.

Fought a couple of dragons, cleared Ragnvald, killed some Thalmor Justicars and I was satisfied with the difficulty.