UESP Forums

Hey guys, I'm sure the forum is flooded with questions and such at the moment so I will do my best to keep it brief.

I'm simply wondering if the game's difficulty fluctuates depending on your level. I ask this because I am currently attempting the 'Staff of Magnus' quest (College of Winterhold quest line) and getting my rear completely handed to me. I mean, it's not even funny.

More specifically, it's the Trolls, and the Wispmother. The trolls regen their health so quickly that no matter what means of attacking them I use, their health never falls below say 85%. I've found that it's quite easy to out run said trolls however, but the wispmother isn't so easy to get by. She will drop me in two hits, although there is some faulty AI I could probably use to kill her if I spent an hour or so attempting it.

My stats while attempting this quest:

31 Destruction, 35 Restoration, 47 One-Handed, 49 Archery, 39 Light Armour. I'm level 20 overall.

Using full scaled armour, a falmer bow (dwarven arrows), an orcish mace and/or dwarven dagger, falmer shield and for spells I use shock or flames (both 8dps :\)

Am I simply too low leveled to be doing this quest ? I've done plenty of other fighting without trouble, yet this battle simply seems out of my league. And if not, where is my (in your respected opinion) biggest flaw in fighting this battle? Perhaps mentioning how you did this quest would help as well ?

I didn't do very well in keeping this short, but thank you very much in advance for your help and time!

You may be having a problem due to the "jackofalltradeiness" of your character. A high sneak really makes One-Handed and Archery much stronger. So your main weapons are at a disadvantage here.

I personally did this quest at around level 16 so I don't know if level scaling made it easier for me but tactics wise I would suggest placing your strongest Rune at a choke point, then getting within range so you can hit them with your bow. The let them run into the rune, while you hide. Rinse and repeat. That's what I did anyway.

Yeah you did spread yourself a bit thin. You have one handed, archery, AND destruction as your attack skills, while I believe most people would settle on 1 or 2 attack skills. Since destruction is your lowest you might want to drop it and replace it with a different spell set. Alteration's oakflesh gives you 40 more armor points for a full minute so it is very solid. You're also using novice level destruction spells. 8 points a sec might seem good, but the apprentice level spell does 25 a shot, combine that with a weakness to magic poison and you should be able to run through trolls. If you're using archery you should really combine it with sneak shots and poison for maximum damage.
Also, if you're using restoration you should have fast heal which heals 75 points in one cast.
And another thing, companions are your friends. As a spellsword I'm a bit vulnerable between setting stoneflesh and deciding between a shield and fireball spell to couple with my sword, so Lydia helps while I decide on my battle technique.
Also, I run Alteration which gives armor spells, a shield AND I'm very adept at heavy armor. I enchant my armor to give bonus points in heavy armor. I refine my armor at the blacksmith, AND the shield I use gives a 30% bonus to damage blocked. The reason I'm telling you this is because as a spelltank who runs with Lydia who has the strongest heavy armor between the two of us, sometimes we get into tough spots. So if you're running alone without shield spells and no shield, you might have problems.

High forties in your main attack skills does sound a little low for lvl 20. You're missing out some critical damage perks. Re Wispmothers; they're real mothers. If melee, get in close and bash bash bash. Use the trick for One-Handed where you can get almost instant power attacks (swing then immediately tap and hold the attack button). Quaff a frost resist pot.

Thanks very much for your help. Just one more quick question before I leave this topic however,

How is it taking away from my character's strength by training all three attack styles? In theory I could be level 100 in all of them and be doing just as much damage right?

Is it because the difficulty is based on my level not my skills individually? That would make sense, having three low skills but being a high level would evidently make it harder on me. Anyways that's more of a yes or no question, I don't want to keep this topic occupying space on the forum forever so thanks again for your help

You are right the difficulty is based on your level(although some quests/dungeons have a fixed level) it doesn't determine if your skills are "strong" enough to beat the enemies.

Example: If you would go on from the start and level your smithing, enchanting and alchemy to 100 you would be around 25-35 and although you have three powerfull skills I doubt you would be able to kill anything easy^^.

It is advised to level atleast one damage skill: destruction, archery , one or two handed as much as possible, maybe use two but don't use three or all four as you will be a jack of all trades but the game becomes really hard.