5561

Basic bandits get one-shotted constantly from stealth in the early going. Ok, I exaggerated a bit, in that to one-shot them through the the thirties or so you have to put some points into archery. But still, even fresh out of the first scene with a crappy bow and iron arrows, you can one-shot most anything you run into.

5562

I don’t think I was one-shotting anything from the get-go, even with sneak attacks. Lots of damage, yes, but I can’t recall one-shotting them.

5563

Weird. I’ve put in over 100 hours and one of the most constant things I’ve found is that, from stealth, if I hit a bandit, wolf, or other basic enemy with an arrow, almost every time they die. The stealth bonus + bow damage + arrow damage, and the lower level mobs low health I guess, is a deadly combo. Once in a while I don’t get a kill, but I’ve gone through whole dungeons sniping pretty much everything but bosses this way.

I’m certainly not saying it’s always that way, or that bows are overpowered, or that I dislike any of this in any way. I’m just saying that, from my experience, I have a hard time not using a bow because it seems so efficient. I guess it’s shooter tendencies not adjusting to the RPG setting well; I am probably the worst melee player evar and tend to want to kill things from a distance. As I already went through the game as an archer, I’m trying to do something different, but I guess I don’t have the self-control!

I think maybe I’ll just ditch my bow and tough it out mano a mano. It’ll be interesting at least.

5564

Depends on the arrows and bow I’m using. I found that I started one shotting all the basic folk once I stepped up beyond a Long Bow and Iron Arrows.

Now that my Sneak is at 70 out of nowhere I’m considering investing deep enough into the tree to at least embiggify my deviarrows to amplify their killing ability to see if I can start one shotting quest enemies (as opposed to randos).

5565

Err, the thirties are when bandits are complete pushovers. Bandits don’t scale except for the boss bandits (Captains and whatnot). Of course they will get one-shot then because your gear will most likely completely outclass them.

But I played sneaky archer for about 10 levels and never one-shot anything. It was pretty easy, but not one-shotting.

I don’t think Archery is broken so much as Stealth just ramps up way too much, even if you don’t use it often. Bethesda needs to tone down how effective skill points are in stealth, because right now you don’t even need any perks in the base skill to be nigh invisible for most of the game.

5566

Wandering through a blizzard I came over a rise and saw in the distance a lone mammoth fighting off an attack by two sabercats. I couldn’t hear anything but the howl of the wind, and they were just silhouettes in the snow and fog. The cats attacked and the mammoth started swishing his tusks back and forth. One cat circled around to flank the mammoth, got tusked, and ran off. The other cat broke off his attack and ran off too, and the mammoth chased them for a bit. Then the mammoth turned and walked away and after a few seconds I saw the saber cats slinking up behind him again. They charged in and attacked and the mammoth whirled around and killed one of them outright. The other one fought on for a second but was killed too. And then the mammoth walked off into the distance.

It wasn’t dragon-dueling-a-bear awesome, but it was a pretty great scene.

5567

And then you ate the sabre cat eyes.

5568

Basic bandits are rather rare. I find most camps are 80%+ stronger bandits. I ran one dungeon that was about a 2:1 ratio of chiefs to any other kind.

5569

Necromancy is brilliant; I’ve been wandering around with my pet sabre cat for what seems ages now, I sick him on the target then pelt them with arrows, feels more satisfying for me than the whole stealthy archer approach in dungeons; outside of dungeons I creep up to wildlife, with my trusty Kitty crouching down next to me, feels like I’m really hunting. :)

5570

I use every part of the saber cat.

5571

(cross referenced joke from the everything else board)

5572

What the hell, you can get pets?!

5573

Zombie pets: you kill them first and then raise the dead corpses to do your bidding.

5574

With the added bonus they don’t do the “Uuuhhh” zombie sound that humanoids do every couple of minutes.

Zombie deer/elk don’t seem to attack enemies though. :D

5575

Yeah but I thought this was a very temporary thing.

5576

Master level Conjuration has one that is permanent.

5577

Besides, you can just keep raising the damn thing.

5578

They turn into ash at the end of the duration, so not really unless you keep killing more of them.

5579

Ah, I see, thanks for the clarification.

5580

Yeah, you’re probably right. I think I was extrapolating from too few outlying instances perhaps.