Okay dudes I know I was just bragging on the difficulty but this is absolutely insane.
I am spec'd for One-handed and Evasion. Equipped with ancient Nord sword and full set of fur armor. I have damage dealt turned up to 400% and damage received down to 10% so basically as easy as Requiem could possibly be. And I have still died probably half a dozen times now after going through the golden claw door in Bleak Falls Barrow and having to face no less than 15 draugr all at once.
I am using potions, choke points, kiting. I have no scrolls and magic or I would use those too. So I don't know what else I am supposed to be doing here.
I didn't expect to exactly breeze through like you can on vanilla but it's still a crit path starter dungeon. How in the fuck does anyone play this mod on the normal difficulty?
Ah, yes. The final room (or cavern, actually) of BFB. The Requiem's (friendly) way of asking you if you are absolutely sure you want to start facing dragons.
Do mind that dragons are also in critical path.
BFB is also crucial in teaching the vital importance of NOPE AND GTFO strategy.
Technically, it's possible to do it right off the boat in Requiem, but you need to be seriously good and experienced Requiem player.
First things first:
- Set the damage scaling to Requiem's default. You are just hobbling yourself on your way to git gud - and you won't git gud without actually gitting gud.
- Light armour (Evasion) is basically "don't get hit" build. The armour is there not to let you absorb blows, but to let you live if you accidentally do get hit. Actually even heavy armour is quite a bit like this in Requiem, but at least it lets you tank arrows. Thus, in light armour, if you get swarmed, or pelted with arrows, you're about to die - for that reason I'm not sure if I'd brave BFB right away in light armour.
- Draugr (at least non-shouting, non casting variety) are relatively easy by Requiem's standards (OTOH Dragon Priests are just 'DIE.' - don't do Labyrinthian unless you have verified beyond the shadow of doubt that you can wipe your ass with one - because there won't be just one). They are tanky and just ignore arrows, but while they are not exactly slow moving, they are slow and predictable. In some ways they are easier than garden variety bandits, who just suck it and die, but are far more aware and less predictable in combat.
- There is a semi-hidden item early on in BFB that makes Draugr much easier.
- Draugr are easy to lead into traps and you can trigger traps remotely, for example using arrows.
- Stamina is love, stamina is life and stamina is the king. Early on it's running out of stamina that will take you out of combat because stamina is responsible for everything - blocking, movement, casting costs, effective attacks, bashing, power attack, even holding onto your weapon. You run out, you die and worst of all you die tired, on your knees, desperately trying to find the sword you just dropped. With highly resilient enemies (like trolls) and groups of enemies stamina ultimately determines what you can and cannot take on.
- In melee adjusting distance is important. If an enemy has 2h weapon and you sword and board, you need to overcome your gut response of staying away of massive swinging piece of sharp death (because it is a massive swinging piece of sharp death in Requiem) and will need to close in and stay, close while interrupting attacks and exploiting every opening - note that since everything burns stamina you won't be able to do it indefinitely. Of course if you have the stamina advantage you can simply hammer on guy's shield till his arm gives in and then just spill his guts.
- Knowing your enemy is important - spiders poison and paralyse you and even if you can take this a spider the size of a horse can literally skewer you with it's chelicerae, large animals will knock you over, trolls regenerate rapidly, draugr ignore arrows, and so on. Basically stuff does what it looks like - if a sabercat pounces you or a bear bats you, you schedule a meeting with the ground - it won't just tickle because muh RPG and muh levels. If the ground happens to be half a mile down, because you were fighting on a high ledge, you die. If you are alone, you likely die as well because the animal will be able to keep you pinned down and eventually eat your face. Even a low level enemy can easily kill you at high level if you're careless.
- A lot of challenges in Requiem involve preparation and obtaining a right tool for the job. Note that there can be more than one right tool and improvisation can be vital. When done right it can compensate for 10-20 lvls of difference. Think "what is it useful for" rather than "whatever has most pluses".
You're better off without Frostfall/camping: it's more work than "immershun", plus it's heavy on scripts.
That was my choice as well. Skyrim's script engine isn't terribly efficient and with stuff like Requiem it already has pretty much the entirety of combat fed through it.
Draughr are at least 15 lvl or so recommended. Your best bet is clear area from Riften to Ivarstead, it has mostly low lvl animals. Then move to Riverwood and clear mine nearby, then a few smaller bandit camps around Whiterun ( Silent Moon and one nearby), that have smaller groups.
In general:
Lvl 1-10 Animals
Lvl 10-20 Smaller groups of Low lvl Bandits
Lvl 20-30 Draughr, Regular Humanoids
Past this, it gets a lot easier ( depending on your build).
Eh. If you keep your wits about you, you should be able to clear small bandit camps, basic wildlife, your basic draugr or even lone regular trolls* right away.
There are relatively few enemies that will inevitably fuck you up at low level - vampires, dragons, dragon priests, werewolves, high level casters, invisible entities (AKA Requiem's big FU to the player) and a few others. Most can be fought even when very underlevelled, but you really need to know what you're doing.
Of course at lvl 1 any bandit camp is basically a several guys *at least* as good as you, probably better equipped, who rob and murder for a living (and even if you can beat one the rest won't wait for you to recuperate - they won't even wait for you to finish, so they will try gang upon you and/or pelt you with arrows) so if you don't have a good plan and some consumables to burn, they'll just rip off your head and use it as chamberpot.
*) I have encountered and killed a troll with my Argonian battlemage/sorcerer character (heavy armour + 1h + magic, but mostly other schools than destruction) when leaving Riverwood for Whiterun for the first time - mage's robe + some iron armour elements + steel maul (think somewhat heavier, somewhat slower mace). And a torch. The fight was gnarly due to stamina considerations and not beging able to afford to absorb blows VS troll's heavy swinging arms and regeneration (that was the point of the torch, but it still wasn't easy to keep enough stamina to keep going), but I managed to succeed.
I did have Gorr with me (from 3DNPCs) but he didn't actually participate, being stranded on the opposite side of the river - when he finally made it across the troll was already firmly planted in the dick-up position.
