Adds 874 new enemies with optional level scaling to Skyrim. Includes Bandits, Forsworn, Draugr, Falmer, Vampires, Warlocks, Cultists, Rieklings, Dragon Priests, Gargoyles, Animals and more! The new enemies start appearing at level 10. Also includes optional Hardcore and Spell Scaling modules.
Requirements
This mod does not have any known dependencies other than the base game.
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1.7 - Reduced damage of high level animals. - Further reduced level of added "pushover" animals like Skeevers and Mudcrabs. - Removed Bullseye perk from archers. - Replaced top tier Bone Breaker, Skull Smasher and Crit Shot perks (90 skill) with lower tier versions (30 skill). 1.6 - Slightly reduced stats and damage of added Skeevers and Mudcrabs to keep them in-line with the lore. - Removed Bullseye perk from added Dremora. - Added a new unscaled version of High Level Enemies.esp without any Draugr for compatibility with Skyrim Immersive Creatures' Draugr armor. Note: HLE and SIC are still compatible without this file. you only need it if you want to use the Draugr armor from SIC. 1.5 - Added Dragonborn scaled version to NMM installer. 1.4.5 - Added Dragonborn Support with 134 new enemies. The highest tier enemies scale to the players level. 1.4.1 - Fixed an issue where the unscaled version for Dawnguard was missing from version 1.4. 1.4 - Added 3 Atronachs. - Raised the level cap for Adventurers, Assassins and Thieves in the wilderness. - Raised the level of Stormcloak and Imperial soldiers. - Added level scaling for enemy casters to the scaled version (includes Spellswords). - Fixed a bug where high-level Draugr casters wouldn't attack. 1.3 - Added 48 Draugr Casters. - Added Level Scaling and perks to Unique Dragon Priests and some bosses. - Updated several leveled lists. 1.2 - Added a NMM installer. - Updated Scaled version of Main File. 1.1 - Added 60 Witches and 6 Dremora. - Fixed Skeever, Mudcrab and Dwarven Sphere damage. 1.0 - Added 3 Mammoths. - Fixed the added Hagravens so they will now appear in-game. - Rebalanced animal and creature damage output to scale more smoothly. - Animal and creature damage was increased overall. 0.9 - Added 18 Skeletons, 6 Mudcrabs, 4 Ice Wraiths and 4 Skeevers. - Updated more leveled lists. - Increased damage for added Trolls slightly. 0.8 - Added 28 Dawnguard Vampire Hunters, 2 Armored Trolls and 2 Gargoyles (Dawnguard Version). - Slightly reduced melee damage of high-level Bandits. - Reduced magic damage of high-level bandits and Dragon Priests. 0.7 - Added Dawnguard version. - Added high level variants for Dawnguard Vampires, Falmer and Chaurus Hunters (Dawnguard Version). - Added another tier of Dwarven Constructs (Spiders, Spheres and Centurions). - Cleaned the esp using Tes5Edit. 0.6 - Added FaceGen data for Bandits, Forsworn, Warlocks, Thalmor and Vampires. - Added level scaling to highest level animals. 0.5 - Added Frostbite Spiders, Chaurus, Hagravens and Spriggans. - Increased Health of highest level Vampires. 0.4 - Increased Armor for Draugr, Falmer and Vampires. - Added 2 more tiers for animals (level 50 and 60). - Added 1 more tier for giants (level 62+) which scales with player level. 0.3 The top enemy in each tier now scales with player level. 0.2 - Added Necromancers, Conjurers, Elementalists and Vampires. Increased spell damage for casters level 40 and up.
High Level Enemies.esp High Level Enemies - Dawnguard.esp High Level Enemies - Dragonborn.esp
Main Features
Adds 874 new enemies starting at level 10 to Skyrim, Dawnguard, Dragonborn and Falskaar!
Now includes an optional version with full level scaling so all enemies (even Vanilla enemies) will scale to your level!
Each of Skyrim's main enemy types are covered including Bandits, Draugr, Dragon Priests, Falmer, Forsworn, Thalmor, Dwarven Constructs, Vampires, Warlocks, Trolls, Chaurus, Spriggans, Hagravens, Spiders, Skeletons, Witches, Ice Wraiths, Mammoths, Dremora and Wild Animals!
Each of Dawnguard's main enemy types are covered including Vampires, Vampire Hunters, Falmer, Gargoyles, Armored Trolls, Death Hounds and Chaurus Hunters!
Dragonborn Cultists, Rieklings, Ash Spawn, and Dragonborn Bandits Included!
For each enemy type the highest level variant scales with player level so the game doesn't get too easy!
Countless hours were spent customizing the Stats, Skills, Perks, Spells, Damage Done and Armor Rating of each added creature to ensure that the difficulty stays consistent as the player levels!
The scaling is non-linear and takes into account that high level players invest in at least 1 crafting skill (Smithing, Enchanting or Alchemy).
Optional Files
Includes an optional file that increases armor cap to 90% and max magic resist to 90% encouraging high-level play.
Includes an optional file that scales Illusion, Raise Dead, Summons, Turn Undead Spells and Werewolf Howl so they are still viable in high-level play.
There are a number of great mods available that effect creature level and scaling. Some make the game harder at low levels and some harder at high levels but in each case there are difficulty spikes. Mods that delevel creatures usually render the game very difficult at low levels but easy at high levels. Mods that introduce level scaling don't properly account for the fact that the player's growth is non-linear so the game gets easy at high levels. Finally, mods that add high level creatures do a good job keeping the difficulty up at higher levels but still get easy when the player outlevels the added creatures.
High Level Enemies is designed to bring the best features of these different leveling systems together. It adds high level enemies as well as level scaling and at each step the enemy stats, perks, spells, damage done and armor rating were tweaked through rigorous testing to make sure the difficulty remains steady at high levels.
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Main Files
High Level Enemies
This mod adds new enemies starting at level 10 for almost all of Skyrim's enemy types. New variants are added for Bandits, Forsworn, Draugr, Falmer, Warlocks, Dragon Priests, Falmer, Vampires, Gargoyles, Ash Spawn and more (see the details section for a full list). The stats, skills, perks, spells, damage dealt and damage mitigated of each variant were adjusted to keep enemies in line with the player's natural progression so that the game continues to provide a challenge at higher levels.
To give an example of what's been added, in Vanilla the highest level bandit was level 25 (28 for a boss). This mod adds bandits at levels 30, 40, 50 and 60 (66 for a boss). However, once you pass lvl 60 the game won't suddenly get easy. The top level enemies of each type will scale with your level. This means you'll still get the same variety of enemies you expect from Skyrim but you'll never outlevel everything ensuring the game remains challenging.
So for example at level 70 you'll encounter the usual bandits from Skyrim as well as the added level 30, 40 and 50 bandits, but the highest level bandit (originally level 60) will scale to match you at level 70.
Scaled Version
Includes all the enemies added in High Level Enemies and scales every enemy to your level. This includes the original Skyrim enemies as well as the ones added by High Level Enemies!
Optional Files
Increased Max Resists
Most high level players hit the armor and magic resist caps. This removes the incentive to keep leveling since you feel you can't get any stronger. Since High Level Enemies is for high level play and adds more challenging enemies the player should also have the chance to keep getting stronger. With this in mind this optional file:
Increases the armor cap from 80% to 90% but you have to work for it! Hitting the armor cap now requires an armor rating of 1000. Since Skyrim gives you a hidden 25 armor rating bonus for each equipped piece of armor (helm, chest, gauntlets and greaves) this means you need 900 armor rating when wearing full armor.
Increases the maximum magic resistance from 85% to 90%.
Raised Ability Caps
One of the biggest problems with high-level play is that some spells become unuseable. Illusion spells, raise dead, summons, turn undead and werewolf howl (fear effect) only work on enemies up to a certain level (even with dual casting). This optional mod scales these spells to work on higher level enemies.
The scaling only starts at high levels so this will not effect low-level play at all.
Compatible with all Perk and Spell mods.
Turn Undead spells will start scaling at level 35.
Illusion spells will start scaling at level 40.
Raise Dead and Atronach Thrall spells will start scaling at level 40.
New Dremora Lords will replace the Vanilla Lord at level 56 and 66. The level 66 version scales with player level.
Werewolf Howl starts scaling at level 25.
For the Restoration, Raise Dead and Illusion spells listed the scaling is calculated as (skill level) x 0.2 so with a skill level of 100 your spells will work on creatures 20 levels higher than the default. If you use a mod like Elys Uncapper you can raise the caps even higher. The maximum level of the Werewolf Howl ability scales with player level starting at level 25 (1:1 scaling). This mod doesn't make any changes to existing perks so it should be compatible with perk and spell overhauls. This scaling only turns on at high levels so this will not affect low-level play at all.
New Enemies Added
199 Bandits
104 Draugr
60 Witches
24 Forsworn
20 Warlocks (Necromancers, Conjurers, Pyromancers, Cryomancers and Electromancers)
20 Thalmor
18 Skeletons
13 Falmer
10 Dragon priests
10 Vampires
9 Dwarven Constructs
6 Dremora
6 Spiders
6 Mudcrabs
4 Ice Wraiths
4 Hagravens
4 Skeevers
3 Atronachs
3 Giants
3 Mammoths
2 Chaurus
2 Trolls
2 Spriggans
2 Bears
2 Saber Cats
2 Wolves
Dawnguard
28 Vampire Hunters
13 Vampires
12 Death Hounds
6 Falmer
2 Gargoyles
2 Armored Trolls
2 Chaurus Hunters
Dragonborn
88 Dragonborn Bandits
28 Rieklings
21 Draugr Hulks
12 Cultists
6 Ash Spawn
2 Seekers
1 Lurker
None of the enemies in Vanilla Skyrim have been changed in the unscaled version! Only new enemies were added. The new enemy names are consistent with the naming convention in Skyrim.Bandits may now carry glass weapons but their armor has not changed.Compatible with most mods including anything that effects companions, perks, weapons and armor, the UI or the environment.
Q. At what level will I start seeing the new creatures? A. New enemies will start showing up at level 10. After that more and more will show up as you reach higher levels.
Q. What is the highest level enemy added by this mod? A. The Dawnguard Vampire Boss at lvl 75. However, level scaling was added so that the player can never out level the highest tier enemies. These will have the best perks and spells (just like the player at this point) and will continue to provide a chalenge.
Q. Why add bandits at lvl 30 40, 50, 60 and then autolevel the level 60 bandit instead of simply making 1 bandit and autoleveling it? A. This allows enemies at each level to be tweaked individually allowing for a more consistent difficulty throughout the game. Also it adds variety to the game. If you only make 1 then all the enemies in the game will have generic names like "Bandit", "Draugr" and Vampire". I think it adds to the gameplay experience when you run into a cave and fight a group with a "Bandit Highwayman" "Bandit Plunderer" and "Bandit Conqueror" in it.
Installation
For NMM Versions
1. Download High Level Enemies Installer and follow the instructions.
Manual Installation
Unzip and copy the contents of "High Level Enemies" to your Skyrim\data folder.
If installing the scaled version copy the contents of High Level Eemies - Scaled to your data folder overwriting any files it asks you to.