This was one of my biggest problems with Morrowind, the rather schizophrentic differences between challenges and rewards, and random and non-random enemies. Sometimes bandits in the remotest mountains were pushovers. Sometimes you'd take a brief walk out of town and stumble into Level 20 Daedra Worshipers.
Stuff like this honestly doesn't bother me as much, if only because, if you think about it in in-universe terms, it doesn't really make
sense as a bumbling new adventure to run off into the wilderness entering random ruins and caves, and if you do then you sort of have to accept whatever you find. I mean, it makes perfect sense to encourage the player to get his character started doing things in a more controlled environment (the beginning quests, guilds, etc.) rather than stumbling out blindly into random bandit caves.
if you go there at less than Level 5 or so, the cave is just empty except for naked Sleepers. And what's waiting at the back of the cave? A pair of artifact gauntlets that give permanent +20 Strength and Agility. Holy crap.
This, on the other hand? Completely freaking inexcusable. There are places in the game where you have stuff that seems to be worth entire
towns lying around for the taking.
This is what I fucking hated about Tribunal, to the point of wanting to keep it deactivated. The expansion is obviously intended for people who've already beaten the game. But the sleep-assassin event has no trigger; the guy can show up the first time you sleep, and even though he scales is a stupidly hard fight. Getting rid of him requires at least starting the Tribunal quest, and can still wig out without warning and curse you to sleep with one eye open until you get around to the whole thing, which you can't until you're solidly leveled.
Yes. The freaking assassin. I remember a few times fighting him outside Seyda Neen. Hearing "YOU N'WAH!" and getting stabbed to death by a guy wearing (for that point in the game) hideously expensive armor is a bitch.
There are mods that add simple controls to that, so it only occurs after some quest point. You know what I'd do, personally? Base it on the character's reputation stat. That way, they wouldn't attack you until people actually know who the hell you are and you might be slightly more prepared. Of course, if you do fight him off successfully (which you have to!), you get some really damn good light armor. Of course, don't even get me started on armor balance. You don't want me to go there.
[quote author=Africa link=topic=72838.msg1941052#msg1941052 date=1296660112Huh? The whole entire point of the expansions is that they're a place for characters to move onto once they've become powerful enough that the main game is no longer a challenge.[/quote]
I don't see why this has to be the case, and if it is, two of my points were
directly intended for such a scenario.
As for the goblin thing, I can't really tell what you're complaining about - that goblins are strong? So goblins are tough in the TES universe, how's that a problem?
The problem is that they don't appear like they should be. Why should sewer pests and tiny little rieklings be so powerful? They aren't really treated as such story-wise, the shitty little wooden goblin swords have
surprisingly great stats for what they are, and it's pretty obvious to me that the only reason they're so strong is to shoehorn in "balance" for more powerful characters.