Leveled lists completely ruin late-game loot and nobody talks about it

[DragonbornVet]

I'm on my 4th playthrough and I just hit level 45, and I'm genuinely baffled why this isn't brought up more. You're looting bandit camps and getting Daedric weapons when you should be finding steel and iron. The whole point of progression is that gear gets better, but Skyrim's leveled lists are so aggressive that by mid-game you're drowning in top-tier stuff that doesn't feel earned.

Like, I remember finding my first Daedric dagger around level 20 and it felt special. Now at 45 I'm selling Daedric greatswords to fence out my inventory. There's no sense of rarity or reward. A bandit chief shouldn't have better gear than a Thane.

I know Requiem and some other mods completely overhaul this, but vanilla just lets the scaling get completely out of hand. Does anyone else feel like the game stops being fun around level 40-50 because everything you find is already worse than what you're carrying?

 

[EbonyWarrior]

Yeah, the leveled lists thing is real. I hit that wall too around level 40-ish on my last playthrough - suddenly every bandit is wearing Daedric or Ebony and it just kills the fantasy of "I'm a badass adventurer finding cool stuff." It all becomes vendor trash.

That said, I think it's less that nobody talks about it and more that most people just... don't play that long? A ton of playthroughs probably end before level 40. But you're right that it's a design problem Morrowind never had - in Morrowind you'd find the same gear types throughout the game, and the progression came from you getting better at using it, not from the world handing you increasingly absurd loot. The weird part is Skyrim's combat is actually good enough that you don't need the constant gear treadmill to stay engaged.

The bandit chief thing bugs me too. Like, why does a random dude in a cave have access to Daedric smithing? It breaks immersion way harder than people usually admit. At least with Oblivion you could kind of handwave it as Daedra influence or whatever, but in Skyrim it's just... the list says so.

I haven't tried Requiem but I've heard it completely flattens the progression curve so everything stays dangerous longer. Might be worth it if you're getting bored. Or just stop leveling and make a new character - sometimes the game's more fun when you're not overleveled for everything.