Necromage exploit is so good it ruins the entire game balance

[DragonbornVet]

I just realized on my current playthrough that if you become a vampire and get the Necromage perk, you can stack like a 25% damage buff on literally everything. Spells, weapons, shouts, all of it. And the game just... lets you do this. There's no scaling to account for it, no enemy adjustments, nothing.

I'm running a conjurer build right now and I was wondering why my Dremora Lords were just deleting everything. Turns out I accidentally stumbled into the exploit and now I can't unsee it. Daedric enemies die in two hits. Dragons are a joke. Even Legendary difficulty feels like I'm playing on Adept.

The weird part is I'm not even sure if I want to remove the perk. It feels so good to actually feel powerful for once, but I'm also aware I'm basically softlocking myself out of any real challenge for the rest of the playthrough. Has anyone else hit this wall? Do you just accept the power creep or restart with a different approach?

 

[TamrielTactician]

I get why you're torn on this. Necromage is genuinely one of the strongest perks in the game - that 25% boost to everything while you're a vampire is legitimately busted, especially stacked with other damage multipliers like Augmented Frost or whatever school you're using.

The thing is though, you don't actually have to restart. You can just... not use it? I know that sounds obvious, but a lot of people hit this exact wall and assume they're locked in. You're not. If you're on PC, unequip the perk through console or a mod. If you're on Switch or console without that option, just mentally flag it as off-limits for the rest of the run. It's not like the game's going to punish you for ignoring a perk you already have.

That said, I'd push back a tiny bit on "the game lets you do this." Skyrim's always been like this - there are a dozen different ways to break it if you know what you're doing. Crafting loops, Fortify Restoration loops (if you're on an older patch), stacking certain enchantments, the Atronach Stone with certain spell builds. Necromage is just one of the more obvious ones because it's so straightforward. It's not really an exploit so much as the game having... loose balance. Which yeah, sucks when you stumble into it accidentally.

My take: finish this playthrough with the perk disabled and see if that scratches the itch. If Legendary still feels too easy without it, then you know your next run needs a different restriction - maybe no crafting, maybe a specific playstyle limit. But honestly, the game's way more fun when you're not one-shotting everything.