Stealth archer at level 40—why does sneak attack damage feel flat now?

[DragonbornVet]

I'm on my third playthrough, playing on Adept, and I've hit this weird wall where my sneak attacks aren't scaling anymore. I've got the perks that boost bow damage (the one that increases crit chance, the armor penetration one, stuff like that), maxed Archery, and I'm using Daedric bows with decent enchants. Early game I was one-shotting everything from stealth, but now bandits and draugr are tanking hits and I have to actually fight them.

Am I missing a perk tier or is this just how the leveling works past 40? Should I be respeccing into something else or is there a damage scaling thing I'm not getting?

 

[TamrielTactician]

Yeah, this is actually a pretty common wall. The issue isn't that your damage scaling broke—it's that enemy health scaling outpaced your damage output somewhere around that level range, and sneak archer doesn't have as many scaling tools as people think.

Here's the thing: you've maxed Archery and grabbed the crit perks, but there's a damage ceiling there if you're not also investing in Smithing. Like, a lot. Daedric bows are solid, but if you're not at least at the perk that lets you craft better gear (the one that bumps damage across the board), you're leaving a ton of damage on the table. Enchanting matters way more at level 40 than it did at level 10. A Daedric bow with a weak enchant is gonna feel like trash when bandits have 300+ HP.

Also—and I might be off on the perk name here—but there's a perk in the Archery tree that boosts damage when you're sneaking specifically, not just crit chance. That one scales harder than people realize because it stacks with everything else. Make sure you grabbed that one.

The other thing is Adept is where the game stops being forgiving about build discipline. If you're pure stealth archer with no crafting backup, yeah, you're gonna start feeling it. Not saying you need to respec, but grabbing Smithing to Daedric tier (or whatever the highest you can craft is) would probably fix this in like an hour of grinding.

What's your Smithing at right now?

 

[WhiterunModder]

That reply nails it, but I'd add: check if you're actually using the sneak damage multiplier correctly. Like, are you getting the 15x damage on your shots, or are you hitting enemies who've already spotted you? Because the moment they know you're there, that multiplier evaporates and you're just shooting with base bow damage. At level 40 on Adept, base damage against a draugr with 300+ HP isn't gonna cut it.

Also if you're on PC and open to mods, there's a reason a ton of people run Wildcat or Requiem at higher levels - vanilla Adept stops being a meaningful difficulty pretty fast and enemy scaling gets weird. But that's a separate conversation.

But real talk: before you touch Smithing, double-check your enchants. What are you actually putting on those Daedric bows? Because a bow with "fortify marksman" or a straight damage boost is gonna feel night and day different from one with some random enchant you slapped on at level 15. If your enchanting is low, that's probably the faster fix than grinding Smithing to Daedric.