Found myself ragdolled and didn't know what hit me

[GrantSP]

Okay, so I'm still making my way through my first playthrough and I have been in Solstheim for a while now.

While I was waiting for another message from Ralis I wandered up north to around Castle Karstaag.

 

Anyway, I found a back entrance through the caverns and fought my way through the reikling horde and found a throne in a back room. Ahh, I thought, what does that do? <click> and Boom!! smashed across the room. After what seemed like an eternity I could stand and I looked back at what hit me. WTH! a damn ghostly giant smashing me across the place.

 

Although I was killed outright within about three hits, this was one of the best experiences I've had so far.

 

I had no specific quest telling me to enter this castle or any information about what to find, just a locked door and a back entrance that invited me in. Brilliant.

Why aren't there more experiences like this? When I know what is supposed to be in a place I can prepare but stumbling upon this was THE BEST fun ever.

 

Anyone else think we need more fights/locations that aren't specifically tied to quests or that give details beforehand?

[hishutup]

so its repeatable...

that is weird

is there a specific mod that affects that area?

[GrantSP]

...repeatable?

 

 

EDIT:

 

Well that was a bit of a let down. Perhaps it may be designed that way but I can easily defeat Karstaag by running to the opposite end of his throne room and stand on those rocks. From this vantage point I can pepper him with flaming arrows and Fireball spells. I did this first to get away from the Mounted Riekling, man I hate those things. From there I can shoot at them and they can't reach me. With Karstaag though, he doesn't even bother to come close. He summons a few Ice Wraiths and they too just stay near the throne.

I reckon it may be designed that way, he is pretty powerful. Still, a bit of a let down to have a boss fight that wasn't, well, a fight!

Edited December 7, 2014 by GrantSP

[Greg]

Is this a mod or vanilla? In the vanilla game, you pick up his skull in Glacial Cave then place his skull on the throne in Castle Karstaag. Once the skull is in place, you get the "shake 'n bake" while he is being summoned, and then he knocks your butt across the room when he stomps his foot. He's also immune to frost and paralysis with a slight weakness to fire.

 

This isn't the only fight sequence that's a bit of a letdown, though. I've actually been in several fight sequences that just blow my mind. I mean right in the middle of getting my butt handed to me on a plate by horde of Draugr or Forsworn, they sheath their weapons and walk away. Or they just stand there looking like idiots while I pound them with arrows from five feet away.

[GrantSP]

I must have picked up the skull in my travels, though I don't remember it. So if I didn't have the skull would there have been a message to say as much? It's not like I would go and sit on the throne again if nothing happened.

Never seen the things you've described. There are a lot of times were I think I'm going to be smashed and I'm not and then what look like pushovers destroy me

[Greg]

It sounds as if this may be the vanilla Summoning Karstaag quest, although it may be a bit subtle because the quest itself doesn't appear in your journal. Here's a brief walkthrough of the quest with a picture of Karstaag's skull in Glacial Cave and a picture of the throne with Karstaag's skeleton in Castle Karstaag. When you activate the throne the first time, it places the skull on Karstaag's skeleton. After he's defeated, the action on the throne reverts to the default (sit throne).

 

https://www.uesp.net/wiki/Dragonborn:Summoning_Karstaag

[Member121]

This isn't the only fight sequence that's a bit of a letdown, though. I've actually been in several fight sequences that just blow my mind. I mean right in the middle of getting my butt handed to me on a plate by horde of Draugr or Forsworn, they sheath their weapons and walk away. Or they just stand there looking like idiots while I pound them with arrows from five feet away.

 

 

 

I've has this happen to me. A jarl asked me to kill the leader of <I don't recall>. The boss fight was with a Briar Heart Forsworn. He stood there, naked, as I dual wielded him to death in a couple of good whacks. I suspected some kind of scripting glitch so reloaded the previous save, recleared the location and when I met the same Briar Heart I walked right up to him (naked, again). I tried talking to him but he just made a few "Yes?", "Can I help you?" type innocuous comments. No aggression so I killed him and moved on.

 

Before this I encountered a few low level bandits / enemies that were not aggressive. At the time I assumed it was just a random encounter with a NPC from some mod that affects random encounters with NPCs. I may have set the mod to too easy. Since that boss encounter I have kept an eye on my encounters with NPCs and it's not my imagination. I can accept that not every bandit I encounter will be aggressive but boss fights are aggressive and difficult.

 

Now, I'm thinking it's some kind of glitch.

 

I am using STEP Extended and a few extra mods. (I'm not near my Skyrim PC, so I don't have the list of my extra mods.)

 

My STEP + Personal Choice Mods profile is unchanged except for a few armor mods I add once in a while. That profile was very stable and free of issues. Until recently. I did change some ini setting a few saves ago. (The ini settings that were recommended here: https://forum.step-project.com/topic/6532-new-step-vsync-settings-all-step-users-affected/ )

 

Sorry, I wasn't trying to highjack the thread. I don't know how to test this but there's my info if it helps someone else.