Do enemies stay damaged? Or do they heal?

[MythTrip]

For quests that involve enemy elimination - can I damage an enemy, leave the area, rest and heal, then come back to finish him off? Or will he be fully healed when I come back?

[Glerk]

I think they stay damaged.

[Doctor3D]

Some higher level enemies heal if they have potions or spells. But they would do it right away and during the combat so you'd notice it. Basically, if they have low health when you leave, they will still have that same health when you return. If they have the capability to heal - they can only do it with you present in the cell. If you're not in the cell..they don't do anything..they don't exist just the state of them exists. I wish all of them would though as it makes more sense and would be a bit more challenging.

It's a limitation of the game more than anything. When you leave that door, you're in a new cell - so the game can no longer tag you with "Cant rest while enemies are nearby" which is the actual design principle, and the state of the cell the AI is in (including the AI itself) is just saved without any alterations. There's no functions available that i'm aware of that would allow the game to increase health of AI prior to saving the state. The game just saves everything in that cell as it was the moment you left the door and when you return everything is exactly as it was the moment you left it.

The design of the game doesn't appear to really want us to exploit it that way. If they had fixed that somehow when making the game- making it so that the AI heals if you leave the cell or something - you would then need to rely more on things like mark then cast temple intervention, then heal and then recall right back in front of them to continue the battle.

[󰀉tempeh󰀉]

Just as long as the enemy isn't a spriggan, grizzly, ogrim, hulking fabricant, goblin bruiser, bonewolf, or draugr, you're probably fine. Corprus stalkers and daedra (as in, plural of daedroth, the green reptile thing with the poisonbloom) have a regeneration spell, but they have to choose to use it.

[Ravel]

I was having an issue where I was trying to fight some Kwana at a low level, and I'd leave after being mortally wounded (level 1) and rest, and enter back in to find them either back at full health, or with respawned comrades. I gave up and left.