Does the red skull icon actually make enemies more difficult?

[Forblaze]

So obviously it means that they're a significantly higher level than me, but unless there's supposed to be a huge jump in stats at level 10 then I feel like enemies are made even stronger on top of their level. I fought a basilisk that was level 14 while I was level 4 and it took me nearly an entire in game today just because it had so much health. There was one instance where I was fighting a bunch of bandits. One was level 9 but the rest were level 10. The level 9 guy died in two or three hits but the level 10 guys could stand me wailing on them for a solid 10 seconds each.

[Deadbubble]

Enemies with a skull icon deal much higher damage than normal and have much higher HP than normal. They get an HP and damage buff.

[Forblaze]

Originally posted by Deadbubble:

Enemies with a skull icon deal much higher damage than normal and have much higher HP than normal. They get an HP and damage buff.

Does it not just mean that they're several levels above yours?

[Deadbubble]

Originally posted by Forblaze:

Originally posted by Deadbubble:

Enemies with a skull icon deal much higher damage than normal and have much higher HP than normal. They get an HP and damage buff.

Does it not just mean that they're several levels above yours?

Yes, red skull means they 6+ levels above you, and get a health and damage buff as a result.

[Ruges]

Originally posted by Deadbubble:

Originally posted by Forblaze:

Does it not just mean that they're several levels above yours?

Yes, red skull means they 6+ levels above you, and get a health and damage buff as a result.

Why would they get a buff? I mean I understand that they would natualy have a higher HP and damage, since they are higher level. But to get a buff on top of that? that seems a bit odd.

Also I dont think the level system is very balanced. In most games I have played with a orange/red skull system. The orange would mean its a hard hard fight, and the red would mean its an impossible fight. However in TW3 I have killed several red foes. (although resource consumtion to beat them is usually not worth it.).

[Forblaze]

Originally posted by Ruges:

Why would they get a buff? I mean I understand that they would natualy have a higher HP and damage, since they are higher level. But to get a buff on top of that? that seems a bit odd.

Right? I really appreciated the original witcher's lack of vertical scaling too.

[Vellari]

No purpose other than a design choice, I suppose. You are "not supposed to" fight targets with red skulls, hence the buff.

Same thing with über guards, you are not supposed to fight them so they made them nigh unkillable and since they typically swarm you it is quite literally impossible.

[Ruges]

I am either doing the wrong quests, or somthings off in mygame. Maybe I whould have selected the option for the game to adjust monsters levels. But it seems to me that most of the monsters and quests around are redskulls (except the mainquest, but I am not trying to race threw the short main story).

Earlier I was passing a village infested with ghouls. It was a hard hard fight. they where all reskulls. But the village needed me and it was a witcher contract. So I obliged, and cleared out the ghouls. It was a close battle several times. Come to find out, the ghouls where not even the real problem in the village. They where just there eating corpses of what the thing down below had killed. I ended up telling them the moster was to strong for me. And your all going to die down there, and left the village.

I mean Witchers abaondonding contracts because the monsters where too strong?

At anyrate the whole level system feels flawed. encountering to many higher level creatures, that are beatable, at allot of work. I dunno maybe I have diverged from the path to far.

[v0]

I more think it's simply your dmg that gets nerfed for those redskull enemies by some large factor like 2x or even 5x but effect ofcourse same as giving them more HP.

EDIT: btw similar nerfing of incoming dmg comes to play when it's you 5+ levels above enemy. And on top of it normal enemy dmg/hp scale up with game difficulty.

[Grimminski]

There's a mod that normalizes enemy health and damage, so you could technically fight a lvl 30 enemy at lvl 1.

[Bunks]

At first I thought it was a warning that the loot would be even lower level than usual. Turned out to be true.

[bgray9054]

Ya I've definitely learned my lesson with those enemies. If they're more than 3-5 levels above me, I run and come back when I've leveled up a bit. :)

[KoalafiedKiller]

Red skull enemies have 5x multipliers with high resistances, red ??? Enemies have 8x with 100% resistances.

[Deadbubble]

Originally posted by Ruges:

Originally posted by Deadbubble:

Yes, red skull means they 6+ levels above you, and get a health and damage buff as a result.

Why would they get a buff? I mean I understand that they would natualy have a higher HP and damage, since they are higher level. But to get a buff on top of that? that seems a bit odd.

Also I dont think the level system is very balanced. In most games I have played with a orange/red skull system. The orange would mean its a hard hard fight, and the red would mean its an impossible fight. However in TW3 I have killed several red foes. (although resource consumtion to beat them is usually not worth it.).

No idea. Awful idea all around, I agree.

Originally posted by Ruges:

I am either doing the wrong quests, or somthings off in mygame. Maybe I whould have selected the option for the game to adjust monsters levels. But it seems to me that most of the monsters and quests around are redskulls (except the mainquest, but I am not trying to race threw the short main story).

Earlier I was passing a village infested with ghouls. It was a hard hard fight. they where all reskulls. But the village needed me and it was a witcher contract. So I obliged, and cleared out the ghouls. It was a close battle several times. Come to find out, the ghouls where not even the real problem in the village. They where just there eating corpses of what the thing down below had killed. I ended up telling them the moster was to strong for me. And your all going to die down there, and left the village.

I mean Witchers abaondonding contracts because the monsters where too strong?

At anyrate the whole level system feels flawed. encountering to many higher level creatures, that are beatable, at allot of work. I dunno maybe I have diverged from the path to far.

Thats just how the game is. Level ranged can vary wildly in an area. Just go back and do them later. Its normal to get a level 24 contract at level 5, when you enter Velen.

[Ajukreyzi]

Originally posted by Ruges:

At anyrate the whole level system feels flawed. encountering to many higher level creatures, that are beatable, at allot of work. I dunno maybe I have diverged from the path to far.

What difficulty level do you play?

[BlackZero500]

So ???Redskulls are 8 times stronger than normal? Means i just beat a griffin on steroids. Explains why it was so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hard to pull off. And you all are right. Wasnt worth the effort. The thing is i understand balancing must be, but geralt already is a skilled witcher. He should at least be able to defeat every possible enemy.