The Danger of the Land
Enemies do not grow with your level. Every part of the Iliac Bay has an area level from 1 to 20 instead, and that is what you meet there. The farther you go from towns and their watch, the higher it gets, and the night is worse than the day.
- 1 to 5"You are within reach of the watch."
- 6 to 10"The watch's reach grows thin here."
- 11 to 15"These are dangerous lands."
- 16 to 20"These are deadly lands."
The lines under each band are what the game tells you when you cross into it. Large dots are kingdom capitals and cities, small dots villages and hamlets. Region labels show how well each region is ruled: a capital's watch, a knightly order's seat, weak rule, or lawless.
What makes the land dangerous
- Towns keep the land around them safe. Bigger towns and stronger watches reach farther, and a region under weak rule, or none, keeps less of it safe. Even in lawless lands, villages and hamlets keep the worst away from their doorsteps.
- Dungeons make the wilds around them worse. Near towns, the watch keeps them in check.
- Night. After dusk the watch reaches less far, lairs stir, vampire haunts wake and the night near them turns to the undead, and the Haunted Woodlands grow worse. Under a full moon, a lycanthrope may come out of the woods. The danger eases in from 17:00 to 19:00 and out from 05:00 to 07:00.
- Towns at night. Towns under weak rule, or none, see more trouble on their streets after dark; the capitals see less.
Who you meet
- Monsters have fixed levels, and a random encounter picks the ones near the area level. A rat stays a rat; a lich is always a lich.
- Human foes, from bandits to battlemages, take the area level: up to 15 outdoors and in buildings, without a cap in dungeons.
- The city watch is level 15 to 18 everywhere. Crime is never cheap.
Dungeons
- A dungeon holds what the land around it holds at night, whatever the hour you go in.
- The main-story dungeons have fixed levels, set by where the story first sends you.
- Inside, the game tells you what kind of halls you are in: "These halls are quiet.", "Something stirs in these halls.", "These halls are dangerous.", "Deadly things dwell here."
Daggerfall's dead
The dead walk the streets of Daggerfall city every night. A player who has finished Lysandus' Revenge walks among them unharmed, unless he strikes first.