Wowww
I'm unsure what I did but the crashes stopped
So I finally get to go to that magical place
You know the one
Those first, kawaii bandits right across the sewer entrence and your first aeylid ruin
I engage one guy with a sledgehammer
I avoid his blows, and I rain down hit after hit
Something is clearly wrong, he doesn't seem to die, and a friend joined in so now I'm having difficulty avoiding damage. I think I must've gotten in 30 to 40 hits at least before I remember about the difficulty slider and turn it down to 0 (from being straight in the middle)
Another 10 hits and he finally dies, and another 5 kills his friend. Nearly all my potions from the tutorial section are gone now. I even applied some poison I found in the troll cave at some point.
I didn't download any mod that plays with enemy health. In fact, I downloaded a mod that INCREASES weapon damage to make enemies less damage spongey (and more lethal vs you of course. It also slows your attacks down + reduces weapon ranges to match the length of the weapon models for more realism)
Why does everything just want to frick me in the butt. I just wanted to enjoy a comfy game during my precious weekend while recovering from being sick