The one I see that adds them to bandits and loot and such also heightens their damage, which is weird and unneeded. I'll look for one without that.

Using crossbows a lot tonight 'cause I got my archer girl there and they're crazy powerful already. And fun.

Start using the creation kit? It's one thing to get as far to place buildings or create quests, but changing one value of an item is not more trouble then editing ini-files.

I doubt it would be a value, I assume you would have to add it to leveled lists and merchant stock and all manner of things. I am sure someone will make a mod that does that, and perhaps adds more varieties as well, so I'm cool with that. Save it for some future playthrough.

FYI, crossbows are super overpowered. I went into Dawnguard HQ with a 17 damage orcish bow and came out with a 30 damage steel crossbow. It one-hits pretty much everything, and is just as silent as a longbow.

Reminds me of Fallout 3's first DLC where you got the gauss rifle and a massive arctic armor that didn't degrade, and you could right there at level one. Bethesda really doesn't care about overpowering you through DLC.

At higher levels the crossbows get a bit more balanced out though, because for example the fast shooting perk in the archery skill tree does not seem to have an effect on them. As a result, bows will have a higher shot per minute than crossbows.

Still, they are pretty much the highest damage ranged weapons in the game:

Crossbow: 19 damage
Daedric Bow: 19 damage
Dragonbone Bow: 20 damage
Dwemer Crossbow: 22 damage
Enhanced Dwemer Crossbow: 22 damage, 50% armor penetration

Yes and no. First, those DLCs are targeted at higher lvl players. And you can't put them off with a different looking generic item. And at the time of the DLCs release, how many already have a higher lvl char?
Sure it doesn't help once you play through it with a new character. But then again, you can't balance the game for min-/max-players. Including the fact that it's a different beast balancing items in a leveled environment.
And to be fair, Operation Anchorage in F3 as a starting player sure was possible, but not an easy task even on lower difficulties.

In the end there's always a way to overpower your character. How much you actually do / can't resist, is still the players choice.

I disagree completely.

First off, it's not min-maxing to get handed a weapon in a quest the game pushes on you at level 10 with a courier. Secondly, if the DLC is supposed to be for high level characters then it should be hard enough to scare off low level characters, which it never is post-Oblivion because of level scaling.

Balancing is something the developer has to consider, they can't just say "hey don't like it don't use it."

I really, really like this DLC so far. The quests are pretty good, but what I'm most impressed by is how well it fits into and expands upon the Elder Scrolls canon. If you're a TES lore-nerd, this DLC is just full of interesting tidbits like where souls go when they're soul trapped, what Priests of the Ancestral Moth have to do with moths, or what falmer civilization was like at the end of their days. And they aren't just touched upon briefly, all these things are integral part of the story.

This is a really good expansion so far. People saying it costs too much seem to think everything downloadable should be under $10, but that's silly.

The new areas are all very well designed and have a lot of cool new assets. The new armors and weapons are awesome. The storyline, vamp side, is very good. The new companion is almost Fallout: New Vegas quality, very good.

Most impressive is how much it feels like an expansion from the old days. Everything integrates well into the main game and changes the whole experience in a lot of small ways. Walking through the woods at night when a Dawnguard group attacks you, screaming about purging evil, while you were in the middle of a quest from the original game? Yes please. The Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas stuff felt so disjointed and separate, it's really nice to have an integrated expansion again.

Also they added random werewolf attacks in the woods at night.... creepy shit.

Crossbow is still overpowered.

Played it through Dawnguard-side and it was excellent. I don't get it why a lot of critics didn't favor it, as this DLC has done most things one can expect from an expansion right. And I didn't think it was overpriced at $20 either, as it roughly has as much content as Tribunal or the Shivering Isles had, both playtime-wise and exploration-wise.

I could have done without the occasional random "radiant" quests though, there were enough of those in the original game and honestly, I never really liked them. That's just a minor nitpick on my part, however, the whole thing is still very much recommended.

I like them because it gives you a reason to go into a dungeon and lets you know that dungeon is okay to do now, as opposed to waiting to see if it's in a main or faction quest. The dungeons in Skyrim are so well designed I just like running through them, and the radiant quests give me motivation to go do so, as well as a good location.

I was a little iffy on buying this but after reading these posts I'll probably spring a 20 right before I go back to school. (Have to see how much books are first, then I can splurge and be irresponsible)

*sigh* Still waiting for the GOTY edition.