With the addition of Dragonborn, they will progress to Nordic carved armor after steel plate.

They never use Dwarven (unless it is a shield), Daedric, Orcish, ebony armor (with the exception of the bandit chief that the Dragonborn is ordered to kill in Boethiah's Calling), or dragonplate/ dragonscale armor.

Around level 15+, they start to use steel plate armor.

Bandit chiefs will continue to get stronger until level 50, unlike usual bandits that just send stronger variations.

Several can spawn near Dragontooth Crater, along with weaker variants.

They can be very tricky to kill, as they are known to often wield a powerful enchanted weapon, and reside in small places, where backing off is hard. They are located near the end of the dungeon or at the furthest point inside a camp or hold, and are usually accompanied with at least one or two weaker bandit variants. Other Elf and beast races do not appear as bandit chiefs nearly as often.īandit chiefs also wear heavy armor and tend to brandish a sword and shield combo, but some may also wield two handed weapons as well. However, other races compose their ranks, such as Nords, Imperials, and Redguards.

More often than not, bandit chiefs are Orcs. They also contain the most valuable loot among a group of bandits. The Bandit Chief is the strongest variant of a bandit found in Skyrim.

Skyrim play as bandit