Oddly, after he attacked me he broke combat and started
running away, I was clad in a death robe and had no weapon present and
he hadn't even hit me yet! As he was running through the woods, I
armed my heavy xbow and followed him.
"STOP AND FIGHT ME!" I kept yelling.
Suddenly an explosion took place right on top of me.
I thought he cast explosion on me, but I never saw him using words of power
or charging up the spell. Turns out it wasn't explosion, it was a
purple potion! He was defending himself by throwing purple potions
around.
3 or 4 more purple potions hit me, and I stood in bewilderment
as to why they were doing so little damage on me. After killing him
and looting his black plate, I saw why they were doing such little damage...
THEY WERE LESSER EXPLOSION POTIONS. The guy had been drinking down
lesser heals and throwing lesser explosions to kill me! Why couldn't
he use the halberd he was carrying? Or had just run away and never
looked back in the first place. I love newbies, they are so fun.