Or maybe I'm going to all the wrong places all the time, but I'm level 13 now and still most enemies I see except rats have no problem kicking my arse (even those without a skull by their names).
No, you just suck.
Seriously though, what difficulty level are you playing on? By level 13 you should be able to kill more than just rats.
You need to use the terrain; I ALWAYS look for high ground and range from there. I also find my companion very helpful as she allows me to back off and heal if necessary while she takes damage then I can wade back in.
Normal difficulty level. I mean I can kill normal stuff by spamming the cleric's mines attack, but that takes one bar of mana, so unless I go to sleep after every random battle, that means one energy potion used.
My point is that I have a cleric armor and a plasma rifle, much better than what I had many levels ago, and yet enemies can still 2-3 shot me and I don't do much damage with normal weapon, everywhere I go. Running around on a highway, 2-3 jackals come and I either use an energy potion or have to run like hell, which was fine when I was low level, but at 13? I still haven't seen a place where I can feel I'm actually stronger than before, so that's why I feel like enemies level-scale more than in Oblivion. That or I've had the worst luck always going to high level places.
Combat tips:
Always use a sidekick
In close combat:
use a sword and shield
- attack until your stamina is gone
- block with the shield until your sidekick runs out of stamina
[*]put your weapons down and go away (circle around the enemy) to regain stamina- Goto 1
PS: Gain attributes for better weapons first.
What is the highest level you have achieved? I'm assuming there's no cap.
I saw someone got to 46, but no idea what is actually possible.
as a lot of high level enemies start spawning at that point.