The game can be very easy at max difficulty with normal starting stats (25 and 30 for major skills) if you know what to enchant and what spells to use. But if you are talking about pure weapon play you are screwed at max difficulty as soon as black bears show up in force (common soul creatures) even if you have your skill mastered (possible at level 7 or 8), 100 in its attribute and the best weapon (Honorblade, Frostyrm, Callibens). Those creatures simply take too long to build up the damage required to kill them to be worth playing even if you are good enough not to get hit (possible with black bears but not with mt lions in my experience).