Something to look out for are the big groups of lower tier deathclaws in the caves (run away from it if you do not have decent enough firepower, considering weapons and party count, to kill them rapidly enough even considering they are lower tier). Yeah some encounters you can get by with just you and Sulik with spears and knuckles early on and you can get lots of experience against weaker creatures. I guess people are still the nastiest of them all!Д«ut also, realistically just for the sake that humans/humanoids are on a different level and can use their intelligence to be more of a threat than any one creature could ever be. It's realistic to think that bands of armed human enemies should be some of the most difficult opponents even considering all of the grotesque creatures and such. I like this game for that and it's not just a few pushover 'raiders' running at you randomly that your lone character can kill so easily like in some newer titles. Most of those encounters early on are death sentences of course. Yeah this also in addition to what was said about Outdoorsman skill. Animal encounters are great for leveling.

10 Agi and bonus move help a lot for running away. Originally posted by The Great Cornholio:9/10 raider encounters you should run from unless you're high level and geared.

Fallout 2 random encounters