At the very end of a dungeon, I find a Draugr Death Overlord. "Whatever," I figure, "It's probably just a stronger draugr. It'll take a few tries and that's it."
Nope. It has a shout attack that flings me across the room, one-hit kills Lydia with its sword, then comes over and does the same to me.
Skyrim. I finally killed it by getting it stuck on a torch, and I don't feel guilty about it in the least. Lydia even survived due to my cheating ingenuity.
Draugr Death Overlords are level 45, and very very rarely can appear at lower levels. They can Disarm, use Unrelenting Force, and I think in some situations, Frost Breath. They tend to carry Ebony weaponry, which is an absurd power boost on top of their higher stats, but would be for you too assuming you're low leveled and haven't grinded Smithing yet.
I think he was scripted, he was sitting in a throne and everything. I was level 9. 
I have no idea how to even get started smithing, I haven't seen any ore around or even any pickaxes. I'm using guides as minimally as possible though.
Some draugr, especially end-of-the-dungeon miniboss Draugr, will be seated before they fight you. Others can be found inside their old coffins, and will break out sometimes - there's no way initially to find out whether they will, until you get a certain shout or a certain spell.
As to smithing, there are occasionally mines scattered about (a good example is in the Reach area, in the southwest) with pickaxes and varying ore depending on the mine. The Reach area, while rich in mines and ore, also has the Forsworn in it, angry natives who really want to cut you up, so I'd advise staying out of there until about level 15 or so.
There are also two mines in the town of Dawnstar, in the north. You can get there using the carriages outside any major city, or just walk until you find it. Most of them will have a pickaxe lying around for free. You smelt the ore (most ores are 2 ore = 1 ingot) at a smelter - the majority of mines have a smelter at the entrance, and a blacksmith's shop often has a workbench (improve armor), a grindstone (improve weapons), and a forge (create armor, weapons and jewelery).
That's just off the top of my head.
Also, Whiterun has the Skyforge, which allows you access to certain recipes you wouldn't otherwise get (in the base game, I think this is just for Skyforge Steel, which isn't much better than steel.)
Author
Topic: How did you last die? (Read 2263146 times)