A silverhand leader decapitated me before on an early character, frequently actually, since my poorly designed fop was two-shottable by him. I had to reload that fight alot.

Okay... did you have a companion or a summons at the time? Or were you fighting him solo, leaving you the "last enemy" for him?
-Loth

Edit: I'm really just wondering if the decap perks could take down an otherwise near-invincible armor-capped PC by a lucky strike from a properly perked NPC. That might be good to know for future reference.

Just me.

A ha... the plot thickens! Damn, I wish we could test this easily, but it would take someone to have a saved game just before an encounter with the proper NPC and access to summons to see if the summons prevents the decap or not. The tester would have to get his head chopped off several times and killed over and over again to see if we could solve the mystery behind this game mechanic and be able to say with certainty how this thing works.

Who wants to take one for the team?
-Loth

PS Not me.

Edit: The tester would need to be on the PC and have access to the console to give himself ridiculous health and armor to prove that the decap is not just another kill animation. I'm thinking that if someone got decapped with 10000 health, that would prove the case.

Is it just the decap animation you're after, or are you talking any kill animations?

Edit: Nevermind, I guess your edit pretty much answered that

Does anyone know if the Cloak spells stack with each other and the dunmer Ancestor's Wrath racial?

Wait... duh! You can spawn an enemy NPC with the console, and then add the perk to the enemy with the console... Viola! Perked NPC! Give yourself 10000 health, save the game, and then... get killed a lot. What we're looking for is proof that decaps ignore armor/health and cause instant death, no matter what. If anybody has been lurking around these threads, and wanted to become a contributor... now's your chance!

-Loth

Edit: Fleapants -- no reason for them not to. IDK if anybody's ever confirmed this ingame or not. Maybe give yourself the spells and check it out? It would be nice to know if they don't.

My fiance is playing the game on the only PC around here that will run it (otherwise I wouldn't be in the forums ) but I can at least tell you that the Bandit Chief (or some other level maybe, not sure) at the end of the Pinewatch Bandit Sanctuary (I think it was there, anyway. Right after I killed Jaree-Ra during his quest line) one-shot decapped me with a warhammer several times before I managed to kill him.

Edit: I was alone at the time, didn't have any summons available, probably don't still have the save anyway.

Were you powerful enough (lots of armor, health) to not get one-shotted otherwise? Power attacks are double damage, and if the enemy has the decap perk, that will be double damage plus 25% as well... which can be a LOT with a 2H Hammer against a high-level NPC.

-Loth

At that point... not 100% sure. His regular attacks weren't hurting me too badly, but it's possible that a power attack with bonus could have been enough to kill me anyway (normal power attacks I saw during my attempts didn't seem to do more than about 25% of my health, though). That character has been wearing the Savior's Hide since about level 10, but I don't remember what else I had on at the time, or how much improved it was.

Someone should definitely do proper testing.

Come on, Sparrow... take one for the team! Think of the immortal internet fame and glory of having your name listed in the contributors!
Test this... DO IT.

-Loth


PS console code:
player.setav health 10000

Edit: You don't really have to... I'm just fooling around here.

Oh I would. But my fiance is currently playing Skyrim on the only PC around here that will play it (Properly. Another one has better specs but has the Black Screen of Death issue... ). I'm stuck with a netbook on the couch.

Hmm, maybe if I bug him, he'll let me play...

Just like to say thanks to the OP for making this thread. Very helpfull and greatly appreciated. I lernt a few new things I never even considered when playing Skyrim.

Thank you.

I made this build yesterday , played a lot (need some sleep now, reached lvl 25 in expert ) , for the moment it works fine , i get one shotted from time to time , but only when i'm not careful/concentrated

I think it's a good challenge , ignoring alteration allows me to reach my "build objectives" before lvl 50 :

I wanted to stack conjuration( i want 11 perks )+destruction (i want at least 11 perks ) +restoration ( 8 perks )+alchemy(i want 7 perks ) +enchanting (8 perks needed ) and still have room for a bit of illusion

I found combining summons + frost & fire gives me great offensive potential (coupled with alchemy and decent enchanted gear) , i also use illusion as defence (invisibility , calm ) when things go suddenly wild (surprised by many enemies ) or against archers (priority targets with enemy mages ) , i use wards against magic (although to be honest , most of the time dual casting destruction is more efficient , but i don't have ward absorb perk yet nor high level wards ) but i hope they'll get better (i think need to wear a restoration reduction cost cause in noticed the lesser and apprentice wards cost a lot of mana compared to what they bring in defence ) .

Anyway it's fun so far , a pure glass canon , but still nice to RP , my 2 previous characters were totally OP and this time i wanted an uncompromising Necromage build with an achille's heel

I've been playing a Pure Mage (perks-wise) on Master, but recently kicked it down to Expert. I have 150 health, and 300 Armor (Ebonyskin). Around level 30, things started getting killing blow animations against me... usually very early in the fight. I'm not certain if Lydia was still up at the time or not. Certainly not a definitive test.

Can someone clarify the difference between decap and killing blow animations..? Or are they the same thing? I've never actually seen any heads roll after over 250 hours of gameplay.

First I want to say that this is awesome work. Kudos to all of you.


But I'd also like to know the base protection one could get with only the maxed Armor skill (either Heavy or Light). So my question is, who could I ask or where could I go to see the Armor Rating for the Armors if only the Armor Skill (both Heavy and Light) is maxed, and both no Perks (and all Perks) are being used to boost the Armor Rating?



I don't know how to use the info on the http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Armour

Add together the armor values of the items. Multiply that with 1,4 for 100 armor skill and add 100 from the hidden bonus.
To calculate the actual % reduction, multiply the total armor value by 0,12.

Basic daedric armor:
(49+18+18+23)*1,4+100 = 251,2 armor rating.
251,2*0,12 = 30,1% damage reduction.

Not to mention that your chances of finding a full set of Daedric armor in the game are pretty low.

WHAT? You gotta be kidding.

The decap animation for a 1H sword, for example, is very similar to one of the other kill anims... your char whips around in a 360 degree move, and with a backhanded slash, chops through the enemy's neck -- the enemy's head vanishes at that point, leaving a bloody stump.

You've probably seen it a million times (you do get the perk, don't you?) but it's so similar to one of the other kill anims you didn't notice the head disappearing and slight difference in swing height. The standard non-decapping animation that whips your char around in a 360 is at chest level, and doesn't remove the enemy's head.
-Loth

Edit: There's a video in you tube that shows a guy doing it... I'll try to find a link.

Edit2: Here's one with a 2H sword:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Y_BIL2BoiY

Does anyone know the Best Smithing/Enchanting potion I can make using the Resto glitch?
Capped at 330/55% before I ran out of Resto Potions.

I'm not sure if it has been mentioned yet but, you can wear a circlet along with a falmer helmet; allowing you to have 5 fortify alchemy enchantmets.

I've read that if you do the Resto loop properly, there is no limit... you will go so high that it wraps around back to zero and starts from there again. Can't say I've ever done this myself, though, so maybe they were lying.
-Loth

Confirmed. There are 2 or 3 ways to end up wearing multiple helmets, necklaces, or even entire sets of gear if you're willing to take the time.

I've wrapped it during one of my tests. It doesn't take that long to get there either. It wraps to negative though, which makes for some very strange behavior.

Cheshyr: were you kidding before about never seeing a decap? I edited in a youtube link into a previous post on this page if not.
-Loth

I was not. I've never played as a character that went weapon-crazy. I've had an unarmed, an archer, a caster, and a sword and mace. None of those decap. I've seen a head or two lying around before, but I was fairly certain that was Lydia when I wasn't looking. Thanks for the link. edit: Unarmed killing blows are still the best.