I have heard a lot about smithing recently, but almost nothing about bound weapons. Does anyone know how a bound weapon compares to an equivalent daedric weapon that has been improved?

obviously i you have improved your weapon via smithing it will be more potent than a bound weapon, seeing as Bound weapons are only equivilent to their base counterparts, meaning it will be standard not improved at all. hope that helped.

No, I haven't. But I have heard that smithing makes next to indestructable. And the fact that it is with you constantly makes all the difference in an ambush.

Got a feeling that the strength of bound weapons will rely heavily on the conjuration skill itself... did it work like that in Oblivion? I never really used them.

You can also improve bound weapons via a perk. It would be interesting to know how good these are. EDIT: They are at a natural disadvantage considering they cannot be enchanted though

That's what my plan was. A weightless daedric weapon that does good damage, soul traps its enemies, and turns enemy summons into MY summons. I'm just hoping that they'll be nearly as powerful as weapons improved with smithing.

No the equipment provided a flat armour rating and no enchantments - higher conjuration simply reduced the mana cost. Their only real practical value is they were completely weightless, so a conjuration expert didn't really have to carry much with him, when combat began he could just summon a full set of fairly powerful armour and weapons.

But the said weapons really didn't hold a candle to a set of genuine daedric armour, upgraded by an armourer and enchanted with foul magicka from the depths of oblivion... or something like that.

I see.

Hopefully then there is something that makes them more worth while late game.