Hello.

I want you to do a little test for me with the latest version of Skyrim. I can't because the screen of my desktop computer decided to die a horrible, painful death and all I got is this ThinkPad that can barely run solitaire.

1. Start up Skyrim

2. get your character's filthy hands on a 1h axe and a 2h axe. Doesn't matter which quality.

3. Go to a practice dummy in the backyard of the Companions in Whiterun. Equip the 1h weapon. Start swinging at the dummy. See how far away from the dummy you can get while still being able to hit it with your 1h weapon. Once you've found that distance, stay there.

4. Switch to your massive, lengthy 2h weapon. Try to hit the dummy.

Can you hit it? The last time I played Skyrim I couldn't. 1h weapons had a way longer reach than the 2h weapons, which makes no sense at all no matter how you look at it. This makes two handed weapons kind of useless compared to one handed weapons, since you can't use a shield. Sure they still have bigger base damage, but you block less damage and don't get to enjoy amazing stuff like the spellbreaker.

What do you think about this? Does it make any sense to you? Is there a mod to fix it? Discuss.

Cheers

What? This has never been the case, for me. maybe it was a glitch in the dummy.

Try and see for yourself. Doesn't really matter if it's a dummy or a wall. Anything that you can hit to produce a sound & visual effect.

My first character in unpatched Skyrim was a 2handed guy. I had a recollection that they had a good, long reach. Played a 1h dude after that for a good while, and then made a new guy for the dawnguard-patch version of Skyrim. Noticed that I needed to get really close to the bandits to be able to hit them with a weapon that was almost as tall as the Nord I was playing. Waaaay closer than with a 1h weapon.

Ok...You have peaked my interest. Only, I will use a live target. It may be a half hr or so, but I am now somewhat curious.

Hmm, I am curious too, as my characters both use greatswords. Will await Senor Cinco's results.

Battleaxe beats hand axe any day in my book, you have to get up close and personal with a battleaxe anyway and the damage is much greater so it doesn't really matter if there's a bug that gives a hand axe an inch longer reach as a battleaxe gives a foot more of damage

also to my knowledge weapons all block the same amount of damage

Interesting observation.

I just tried it myself and I got the same result. Looks like the reach is the same from this result.

Then I went out, summoned a restless draugr and put him to sleep and repeated the same experiment.

In this test I definitely saw the difference in reach between a greatsword and a regular sword. The difference was small but definitely there. But I still could not see any difference between a dagger and a sword.

I think he meant that you can't use a shield which does block more damage.

Exactly. The whole point of 2h weapons should be that you use higher damage, mobility and reach to beat your enemies. Now you get only the higher damage amount, but that's not good enough to compensate for the loss of that defensive boost a shield would bring. Also it makes no sense at all to be able to reach further with a 1m weapon than a 1,5m weapon.


EDIT:


Or that a tiny little dagger reaches further than a claymore. Really?