Just when do the frost spells slow an enemy to snail's pace? It seems rather random to me, sometimes my frost spells would cause the enemy to move so slowly he might as well have been not moving at all, while other times they just don't really slow the enemy by much.

Happens to me as well, some random mage's frost spells would suddenly turn me into a snail (metaphorically) while other times i'm able to run towards him despite the jet of frost blasting my face.

Every frost spell slows you get hit enough and hello snail. Its a matter of your stamina.

Frost only slows you down once your Stamina is damaged enough. Same with the enemies.

Some enemies will have a lot of Stamina, some enemies will have resistance to Frost. Try using Flame attacks on those enemies that don't seem to be effected as much by Frost.

You try moving fast when you're freezing, lol.

In Skyrim, the different elements affect different attributes. Fire has an added effect on health, ice on stamina and lightning on magicka.

Yeah slows you and eats away at your stamina i've had enough trouble with it so i stack up on frost resistance nowadays.

Damaged enough eh? Im supposing thats a percentage of stamina?
Hmm so this is where stamina poisons come in handy

But wouldn't you then be that slow when you exhaust your stamina from sprinting?

I have never really liked the frost spells too much because most enemies resist frost, doesn't really slow the enemies, and it's the slowest moving attack.

It would be much nicer if the frost attacks acted like NPCs' do where you are pretty much at walking speed for a few seconds.

Only when you get frosted

Exactly what I was pointing out, that the slowness comes exclusively from the frost spell, not the stamina damage.
It would be GREAT if stamina damage actually did that though. Would make it even a tad bit useful.

Have you ever been outside when it was really cold? Your body just doesn't wanna move. xD

Ha I wish they moved as slow as you describe, in my game they are barely phased by it.

Oh ok. Yea true, perhaps they could make some kind of relationship. The lesser stamina you have the slower you will run LOL. Although that would be incredibly pissing, imagine you trying to keep your stamina above X% everytime to run at max speed.

I think i tested it on some low level bandits though, the higher level mobs (presumably with a chockload of stamina) arent affect by the jet of ice buffetting their face.

You don't need to go that extreme though.
just make it so that if your stamina is depleted all the way down (where the bar is flashing) whether from sprinting or ice attacks, THAT is when your movement is slowed.