I have never really used a dagger to attack an enemy, but i have always kept one really nice dagger in my inventory just in case. Since i am Level 36 a nice dagger for me is glass or ebony.

I find that even though they are faster to swing and re-swing at a target, they don't seem to be effective enough in terms of their damage ability for me to equip. Does ANYONE else use them? Maybe theives would use them? I wast just wondering, because if there IS a great niche for this weapon maybe i'll think twice before pawning my daggers.

Main benefit of daggers are the 15x sneak bonus. Let you kill most enemies in one hit.

There is a perk in the Sneak tree that allows you to do 15x damage with daggers whilst sneaking, so they are useful if you like being stealthy.

Yes, I use dual daggers quite effectively with poison, stealth, 15x modifier, on Expert I have no problems at all. But truth be told I haven't used 2x dagger in the early levels, I used dagger + destro or dagger + illusion.

Tired of getting disarmed. Gonna start keeping a knife in my boot.

i primarily use daggers for backstabs on my assassin character, the 15x backstab is amazing. Although i do keep chillrend in my inventory just incase i get in a bad fight

Dual wielding daggers, both in stealth, and direct combat. With the dual flurry and dual savagery perks, combined with Elemental Fury, I can slice and dice with the best of them.

sweet ideas, thanks everyone. I will give it a try...

I keep one if I'm a duel wield character as two swords doesn't look right to me. Also for role playing, as many other people carry one as well as a sword, and if you get disarmed you need a backup.

You could also keep one enchanted with fire damage, and with weakness to fire poison applied, for trolls and vamps. You might want to keep one with a very powerful enchantment and poison for when you get into serious trouble, and you don't want to be continually using up the enchantment and wasting the poison on every day enemies. And you'd keep a dagger instead of a sword or axe for weight obviously.

My character http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v90/subrosa_florens/Skyrim/Skyrim313.jpg was a dagger user. There are several mods that can help with this. The Bound Dagger mod that you see in the pic, another that makes daggers work with the one-handed perks, and a third that changes the dual-dagger power attack animation (by speeding it up). Dual Wielding daggers works very well. I suggest you get ahold of Vald'rs Dagger at low level, then move up to Mehrunes Razor once you hit 20th level.

http://youtu.be/v9AiGFNIs1c

For a mage, a dagger can be thought of as an efficient enchantment delivery mechanism. If you are a destruction mage and do not want to invest any perks in weapon skills, dagger is best because it has highest number of hits per second. A skilled enchanter mage can make a dagger with 80 fire damage and 80 shock damage. Or he can make absorb health + fire or shock damage. with enchanted damages like that, you don't need any smithing or one-handed skill.

ha who knew the ass was the weak point of the centurions?

/raises hand

My thief/assasin uses them. Using daggers you can one-shot even the mightiest dragons (provided they don't see you first!).

Now, you may say "what's the fun in that?" and my answer would be "the sneaking part!"

This.

For non-stealth combat I use two one-handed weapons. Lately its been axes but I use swords too.

That must be where the "off" button is!

I've a couple of chars that are primary dagger wielders or off-hand in a dual wield. Mostly thieves, but on "light" warrior.

Putting stealth-kills aside:

High-level daggers offer the best DPS in the game, even BEFORE you account for the fact that would can enchant daggers with the same amount of damage as any weapon. Any one-handed focused character that is not using daggers by the time they get to daedric is making a poor choice, bar none.

Of course, the BEST possible DPS is offered by having a dagger in the left hand and a mace in the right, because of how the game determines attack speed while dual-wielding.

This means the best one-handed weapon in the game before you start smithing and enchanting your own anyway, is the Blade of Woe, which is available ~5 minutes into the game requiring very little effort to obtain.