There's even an errand to have a Companions sword sharpened by Eorland... makes no sense that the only person in Skyrim who can improve a weapon is the PC.Anyone know of a mod that gives some blacksmiths improving capabilities?

I've had no luck searching....

IIRC, it was looked into and it just doesn't seem possible to give NPCs the ability to improve items. Could be wrong though.

But whatever the case, it does seem kind of silly not to have such a feature.

Personally I would think this feature would fit very well in the game.

It should be a bit limited though, IMO they should only have the option to upgrade it to flawless, which is what you will reach with 100 skill without the coresponding perk. Need a reason to use smithing after all.

I think it is kind of odd that you have to push the blacksmith out of the way to get to the grinding stone that they were using to improve a weapon.

Let the Blacksmiths Improve weapons, make them charge us for it, and make the one guy that can get them to Legendary hard to get to or hard to deal with. Both Enchanting and Blacksmithing should be hire-able crafts just like Alchemy is.

I'd assume it's to give the blacksmithing skill more allure, because if npcs could fulfill all of the functions of the skill, then the skill is replaced by spending gold, which we all end up with tons of eventually.

I'm quite certain that is not the reason... probably was just not enough time to create the script before release... we have some talented modders out there though so I have hope...

I don't think you remember how expensive it was to get something enchanted in Morrowind, or how much it costs to get a weapon repaired in Fallout. Paying for Enchantments/Recharges and Weapons Improvements is the Gold Sink this game so desperately needs.

Indeed, it would be a great money sink.

It seems like Blacksmiths exist as merchants only, which is dumb. They are scripted to constantly perform smithing tasks, throughout their daily lives, making them blacksmiths.

However, they never work on your weapons.

I guess they are among the most selfish npc's in the game. Lol.

Only working on their own gear, around the clock.

The main problem with this not being offered is not a matter of money, but rather a matter of role playing. Smithing skill only has allure for specific characters who would pursue such a skill. It has no allure whatsoever for a pure mage, for example, or for many other types of characters. Many characters would not smith even if they had the potential simply because they would rather pay someone else to do the hot, dirty work.

And yes, enchanting suffers in the same way, but even more so because you cannot even buy staves. Silly.

By the way, Alchemy is not really a skill you can hire, either. You can buy potions that are offered, but you cannot ask an apothecary to mix up 50 healing potions of a certain strength.

Of course, maybe Beth has something in mind for DLC.

Its simply a matter of pushing the PC into a 1 hit kill god machine. Skyrim is ALL about this unfortunately.

This is another manifestation of their 'every player wants to do everything with their character' game design (which is my personal bugbear).

It is pretty daft that blacksmiths are apparently unable to smith. I agree with the gold sink idea. A top blacksmith (not every one in the game) should be able to smith your gear up to legendary - but charge an absolute fortune for the privilege. And maybe make you do a quest first on top.
But hey! The dragonborn is of course the best blacksmith in skyrim. And alchemist. And enchanter. He/she runs all the guilds too...

Every time I head Eorland's wife spewing he's "the best smith in Skyrim" and mutter to myself "you mean except for me"

Hell, he can only train you up to 90 skill, the last 10 you have to do on your own. He's an amateur! Feh.

They should have each smith be able to upgrade weapons and armor, but only to a certain level, depending on their own skill.
Eorland could do everything up to Epic, but no one else could. And it should cost a bloody fortune to have him do it. "Fine" would
be fairly cheap, "Superior" quite a bit more pricey, and so on, while "Epic" would be 10,000 gold, your first-born and a player to
be named later.

I agree wholeheartedly. You get a lot of money very early in the game, and there isn't much to spend it on. I figured since smiths in Oblivion could be paid to repair your gear, and damage to gear had been removed from Skyrim, that you could pay smiths to improve your gear. And like others have said, make the smiths charge a fortune for it. I also think enchanting, and maybe alchemy should be included in this. Make the service cost a lot and not be quite as effective if doing it yourself.

And while we're at it, lets have them take on the fletcher duties and make up arrows too...

As someone who roles as a blacksmith I have a preference for unenchanted skyforge steel weapons. I don't think even Eorlund should be able to smith up legendary stuff. I would actually prefer it if legendary weapons and armor were found items and were very rare. That way they could actually have a LEGEND behind them. All of the legendary weapons I have in my inventory have a story I have created that goes along with them.

I've felt that smithing is pretty essential with all of my characers but there definately should be a way to get around it by having other people do it for you for some change.

It’d like it to just fit with the lore. Eorland should be able to improve steel to Epic or Legendary... Hadvor obviously is a small town hack so he can only improve leather and iron... I don’t know if there are any orcish smiths at the holds as I haven’t visited but they should be the ONLY smiths that improve Orcish, and so on... it would be so much more immersive... why has no one made a mod for this yet?

It is a bit annoying, I don't see why they can't do it for a price. Or maybe only if you bring the required items to make the weapons/armour plus a decent price. So if I wanted Ebony Armour, or if I wanted an Ebony waraxe upgraded, I should have to go looking for ebony Ingots and the like or spend good money to get them. So it wouldn't be an easy way of getting upgraded stuff, but it would also mean that doing it yourself would be a beneficial option.

QFT

These are all some great ideas. The problem about having too much gold could be solved by this. Have people improve your bows, swords, armor. Also enchant things for you. This would be great. If this is possible as a mod. That would be nice.

Union work rules.
They've ruined even great video games.

;-)


OK, Seriously: I bet the game balance issues become insurmountable.

was it Never Winter Nights that let you hire a smith to upgrade weapons? I know there was one game that did...

I'm looking for one myself. Some of my characters are not interested in working at the forge at all...

The thing that annoys me with smithing is that the game sort of wants you to be good at it. It doesn't matter if my character isn't a smith, I will sooner or later want to improve an item or get a higher level item (like deadric items), which sort of forces me to use the forge.

If the smiths were able to improve your item, it would certainly make it easier to continue not being a smith.