I must confess I have never understood the difference between 50 points of "drain health" and 50 points of fire damage. Fifty points of fire damage drains 50 points of health doesn't it?

The only thing I can think of is that "drain health" will harm any enemy, whereas an enemy may or may not have some protection from fire damage.

Same applies to frost, etc.

Please clue me.

Daddyorc

All else being equal, Fire Damage is the same as Health Damage, or any other damage (ignoring Stamina and Mana damage here). What is different is the counter effects.

Some are resistant to Fire, like Dunmer. So, 50 points of Fire Damage to them is not 50 points of health damage. Also, you can take a Fire Resistance Potion and not be affected as much.

Also, something on fire will have more damage received than something this is just blasted.

Also, the destruction perks will augment fire/frost/shock damage but not drain health.

Oops. I guess I meant "damange health," not "drain health."

Apparently, "drain health" means the same thing as "absorb health."

I was just wondering about health damage vs. fire damage or other specific kinds of damage.

Daddyorc

Im pretty sure drain health hurts the target and heals you.

It has to do with resistances, I think.

Drain is temporary, Damage is permanent until you heal. Or it used to be. With Health Regen in this game, Damage and Drain are about the same. Drain can be over time, Damage is all at once.

Absorb Health is different, it takes health away from the enemy and gives it to you. I think it is the most powerful attack spell to put on a weapon.

Like others have said, Damage Health is straight damage, and Fire Damage is elemental, so the true damage is modified based on resistances/weaknesses.

Not a magic user (yet) so bare with me-

Don't some elemental abilities also have a secondary effect? I have a bow enchanted with Frost and it's supposed to reduce an opponent's magicka I think, in addition to extra damage.

Some spells apply only to Health or only to Stamina or only to Mana. Some apply to a combo of two of these. I don't think it is split up by elemental damage type, but it seems to me that Mana would be most affected by Shock and Stamina most affected by Cold. At least those are the combos I see the most in the game. Again, Resistances would apply here also.

I might have accidentally applied the wrong enchant to my bow and thought that I was doing magicka damage