Another player and I are having a debate over the effect of Bladesman on Bound Sword. As many of you know, the critical damage from Bladesman only takes into account the base damage of the weapon and not the final, displayed damage.

Now one of us thinks that with Bound Sword it takes the full damage of the sword into account from a Bladesman critical and not just the base damage (and the same with Critical Shot with Bound Bow).

Unfortunately both of us are console players so we can't prove what we're saying with solid numbers. What I'm hoping for is for someone that has the PC version to test it with accurate numbers using console commands. Preferably with enough relevant perks and enchantments to boost the damage to make the difference between the two clear.

So if someone could help me with this I would be sincerely grateful.

It would, because the perk mystic binding actual changes the bound weapon to a mystic weapon with totally different base damage.

A bound weapon is a weapon just the same. It's base damage is used in any calculation to determine damage just like any other weapon would, including any Perk or Skill Modifiers to the weapon being used (Bow, Blade etc)

The only thing you can't do is "improve" a bound weapon. In fact in prior games, if you tried to sharpen a bound weapon, it became permanent.