This is partially a suggestion for devs for future development of Skyrim, but mostly just one idea that I'd like to share here - in case some modder notices this.

Archery in itself is an entertaining skill, especially if your character combines sneaking with it. But could it be made more interesting by applying magical enchantments in them? Skyrim already has the possibility of enchanting bows with elemental damage, soul trap and other effects, and poisoning the arrows before shooting them is possible as well. After the interesting addition of rune spells to TES V, I came up with an idea of applying runes to arrows. This kind of thing could be done by unlocking one relevant perk from both smithing and enchanting skill trees. Imagine enchanting your arrows with explosive runes that would cause damage over a small or bigger area, and shock runes that would fry underwater enemies when you shoot your arrow into the water.

Would this make any sense in Tamriel's magic lore and are you interested if this is implemented in a future expansion?

Rune Arrows and items?


Someone has been playing too much Runescape, haha.

It would be interesting, but then again I never understood why you can't damage enemies in water with shock spells.

That would be pretty cool to

You should also be able to collect oil, and use it to make flaming arrows that stick and hurt an enemy over time. Like putting a fire damage poison or a fire enchanted bow, except realistic.

Especially considering the use of gas/oil and fire, that's a pretty sizable oversight.

Heh. Was expecting that awful browser game to be mentioned... but it luckily wasn't the source of inspiration for rune arrows.

I'd quite like darkness arrows that killed a light source for a while.

What about a reverse version of that - arrows that burst out so bright light, that light-sensitive foes, like falmer, are blinded? So many possibilities.

I often wondered that myself.

Someone just suggested light arrows. Oh lord, now we will be able to kill Ganon.

Call me crazy but I swear the loading screen flashed multiple times that they are already blind?

Call me crazy but I don't think you read his post what so ever. I played Runescape when I was younger and Rune Arrows were just arrows made with a different type of metal, which the metal was called Rune. What he is talking about is placing the Destruction Magick spell Fire Rune, Ice, Lighting ect., onto arrows. Please read post thoroughly before posting.

Adding runes to arrows(in your context) is unnecessary. The mechanism is already in place-as you indicated-via the enchanted bow. The bow 'enchants' each arrow it fires....imbuing it with fire or electric or cold damage...whatever.

However, you post has brought out some interesting ideas which could perhaps add to the immersion or 'reality' of this gaming world.
'Dark Field' arrows? 'Light Field' arrows? Interesting.....this is perhaps just the tip of the iceberg, but still merits some thought before any implementation. Runes, in my view are a 'permanent' charge, i.e., no SGs needed. But, they also cannot be made too powerful either for balancing purposes so there would have to be some limiting factors....I dunno...rarity perhaps? Duration? Any thoughts on that, y'all?
They also shouldn't duplicate available enchants probably...that might be the limiting factor, in fact. The point of that is this.....say you imbue an arrow with this rune that took you forever to gather materials, then brew the reaction agent, then imbue it into the item itself...causes the release of a blob of oil-or grease once it hits its target. Shoot it down a hallway(a chokepoint) and splatter oil all over the floor. Then as the enemy charges after you, they start slipping and sliding, falling down, and generally slowing down pursuit....
Or, you fire it from an enchanted fiery bow, and that arrow becomes a poor man's fireball....not nearly as powerful as the real thing, but still something to get the attention of the enemy when it hits, splatters, and then bursts into flames!...discussion......

Light enhanced with magicka can do wonders... maybe their retinas burst into flames?


Well, these type of runes should definitely be either very expensive and/or hard to acquire. Quality should also be put over quantity - after you'd shoot the rune arrow, you'd have to recover it from a corpse or the area (Kind of difficult in dark places or wilderness - unless there is some simple trick to track the arrow). The rune of the arrow would have to be charged occasionally, like a normal enchanted weapon, so that the rune arrows maintain their last resort/ace in the hole status and normal arrows remain the archer's main tools.

Edit: There could be a couple of "unique" rune arrows too, that have some kind of special effects not available for normal ones. Anyone remember Rose of Sithis from Oblivion?

That's quite some Magicka, to reverse the poison/damage that the toxic fungi the Dwemer tricked them into eating did, I want some of that.

Falmer are already blind.

The charge for the arrow should be used up in one hit so its not a recover and reuse without consequences. That would limit its use and make it a more valuable last resort.

Yah, I was gonna say this then seen it as last post. /Agree, dont wanna make it too easy and allowing them to be reused would break it I think. Single use and difficult to manufacture or materials hard to find makes this a very special item to be used in very specific circumstances....ya?

That sounds like fun! Rune arrows, exploding arrows, frost/dousing arrows for lights and candles, light arrows to light up dark places, shock arrows to electrocute enemies in water, the more the better