You don't have to reply you know.


Yeah that would be silly, I'm mostly just talking about humans.


Yes, I definitely agree!


Yeah that would be great, if you could shoot someone, sneak away, and then they die from blood loss. Unfortunately that doesn't happen, they just regenerate their health.

Putting an arrow directly through someone's skull?

The skull is thick and hard, I doubt this was ever a common way of dying.

Not that I care that much about realism in my fantasy game..but seriously shooting an arrow directly through one of the thickest, hardest parts of the human body is actually a little silly for me, I don't think anything should be insta-death, bows or otherwise.

a wooden arrow maybe would have problems with the skull penetration but when you talk about minimum iron tip arrows being hurdled at one's head the skull isn't that hard. steel arrows and the other fantasy materials are way more powerfull and that's why they get the higher DMG values.

parctically, skyrim is flawed under fallout games in this aspect. armor rating and damage of the weapon should be implemented in that manner.
using a falmer wooden arrow vs a dragon should be pointless and do NO damage. but any other furry animal should feel it just fine, or even mages in their robes..
headshots shoud exist, and tail strikes be canceled out.
the bow is a verry powerfull weapon as it is right now.
200dmg with ebony bow on expert difficulty kills all usual enemies directly. but other, higher ups require another shot

ummmm, get your sneak and archery up, if you dont have the perks in them, and you want every shot to a be a one hit, then each enemy would only have a mere 50 health or so, how fun would that be? Its a fantasy RPG, not a simulator.

While I don't agree that a sneak attack should always result in an instant death (think of a mammoth, a giant or a heavily armed foe) I think the 3X damage multiplier is too low. It should be 5X, on par with one hand swords.

Due to level scaling, the advances in the archery skill are more than offset by the increase in HP of NPCs.

Mages have oakskin and ebonyskin and things like that, so no, it shouldnt be.

i saw what you did theeeeere hehehehehehehehehe

I quit my first character because he was one-shotting almost everyone with sneak bow attacks. And here you are, asking for one-shots every time. Just goes to show that it's impossible for Beth to please everyone all the time.

I would have no problems with sneak one-shots IF sneaking took even a semblance of skill. And the standard sneak attack damage multiplier should have to be perked, not available at level 1.

Sneak works fine and so does killing with a single shot to the head on bandits, skeletons, low level creatures and animals if you have perks in sneaking for 3x damage and also perks in archery for double damage. But I also like the fact that some undead and larger creatures and animals don't get effected with one arrow and need a couple more to kill them.

I agree as long as the NPC isn't wearing a (not soft like fur or leather)helmet. It should be harder to aim arrows though, drop should have to be accounted for and bows should have a bit of sway at lower skill levels. But sadly they didn't bring locational damage from Fallout into TES for Skyrim.

It's you doing it wrong. I insta kill quite often with my bow. All you need is assassin's gear that boost the damage of them and maybe even a ring and a necklace in addition to gauntlets. That will kill with one hit. If it doesn't, they still haven't seen you even if they start running towards you, so just shoot another sneak attack and then they definitely should be dead.

BUT ITS NOT. THUMP

People are sturdier than you think. An arrow to the head won't always be immediately fatal. You can find plenty of survival stories online concerning impalement.

Of course, I get the frustration, especially if you're dealing with a room full of enemies and you just need one to friggin' die.

As you level up, you'll find more and more NPCs that don't die with one arrow. Want an example?

Second time I played through, I started the MQ at level 50. By then I had 100/100 in sneaking and archery as well as all the useful perks to make my character a true, unstoppable sniper. I was doing the diplomacy quest. At a certain point, there's a mage guarding a door. He's relaxed, leaning against it. No armor, no shield spell. My equipment, while not enchanted or upgraded via smithing, is impressive: I had a daedric bow, ebony arrows, a ring that grants me +25% archery damage and a cowl which further enhances it by 15%.

I shot at arrow at him from behind a bush, unseen. His health goes down only by 50%. By the time I hit him with a second arrow he put up a barrier spell and he has spotted me. There goes the bonus damage. It took me two more arrows to put him down for good while he also had time to heal himself with a restoration spell and hurl a few fireballs at me.

This is totally inexcusable. First, thanks to level scaling, enemies become HP sponges at high level. Second a 3x damage is not enough. Had I the chance to go behind him, I could have killed him outright with a sword or a dagger. A bloody stupid mage with no armor or costant effect shield spells.

Unupgraded bow? Yeah that's the problem.

It shouldn't. If smithing or enchanting are mandatory to play without frustration at high levels, then I've yet more reasons to say that the gameplay mechanics are deeply flawed. Also, I don't have this problem with daggers or swords when I do stealth kills. It's the 3X multiplier that is too low! If you don't take the perks, the sneak damage for all weapons is 2X.

Bows 2X > 3X
1H 2X > 5X
Daggers 2x > 15X

Something is not right.

Realism != Gameplay balance

I would support locational damage.. Arrow headshot is always fatal, but an arrow to the knee is not. An arrow to the knee could potentially lead to infection and amputation, but that's something that just won't happen in this game.

Haha, frustrating not to one-shot monsters? Deeply flawed mechanics? Goes to show how clueless the whiners on these boards are and how quick they are to blame Beth.

An archer is far off in the distance, safe from most danger or detection, unlike a sword or dagger user who has to get up close and nasty with the monsters. If you think you should be able to do the damage they do then you don't know the first thing about balance.

If I was in charge of Skyrim's balance, I'd have stealth break on the first sneak attack, forcing you to go out of sight of all monsters to restealth. Stealth attacks should be openers, not freaking sustained damage dealers.

Did you read my other post? Evidently not.

I didn't say I must be able to insta kill anything (in THAT post, I used as an example mammoth, giants) but at least human NPCs unless, very, very armored.

Reading before replying is a good habit and saves you from giving a bad impression of yourself.

Most opponents in this game are humanoid, and those that aren't are unarmored. If you want zero challenge in your game, turn the difficulty down to novice and one-shot everything until the cows come home. There is no need to make sneak even more egregiously overpowered than it is now.

This is a dart, can you post a picture with an arrow? I agree however it just depends where the head has been penetrated, I've had the odd bandit leader running at me with a couple of arrows stuck in his face. Another good addition would be to add distance measured damage (each meter or so could add another 3 points of damage, this would be a good perk)

A well placed arrow in all cases is an instant kill, it just has to collide above the eyes, or even in the eye, (IRL). A strong bow and arrows tipped with a good enough metal giving good sharpening and distance would devastate any man's skull. Just think about how easy it is to drive a sharp knife through a coconut, an arrow lands with much more power. I agree with this not being the case in the game, unless its a high level perk to instantly kill any non main character, for example some story based fights should be a good challenge.

Edited for Spelling -Rudgary

Don't forget to make any enemy in full plate immune to arrows if you're going for realism.

English longbowmen imparted enough force in their arrows to easily pierce full plate. That is why they were so feared.

Well... no, actually.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3997HZuWjk