Why is that you can only use staffs to cast magic? I'm a pretty devoted fan of staffs and I use them often (That's what she said). But there's a couple of things that really bugs me.

Why can't I use staffs to block, bash or hit an enemy? They seem perfectly capable of enduring the required physics for those actions. It will open up so many possibilities for how my mage character plays. He doesn't use anything else except for magic and staffs and if I could block and hit enemies, with said staff, I think it would be a more easier role to roleplay.

Do you agree or disagree?

I was thinking the same.
Just like gandalf in lord of the rings

I kinda based my magic/fighting style on him. Hard to do without staffs though.

Would be nice to block with a staff I agree.

I wish they would implement this because it's something that would further improve my gameplay experience.

M'aiq knows much, tells some:

"Why would one want to swing a staff? A mace hurts more. Or a sword. Can't shoot a fireball from a sword, though."

Staves and spears are the victims of the ongoing streamlining of TES. You could pray to Sheogorath that the spear mod from DICE makes it into the game one day as DLC.

Don't know if I want to call it streamlining. I guess it comes down to design choice and how they think people are gonna play the game.

I always considered that magic staffs were far too precious to use blocking and hitting people physically with. It might be able to withstand most knocks, but do you REALLY want to use your most precious piece of equipment in such a haphazard and disrespectful way? And who says staffs are that strong? From what I see most of them are made from stout wood or some natural substance (not stone), to keep them lightweight and easy to carry.

And what if one day you hit something that DOES break it?

Seems stupid to take the risk with such a precious item.

^THIS

There are many kinds of wood. If you were to make such a valuable equipment wouldn't you use the strongest type of wood? And that don't break easily.
Also it could be enchanted to become stronger.

Dragon Age 2. If the enemy got close, the staff would be used as a melee weapon. i thought that was great.

Think outside of the idea ... what buttons would you use to block/bash with a staff? Would only seem viable if you could hold it in 2 hands.

Even a tough wooden staff may have trouble blocking a war hammer or battle axe. How would blocking work though if the trigger is used to cast a spell? You could easily do it on a PC.

I think it was pretty much a control decision necessitated by the decision to make them 1H.

They should be treated as 2H weapons that cast instead of bash (right hand attack, left hand block, block + right hand = cast).

Staffs would be a nice addition, but we would need an Unarmed Skill/Perk Tree to really make them useful in the game. Perhaps a branch could have been added to Two Handed, but that is already quite full.

However, once we allow Staves for weapons, then we would have to add Spears back. Which were really Pikes as they were not thrown.

Of course, the supporting animations would have to be created.

FYI. A well-trained staff fighter can kick the arses of most average swordsmen. The whole discipline of staff fighting grew out of necessity to oppose well-armed opponents while using wooden sticks.

And considering that we used to have Daedric Staves back in Morrowind days, I wouldn't be worried about them being fragile. A shaft made of ebony with a pinch of Special Daedric Sauce thrown in? you could cave quite a few skulls with that.

That DICE video showed animations that would do just fine for staff-based fighting, the character was doing plenty of thrusts but also a lot of wide swings and precision strikes...

In Morrowind, staves were classed as weapons and were enchanted in the same way as other weapons. There was no difference as far as the game was concerned between a staff and a mace. Oblivion changed that by introducing staves that released magical energy, much like the staves in Skyrim and have a whole different enchanting mechanic from weapons.

You could block with your staff in Oblivion, but they did not have dual wield in Oblivion. Part of the issue in Skyrim is the dual wield design where you can equip items and spells in either hand. If you wanted to block with a staff you would have to equip it in your left hand, but then when you hit your left hand button, your staff releases a charge. Given the way the buttons are currently mapped, staves can be used to release magical charges of whatever the staff is enchanted with or you could use a staff as a physical weapon.

It would be cool to use staves as weapons, but you cannot use a staff as both a weapon and a way to shoot firebolts unless they come up with a more complicated way to map the buttons just for staves.

Something like this might work.

Another poster mentioned that they could easily add more buttons on the PC, and that might be an acceptable solution for a mod, but not for DLC, which ideally should be available on all platforms.

I think a melee stave would be much different from a magic staff. Two different animals.

Tell that to Gandalf. ha ha Besides a staff is a magical thing that cannot be broken by sheer force. Ok I made that up, but since all this stuff is made up it works in my game world. I'd love to smack some bandit upside the head with my staff. I found staves to be rather pointless as they are just a different way to cast the same spells a mage already has. It would have been really nice if they had some unique abilities. Unless you are going for a playthrough without using potions or you want to use only staves for damage dealing and other spells to back them up I can't see much use in them. My destruction mage only used them to make money.

Agreed. I want to beat a bandit to a bloody pulp with a staff.

guys

why not add a 2handed type of staff that can be used for combat AND magic, also why not add 1 handed staffs that have combat viablity instead of magic shooters (it would be pretty easy, treat like torch )

hmmm what I mean is we would have many types of staffs that can block, shot, produce light (gandalf style), make a shield (like ward), hit, amplify the caster's magic (act as conduit with no actualy spell itself), 2handed and 1handed.

The answer you're looking for can be found on nexusmods.com =)

^Won't help console players.

I like the option to hold two different staves and unleashing twice the elemental damage. If they were 2-handed, you could not do that.