In the game it is impossible to equip the shield in the right hand, I can't see this as being intentional as its only purpose is that it detracts from gameplay experience and immersion for me. Also it is not possible to change the off hand to the right hand. I don't see why an obvious bug (or intentional failure) was left in the final version. Being left handed I must say that this game is crippled with bugs that make me cringe every time I enter combat. For example it seems the left hand, for one handed weapons, attacks, what seems to be, about 15% slower than the right hand. Might I ask the programmers to check over their code and look for the cause of this bug? It would increase the enjoyability of the game for any left handed person. It is usually quite easy to flip the rendering of view models which could fix this bug, instead of programmers having to go back through the code and doing the even simpler task of allowing shields to be equipped in either hand and to have both hands attack at the same speed.

I would like to congratulate the developers of this game for designing a fantastic game, except for this terrible flaw. When I was thinking about buying the game I read about how society in Skyrim allows for gay marriage and thought that such an advanced society would have also have left-handed equality, but it seems a bug in the code has denied the nords from accepting their left handed shield brothers as equals.

Look for the Extra Hotkeys mod...it allows you to equip anything you want into your left hand and bind it that way to a key. So you could bind your shield to your left hand or your favorite (faster weapon) and use a key to equip them accordingly. Easy to install, easy to configure, problem solved.

I think they stated before the release that you wouldn't be able to use the shield with the left hand. Anyway, It's obviously intentional. It seems to be one of those times where they decide that something could be overpowered (in this case dual shields) and they take out additional posibilities to avoid it.

It's the xbox controller......port fail

It is though ; nothing for the left handed here.

And how would having 2 shields be overpowered? It's not like they implemented Captain America's Industructable shields (although now that i mention it.. someone is bound to create a shield mod that can be used both as a shield and as a weapon.. and then make them dualable....)

Frankly i would say this is a frequently overlooked issue... and even though i'm right handed mostly... i am partially ambidextrous.... which provided with the option.. i think i'd enjoy playing the game from a left handed point of view.. with the camera and weapons and such all arranged like that.

I do agree that it's bloody irritating that the left hand is mostly gimped.... i found myself due to it's slow nature, not using the left handed dagger i was always hold simply due to it's super slow use.


The least they could do is when you create your character with the race menu.. that you could tick an option for "left handed or right handed".. and maybe an option for ambidextrous... which would balance both ... meaning that if you stick with the right handed.. the right hand will remain faster than the left..... left would be the opposite results... and ambidextrous would make both hands opperate at the same speed (even ground between so NOT quite as fast as a favorable hand.... but close)

Additionally flipping the view to which ever so that everything works out nicely would be beneficial.. even walking stance.. i'm sure they could do this by adding a bit of code the "reverses/inverses' the animation code while in combat or whatever.

Exactly. Good luck defeating every single melee opponent with shield bash! Even with perks, shiled bashing is only mildly effective with a unique shield named "targe of the blooded".

I think it was a conscious cost saving decision. Less animations to develop.

It didn't need to be overpowered. If enough if they think it is. Or maybe they simply consider is too absurd, or too... I don't know. The fact is that the only posible reason to avoid shields being equiped either hands is to avoid dual shields.

It's similar to what happened with dual wielding. They decide you shouldn't be able to block while dual wielding. So, you can't block with a weapon equiped in your left hand while the other one is empty and if you block with your only one handed weapon equiped in your right hand like a good boy you will use both hands to block (I HAAAATE this). They even added a book explaining how block works as if it wasn't an arbitrary and decision.

Another thing: they don't want you to steal your followers equipment. Or maybe they don't want you too see theyr undies or something similar. Now the configurability of any NPC inventory is a nightmare even if you are scripting it.

Animations are at least partially in place, actually. If you have nothing at all equipped in your right hand, clicking whichever button you have assigned to right-handed attacks will perform a blocking move instead.

So, you can still block with your right hand, but only bare-handed. Shields are right out.

As far as I can tell, that along with other maddening inconsistencies--like being http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/630730982034873860/7C8A48E3914A5DE51B175DCE37616D30839FED7D/ a one-handed weapon equipped in the left hand, slower attack speeds, no finishing moves, and let us not forget the epic fail that is the keybinding--is all part of Bethesda's continuing conspiracy to drive lefties like me up a wall and across the ceiling.

So far their plan seems to be working.

It was slower in the left hand for my character too, with a sword, with nothing else in his other hand. :l I wanted to roleplay my character as a lefty, and I can't even do that here. Double bummer because shield's are stuck to the left hand, so my character is forced to be a righty just like in oblivion. It's not terrible, but its disappointing. If there's a mod that enables shields in either hand, someone please tell me. The lack thereof block option for duel wielding disappointed me too.

Overpowering BAH and Humbug. How silly an excuse. It would be easy enough to code the game so only one shield could be equipped and to look at where the shield is to determine weapon speed.

For that matter during character creation it would be fairly simply to add a question left or right handed.

The real reason, I am guessing, is due to the programmers wanting to keep things simple and easy or having caught themselves inside a mental box and not thinking their way out of it.

To pretend that 10% of the world population (per http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-handedness) does not exist or should just have to adapt to the so called majority..... hmmmm this sound familiar....

Anyhow, I am right handed, I just prefer to see things be more, err, evenhanded is all. I started up one of my old favorites not to long ago, Ultima Underworld asks if your right or left handed, if it can I would hope anything newer would as well.