Not usually, their pathing is all messed up when they get under water. And, there are some places that once you get in the water, there is no way out unless your lucky with the controller, which NPCs never are. Until those NPCs get their feet under them, there is no combat.

It might be nice to be able to use a Shock spell on water logged enemies. The old toaster in the bathtub effect.

much like bioshock! it would make the game sooo much more awesome! like freezing already wet enemies and set fire to dry enemies (even though that's already in there )

Who knows ? What I don't get is why they included underwater enemies if you can't actually fight underwater, makes trying to kill slaughterfish a real pain in the ass. Also, in Oblivion when you fired an arrow underwater it just went really slowly then floated there, that was realistic, you could quite easily swing a sword underwater at a decent enough pace to chop something into pieces, it would take more stamina but it is possible, try punching and kicking when fully submerged in water, you can manage it at quite a pace but it takes more out of you.

Like CCNA said. They swim on the spot, they don't try to get back on the shore, they yell at you as if they were fighting and there's no way to finish the quest unless you use a good all "killall" in the console. I played that quest twice with two different characters and I had this twice.

As for the "It might be nice to be able to use a Shock spell on water logged enemies. The old toaster in the bathtub effect.", this way of fishing must be forbidden out there!

I have swords and a bow. I tested this and no matter how strong you are swinging a sword under water does not work and especially a bow the arrow launches inches before drooping down to the bottom of the water. Also for realistic purposes swords in water send much oxygen to the sword causing it to rust and swinging it allows the particles to cling on faster and bam you have a ruined sword.

I'm not against underwater combat, but I don't think it's needed. However, I do wish there were unique items to find, places to explore and secret entrances underwater. That would make things very interesting. If Bethesda would introduce some new underwater creatures, then underwater combat would be more tempting for me. But as it is, I could do without. And by the way, electrocuting enemies in water with shock spells would be awesome.

I'd like more underwater content in general. Maybe add some underwater caves, serpents in the deeper part of the sea. Would be nice.

Kraken.. Sea/river/lake monsters do fit in really well with the whole Nordic theme.

Really the only melee weapons that work well under water are piercing weapons like daggers, spears, harpoons, and other such weapons. Those are the only weapons that you see divers use because its alot easier to stab something to death then it is to hack it to death.

Maybe water pressure (or whatever it is that causes people to move slower underwater) is different on Nirn, it obviously is because in Cyrodiil you could hack your sword underwater no problem.

YES OF COARSE!!! as there are dragons then a Kraken is nothing new right?

That's doable, all you need is a sword that's just a few feet shorter and stab things with it.

Just because something is less present than in previous games is no reason not to include mechanics.
Dealing with water is just annoying now.
Yes, you can cast a cloak, yes you can kill on land.
Does not change the fact that its cumbersome, annoying and irritating that I cant swing a dagger underwater.

Same goes for waterwalking.
Zero good reason for its omission, only makes the game more shallow.

I do this with bandits that fall in the water. I only had to do it because he was too stubborn to drown.


This would be cool. I've seen a few places where this should be possible

I haven't played it in an age, but I seem to remember that in Oblivion you could only use touch spells in water, ranged spells didn't work; using a bow resulted the arrow misfiring and floating straight down; swinging longswords was slower, so daggers and short swords were most effective. That system worked well. But these days Bethesda seem to work from the maxim: "If it ain't broke, cut it."

You'd think a bow would work in the same way a crude harpoon gun would. Maybe a crossbow would work better as a harpoon, I hear they'll be added to Skyrim at some point... or maybe that was just a rumour

AGREE 100%

as someone else stated in a thread just like this, you try being fully armored and attempt to swing a sword under water. I saw a video of someone trying it and it would just move the fish...

A crossbow might, but a bow?
No.

On another note, some of you seem to be getting awfully worked up about the fact that you can't stab slaughterfish...

Slaughterfish never bother me, my follower takes them out with a well placed shot from a bow.

Oh and by the way, Arrows float, they don't sink. just saying.

I know?

I wouldn't say I'm worked up but it does irritate me. The reason it irritates me is because Bethesda included some nice points of interest underwater. Sunken ships, treasure chests, ect, that are obviously meant to be explored and looted. They place enemies in these areas and pull a gotcha! ...they do not allow us to defend outrselves from these enemies.

Imagine a dungeon, a fairly interesting place to visit and which has fairly interesting loot. Imagine that there are Draugr in this dungeon. Now imagine that combat is disabled while we are inside this dungeon. I think a large number of players would be very annoyed, wouldn't you?

Underwater areas are not unlike dungeons in which we cannot defend ourselves. It is bad game design.

I did mention that a crossbow would work better. Rather than just saying "no" could you explain your thoughts behind it?

The reason I thought of a bow was because of the way you fire a bow. Obviously they won't work as good as crossbows underwater, but the principle is still the same. Thinking about it though, the water would have an affect on the wood of the bow and of the arrows.

A crossbow is more anologous to a harpoon or a spear gun.

Doesn't mean a bow won't work in roughly the same fashion.