It is now my favorite artifact! What an awesome weapon

Does its charge run out?

Don't think so.

The enchant always seems situational to me.

Dawnbreaker has a large number of uses but it's charge does run out. It can be recharged like any other weapon and the soul gems used on Dawnbreaker will last longer than on most other weapons. And Dawnbreaker is especially good against vampires and its great in crowds of draugr. And according to the wiki the blade also "glows when bandits or falmer are near and also sometimes when karliah was near."

Dawnbreaker is probably my favorite Vanilla weapon. It may not have the most powerful enchantments but they are unique and it does have a very long lasting charge. The Base damage is so so but it does not upgrade very far which kind of svcks imo. So glad I have mods. The Daedric Artifacts are far to weak in Skyrim imo.

I did not know about the falmer and karliah...runs to go check this out!

Dawnbreaker is by far my favorite sword. I've gotten it upgraded to 124 Damage at level 47, One Handed Skill 70ish; using 100 Smiting with 100% smiting bonus from enchanted gear and a 50% Smiting Potion. I can't make Daedric of Ebony Swords since I perked into Light Armor Skills. You can definitely keep it powerful at any level.

I personally love using a Unique sword that you can keep powerful, and its great for a group of Drauger. It does its blow up effect a lot.

I just wish the guards would comment on it like they do with Mehrune's Razor.

Possible spoiler thread.

Anyway, DawnBreaker is the sword I keep even though I have better ones. I like it`s glowing light and the fact that it fights undead. It feels like the sword of a Paladin.

However, it`s power does run out (look at it, it has a runout bar). But you could probabaly use Sould Gems to repower it. But I refuse to use Soul gems so it`ll sit in my house now.

Oh god dawnbreaker is glitching. In 3rd person it's floating a foot from my body...

One reason why I love first. No such problems.

Does it matter whatever you obtain it at, as far as damage goes? (will it do less damage if I get it at lvl 15 as opposed to 45?) if so, does it scale?

I don`t think so. It seems the same at level 30 to me as it did at level 5 in my previous game. Only your skills in single handed weapons matter.

Dawnbreaker, Spellbreaker & Otar are my favorite items.

The Imperial Short Sword beats dawn breaker anyday!