Every time I drop an enemy below a certain threshhold of health they fall to their knees and yell "I yield" and start begging for their lives...

Seconds later they heal enough HP to go above that threshold, get up, and attack me again.
You can amusingly repeat the process many times on the same enemy.

Essentially you have no choice BUT to kill them because they don't actually mean it when they say "I yield".

Dragonborn doesn't show mercy.

Yeah, it seems to just be a little combat flavor thrown in but with no substance to it.

But killing them was your plan all along anyway so why does it matter? Or did you just want to rough them up a little.

I`m the kind of guy who roleplays and if the game would let me, I would let a guy surrender if I could. There`s no rule that dragonbornes kill everyone with no mercy.

Lots of people have noticed the same thing, uncluding myself. It has potential for really cool things like: Letting them go so they can re-think their lives. Maybe you could meet them later earning an honest living as a farmer.

If you are feeling a little less merciful you could report them over to the authorities to lock up or maybe even recruit them into the Legion/Rebellion (If you have a high enough rank(Storm-blade/Legate)).

I do hope they add something like this...

They're the ones who attacked me.

They were just saying that so you would believe them. Then they get up and stab you in the back.

Yep, they return to the fight. At the other end, they sometimes forget the fight and drop their combative status- very strange. I've had bad guys fall off a ledge, climb back and forget they were attacking. I kill them anyway.

Well you can use calm if you don't wish to end things. I agree though it could of been better implemented.

Agreed, calm is a very useful spell to have.

I've had some bandits retreat after I've killed all of their buddies.

I think it is a bug.

For a better implementation, check this awesome Oblivion mod: NPCs yield.
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=22392

I am planning to make a video about it.

I think that seems kind of realistic though
I mean if someone was trying to kill you and had you on the ground bleeding out you would probably get up and try to stab them in the back

It would've been so easy to add a speech option when they are on the ground bleeding. They could go non-hostile and you would have a speech option to let them go freely or have them pay you some gold in exchange for their life.

I want to know whay bandits etc let my follower live but keep attacking me until i die. When my companions health reathers low levels and they fall to the ground the attacker won't finish them off but instead head for me. There is no option for me to yeild then stab them in the back. Unfair, very unfair.

Bethesda...lazy coding...nuff said.

If you really want to spare them, fear spells can work wonders.

And then you steal their crop.

This slightly annoys me. Why Bethesda chose to record and use dialogue that implies the enemy has surrendered without any surrender gameplay mechanics is beyond me.

I have also noticed on occasion that if I get attacked by a group and I dispatch one or two quickly there is always the guy yelling... "we are routed fall back" Then he runs off then turns and waits.... usually I just whip out the bow and put him down as he runs away (maybe my charachter doesn't beleive in mercy), but really I just don't want him comming back around later and attacking me. It would be cool if while they were on their knees you could talk to them and tell them to get the heck out of here, or if they retreat you could let them, without the game having them gain some courage once your back is turned. It would definately help the role-playing aspect of the game.

Well technically if you sheath your weapon you are yeilding, but only guards seem to accept the yeild so that they can make an arrest, also some NPCs in the towns will accept it, if you accidentally hit them... all other human characters (i.e. Bandits, Forsworn) will not accept it. Not sure it would be cool if they did, it would take alot of coding to work that out. I mean... what would they do with you if you yeilded, and it would be a huge exploit if you could yeild let your health rebuild and then continue the fight.

"Remember when I told you "I Yield"? I lied"

You are right about this feature being kinda pointless but luckily our dedicated modders will be able to make something out of it

i often thought it would be cool to have options when person your fighting is clearly beat, just a talk option with:

'flee scum..' >possibly having them come back later in game to thank you.. increase global disposition.
'empty your pockets if you want to live' >*endurance Vs speechcraft* again having them come back 1 time later randomly for revenge, and decreasing global disposition
'put slave collar on'> *endurance Vs willpower* and there you have a slave that you could send on quests and possibly sell, decrease global disposition and possibly have an anti-slavery guild hunt you..

Of course to have these options in the game would require that the game be as complicated as older TES games to start with (with the old disposition and attributes systems).. Skyrim is just too simple to have any real game advantage to these options, so i see why they left it out..