Weapons (Oblivion)

A weapon is a piece of equipment that can be used to deal damage to any person or creature. Weapons are made from a variety of materials, such as common Steel to less common Glass. Damage and speed of a weapon is determined by its strength, the material it is made of, the weight, and the skill of the character wielding it. The main exception is a staff, which is not used as a melee weapon, but rather one that shoots out magical attacks. The staff can be used regardless of level or skills.

Weapons and armor in Cyrodiil come in an array of materials. These nearly always go in a consistent order of quality: if a dagger of one material is better than a dagger of another, then armor of the first material will also be superior to the second. One point that is frequently confused is Dremora and Daedric equipment. While identical in appearance and weight, Dremora equipment is vastly inferior in quality, equivalent to steel. Otherwise, weight is correlated with quality.

Due to Oblivion's leveling system, rarity for higher end items is nearly nonexistent. At level 20+, Bandits and Marauders frequently roam with full sets of Glass or Daedric equipment.

Keep in mind, it's possible to deal physical damage without a weapon, through Hand-to-Hand.

Normal Vs. Enchanted Weapons
"Normal weapons" are basic weapons that are not enchanted, meaning they do not have any additional effects such as magical damage. Normal weapons cannot be used to attack certain ethereal creatures, such as ghosts and wraiths. The exceptions to this rule are Silver and Daedric weapons, which do not have to be enchanted to inflict damage on non-corporeal enemies.

Weapons enchanted with a Soul Gem will cast the enchanted spell(s) on "strike". This means that whenever a successful strike is made on a target, the effect will also activate and hit the target. These magical weapons have a certain number of charges, indicating how many times the effect can be activated. When the weapon's charges are exhausted, it will only do its base damage with no additional effects. Weapons can be recharged using filled Soul Gems, or a Varla Stone, which will recharge all of the enchanted weapons in the player's inventory. Soul Gems restore a specified number of charges, which is dependent upon their soul level: Petty, Lesser, Common, Greater, and Grand. In addition, certain NPCs will recharge enchanted weapons for a fee. This is a common service among members of the Mages Guild, but otherwise rare.

Weapon Health
Weapon health is an indicator of a weapon's condition. If a weapon's health is reduced, it will do less damage. When its health reaches zero, the weapon breaks and becomes unusable (broken items are marked with a split orange circle in the inventory). Damaged Weapons can be repaired using repair hammers, or they can be taken to an NPC who performs repair services. Any merchant selling weapons or armor will perform repairs for a fee; to access this service, activate the person and then click the icon of a hammer. Select the item in need of repairs from a list of all the items in the player's inventory which are not at maximum health. Fighters Guild porters also provide repair services to members, and charge less than vendors for their services.

The player will have to be at least a Journeyman rank in the Armorer skill if they want to repair magical items themselves. Note that repairing enchanted weapons does not recharge them.

Reach
A weapon's reach determines how close the character must be to the opponent for the weapon to connect. Weapons such as daggers have a minimal reach, while claymores have a far greater reach (more than double that of a dagger). Bows have the greatest reach, since they fire a projectile far beyond the normal attack range of the user. The distance an arrow flies from a bow depends on how much the bow is drawn; firing arrows rapidly will result in very short arcs, while slowly drawing a shot can fire it beyond visual range.

Attack speed
Different weapons have different attack speeds, which affects how much damage can be dealt over a certain amount of time. The Speed attribute influences how fast a weapon can be swung/fired. Smaller weapons have greater attack speeds, though they also have shorter reaches and generally do less damage with each hit. Daggers have the fastest attack speed; warhammers have the slowest.

Staves
Staves

Weapons by material

 * Replica
 * Dremora
 * Iron
 * Steel
 * Silver
 * Dwarven
 * Elven
 * Glass
 * Ebony
 * Daedric