Daggers (Skyrim)

"Ah, the sneaky type, eh? I think we can fix you right up."

- Eorlund Gray-Mane

The dagger is a light, One-Handed weapon with a short blade, hilt, and handle that is found in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Mechanics
Even though the dagger doesn't do as much damage per hit as other One-Handed weapons like the Sword, Mace, or War Axe, the dagger's attack speed is faster, allowing the wielding character to be more nimble and making the dagger a very suitable weapon for the Thief. Since the dagger has a shorter reach than most other weapons, it is suitable for fighting in close quarters and avoiding hitting friendly characters or creatures accidentally.

Weapon damage
When dual wielding daggers with the Assassin's Blade perk and Shrouded Gloves, the daggers sneak attack can do a total of 30x damage.

Even though they are One-Handed weapons, daggers are uniquely unaffected by Fortify One-Handed enchantments. Whether this is an oversight, a glitch or an intended decision is not clear.

Blocking
The dagger, being the smallest of the wield-able weapon, is the weakest one to use for blocking, since weapons larger than the blocking weapon will force damage through, i.e. a Greatsword will easily penetrate a dagger's block although some damage is still absorbed by the dagger.

Attributes by dagger
Each dagger has an attack Speed of 1.3 and a maximum Reach of 0.7. These two statistics are consistent for all daggers regardless of material; therefore, they are not included in the table below.

Trivia

 * Unlike The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, daggers cannot be conjured into Bound daggers.