Arrow



An arrow is a long, thin bow-fired projectile. At the tip is an arrowhead made of some hard material (usually metal). The shaft is the long 'stick' part of the arrow, and is usually comprised of wood or an alloy. The tail end features fletching to provide accuracy and stability in flight.(Usually made of feathers; Dwarven, Dremora, and Daedric arrows have an alloy fletching) There is also the nock at the end, which is the part that you secure the arrow onto the bowstring.

Oblivion
The quality of the arrows and the quality of the bow both determine the damage potential on impact. Damage is also dependent on the amount of power when the arrow was launched. For example, just tapping the 'fire' key or trigger will result in a very weak shot, while a stronger pull or hold of the key will strengthen the shot.

Upon shooting a creature with arrows, there is a high chance the arrows will go into the creature's inventory, where it can be retrieved from the corpse of the slain creature (or possibly pickpocketed from a still living creature, though this has not yet been tested). This does not apply to some creatures, such as skeletons and atronachs, who have no fleshy parts for the arrows to stick into. Instead, arrows that hit such creatures ricochet and fall to the ground, where they can later be collected.

The same applies to the player character--when shot with an arrow, the projectile goes directly into one's inventory, while the arrow itself is pictured sticking out of the character's body in both third-person perspective and in the menu. If the arrows cannot be removed, the arrows will be visible, but not add on to your weight.

This can be a source of some confusion for players who were extremely close to their encumbrance limit and fight an archer; the added weight of the arrows can push the total inventory weight over the limit, and cause the character to be over-burdened. This can grow to be a significant problem, as taking the time to repeatedly drop arrows out of your inventory in the middle of a fight can be lethal, particularly when attacked by multiple enemies.

Skyrim
Arrows in Skyrim have changed from previous Elder Scrolls games. One major factor is the removal of the weight from arrows. Arrows no longer add to the player's encumbrance allowing players to carry an unlimited number of arrows. Arrows have a fixed damage value which is added to the bow's damage value to determine total damage done.

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List of arrows in order of potency.

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 * Notes: "Base Value" refers to the actual value without mercantile or disposition affecting it. "Base Damage" refers to the base amount of damage an item can do, assuming maximum stats and skill.
 * It is unconfirmed if you get a damage bonus on ghost-like creatures when using a Silver bow with Silver arrows (or a Daedric bow with Daedric arrows, or using a Silver bow with Daedric arrows and vice versa) but it is possibe since using one of these bows with normal arrows affects a ghost and using a normal bow with Daedric or Silver arrows hurts ghosts as well.

Skyrim

 * Duplication: An unlimited supply of arrows can be obtained by NPC's doing target practice (like in the Ragged Flagon Cistern). If you pick pocket a single arrow of the type you want duplicated, and remove any other arrow types in their inventory, they will begin to shoot the arrow you gave them, allowing you to pick up arrows from the targets. (this is easiest with the pickpocket perk Misdirection, but can be done when the NPC is sleeping if you don't have that perk)


 * It seems that all guards have had their adventuring careers cut short by 'taking an arrow to the knee'.