Weapons (Oblivion)

A weapon is an object that can be used to deal damage to an opponent. 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 the strength of the weapon, the material it's 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.

Most of the equipment in Cyrodiil comes in several flavors, namely, the material type. They nearly always go in a consistent order of quality: if a dagger of one type is better than a dagger of another, then armor of the first type will also be superior. One point that is frequently confused is Dremora and Daedric equipment. While identical in appearance and weight, Dremora equipment is vastly inferior in quality, doing as much damage or giving as much protection as Steel. Otherwise, weight is generally a good indicator of 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.

Normal vs. Enchanted weapons
"Normal weapons" are standard base weapons that are not enchanted. 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 can be enchanted with a Soul Gem that cast the enchanted spell(s) on "strike". These magical weapons have a certain number of charges with which the spell will be cast. When the weapon charges are exhausted, it will only do its original base damage. 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 greater number of charges depending on their soul level. In addition, certain NPCs will recharge enchanted weapons for a fee.

Weapon health
Weapon health is an indicator of a weapon's condition. If a weapon's health is lower, it will do less damage. When its health reaches zero, the weapon breaks and becomes unusable (broken items are marked by a split orange circle superimposed on their graphic in the inventory), the same way armor does. Weapons can be repaired using repair hammers, or they can be taken to an NPC who performs repair services. Any vendor of 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. Fighter's 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. Please 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 short reach, while claymores have extremely long reach (more than double that of a dagger). The distance an arrow flies from a bow depends on how much force is pulled back when the arrow is nocked.

Attack speed
Different weapons have different attack speeds, and thus affect 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 based on material

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

Related Pages

 * Console Commands (Oblivion)/Weapons
 * Enchanted Weapons (Oblivion)