Bound Sword (Skyrim)

Bound Sword
School of Magicka	Conjuration
Skill Level	Novice (0)
Effect	Creates a magic sword for 120 seconds. Sheathe it to dispel.
Spell Tome	Purchased Randomized loot
Tome ID	0009E2A9
ID	000211EB

For other uses, see Bound Sword.

Bound Sword, a Bound Weapon, is a Novice-level Conjuration spell in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Characteristics

When activated, an ethereal version of the Daedric Sword appears in the hand the spell was cast from (the dual-cast version appears by default in the left hand). Sheathing dispels the Bound Sword, as with all other Bound items. Finishing moves may be performed with Bound Swords equipped. As with all bound weapons, the bound sword may be Poisoned and may also be dual wielded, but it is not affected by the Elemental Fury shout.

This weapon has a base damage of 9 without any perks, and a base damage of 14 when the Conjuration level 20 perk, "Mystic Binding," has been applied.

Casting the Bound Sword spell in the presence of enemies levels Conjuration, while landing successful blows with the weapon increases One-Handed. Thus, Conjuration governs the magicka cost of the spell, and One-Handed governs the damage of the weapon. Apparel enchanted with the "Fortify One-Handed" enchantment increases the bound sword's damage, as it would with any physical one-handed sword.

Perks

• Soul Stealer - all bound weapons instantly Soul Trap enemies killed with them, if the Dragonborn has a large enough Soul Gem in their inventory.
• Oblivion Binding – banishes any summoned creature and turns any raised ones.
• Mystic Binding – increases the damage of all bound weapons.
• The Bound Sword is also affected by all One-Handed perks that affect swords.
• Casting Bound Sword creates noise, which may cause the detection of the player while Sneaking. This can be resolved by learning the "Quiet Casting" perk from the Illusion skill tree.

Spell Tome

Attributes

• Weight: 1
• Value: 49
• See Spell Tome for a complete table of spell tomes, their descriptions, and their values.

Acquisition

• Phinis Gestor sells this spell at the College of Winterhold after the Dragonborn reaches Conjuration level 25.
• On a table in front of the Bandit Chief, inside a room with an arcane enchanter on Treva's Watch's upper floor.
• Any Court Wizard in the major cities of Skyrim.
• May be found in chests.
• Sometimes found on Draugr.
• May be found on hostile mages.

Usefulness

The appearance of a Bound Sword.

Mages who cannot accommodate for the weight of an offensive weapon may select the Bound Sword for instances when melee combat is more appropriate than spells or when the mage's magicka has expired.

With the "Soul Stealer" perk unlocked, Bound Swords automatically cast Soul Trap on foes. Because of this, characters who desire to make use of enchanting and need to fill soul gems quickly might find using Bound Sword advantageous.

It's also extremely powerful for low level players, as the casting cost is lower than 100, the Novice Conjuration perk has no prerequisites, and "Mystic Binding" can be attained in at most 5 skill levels.

As a spell, it can also be smuggled into areas where weapons are not supposed to be available, such as jail, Cidhna Mine, and the Thalmor Embassy. This is true for the other bound weapons, but the sword's availability to any profession means it's perfect for just these instances. Bound weapons also cannot be disarmed by the Disarm shout.

Trivia

• Thalmor Soldiers, Thalmor Justiciars, and Falmer favor this spell.
• When approaching some friendly characters with a Bound Sword equipped some people react to it and make positive remarks, such as, "Ooh, such pretty colors." and, "Beautiful!" Guards are unimpressed, though.
• When Dual Cast with Conjuration Dual Casting, the spell only summons one sword for an extra amount of time. It appears in the left hand, with the right hand still equipped with the spell. Pressing the buttons one after the other, instead of at the same time, can remedy this and equip both at the same time, but with no extended time.
• It is not necessary to do damage with the bound sword in order to level up Conjuration. As long as an aware enemy is near, Conjuration gains skill points. The spell can be cast many times in order to level up Conjuration quickly.
• The Bound Sword, like other Bound Weapons, appears to lose its solid purple aura as the spells time limit is soon to expire.
• Bound Sword, like other Bound Weapons, takes the shape of physical Daedric Weapons, in this case the Daedric Sword.
• It is impossible to fight with Bound Weapon while mounted upon a horse, because weapons will be sheathed while mounting horses, and it is impossible to cast the spell while riding.

Bugs

This section contains bugs related to Bound Sword (Skyrim). Before adding a bug to this list, consider the following: Please reload an old save to confirm if the bug is still happening. If the bug is still occurring, please post the bug report with the appropriate system template  360  /  XB1  ,  PS3  /  PS4  ,  PC  /  MAC  ,  NX  /  PS5  ,  XS  , depending on which platform(s) the bug has been encountered on. Be descriptive when listing the bug and fixes, but avoid having conversations in the description and/or using first-person anecdotes: such discussions belong on the appropriate forum board.

• Sometimes the blade does not appear, but it can be swung and deals damage.
  • The above glitch not only happens from casting, but from drawing from a save in which the sword was equipped. Upon loading, the sword will be invisible.
  •  360   This also happens with Dead Thralled Thalmor soldiers; they cast the weapon in combat and sheathe the weapon afterwards, but then "equip" it again (drawing from the hip instead of casting the spell again) later during a fight though the weapon is invisible and still does damage.
• The appearance of the sword may delay or come too quickly. The sound effect may also be delayed or come too quickly, or even not at all.
•  PC   May crash to desktop when cast in right hand. Fix: Use resurrect console command on yourself. You will lose all your active effects. Add them again with console commands and re-equip all items. Alternately, you may use the "player.resetinventory" command to remove invisible items added by mods that have been deleted. WARNING: Reseting inventory will cause you to lose all inventory items and replace them with starting equipment, so you should store all your inventory items (quest items must be duplicated with the drop command and left on the floor) before attempting to use this command.
•  360   If the player is hit by an Unrelenting Force shout while casting, the sword may generate the wrong way round in the animation of the player getting knocked back.
•  360   When dual casting if you release the spells at the same time they will take longer to draw nor can you swing during this time making it very annoying while fighting in a sticky situation.
•  PS3   On occasion, the Dragonborn will equip the weapon, but will hold their hands and make a stance as if they are equipped with no weapons at all and are barefisted. The weapon still swings like a sword and deals damage.
•  360   There is a chance that the sword will not be summoned when the spell is cast, leaving the player standing there in a stance as if they are holding the weapon, but cannot attack, barring the use of any shouts. Killing any enemies present (displayed on the HUD) via followers or shouts will return the player back to normal.

Appearances

• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim