Is there any discussion of Spell Effects ?

[FosterBear]

I am interested in learning how Damage Health works as opposed to Drain Health. Is Damage a single and permanent reduction in Health while Drain is temporary for the duration of the spell? I currently run with a bow which I enchanted with 2 seconds each of Weakness to Shock, 20 pt per second of Shock Damage and Soul Trap 2 sec. I am wondering if either of the health damaging spells would work better?

 

I also don't understand, after reading the walk throughs, how to estimate damage from bows. If the bow shows 16 damage and the arrow shows 12, what is the computation based on the bow or the arrow?

 

My current character is Blaze, a hot little number with a bad attitude. However her strength is lacking while she is a master of Sneak so Bows work best for her. Appreciate any input...

 

Thanks, FosterBear

[Skevitj]

Drain takes away the full amount at the start and lasts only for as long as the enchantment duration, then restores the full amount it took away, whereas Damage will reduce their health by the magnitude every second, but not restore it at any point.

 

With that in mind, if you're after a quick and cheap spell (or to use on a bow as an enchantment) a 100pt Drain Health for 1s is very cheap and will destroy anything with <100hp remaining (ignoring resists) however, if they have more than 100hp left, the spell will wear off without and effects as if it never hit them. Some people consider it a cheat, since if you play on the easier dificulties, it can effectively destroy most opponents in one hit, and a Weakness to magic 100% for 2sec spell can be used as a combo to double the power of the first for very little cost.

 

If you're after a bow which will weaken them instead of going for a quick all-or-nothing kill then you're better off using Damage spells. The cost of spells scales poorly against its variable, ie time or magnitude, so if you want the most out of an enchantment, use a combination of fire, frost, shock and damage health at the same time, it will also still allow you to use the weapon/spell against enemies immune to one or more elements.

 

Probably the most powerful combo would be to use two bows, one with damage effects to weaken them, then another with a strong drain to attempt to finish them off quickly when they're weakened. Alternatively, one bow with damage effects, and then just have the drain as a spell should work even with a low destruction level.

 

You can use "weakness to ..." effects as well, but they don't affect the arrow which applies them, only the ones which follow (ie, Don't use weakness on an arrow with drain effects, unless you're firing two and don't care about the first), and only as long as the duration lasts, so if you have a 2s effect, you need to keep hitting them with each arrow landing withing 2s of the last one. If only one misses, then the bonus damage will be lost and will start again with the next arrow. Effects applied by weapons stack up, so as long as you keep pounding them with each arrow landing before the effects of the previous wears off, the effect will become stronger with each arrow.

 

Basically:

A Drain Health spell with 50pt for 5s will reduce the target's maximum health by 50points as well as reducing their current health by 50points. Once the 5s is up, their maximum health will be increased by 50points, and they will be healed for 50points. (Ignoring any resist magic effects and and regeneration, it won't heal above their max hp at any time.

A Damage Health spell with 50pt for 5s will reduce the target's current hp by 50points every second for 5 seconds (total of 250pt damage) once the time runs out, their hp is no longer damaged by the effect, but the damage done isn't healed off by the spell (as with drain).

 

As far as I know the damage for an arrow is just the sum of the damage the bow contributes and the damage the arrow contributes, ie a 5 damage bow and 6 damage arrow will do 11 damage on hit.

[Striker879]

Here's a UESP Wiki article on Useful Enchantments that I found particularly useful when figuring out the ins and outs of weapon enchanting. Note the caveat halfway down the page on enchantment stacking. The order you place them in the enchanting altar window is important if you want to get bang for your buck. Also consider that weakness to elemental damage does not stack, whereas weakness to magic does. Use the time variable to not waste enchanting cost on weakness to elemental damge but take advantage of weakness to magic stacking. Example ... if it takes you two seconds between arrows and let's say you're using some fire enchanted arrows you want to have no more than two seconds weakness to fire on your bow with at least a four second weakness to magic at the bottom of the list in the enchanting window. Your first arrow causes base fire damage plus arrow damage. Your second arrow (if it hits before the weakness to magic from the first times out) has it's fire damage multiplied by the stacked weakness to magic plus the weakness to fire plus it's arrow damage. Weakness to magic is relatively cheap enchanting cost wise, you can completely eliminate the weakness to fire and not lose much (and gain quite a bit in enchanting cost). I agree with Skevitj that drain effects are difficult to use effectively. All the drain effects need damage and weakness to magic to have true utility (I do have a really sweet damage/drain fatigue bow I could give you that I created special for Mankar Camoran ... works almost too good :tongue: ).

[FosterBear]

Thanks guys...

 

I'm a die hard Might and Magic player who's trying out Elder Scrolls for the first time and trying to learn the rules.

 

FosterBear