Q about Dual weapon range/how dual power strike damage works/testing s

[Extacide]

I'm about to do a lot of number crunching to remake my character with, but I don't understand how dual weapon range works; specifically when you have two weapons of different length. From what I understand the dual swipe/dual power attack damage is based off the combined damage of both your weapons. However, the question stems from using a dagger in your offhand for speed in conjunction with a much longer weapon in your main. Does the power attack's range default to your longest weapon and simply combine the damage into the animation, or will it halve the damage if only your longest weapon is in range?

 

I'll give an example. I'm dual wielding a dagger and a sword, the sword being much longer than the dagger. They have a combined damage of 15, the sword giving 10 and the dagger 5. If I dual power strike an enemy that my sword can reach but dagger cannot mid animation, will the sword do 15 damage and count as both, or would i have to be in range for the dagger to hit as well to do a full 15? For clarity, it's a dual power attack and not a single power attack.

 

Also, is there ANY way to test vanilla skyrim damage in-game in a controlled environment and be able to see the damage dealt to health? Is there a mod that assists with this?

 

Thanks.

 

edit: did a LITTLE testing, and the results are just messed up entirely. Just slowly walking further and further back until I came out of range of a wall, then stepping an inch forward to be in range with each weapon, testing a huge assortment from each set, I'm finding that the dagger is the same range as a greatsword...No idea if this affects power attacks and its really hard to tell. Sigh.

Edited February 1, 2012 by Extacide

[Extacide]

bump

[KarthGalin]

I haven't exactly made a rigorous study of this, but in my experience the damage sources (each weapon) are kept separate... that is, if you miss with the dagger, the dagger doesn't contribute to the damage done.

 

Dagger has the same range as a greatsword? O.o Uh... are you sure about that? Everything I've experienced in the game points towards two-handed weapons' range statistic actually being used by the game. Very often I can back out of an enemy's range with my dual-dagger character when my enemy is using a single-handed weapon, but two-handed weapons almost always hit however I maneuver. Likewise, two-handed weapon users' AI seems to cause them to back up a little all the time, making my character miss with his daggers if I don't keep moving in closer.

[MorwynKelm]

I use dual exclusively and I have found that weapon ranges are factored as you would expect them to be. A dagger will not strike where a longsword would. If you're up-close-and-personal, a dagger will dig in along with a longsword.