Combat basics

§Attacking

1. Ready your weapon. Press Z on a US keyboard, the key printed Y on a German-style (QWERTZ) one. Press again to sheathe.
2. Hold the right mouse button and drag in the direction of the swing:
   • left or right for a slash,
   • down for a chop,
   • up for a thrust.
3. With a bow, the same right mouse button shoots. Aim with the crosshair.

§What decides a hit

A blow hits when a roll of 1 to 100 comes in at or under your hit chance, which the game limits to 3 to 97. So there is always a 3% chance of a hit and a 3% chance of a miss. The chance is the sum of:

Three things follow from this. Skill is the biggest lever, since each skill point is worth one and a half. Agility counts for more than Luck: a quarter point of hit chance per point of difference. And what you wear never changes how often you are hit.

§Expertise In

A class with Expertise In a weapon type gets, from the stats below (all rounded down):

For example, with Strength 45, Agility 75, Speed 65 and Luck 35, an archer with Expertise gets +13 to hit and +5 damage.

§What a hit does

1. The weapon rolls between its minimum and maximum damage. See Items.
2. Add the damage bonuses from your swing, Expertise and race.
3. Add your Strength bonus: (Strength − 50) ÷ 10 rounded down, which is doubled for a two-handed weapon (bows excepted). Low Strength is a penalty.
4. Add the weapon material’s bonus (−1 for iron, up to +6 for daedric). See Materials.
5. A class with a Bonus against an enemy type adds a random bonus driven by Willpower, and one with a Phobia takes a penalty that falls with Willpower.
6. Critical hit: when your Critical Strike roll lands, damage is multiplied by 1 + 0.05 for every 5 points of the skill. The roll’s chance is your skill ÷ (4 − a Luck term).
7. Backstab: a blow on an unaware target can do triple damage, with a chance equal to your backstab chance.
8. A weapon below the metal a monster needs hits 20% weaker for each grade short, to at most 90% weaker. The metal a monster needs is under Hurt only by in Enemies.
9. Your weapon’s condition scales the blow: a blade at 41–60% condition does 85%, at 16–40% does 70%, at 6–15% does 45%. A blunt weapon loses less (90%, 80%, 65%).
10. Silver doubles damage against werewolves, wereboars, vampires, wraiths, ghosts and mummies. Every non-silver weapon does half damage to a skeletal warrior.

§Armour and shields

Armour acts after the blow lands. The game finds the body part struck, from a fixed spread (head 1 chance in 20, feet 2, right arm, left arm and hands 3 each, chest and legs 4 each), and the piece covering it cuts the damage. How much depends on the armour’s tier and on whether the weapon is edged, blunt or a fist. See Armour damage taken. Your own Endurance, Strength and Willpower above 50 shave a little more off.

A shield can block a blow outright. A buckler, round, kite or tower shield has a base chance of 30, 35, 45 or 55 to catch a blow on a part it covers (20, 10, 5 or −5 elsewhere), raised by Agility, Speed, Strength, Endurance, Willpower and Luck above 50. A shield only reduces damage if it is at least as good as the armour under it.

§Swing speed

How fast you swing depends on your Speed, the weapon’s weight and your Strength: the heavier the weapon and the weaker you are, the lower your effective Speed. Each kind of weapon then has its own handling, so daggers are quick and warhammers and axes slower, and two-handed weapons a little slower again. Swing times for every weapon are in Swing speed.

§Staying alive early

• Fight in doorways and corridors so only one enemy reaches you at a time.
• Back off when hurt. Enemies that are losing will also run.
• Rest at a fire or a bed to heal. See Resting and time.
• Armour wears out. Get it repaired in town before it breaks. See Repairs and armour.

§Fighting your own way

The rules above are the same for everyone; what changes is the tool.

• Melee: blades, axes, maces and fists, and how a shield works: Melee weapons and shields.
• Archery: the draw, the arrows and the stat bonuses: Archery.
• Magic: what a spell costs and which spells you start with: Spells and casting.
• Stealth: a backstab on an unaware target can do triple damage; see Thieving.
• Gear: Repairs and armour covers armour tiers and keeping it in repair.

§Look it up

• Every monster’s health, damage, armour and weak points: Enemies.
• Where each enemy turns up: Where enemies appear.
• What class enemies carry: Enemy kits.
• Weapon damage ranges: Items, filtered to Weapons.