Um,
This is I am sure another really stupid question from yours truly but how do I release the tension on a bow if I decide not to fire the arrow...?

Currently I just end up firing them into the ground!
Which seems kind of wrong...

Thanks!
Mat

You can do it by pressing block so you zoom in and then walking forward and pressing jump. You will hear the sound of the arrow being released but it won′t, and your enchantment charge/poison will not be forfeited

Thank you!

What mirocu correctly suggested is the 'dodge' manuever and requires an acrobatics skill of 50 or higher.

Here are a couple helpful links:
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Marksman#Using_a_Bow_and_Arrow (describes that the dodge maneuver can be used to denock a bow)
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Marksman#Using_a_Bow_and_Arrow (describes the dodge maneuver)

Ah right, cool, thank you - I shall check them.

Silly me. I just realized you are on PC. Grab a mod like 'Denock Arrows' and never look back. :foodndrink:

Or, assuming you run no conflicting mods, grab Duke Patrick's Combat Archery (available at TESalliance rather than Nexus), which includes 'denock'. That mod really spices up archery. Bows become far more deadly, yet at the same time realistically awkward and in some ways limited. They don't behave like a modern 'guns' with a bow skin any more. What's more, enemy archers get the same benefits. They become objects of dread...you can't take 'em lightly any more.

Recently my decrepit avatar and Vilja had reason to explore some caves out in the wilds near the Morrowind border. While returning from that they chanced upon a bandit archer hidden amongst boulders in a ravine. They knew nothing of his presence until an arrow slammed into my avatar, sending him crashing to the ground. Vilja barely had her sword drawn when she too crashed to the ground. That dratted archer managed to keep them both penned to the mountainside for some time. One would recover only to be hit again. My avatar, who can normally survive most any encounter, saw his health drop disturbingly low. At last he was able to recover long enough to make a blind headlong rush down the mountainside. At that point the archer was at last spotted. My avatar closed in for the kill. Once forced to enter melee the foe went down easily enough. Looking over his armor, which had been a full strength before the encounter, my avatar found his Imperial Dragon cuirass at 0, another piece at 1, a piece in the high single digits, and the rest fairly low...certainly nothing in the forties (discounting shield). As suspected, the archer had been using daedric arrows.

What a battle it was! It has become one of my fondest memories this play-through.

(The mod has a VERY lengthy detailed readme. The author expects users to read it and follow installation / configuration instructions. As such this might not be ideal for those who prefer to simply throw things in their data folders and expect it to work without issues.)

-Decrepit-

Hmmm, all good stuff here - I'm planning on using A LOT of bow and arrow in this, so I think perhaps a mod might be useful/entertaining...(!)

Some poison and enchanting too perhaps?

Oh definitely - she shall be working her way towards all of that good stuff as befits someone of her profession...

I always love reading your tales of adventure. You have a way with words. That must have taken a lot of courage to run down the archer like that after he almost killed you, good show sir, good show!

You could also have tried to wait out his attacks to force him to use up all the arrows in his quiver, then run him down before he could get more arrows from his inventory. (default in my mod is 20 arrows). But that tactic also has risk.