I would really like to see arrows with differences other than just raw damage that are not enchanted. Like arrows could penetrate multiple enemies, Arrows that could push enemies back, arrows with an increased sneak multiplier, arrows that you could fire faster, arrows that have a reasonable disarm rate, or even arrows that do greater damage against a specific enemy. One example could be "Dragonbane arrows" that do increased damage against dragons. Obviously at reduced damage rates for balancing.

There has to be a reason for it all. Being able to pierce multiple opponents seems like a long shot but considering archers on Nirn can probably be more precise and stronger than archers on Tellus they may be able to pierce many enemies with specific arrows, but not kill them all.

Pushing enemies back seems pretty weird, an arrow that maybe has a stone on the end instead of a point ?

Arrows should never make you sneak better, makes no sense at all without magical enchantments.

How fast you can fire your arrows should depend on the user but not the arrows (unless they are enchanted), Also I think archery will be more about accuracy and the power behind the shot rather than firing rate in Skyrim, even though in Oblivion we sure could have used arrows firing like the bullets of a gatling gun.

Again the disarm should be about accuracy, I mean a shot through the palm with a normal arrow should be plenty to disarm someone.

Specific creature arrows could be interesting, but it may be hard to figure out reasons why certain types of arrows should hurt certain creatures more, at least beyond "flaming arrows" for trolls and "silver arrows" for were beasts.

I don′t want to shoot your ideas down but it′s something you′d need to think really hard on to figure out a good reason for a certain design for an arrow to do certain stuff.

I'd settle for thieves arsenal for arrows. Water arrows to put lights, gas arrows to knock folks out, vine arrows for climbing.. However, my money is only vanilla arrows making it in the game. Rest will have to be modded in. Which fortunately already exists for oblivion, so it ought to be possible for skyrim.

Well, they did this in practice with "Ammo" in Fallout: New Vegas.

Here's what I'd think would work, keeping it simple.

Glass Arrow: Frangible high damage, but low AP, effective against unarmored Targets.

Ebony Arrow: Lower Damage, Negates a portion of the Target's armor (AP)

Steel Arrow: Standard.


Expanding on it a little bit, maybe to unnecessary complexity, but what the hell.

Steel Orcish Arrow: AP

Steel Elven Arrow: "Hollow Point" effect(Bodkins) (Effective against Unarmored)

Steel Argonian Arrow. Low Damage, bonus Critical chance and attack.

Steel Nordic Arrow. Low Damage, Inflicts Damage over time (Bleeding) effect.

I'm fine with normal arrows.

I'm fine with Normal Arrows as long as there's a difference between the quality of arrow. In Morrowind, why the hell does a Daedric Arrow have the same effect as a Chitin arrow?!

I played a MMO where there were different types of arrows that did different types of damage, slash damage, blunt damage, and pierce damage. Then there were different types of armor, leather, chain, and I forget the rest but the different armors had a either a neutral rating against certain arrows(normal damage), a bonus to the resistance rating against certain arrows(took less damage), or had a negative to resistance against certain arrow types(take more damage). I liked it but I dont know if that would be bad for TES.