I haven't heard anyone on these forums talk about or mention anything about staves in a long while. And I think they were really fun to use in OB, IMO, and I can't wait to see what improvemnents Beth has made to them. They were only useful pretty much when your magicka was low or you didn't have enough magicka stat-wise. Although were really fun to use. And I'm hoping this time around they just don't have the same effects as regular spells to...hopefully they have some interesting appeal to them opposed to standard spell-casting. Can you guys think of anything staves can do differently than regular spell-casting?

Btw, I'm looking forward to dual-wielding a couple of some bad-ass staves!!!

Hopefully you will be able to make your own.

I hope staves will be more interesting in look and use this time around.

Yeah, I didn't even think of that! You probably will be able to considering you can create your own weapons and enchanting is in.

I'm personally hoping for empty staves that can be enchanted into a usable stave. That would be sick, go to some magic store and pick up a few blank staves, go home and make them uber.

Yeah that's how I see it...and maybe designing the shape of it too somehow.

I cant wait to duel wield Staves and Swords like Gandalf.

I would really like to have two handed staves, able to launch magic, hit and block. Screenshots though didn't seem to suggest this.

I want soul gems to go bye bye. Why can you make magic with your hands but need a battery to shoot it out of a stick?

It looks like he's about to fire it http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/115/1158651/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-20110330052311168.jpg, but a staff as a magic light source would be cool.

Staffs would be great if:
No Soul Gems

No Charge

I want a return of very slowly-regenerating charge. I also hope you can whap people on the head with your staff, or at least do a spray effect with it.

Staves should have several constant effects tailored for casters instead of only one on use effect. And you should be able to block with them.

In Oblivion, there were a grand total of 4 different kinds of looking staves. That's pretty hilarious. Almost as hilarious as the voice actors being over used.
If staves do make a return, I require more variety.

*sigh*

Number one - you don't "make magic with your hands." You call on existing magical forces through the use of incantations - spoken words. That's why Silence stops spellcasters.

Number two - even casting magic through incantations requires energy That's what magicka is, and why every character has a supply of it, which supply is used up when he casts spells.

Number three - a staff obviously can't speak an incantation, so the ONLY source it has for magical energy is the "battery" supplied by soul gems.


Your clamoring desire for what amounts to little more than a rocket launcher with infinite ammo is your problem - not Beth's.

I want to be able to fight with staves, as in Daggerfall, or like Robin Hood.

They should have passive staves that you can equip in one hand, with a spell in the other. You could wack people with them (although they would do very little damage), but the main purpose would be the stat increase. Like povuholo said, you could use certain ones as some sort of light source too.

This, of course, would not replace Oblivion-like staves, only add to the variety of staves.

That being said, I really didn't like Oblivion staves. There was something about whipping out a stave with its own ammo and spells, (rather than you, yourself casting the spells), that did not appeal to me. They just didn't seem like a viable weapon to carry on all my adventures. I guess they were just too similar to guns. :flamethrower:

But anyway, I'd like to see staves become more common weapon that gave you stat increases, rather than charged weapons that you use to shoot enemies.

Yet again (sorry, i seem to be saying this a lot today-lol), Todd Howard talked about this. Don't remember where exactly- one of the vid interviews if I'm not mistaken. He was talking about the forging use withing the game, when asked if you would be able to make your own weapons. He avoided the questions, saying that they weren't ready to reveal that just yet. He did hint at something for staves- but the same as the other weapons, he did not say anything for the sake of not giving too much info.

This. I didn't care much for staves in OB, cause they all looked the same, other than the slight difference in Hrormir's Icestaff... I think if they came up with more designs, and more interesting ones at that, I would be more likely to use, or at least collect them...

I didn't use any staves in Oblivion. Even the one I crafted (soul trapping) hasn't been used yet.

Possibly, I didn't use them due to the fact that I was primarily a mage. If I had been a warrior or thief with little magic ability, possibly then I would have been more inclined to carry around a staff to throw an occasional fireball.

But, I think the main reason was because they couldn't be used as a weapon. If it were, for example, a part of the Blunt weapon skill, I am sure I would have used them more.

If staves are going to be better in Skyrim, I think they should be useable as a weapon.

It'd be cool if we could sort of have different spells associated with one staff. So for instance we could be in combat firing an ice spell and after combat is done you continue walking and need a light source, so you switch the staffs spell to one that makes it act as a torch and continue on - in short, switching spells rather than switching staffs, that way we could just have our own 'personal' staff that we use for all sorts of staff based magic, rather than a couple for different purposes - It's a little thing that I think would work nicely.

I read "staves" as slaves, and the rest of that paragraph was very confusing to me.

I think this is a great idea. I would be more likely to use one if this were the case...

Hmm, seems to be the same exact location.
http://cms.elderscrolls.com/sites/default/files/tes/screenshots/Cave01_wLegal.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/NUpbZ.jpg

Unless the spell has only components that are somatic, not verbal (although I don't think it applies here....)