For a while i thought I had crappy aim, but it seems only the last shot, or the shots to the head after they're dead actually pierce their head. I tried it with NPCs who are full health where I keep shooting above their heads until I finally reach the top of their head. Sure enough, the arrow moved to his shoulder, anyone know how I can prevent this? Thanks.

There is no locational damage in Oblivion.

I know that. It's just for the satisfaction of seeing an arrow through their head.

What platform at you playing on? I noticed this when I had Oblivion on the Xbox, and it bothered me too. Now I've shifted over to the PC, I've seen arrows on the corpses of people I've killed that have gone through the throat and head, etc. It's always neat to see you killed a bandit with an arrow in the eye or mouth.

Im on the PC, I think ive figured it out. The final arrow + arrows when they are dead are those that pierce the head. Is yours different? I guess ill just have to aim perfectly and raise my marksman skill up.

Edit: Caught a typo from yesterday. I hate typos. =/

This. Only arrows from kill shots (and post-kill shots) will remain in their heads. Naturally, this means that essential NPCs can never sustain headshots.

I totally get you fella!

nothing more fun than a perfect headshot that makes them fly trough the air a couple hundred metres:)

The reasoning behind this is to prevent living NPCs from walking around with 40 arrows sticking out of their eyes.

On the other hand, that would be a great conversation starter.

I've never paid attention to this myself.

But it has been posted before that if you shot someone in the head the arrows move to the body. So you are not imagining things, that's what happens. Congratulations for noticing.

And as mentioned above there is unfortunately no locational damage in Oblivion, so where the arrows appear doesn't really matter. (Apparently there isn't location damage in Skyrim either which is rather surprising to me, but that's another discussion - actually ongoing in the Skyrim forums.)

This is strange, considering Oblivion is from 2006. Deus Ex, which is from 2000, had locational damage. Different game company, but still, why?

Me : hi there sorry to interupt, but I walked by and noticed you had 40 arrows in your eye..
NPC : "I saw a mudcrab the other day"
Me : ok, so you only lost your eye recently, but mudcraps do not shoot arrows...
NPC "I am keeping an eye on (female NPC) I got matromony in mind"
Me : not sure that works in your condition
NPC "I tried to pursuade her to a date, though she aimed for me too, but she rejected me...
Me : well she sure aimed good at you! hehe!
NPC : if you were any other man I would kill you were you stand.... GO AWAY!
Me : bye!

something like that?

Even stranger

Oblivion has no Locational damage, Fallout 3 a few years later has locational damage, Skyrim 2011 has no locational damge -- all from the same company.

regional damage should matter.... I imagine hitting a monster on his shield would have to do little damage, while hitting him fiull in the chest with an arrow should do a LOT of damage...
would be even more fun if bodyparts got hurt..

(leg 1/leg 2, if hurt beyond 75% npc/monster will start having more difficulty walking with it, at lower percentages that one leg will start becoming less and less usable..
(both legs under 25% effectively forces any npc to crawl)
it will harm the total health of any char only slighly, no damage over time effect. (8% of total health for any completely destroyed leg)

arm 1/arm 2 : same as legs, in this case when one is hurt for more than x % 2h weapons are no longer possible to use, and you will be unable to use weapons (if it's you weaponarm) or shields (if it's your shieldarm)
it will harm the total health of any char only slighly, no damage over time effect. (8% of total health for any completely destroyed leg)

chest : getting hit in the chest will hurt your intestins.. this will not have any battleeffect, but will seriously damage your health..
(3% of total health will be hurt per succesfull blow in this area, PLUS "drain life" effect.... will occur... you will need to cure yourself (remove arrow/stich wound etc) to stop this drain effect)

head +neck will do less initial healthloss but a lot more hamerage will occor

Sweetspots :
Bows : any arrow right between the eyes or in the heart will kill any monster and NPC instantly regardless their level
Blunt : any blow, just above any monsters or npc's ear, or in their neck, will kill them instantly
sharp : any blow in the heartregion (stab) or neck (chops head off) will kill them instantly

something like that would be cool

Yes indeed. Good one.