Except it doesn't because High elves are simply taller, they're not thicker or stronger than Nords.

Your theory only works on the grounds that the 'bigger' man is both heavier and stronger. It's simply a lazy development mechanic.

Male Nords are 1.03 scale. Male Imperials are 1.00 scale. You need to click on the character model after changing your race to get the correct value when using the getscale command (click on the model to select it immediately prior to typing in the command, obviously). Also, make sure you're clicking on the character model and not something like the character's shield, weapon, bow, etc.

For those asking "what about race X gender Y?", here's a list of the scales being used on player character models for the various races in Skyrim:

Argonian Male: 1.01
Argonian Female: 1.00

Breton Male: 1.00
Breton Female: 0.95

Dark Elf Male: 1.00
Dark Elf Female: 1.00

High Elf Male: 1.08
High Elf Female: 1.08

Imperial Male: 1.00
Imperial Female: 1.00

Khajiit Male: 1.00
Khajiit Female: 0.95

Nord Male: 1.03
Nord Female: 1.03

Orc Male: 1.04
Orc Female: 1.04

Redguard Male: 1.00
Redguard Female: 1.00

Wood Elf Male: 0.98 *
Wood Elf Female: 1.00 *

* Yes, Wood Elf Females character models in Skyrim are slightly larger than Wood Elf Males character models, that is not a typo.

If you're wondering what kind of impact that has on melee damage, it's pretty easy. Just multiply the damage by the scale. A 100 point damage attack by an Imperial would be 108 points by a High Elf, but only 95 points by a Breton Female.

For running speeds, divide the time by the scale. If an Imperial takes 100 seconds to run a set distance, it takes a High Elf only 92.6 seconds to run the same distance. A Breton Female would require 105.3 seconds to do the same trek.

And, of course, the higher your scale, the higher you can jump.

i always thought in the lore that bosmer females were normal sized, or like high elf sized and bosmer males were tiny.

Lore aside (but for that reason), it's possible that High Elves are simply meant to be superior (like Vulcans in Star Trek are several times stronger physically than a human, despite also being humanoid). However, I think it's more likely that you are right. It was just implemented poorly. Breton women are weaker than Breton males (when's the last time we had that dare show up in a game), and yet Imperial women are as strong as Imperial men. Too inconsistent, which perhaps suggests this really wasn't intended to work this way.

I think Khajiit should be the fastest when it comes to running, but I guess that's not reflected in this scale thing, is it?

That isn't really surprising. They've always been taller than the males for some reason. In Oblivion the males were in shorter in comparison.

GREAT. Those stuck up snobbish high elves run fast, are good at magic, AND have increased melee damage?
Please let Skyrim be multiplayer so that we can nerf the crap out of the altmer

I just tested this.

Turned my character into scale 10, at which point you can only see her legs LOL.

Movement scales, so now I can move around at amazing speed, jump over small hills, etc.

I don't think fall distance scale though, so just running off a small hill can kill you!!!

Yeah, the distance you can safely fall doesn't scale with your new size (which can make things look weird in extreme cases).

yeah makes sense
I specifically noticed this with the giants
there's small giants and big giants
I can kill the small giants but the really big ones usually one hit me

I feel that this validates me choosing a nord ranger as opposed to the good bonuses of a woodelf, now I run .001 percent faster and hit that much harder too, great (plus no racism against me )

Tell that to Mike Tyson in his prime, 5'10" FTW.

This isn't a big deal but it stands testament to why people complained when so many stats and skills ie athletics were taken out of the game. Go anywhere do anything is a lie, another aspect of elder scrolls taken out of the player hands.

Well now we know to tell all the people saying that Master difficulty is too easy to scale themselves down to hobbit or pixie size lol.

Does the effect of scale on strength and speed has changed in latest Patch ? Has anyone tested ?

I did run a quick test after the patch and the effects of scaling are still there.

:foodndrink:

Nords and Orcs are supposed to be the most physically powerful lore-wise. (other) elves have never been considered particularly strong; rather gifted in other areas such as magic or stealth. It makes no sense for the high elves to be physically superior.


Plus, anyone using the whole 'bigger man should hit harder' excuse is clearly overlooking the fact that this is independent of the character's set weight. If you set two characters the same weight and skill, their height should have absolutely no bearing on their ability to do damage.

Hey guys, could someone try to find out if there are separate speed and jump values.

The reason is because maybe its just me, but I feel like my kajiit runs faster and jumps higher then my redgaurd.

They run at the same speed. Unless your Kajiit happens to be female, at which point she actually runs slower and has a shorter jump height than any Redguard.

my next pc is going to be eric the red, going to be a nord and set scale to 1.09 or 2. two handed only and flow with the storms.

Technically if you want you Khajiit to run faster than a nord (like I think it should) you can enter into the console:

player.setav SpeedMult
or
player.modav SpeedMult

SETav will set the speed multiplier at a specific number while MODav will add to the existing number. I highly suggest a very slight increase, so as to not break the game. Faster than npc's ok, faster than a horse? Not so much.

Thats 2 or 3 points of damage max.
Sure, its an interesting question to ask, why did they do it like that, but its not really something with high priority over anything.
NPCs still have their own speed and damage. They are not affected by scale. So no, you wont get caught by a nord NPC just because you play Khajiit, but because Bethesda gave the Nord a higher speed value, unrelated to the scale.

So its really just down to this: Do you notice doing 2-3 damage less when your attacks deal 358 damage?
Do you notice that going somewhere takes one or two seconds more?

Cross posting this from another thread to provide solid numbers on damage;

why?

It's really amazing to see three pages of a thread come from this bad bit of conjecture.