In one of the recent hands-on previews they stated you can't put a shield in your right hand (this may also apply to wielding a single one handed weapon as well, they probably didn't want to make the extra animations is my guess, though I don't why you couldn't just flip the animation). Which means no left handed characters. Being left handed I wanted my own character to be as well in order to change up gameplay a little. Having so many games ingrain me with "right trigger = attacks" and "left = block" I wanted something to help me break that monotany of gaming. Anyone else abit dissapointed in this?

You actually can use a shield in your right hand, the journalist was mistaken.

I'm 80% sure a dev tweeted/posted that you choose which hand to hold the weapon in, and then you can equipe a shield that goes to the free hand by default. It's to make sure no one becomes the confused turtle I believe.

Yeah.. I vividly remember Pete tweeting on this subject not too long ago, saying you could switch I thought.

Really? Huzzah!

i recall a developer, or was it pete... who said you select a setting that makes your character left/right handed, or something like that.

so you CAN play a left-handed character if you want...

Why someone needs to defend right side instead of left?
Right-handed, left-handed, ambidextrous- it doesn't matter, your heart stays at left side so shield should be there

Although...
We don't know the precise anatomy of mers and beasts
They might have heart on the right side or centered, so who knows

A left handed person would use their weapon in their dominant hand, even if it meant leaving their heart more exposed.

I remember todd saying that even though that it was default to have a shield in your left hand you could change it

no you pick right handed or left handed characters at creation you can't change after.

That isn't true.

Every martial and melee art that targets inner organs don't have defense for lefties, both categories get same training
So no, left-handed takes shield either in left hand or takes 2 weapons



Makes sense actually, I wondered why we had no option for that in TES4 or FO3/NV
I only hope there will be left-handed NPCs too

Why is everyone so cut up about this? I'm left handed and don't give a damn which hand my character holds his sword/shield in.

Curse you lefties and your backwards hands. You shouldn't be allowed to vote.

http://beefjack.com/news/skyrim-loves-the-lefties/
http://nerdtrek.com/skyrim-answers-bethesda/


two examples of being able to choose right or left handed characters in SKyrim



I don't care either I was trying to be helpful to those that do

Yeah, I just browsed through my Twitter but couldn't find it. I think it was somewhere on these forums in a different thread.

But yeah, it was confirmed (I'm 99% sure) you can switch weapons between hands. Sword in left, shield in right? Feel free.

I believe they said you had to be creative. I think it will work like this if you want to equip a shield on your right hand:

1. Equip sword on right hand.
2. Equip sword on left hand.
3. Remove sword in right hand.
4. Equip shield.

I just want it for change of pace. I'm left handed but right eye dominate so still do most things like shooting a bow and gun right handed. But having to block with what in most games is attack will give it much fresher feel that the usual games.

Well, that's sounds more convenient than picking option during character creation
(Sarcasm, BTW)

left handedness can often provide a benefit in combat (though we almost definetly see anything of the sort in the game, it'll be equal). It may be true that having the shield on the right exposes your heart, and in addition, it hinders group combat such as forming a shield wall with right handed fighters. However, in one-on-one fighting or dueling, or in small groups, left handed fighting will confuse your opponent, who will be used to fighting mainly right handed fighters. Your attacks will come from awkward angles, forcing your opponent to use untrained muscles, and ultimately making it easier to slip past his defences. Therefore the benifits often outweight the risks.

Being right handed, this won't affect me hardly at all, unless i want a challenge. but nevertheless i am very impressed with the effort they have made to cater to everyone.

In so much as breaking the monotony? Totally. I'm still dying to try it, simply so i can die like a wimp.

As a novice fencer i can absolutely vouch for how difficult it is to fence someone who is left handed! Everything is weird. Not so much the angles, but your automatic responses to an outside or inside attack. A normal reposte to score a touch wouldn't do a thing, when your normal inside is always their outside.

You can also fight backwards
(not an sarcasm actually- there are backward fighting styles in few martial arts :shrug: )




Do you use shields in fencing?
Because we are here discussing reversed shielding
And IRL reversed shielding makes little sense
It is more efficient for left handed fighters to take dagger in the right hand instead of shield and use it to parry attacks and counter attack

I may be wrong about it being in creation as I just read something that said you only picked looks/race in character creation but maybe you get an option to change it when you leave the tutorial.


http://twitter.com/#!/DCDeacon/status/109335314677497857

I found this on Twitter by Pete