Hey guys, I was just thinking the other day about a certain problem that Skyrim may have with dragon shouts. What if dragon shouts replace spells in a sort of way? I don't mean like completely replace them, but lower their importance and number of time people use them. For example, what if you had a dragon shout that turned every enemy on fire? Would that replace all ranged fire attacks? Destruction may not be the only type of spell that dragon shouts might replace. There are around 25 dragon shouts, which means less room for other types of spells. This may seem unrealistic to some of you, but it is a problem worth addressing. Thanks for your time and tell me what you think about this.

dragon shouts > :flamethrower::shocking: < spells

I dont know what they are going to be like but i would hope that they are nothing like magic...instead they are their own unique element

It's already been confirmed that dragon shouts have a different recharge system - they have cooldowns.

No. Fireball > fire breath.

If any dragon tries to tell you their shouts are better, just use silence or paralze. I think they'll shut up, at least for a little while.

no. because there are not as many dragon shouts as there are spell affects. besides, dragon shouts will have limited uses; while spells (also limited) can be restored quickly via spells, temple shrines, aeyliud wells (in OB) and other ways.

I don't know it for a fact but I would be surprised if dragon shouts had any way to get around their cool down time so spells are going to be more useful when needed in quick repeated use in succession.

Dragon shouts can not replace regular spells, because they are unique and powerful, but rare and hard to find and develop.

For each shout you have to find and learn three "word of power" to maximize and those words are guarded by all sorts of traps and monsters, and for each word of power that you have learned, you have to actually kill "a dragon" to be able to use.

So it is not easy to cast dragon shouts, and would be only a viable choice in the later stages of the game.

On the other hand the dragon shouts mostly have unique and powerful effects that can not be replaced with spells and also can not replace regular spells, so with a shout you might slow down the time, but can not absorb the stamina out of your foe, and you might throw anything on the screen backwards and stun the opponents, but can not make the undead run away from you, and so on...

Each method has it's own usage.

Do you think we get to choose which word gets "powered" by the dragon's soul?

In the E3 footage I seem to recall seeing "Dragon Soul Absorbed," and in one of the videos something like "New Dragon Shout" or "Word Learned," something to that effect, without any menu opening to select which word you want to be powered.

They are definitely magic. A different form of magic, a differnt source and a differnt invocation, but very clearly and very absolutely magic. They are even described thus lorewise.

If your pure warrior is using shouts. . . he is still kind of a sorcerer, even if he didn't train for it or go to Hogwarts. lol

Yes, from what I have gathered we can choose, but when only one word is available to choose, maybe it becomes automatic. Who knows.

I believe my interpretation of something I've heard on this site is correct.

Basically, all of the shouts are separated into the three archetypes. (Warrior, Mage and Thief). So no, the spells won't be replaced by dragonshouts, because that would mean that there wouldn't be any point to using them for the mage character archetype, for whom the magic orientated ones were designed. Rest assured that there will be other dragon shouts as well that suit warrior and thief game play.

Since the effects seem completely different, no.

Yes, there is a firebreath shout, but it just causes one burst of fire. If you need a more controlled, area of effect spell, or one for close contact, or more importantly, you want to use them more often, you'll need magic.

Dragon shouts take time to recharge. Todd even said that there was strategy to it, something along the lines of using a dragon shout in a fight, only to find out it would have been useful in a tougher fight later.

Conclusion: pointless thread and poll.