?

If there's absolutely zero involvement on the part of the player, like vanilla Morrowind, why should I be bothered to click? In that case, better off seeing a cutscene which decides who wins according to the stats of the participants.

It's a videogame, so interactivity matters, also in combat situations... that's why I choose player skill. Though, a blend of the two is the best for Role-playing games.

A bit of both.

That character skill influences combat needs to be apparent, to make it more interesting to play different character types and because it enhances roleplay. But at the same time I like to feel that I've accomplished something, and to manually do what the character does also enhances roleplay.

Good example: Lock-picking in Oblivion. The auto-attempt option is character skill based, but at the same time I'm glad that I've finally gotten the hang of manually picking the locks = it's an acomplishment.

Tricky example: Blocking. In Skyrim and Oblivion this is almost entirely player skill based and depends on your timing. I'm really, really bad at this, and I doubt I can ever be good at blocking. (Same with dual wielding, I have the second weapon mostly for show. I can't do 2 things at once, especially not fast!!!) So when my character has a shield in those games, it's mainly for the looks. This makes it of course hard for me to play a legionnaire type character, who's supposedly good at blocking.

In Morrowind, blocking is automatic and depends on character skill. It's very convenient for me, but at the same time, not actively blocking in combat means the player and the character are slightly less connected, which might not be good for someone who is better at timing the blocks. So one option is to make the difference between a good and a bad blocker (characters) much bigger. A character who is bad at blocking should be really inefficient and react slower. A character who is good at blocking should be really efficient. That way a player who is a master blocker would still be weak with a character that's bad at blocking. It wouldn't help me, though.

But Morrowind is a mix of player skill and character skill. Weighted more heavily toward character skill, but still things like aiming arrows or spells, or even lining up your character to land melee attacks do require some skill from the player. If you are using long weapons like spears and two handed weapons, you can also use player skill to keep your character at a proper distance where your character can land attacks with the longer weapon but enemies with shorter weapons won't be able to hit. Even blocking in Morrowind requires player involvement. If you don't orient your character so the shield is between your character and the enemy, the "automatic" blocking will never happen.

Vanilla Morrowind is not pure character skill with zero involvement on the part of the player.

I voted for character skill but I too like a mix, I'd just weight the mix more heavily toward character skill than player skill.

Agh! Why do these forum polls have to be "either/or" questions? Is it so very hard for human beings to think in "and/and" terms once in awhile? Or maybe it's just gamers, I don't know. Maybe video gamers attract people who only think in black-and-white, them-or-us ways of thinking. /end rant

Anyway...obviously both for me.

I'd have to say somewhere between the two, but closer to character skill than player skill.

I think player skill should have an effect, but it needs to be secondary to character skill, otherwise why bother giving the character combat skills?

Yeah, both, but I'm playing a character here, and I want my character's skill to mean something. If combat is determined by my skill, then the only character factor that remains is "hit points." I don't want a game where my character just gets healthier and better armored. I want a game where my characters actually get better at what they are doing.

So, for me, when it matters, character skill overrules player skill.

In TES games it should be based on the Character with some input from the player but it should still be weighted for the most part on the character.

Both! Instead of going on and on, I'll keep it short. A mage character of mine should not do the same damage if he decides to use an axe, with no experience, as my warrior who's skilled in using the axe, likewise the warrior won't do the same damage as my mage straight away if he decides to take up magic.

I see what you're getting at, but what you listed is, to me, too basic player skill involvement.