Seriously I think Slaughter fish is the most annoying creature in Oblivion. Why? Because One time In oblivion I was traveling in the water for quite some time and I encountered So many slaughter fish and after i kill the ones that was attacking me I travel for 5 sec and then More Slaughter fish comes . They're soo annoying. They come in big numbers too. Thats why i don't travel in water because i will just get slaughtered by them. They keep on coming and they won't stop!!!! Any tips to kill them?

AOE Dot on Touch spell. I think the AOE part will work underwater anyways.

My mystic archer fights underwater by blocking with her bow and tapping her foe with a custom paralize + absorb health on touch spell. By casting her touch spell the moment the name 'Slaughterfish' appears when they charge, she can usually avoid getting touched. Works fine, and usually having her bow up to block is only a precaution.

For RP, she precedes this by casting a weak shield spell to boost her armor rating and, more importantly, magically strengthen her bow so it won't get damaged while being used to block.

you've obviously never seen cliffracers then

I hardly see any slaughter fish in Oblivion. Now in Morrowind they were really annoying.

Last week I started a new game of Morrowind. I took my level 2 character on what I thought would be a short little jaunt around a few islands near Seyda Neen. I quickly got pinned down on a small rock outcropping and I swear it took me 30 minutes, real time, to get off that rock. I'd swim a few feet away and a Slaughterfish would swim up. I'd kill him, swim a few feet, and another Slaughterfish would swim up. By the time I finally got off that rock I'd piled up six Slaughterfish corpses.

So I get to the next island, run to the other end, get in the water, and three Slaughterfish swim up to me. After killing them I dash for the next island, but two Slaughterfish ambush me from behind and kill me. I reload and try again. I kill those two and another Slaughterfish swims up. I get this one down to half health and my weapon breaks. Wonderful. Now I'm marooned off the coast of Seyda Neen with no weapon and no way to get back to Vvardenfell alive. My character is still there now, as I type this.

I hate slaughterfish so much they are definitely Oblivion's lesser, underwater cliff racer

Yea those slaughter fish are as mean as they are ugly and those little pesky ones just love nipping at my rump. grrrrr....

In OBLIVION i hardly see any and usually run away from them if i come across a tough one that some how gets in some good damage on my character. Usually that only happens by the shore near the Vilverin dungeon. Wish there were more of them or another hostile sea life creature. Thank the Nine the Shivering Isles are alive with amphibian nightmares out of some lovecraftian tale.

Great to see you around more Pseron Wyrd. Me am still trying to find a way to stay away.

Hellbishop, hi! Yes, posting on Bethesda's forums is almost as addicting as playing Bethesda's games.

And using mods

Fortunately i've noticed after all these years theres a logic to all the vanilla Bethesda madness and i find myself always playing without mods the older the rpgs get. Right now am only feasting with mods on FALLOUT 3 and only messing with hunting down 256 and 320 bitrate versions of Bethesda songs to indulge my current audio fetish of headphones such as the Audio Technica Ath AD700 etc.

They were way worse in morrowind. Like, they would swim from like the other side of Vvardenfell to attack you as soon as you stepped in water. And on land, there were cliffracers

You think they're a problem in the water, you should see them when they swim up on land. I had one at the entrance to Vilverin a couple of days ago.

I love when they do that. It adds some random realism to the landscape. Of course i wish they would do it near the shore instead so far inland. Many a time has been i could not sleep due to an enemy nearby alert from a slaughter fish dancing behind a wall in some bushes.


Broken-Scale, yes the slaughter fish in MORROWIND were like the shark from the JAWS movie. The battle music would play and all of a sudden the air was alive with drama and suspense waiting to see what was speeding towards me to enjoy a hefty meal.

This exactly. After Morrowind's cliff racers and slaughterfish, I'll never find any creatures annoying again. Though the Oblivion slaughterfish are almost there. My tactic: just don't swim. Waterwalking/avoiding water at all costs works wonders.

This. In Morrowind, 9/10 times you travelled through any body of water you'd encounter the little buggers.

This exact thing happened to me a few weeks back, except it was crossing a certain river trying to find a certain tax collector. I ended up needing to go the long way around after dying three times. I never found the slaughterfish in Oblivion to be particularly annoying, but after playing Morrowind I have a whole new appreciation for them.

Oh, and as for your original question: If you can't paralyze them like Acadian suggested, your only real option is hacking away at them. Generally you should be able to outswim them with the help of healing magic/potions, as they stagger you as much as they did in Morrowind. But if you're really having trouble with them and don't want to turn the difficulty down, the only real thing you can do is to avoid them, as Oblivion's water combat is a bit lacking.