So my first character was a nord sword'n'board warrior, and I specced heavily into the Block skills because I wanted the ability to bash enemies over the head and protect myself from Dragon breath, respectively. The shield bash is really sweet, and makes it so I see little reason to do anything other than melee/shield, honestly.

So, come around when I make a wood elven archer/thief, I keep an axe and a shield on me incase I get in melee with some monster. However, I immediately noticed by reflex that my elf can do the exact same shield bash / power bash that my warrior could, with the same effect. Less damage, but the damage on the thing was miniscule in the first place and not why you have it. You take shield bash for the stagger. Except evidently not. Anyone have any clarification on this for me? What's the point of the shield bash/power bash perks in the block tree if anyone can do it? Or is the ability for anyone to do it a bug?

Sorry, but bump. Curious if anyone else noticed this.

I'm curious about this too.

In a thread about "numbers" the OP says that block skill only affects damage with bash perks, not damage reduction or the ability to bash. A little disappointing.