Hey everybody. I had a question on the new duel wielding system. I play kind of a jack of all trades character, so I loved it in Oblivion when I could have my bow equipped and still be able to cast spells, or use a sword and shield and still be able to cast spells.

From what I understand, we can't do that anymore. So if I'm running around with a sword and shield, I can no longer cast destruction magic. And I'm guessing the bow will take up both hands? So if I'm running around with my bow I can't cast magic correct?

I heard something about a quick select system, but I'm wondering how that will be implemented. I play on xbox, and I thought the dpad in Oblivion worked out well. But from what I understand the dpad will now be our character sheet menu for maps, stats, etc. So where would we get this quick select from?

no you'll have to hotkey it, making it a slow version of Fable 3's magick system in most sense,

both require you to equip the spell.

Both only allows casting without a weapon.


yep :confused:

ask for quickselect im not entirely sure what they are doing, while axing the magic button may free up space on the controller, as far as I understand it thats replaced with the 2nd attack button, which has me wondering about twohanders and what that button would be used for then

Wonder why they didnt go traditional and just have a seperate stance for magic. that way I can have my weapons and magick build seperate and go on the fly.

what I was really hoping for was that you could seamlessly holster your weapon and use magick (via magic button as usual) unfortunatly that isnt the caseb, you have to switch out to a completely different build and rely on hotkeys.

It may actually be very cool - the whole focus of this change, as I understand it, was to make the system easier to use and more intuitive while allowing the player more options. It may be new, but it could be new in a Badass Cool way.

It will be very hard for us to judge it until we can actually use it and see how it compares to the more traditional methods of magic casting.

Hmm. Well thanks for the info. Sounds like it's going to be a lot harder to play my build now.

My direction on this would be to add "draw times" to each weapon. A dagger can be whipped out in a hurry, a warhammer would take a few seconds. While sheathed, you would be able to cast spells with the off-hand, as a warhammer could be held in one hand when not actively being used.

This would allow casters to use two-handed weaponry, but the drawback would be that it would take them several seconds after casting to draw the weapon, giving their enemy a critical opening to strike, especially if damage values are up from Oblivion.

Previously just equipping a shield drastically improved your DR without even having to use it. If I'm correct in that locational damage has been added then I believe they have taken the inherent overall protection factor out of armor so a shield will only help you if you block with it. Taking that into consideration it wouldn't be as detrimental to sling your shield on your back to cast a spell seeing that it's not adding to your overall DR anyway. I know it's a little different but i think this will add a lot to the combat.


From what I've seen of the screen shots(with weapons being carried on the person) I've deduced that we may have two swappable equip slots for each hand.

It will use the two hands, two weapons system. You can have a sword and shield, two swords, a sword and Magic, or something like a battle axe at the same time.

A mod will surely fix this if its a problem for you. But I think this is a change for the better, because it makes type of character you player more different. They may have taken out pre-built classes but Skyrim in a way seem more class orientated than ever in TES game. And thats a good thing.

One thing I havent seen mentioned yet. Staves. They were in Oblivion, although rarely. Will they be in Skyrim? I hope so. And to stay on topic, my hope is that Bethesda will add the ability to cast a spell with a free hand after you sheath a weapon.

Looks to me like staves are in, based on http://cdn.medialib.oxm.co.uk/screens/screenshot_17308.jpg from http://www.oxm.co.uk/article.php?id=25625 (concept art though, not a screenshot.)

you're going to have you switch your hand slot and then cast.


remember, its jack of all trade master of none., people usually forget the end part of that saying.

This article gives some info on how quick pick will work http://www.gameinformer.com/games/the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim/b/xbox360/archive/2011/01/28/skyrim-menu-system-overhaul.aspx

"In Oblivion, players could map eight items from their inventory onto the D-pad for easy access. Given the new two-handed approach to combat in Skyrim, Bethesda didn’t want to limit players to eight items. Instead, pressing up on the D-pad pauses the action and pulls up a favorites menu. Anything from your spell library or item inventory can be “bookmarked” to the favorites menu with the press of a button. How many items appear on that menu is up to each player. Bethesda isn’t placing a cap on the number of favorite items, so theoretically you could muck it up with every single item you own. Though you can choose how many items appear, you can’t determine the order; items and spells are listed alphabetically."

I imagine that the bow will only require both hands while you are actually firing, so you could have a spell equipped in your drawing hand and use it as long as the bow is not being drawn. It makes sense to me that the bow doesn't need to occupy both hands all the time. However this would only work with spells and hand to hand weapons because the hand needs to be able to draw the bow at any instant.

ooh! Thats a new one I have not seen that one yet, Its just a shame everything seems to be concept art.

Morrowind required you to hold a spell then use the attack button to cast, Oblivion used a cast button, new system is more like Morrowind but has two buttons, one for each hand. Spell, shield and weapon can be equipped in each hand.
One compromise for twohands weapons might be to hold it in one hand, you can not atack with only one hand but don't have to put it away.