I've noticed that when I disarm an NPC often he/she will continue fighting hand to hand. Sometimes the NPC perform the animation for trying to pick up the weapon but doesn't actually take it (noticed this mostly in the arena). So is this random? Or is it supposed to work this way? Or something else??? Instead before entering battle if there are weapons available they will pick them up.

Well, in a real fight, if a person is disarmed, going for the weapon is a sure way to get yourself killed, since it leaves you wide open for attack for atleast a couple of seconds, which is more than enough to deal a fatal blow. I guess the devs put that in the AI, so if someone is disarmed they simply don't go for the weapon again. If they try to, and fail it's obviously some broken coding or a minor glitch.

Ok thanks, seemed strange because of that "glitch", and because I actually saw someone pick up a weapon after being disarmed.



Not always true, if you are quick enough

I used to have a char that enjoyed sparring with goblins for training. So much so, that the goblins would often wear out their weapons, drop them and switch to h2h. My character would toss fully repaired weapons on the ground for them. Sometimes the goblins would pick up those weapons and use them; other times they would ignore them and continue with h2h.

I have seen a goblin who wore out his weapon run over and grab the weapon of a fallen comrade to fight with. Other times, not.

So, I have found it rather unpredictable.

I have seen NPCs grab weapons from the ground, although it is very rare. Like Acadian noted, I've seen the occasional goblin do it. I also saw an NPC follower whom I had following me for quite a while (forget which one, it may have been Maglir) grab a weapon off the ground after his usual weapon broke.

It must be the fact that during battle things are going by so fast, most of the time NPCs simply don't have the luxury of picking stuff up. THey don't have the luxury of pausing their game during battle to catch a breath and think like we can.

To say the truth in reality I would spend 2 seconds searching for my sword or run away asap rather than fighing h2h against one with a 2-handed weapon, but OK it's a game. Anyway I found this on UESPWiki:



Never saw a NPC equipping from a corpse though. But it was funny when a guard keeling down on a corspe killed with a fireball said "OH, it's still warm..." (or something like that) XD

I would agree with the fight or flee philosophy. Going hand to hand against a fully-armored knight with a huge broadsword doesn't seem like a good idea.

But then, let's not forget all these NPCs are ale-oholics anyways! Perhaps they enter battle slightly drunk more often than we think. People who are drunk often feel like they can accomplish anything, you see, even fighting hand to hand against a battlemage doesn't seem out of the question "at the time".

Sadly, the NPC's in the game seem to be suicidal. It's the thing I would like most to be changed about the game. At least the modders got it right in making companions. The ones I've seen can be told to run away if they lose a certain percentage of health.

I would like to see at least some types such as bandits, submit before they die. A pop-up would make the offer and if you accept, then their inventory would be made available to take what you want. Attacking them again (now that they are presumably unarmed) would be the same as attacking a citizen until some period of time (like a day) had passed.

EDIT: IRL, animals will run away at the first injury since to be injured is to risk being unable to hunt and therefore starve to death.

Umm... in real life, most animals do not run away with a simple injury, at least not predators. Try injuring a bear and see what that gets you. Or a wolf, for that matter, let alone a big cat like a mountain lion. (ouch!)

NPCs usually try to pick up whatever has the best attack value. However, in the case of hand-to-hand, the weapon available may not have as high of damage potential as their own attacks, so they may stick with their own attack even if it doesn't make much sense.

Then again, the collision detection in Oblivion is horrible. There's no real detection of the third dimension and I often have enemies hit through solid rock, even if you are standing 10 feet above them. Very silly.

We'll just have to agree to disagree. I have seen film of predators being driven off including African Lions. Bears, I agree are too mean spirited to quit.

I stopped using the disarm attack because they'd usually just grab a weapon off the ground right away for me.
The only time I remember actually having an NPC fight me hand to hand was after I disarmed him about a dozen times and picked up every weapon around, he was a vampire orc, and was still winning the fight when he went hand to hand :blush: Although my weapon and armor was fairly dulled down from killing everyone else he was the last one left.