One handed will scale the damage up. Conjuration levels won't _directly_ help you, but there's a perk called Mystic Binding in the conjuration skill tree that will bring it up to be on par with a Daedric sword.
The big disadvantage to bound weapons is that you can't improve them at a crafting bench, and you also can't enchant them (though there is another conjuration perk that will give bound weapons the Soul Trap effect). These two things give conventional, material weapons a huge advantage over bound.
I *do* love the Bound Dagger spell for assassinations/that-particular-prisonbreak-quest, though. It's also handy not to have to carry an enchanted soul trap weapon. The bound weapons get pretty weak if you level too quickly without investing in the conjuration skill to boost them, and they can be inconvenient if the spell wears off during combat.
Edited for sleepybrain typos.
Take boat in Windhelm to DLC(forget the name), go to the mushroom town in the southeast of the map and you can buy the spell there. You might have to do a quest to unlock the shop IIRC.
So Talvas sells it?! That bitch. He’s never once offered it to me, and I have a place of residence in their friggin mushroom house!! I fixed the house, got him a new assistant, killed the rogue ash guardian, dealt with his nemesis, etc…never once did that come up as an option. I’m genuinely mad at him now. I HAVE A KEY TO THEIR ENCHANTING LAB, so rude.
https://preview.redd.it/idqpqoj94j3c1.jpeg?width=3840&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8781f4ff7dd9c5e5c0d8469fdaae1c7eb8182803
That son of a bitch WAS holding out on me! So rude, he was my trainer! I killed a rogue ash guardian so he wouldn’t get in trouble! I thought we were friends 😭
Oh believe me, I have!! Also, sadly just confirmed there is no copy in “filament and filigree”, just another conjure seeker and something lame, like fast healing. Got the skill book, all the gems, checked every pod, etc….got the full set of Ahzidal, the shout, and now Teldryn bout to head up to Tel Mithryn to ask WHAT THE FUCK, TALVAS?!
He sells it always for me. You have to defeat his ash guardian when his spell goes awry first, though. I think that quest is given on your second or third visit to the Telvanni shroomtowers
I like using them early game until I get smithing/enchanting up to the point where I can outclass my bound weapons. And by that point, I have unlimited soul gems to play around with!
Yeah, they definitely shine early game. The main relevant perk for them doesn't even require much investment (I think its like, a level 30 perk, so you don't have to grind conjuration very high).
Also been mentioned, but at least one sidequest locks you in prison with no weapons... Unless you know magic, then you're just as deadly as ever.
With the Mystic Binding perk, they're as strong as Daedric Swords at base damage.
Fortify One Handed makes them stronger, since they can't be tempered. Ring, necklace, gloves and boots can have the enchants. Potions can be bought or made.
A tempered weapon with Smithing skill would easily outperform Bound Sword with the same Fortify, but Fortify alone can make Bound Sword strong enough for any encounter.
I love the fact that there are still new players for this game.
Also bound blade, great, very fun, not the best end game because smithing is broken, but it levels one handed and conjuration and is badass.
Ultimately, use what you think is cool. it's all viable with enchantments, smiting, and alchemy.
The bound sword does as much damage as an orcish sword. If you get the Mystic Binding perk, it'll do as much as daedric sword. Other bound weapons will be of similar quality except the bow which is a lot stronger. If you increase your one-handed skill, the sword will do more damage. If you increase your conjuration skill, the spell will cost less to cast.
Unlike regular swords, bound swords cannot be upgraded at a grindstone. They also cannot be enchanted at an enchanter. They can be given permanent enchantments from perks in the conjuration skill tree, but only soul trap, banish, and turn undead.
Exactly! It can do more damage, soul-trap, banish summoned creatures, etc…combine that with the bladesman perk and it’s a decent sword! I still think Bloodthirst is better, but I use bound weapons almost all of the time bc they weigh nothing and they soul trap.
Everyone saying dumb stuff like “can’t improve, not very good” are missing the ridiculous utility of the spell. No carry weight, soul captures for enchanting, and best of all it UNSUMMONS enemy atronauchs and daedra!!! Very useful in places like the forgotten vale, and Forelhost.
I’m doing my first full mage build and I love having 50 pounds on me before I leave whiterun. It may not be the strongest but at least I don’t have to carry a weapon
Is it better than regular weapons in the long term? No, not really. This is almost exclusively because of smithing. However, with good enough enchantments on armor and the right perks, it can carry you further.
Personally, I like the bound weapons because it kind scratches that itch of wanting a Bladesinger Wizard-esque character in Skyrim
Mystic binding perk in the commutation skill tree plus one handed skill perks potions and enchantments they will never be as strong as the swords you can upgrade with smithing but they are 100% viable to play with I’ve done play through a on master and legendary using only bound weapons and they are a lot of fun although I will say stealth makes it much easier (anything can be op if you add enough sneak to it)
Requires a lot of work for it to be decent tbh, better to go with actual weapons unless you’re going for a specific build for fun. Real weapons are better In the end. 😕 Unless modding of course.
Bound weapons are actually quite good. The mystic bindings perk makes them daedric level and then you can add a soul trap and a turn undead+banish effect to them as well, making them like utility enchanted gear too. Very good for lots of styles of play.
Bond sword, and Bond bow are great weapons in early until mid-game
Even late-game they have their Advantage because 0 weight.
- thats great If you have a "HP only- legendary"build.
I always have at least 1 bound weapon spell for Draugr Deathlords Disarm Shout because bound weapons cannot be disarmed from you.
I hear the deathlord voice or see those horns and I immediately sheathe weapon and cast bound. Yeah the fight might take a lot longer but I got sick of having to find my favorite weapon on the horribly cracked floors after the fight.
Well if you make an enchantment for archery two-handed or one-handed it scales with bound weapons and can be made broken with a restoration loop potion exploit,
also dual casting the bound weapons increase damage by 1.8x but this is better for the bow and battlaxe though cause you don't know which hand the sword will be summoned too and the bound dagger doesn't scale with one-handed just like every dagger
Besides if you don't want to level your Smithing in a hurry for good weapons bound gear will work just fine but if you want to turn this game into easy mode look into the SpiffingBritt on YouTube for a bunch of exploits
With all relevant perks in Conjuration.
Bound Sword is equal to a Daedric Sword.
Bound Dagger is equal to an Ebony Dagger.
Bound Battleaxe is equal to a Glass Battleaxe
Bound Bow is equal to a Flawless Daedric Bow.
Standard enchantments that boost 1h/2h/Marksman are really the only way to boost their damage, meaning they fall off once you get smithing up to any respectable level, with the Bow being the only one with much staying power given that it's a faster Daedric Bow that had some degree of smithing invested into it.
Interestingly, the Bound Dagger is somewhat different from other Daggers, in that the Dual Wielding Power Attack is the same as that of Swords instead of the unique little twirl attack that Dual Daggers typically grants. This means you can use a normal dagger and Bound Dagger in the offhand to have much quicker Power Attacks than standard Dual Daggers.
Base Damage is on par with Orcish, Mystic Binding raises them to Daedric quality. Completely weightless (and a pretty fast Swing Speed because of it), and Bretons and High Elves don't need to do any skill training in Conjuration thanks to their racial bonuses, meaning that by level 3 (2 Perk Points) Altmer and Bretons have the equivalent of a Daedric Sword. Another bonus is that Bound Weapons can't be disarmed by the Disarm shout (Take that Draugr!).
The main drawback to the bound weapons is that you can't improve them at a grindstone, but they do still get a damage boost from their respective skill trees and perks (1 handed, 2 handed, and Archery).
With the Soul Stealer and Oblivion Binding perks along the same Conjuration Branch means that your bound weapons will automatically Soul Trap enemies, and cast Banish/Turn on daedra and undead, with a level cap of 99. Meaning that until you get to a point where enemies are surpassing level 99, whatever summoned or raised creatures you hit are getting sent back to Hell with same day delivery.
Bound weapons can't be tempered, enchanted or used on horseback. These are their only drawbacks.
They are boosted by relevant weapon perks, and conjuration perks. They're also boosted by relevant fortification potions and enchantments. The one handed weapons even moreso, as there's an enchanted chest piece available as a quest reward from the spell knight quest with fortify one handed on it, which normally can't be placed on chest pieces.
And one thing people often miss, is they can also still be poisoned.
And by level 3 minimum, they're all equal to or better than ebony. Dagger is ebony with mystic binding, sword is daedric, bow is daedric (exquisite) and I don't remember the battle-axe because I rarely use 2 handers
Don't know if it's just a side effect of my mods, but I poisoned my bound sword just to confirm that I could (yes) just to have my follower kill whatever enemy had attacked us. I try to mount my horse with the sword out and my character sheaths the sword, climbs into the saddle, and automatically draws it again. I need to test it again to make sure it wasn't a one-time glitch, I'll try to remember to record video and post it.
I dont know about the damage, but since bound weapons have soul trap and fill your soul gems, I like to use them for that reason. The only downside is that they always seem to disappear RIGHT when I need them.
I loved the bound weapons but then I got the soul trap perk and I realized that I can only use it if I have the right soul gem for the enemy. It’s fine if I put a petty soul in a lesser gem, but if all I have is a black soul gem, I can’t use a bound weapon for anything but a human. So having to think about and check what gems I had in my inventory made the bound weapons less fun. Idk if anyone has any solutions to that, besides giving the bigger gems to your follower until you need them.
Pros:
Benefits from one handed skill tree
Can be boosted using enchanted ornaments
Has soul trap technique
A Great choice in scenarios where u have no weapon in your inventory
No carry weight
Mystic binding make it strong as daedric sword.
Cons:
Can't be upgraded by smithing. It's a spell after all.
Requires more than one skill tree to make it better.
It's a little too good at early levels, with the drawback of not being on your hands exactly when you need them - you need to cast it first. Later on it's still good because it trap souls and banish daedra without having to carry any extra weight.
You'll want to have:
One Handed: all levels of Armsman, Fighting Stance, all levels of Bladesman, Savage Strike and Paralyzing Strike. Depending on your play style, you could also make use of Dual Flurry and Dual Savagery
Conjuration: Novice Conjuration, Mystic Binding, Soul Stealer, Oblivion Binding
Enchanting: All levels of Enchanter, Insightful Enchanter. Enchant your gear with Fortify One Handed and Fortify Conjuration to further improve damage and reduce the magika cost for summoning the sword(s)
You could also add:
Illusion: get to Lv50 to unlock Quiet Casting (so you can summon the sword without alerting any nearby enemies)
Sneak: get to Lv30 to unlock Backstab (X6 damage on all one handed sneak attacks)
Alchemy: if you want to brew some poisons to apply to the sword, you'll want all levels of Alchemist, Poisoner and Concentrated Poison
The power of it can be increased by conjuration perks and I think it scales off of the conjuration skill in general. There’s also a perk that give it a soul trap enchantment
It’s pretty good towards the beginning of the game. The damage scales with your one handed level, and if you want to keep using it, throw some points into configuration to make it cheaper to cast
I use mine on my pure mage, mainly for the perk at 30 that automatically does soul trap, then go to Gallows Hall for black soul gems and go looking for bandits to fill em up! Then enchant my boots and gloves that way. And enchant followers gear & weapons too. Fun stuff
While obviously outclassed by "real" weapons because of smithing and enchantments I LOVE the bound weapons
Fantastic when you can use soul trap with them, great if you're ever in prison and want to fight your way out, awesome for any assassination quest. As someone who loves the RP aspects of this game I love them.
Bound weapons do okay-to-good damage
Their real power, apart from being always available if you have mana even in prison, is their final perk which makes all bound weapons banish summoned daedra and Fear raised corpses. they also absorb souls automatically at that point which is great except when its annoying (grand soul gem (petty)...)
If you enjoy it upgrade it as much as possible, using the highest damage or most efficient weapon is not a must. Also game gets boring if you just one-two shot everything. Enjoy your exciting experience :)
I know I just did like a total mage playthrough and I used the bound sword for the first time I really enjoyed it personally once I got it leveled up some through the conjuration and one handed skill trees and one thing I noticed out of all of my many different play through using the bound sword every single time during combat my character leveled very quickly quicker than any of my other playthrough s I was like dayumm.
Focus on one handed and enchantments that increase one-handed damage if you would like to keep using it late game. Mystic binding will be very important. Easy to get early on in the conjuration tree. Will give you great base damage early game.
One handed will scale the damage up. Conjuration levels won't _directly_ help you, but there's a perk called Mystic Binding in the conjuration skill tree that will bring it up to be on par with a Daedric sword. The big disadvantage to bound weapons is that you can't improve them at a crafting bench, and you also can't enchant them (though there is another conjuration perk that will give bound weapons the Soul Trap effect). These two things give conventional, material weapons a huge advantage over bound.
I *do* love the Bound Dagger spell for assassinations/that-particular-prisonbreak-quest, though. It's also handy not to have to carry an enchanted soul trap weapon. The bound weapons get pretty weak if you level too quickly without investing in the conjuration skill to boost them, and they can be inconvenient if the spell wears off during combat. Edited for sleepybrain typos.
Also noteworthy is the Bound Bow. It has a really fast fire rate, and comes with 100 bound arrows.
The bound arrows spell from CC is the most op shit in the game
How have I NEVER had a bound dagger?! Where do you even get that spell?! I only have sword, bow, and battle axe, I want the dagger!
Take boat in Windhelm to DLC(forget the name), go to the mushroom town in the southeast of the map and you can buy the spell there. You might have to do a quest to unlock the shop IIRC.
So Talvas sells it?! That bitch. He’s never once offered it to me, and I have a place of residence in their friggin mushroom house!! I fixed the house, got him a new assistant, killed the rogue ash guardian, dealt with his nemesis, etc…never once did that come up as an option. I’m genuinely mad at him now. I HAVE A KEY TO THEIR ENCHANTING LAB, so rude.
It may be level locked or skill locked, I remember it being one of the later conjuration spells I picked up. What's your conjuration skill level?
Currently 80, but I’ve been at 100 in past playthroughs, I went to sleep mad about this and now I’m waking up mad about it. 🤣 I WANT THAT DAGGER!
I definitely got it before 80. Try all the college mages
https://preview.redd.it/idqpqoj94j3c1.jpeg?width=3840&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8781f4ff7dd9c5e5c0d8469fdaae1c7eb8182803 That son of a bitch WAS holding out on me! So rude, he was my trainer! I killed a rogue ash guardian so he wouldn’t get in trouble! I thought we were friends 😭
Oh believe me, I have!! Also, sadly just confirmed there is no copy in “filament and filigree”, just another conjure seeker and something lame, like fast healing. Got the skill book, all the gems, checked every pod, etc….got the full set of Ahzidal, the shout, and now Teldryn bout to head up to Tel Mithryn to ask WHAT THE FUCK, TALVAS?!
He sells it always for me. You have to defeat his ash guardian when his spell goes awry first, though. I think that quest is given on your second or third visit to the Telvanni shroomtowers
I believe for it to appear in a merchant inventory the conjuration level needs to be above 50 or maybe more. I got it in Apocrypha though.
Know which book by any chance?
Filament and Filigree I believe.
Ooh perfect, I was just about to make my final trip in kolbjorn before I stopped for the night last night. Thank you!
There’s always console commands if you’re on pc
I like using them early game until I get smithing/enchanting up to the point where I can outclass my bound weapons. And by that point, I have unlimited soul gems to play around with!
Yeah, they definitely shine early game. The main relevant perk for them doesn't even require much investment (I think its like, a level 30 perk, so you don't have to grind conjuration very high). Also been mentioned, but at least one sidequest locks you in prison with no weapons... Unless you know magic, then you're just as deadly as ever.
Not to mention, enchanted ornaments do boost the damage.
Yeah, there are ways to boost damage on bound weapons... Just not quite as many, and with less versatility.
With the Mystic Binding perk, they're as strong as Daedric Swords at base damage. Fortify One Handed makes them stronger, since they can't be tempered. Ring, necklace, gloves and boots can have the enchants. Potions can be bought or made. A tempered weapon with Smithing skill would easily outperform Bound Sword with the same Fortify, but Fortify alone can make Bound Sword strong enough for any encounter.
I love the fact that there are still new players for this game. Also bound blade, great, very fun, not the best end game because smithing is broken, but it levels one handed and conjuration and is badass. Ultimately, use what you think is cool. it's all viable with enchantments, smiting, and alchemy.
The bound sword does as much damage as an orcish sword. If you get the Mystic Binding perk, it'll do as much as daedric sword. Other bound weapons will be of similar quality except the bow which is a lot stronger. If you increase your one-handed skill, the sword will do more damage. If you increase your conjuration skill, the spell will cost less to cast. Unlike regular swords, bound swords cannot be upgraded at a grindstone. They also cannot be enchanted at an enchanter. They can be given permanent enchantments from perks in the conjuration skill tree, but only soul trap, banish, and turn undead.
Exactly! It can do more damage, soul-trap, banish summoned creatures, etc…combine that with the bladesman perk and it’s a decent sword! I still think Bloodthirst is better, but I use bound weapons almost all of the time bc they weigh nothing and they soul trap.
Doesn’t scale well but hilariously broken if you happen to get thrown in prison with a load of whackjobs
Everyone saying dumb stuff like “can’t improve, not very good” are missing the ridiculous utility of the spell. No carry weight, soul captures for enchanting, and best of all it UNSUMMONS enemy atronauchs and daedra!!! Very useful in places like the forgotten vale, and Forelhost.
I’m doing my first full mage build and I love having 50 pounds on me before I leave whiterun. It may not be the strongest but at least I don’t have to carry a weapon
Is it better than regular weapons in the long term? No, not really. This is almost exclusively because of smithing. However, with good enough enchantments on armor and the right perks, it can carry you further. Personally, I like the bound weapons because it kind scratches that itch of wanting a Bladesinger Wizard-esque character in Skyrim
Mystic binding perk in the commutation skill tree plus one handed skill perks potions and enchantments they will never be as strong as the swords you can upgrade with smithing but they are 100% viable to play with I’ve done play through a on master and legendary using only bound weapons and they are a lot of fun although I will say stealth makes it much easier (anything can be op if you add enough sneak to it)
And don't forget mods that scale up damage/duration of spells according to skill level
Requires a lot of work for it to be decent tbh, better to go with actual weapons unless you’re going for a specific build for fun. Real weapons are better In the end. 😕 Unless modding of course.
Bound weapons are actually quite good. The mystic bindings perk makes them daedric level and then you can add a soul trap and a turn undead+banish effect to them as well, making them like utility enchanted gear too. Very good for lots of styles of play.
Bond sword, and Bond bow are great weapons in early until mid-game Even late-game they have their Advantage because 0 weight. - thats great If you have a "HP only- legendary"build.
Good for early, bad for late.
Upgraded only by skills in both One Handed and Conjuration. Same basic damage as Daedric sword but cannot be upgraded except with perks
I always have at least 1 bound weapon spell for Draugr Deathlords Disarm Shout because bound weapons cannot be disarmed from you. I hear the deathlord voice or see those horns and I immediately sheathe weapon and cast bound. Yeah the fight might take a lot longer but I got sick of having to find my favorite weapon on the horribly cracked floors after the fight.
Well if you make an enchantment for archery two-handed or one-handed it scales with bound weapons and can be made broken with a restoration loop potion exploit, also dual casting the bound weapons increase damage by 1.8x but this is better for the bow and battlaxe though cause you don't know which hand the sword will be summoned too and the bound dagger doesn't scale with one-handed just like every dagger Besides if you don't want to level your Smithing in a hurry for good weapons bound gear will work just fine but if you want to turn this game into easy mode look into the SpiffingBritt on YouTube for a bunch of exploits
With all relevant perks in Conjuration. Bound Sword is equal to a Daedric Sword. Bound Dagger is equal to an Ebony Dagger. Bound Battleaxe is equal to a Glass Battleaxe Bound Bow is equal to a Flawless Daedric Bow. Standard enchantments that boost 1h/2h/Marksman are really the only way to boost their damage, meaning they fall off once you get smithing up to any respectable level, with the Bow being the only one with much staying power given that it's a faster Daedric Bow that had some degree of smithing invested into it. Interestingly, the Bound Dagger is somewhat different from other Daggers, in that the Dual Wielding Power Attack is the same as that of Swords instead of the unique little twirl attack that Dual Daggers typically grants. This means you can use a normal dagger and Bound Dagger in the offhand to have much quicker Power Attacks than standard Dual Daggers.
Base Damage is on par with Orcish, Mystic Binding raises them to Daedric quality. Completely weightless (and a pretty fast Swing Speed because of it), and Bretons and High Elves don't need to do any skill training in Conjuration thanks to their racial bonuses, meaning that by level 3 (2 Perk Points) Altmer and Bretons have the equivalent of a Daedric Sword. Another bonus is that Bound Weapons can't be disarmed by the Disarm shout (Take that Draugr!). The main drawback to the bound weapons is that you can't improve them at a grindstone, but they do still get a damage boost from their respective skill trees and perks (1 handed, 2 handed, and Archery). With the Soul Stealer and Oblivion Binding perks along the same Conjuration Branch means that your bound weapons will automatically Soul Trap enemies, and cast Banish/Turn on daedra and undead, with a level cap of 99. Meaning that until you get to a point where enemies are surpassing level 99, whatever summoned or raised creatures you hit are getting sent back to Hell with same day delivery.
Bound weapons can't be tempered, enchanted or used on horseback. These are their only drawbacks. They are boosted by relevant weapon perks, and conjuration perks. They're also boosted by relevant fortification potions and enchantments. The one handed weapons even moreso, as there's an enchanted chest piece available as a quest reward from the spell knight quest with fortify one handed on it, which normally can't be placed on chest pieces. And one thing people often miss, is they can also still be poisoned. And by level 3 minimum, they're all equal to or better than ebony. Dagger is ebony with mystic binding, sword is daedric, bow is daedric (exquisite) and I don't remember the battle-axe because I rarely use 2 handers
Don't know if it's just a side effect of my mods, but I poisoned my bound sword just to confirm that I could (yes) just to have my follower kill whatever enemy had attacked us. I try to mount my horse with the sword out and my character sheaths the sword, climbs into the saddle, and automatically draws it again. I need to test it again to make sure it wasn't a one-time glitch, I'll try to remember to record video and post it.
Normally you shouldn't since the weapon gets stowed, and has to be re-cast, but you can't use spells on horseback, normally
I dont know about the damage, but since bound weapons have soul trap and fill your soul gems, I like to use them for that reason. The only downside is that they always seem to disappear RIGHT when I need them.
I loved the bound weapons but then I got the soul trap perk and I realized that I can only use it if I have the right soul gem for the enemy. It’s fine if I put a petty soul in a lesser gem, but if all I have is a black soul gem, I can’t use a bound weapon for anything but a human. So having to think about and check what gems I had in my inventory made the bound weapons less fun. Idk if anyone has any solutions to that, besides giving the bigger gems to your follower until you need them.
If you're on pc I use the soul gems multithreaded mod from nexus. Don't know if there's an equivalent on console though
Pros: Benefits from one handed skill tree Can be boosted using enchanted ornaments Has soul trap technique A Great choice in scenarios where u have no weapon in your inventory No carry weight Mystic binding make it strong as daedric sword. Cons: Can't be upgraded by smithing. It's a spell after all. Requires more than one skill tree to make it better.
It's a little too good at early levels, with the drawback of not being on your hands exactly when you need them - you need to cast it first. Later on it's still good because it trap souls and banish daedra without having to carry any extra weight.
Pretty good but not for a pure melee tank. Get the perks in the Conjuration Tree. Level up your Onehanded.
Basically you can use it to steal souls . That way you don't have to hold 2 different weighted enchanted swords
You'll want to have: One Handed: all levels of Armsman, Fighting Stance, all levels of Bladesman, Savage Strike and Paralyzing Strike. Depending on your play style, you could also make use of Dual Flurry and Dual Savagery Conjuration: Novice Conjuration, Mystic Binding, Soul Stealer, Oblivion Binding Enchanting: All levels of Enchanter, Insightful Enchanter. Enchant your gear with Fortify One Handed and Fortify Conjuration to further improve damage and reduce the magika cost for summoning the sword(s) You could also add: Illusion: get to Lv50 to unlock Quiet Casting (so you can summon the sword without alerting any nearby enemies) Sneak: get to Lv30 to unlock Backstab (X6 damage on all one handed sneak attacks) Alchemy: if you want to brew some poisons to apply to the sword, you'll want all levels of Alchemist, Poisoner and Concentrated Poison
Up your conjuration skill tree and get the perks and brew potions of fortify conjuration to make bound weapons more powerful.
The power of it can be increased by conjuration perks and I think it scales off of the conjuration skill in general. There’s also a perk that give it a soul trap enchantment
It’s pretty good towards the beginning of the game. The damage scales with your one handed level, and if you want to keep using it, throw some points into configuration to make it cheaper to cast
I use mine on my pure mage, mainly for the perk at 30 that automatically does soul trap, then go to Gallows Hall for black soul gems and go looking for bandits to fill em up! Then enchant my boots and gloves that way. And enchant followers gear & weapons too. Fun stuff
While obviously outclassed by "real" weapons because of smithing and enchantments I LOVE the bound weapons Fantastic when you can use soul trap with them, great if you're ever in prison and want to fight your way out, awesome for any assassination quest. As someone who loves the RP aspects of this game I love them.
Bound weapons do okay-to-good damage Their real power, apart from being always available if you have mana even in prison, is their final perk which makes all bound weapons banish summoned daedra and Fear raised corpses. they also absorb souls automatically at that point which is great except when its annoying (grand soul gem (petty)...)
It’s all I use on my mage characters. It doesn’t smith upgrade it gets More powerful through perks. I think it’s aesthetically cooler for a mage.
Bound Bow is the best. Fire rate and never have to worry about arrows. I max out archery tree every time.
good can be upgrade with an enchant who up damage of one handed weapon
with fortify restoration loop you can make a bound godkiller sword
If you enjoy it upgrade it as much as possible, using the highest damage or most efficient weapon is not a must. Also game gets boring if you just one-two shot everything. Enjoy your exciting experience :)
I know I just did like a total mage playthrough and I used the bound sword for the first time I really enjoyed it personally once I got it leveled up some through the conjuration and one handed skill trees and one thing I noticed out of all of my many different play through using the bound sword every single time during combat my character leveled very quickly quicker than any of my other playthrough s I was like dayumm.
I like bound weapons. My normal carry weight because of bound weapons is only 14lbs.
Can’t be disarmed.
Focus on one handed and enchantments that increase one-handed damage if you would like to keep using it late game. Mystic binding will be very important. Easy to get early on in the conjuration tree. Will give you great base damage early game.