Just arrived in Balmora. One of the merchants has bound weapons. How do these work? I'm assuming they must be/do something awesome 'cause the damage on them isn't any greater than the regular weapons but the cost is ten times more(not that I can aford any of them anyway).

Forget the weapons [img]smile.gif[/img] and rather create your own "bound weapon" spells. The spells are rather cheap so that you'll be able to afford them.

What the weapons do: They cast the "bound weapon" spell when used, in the other words, they give you a magical daedric weapon for a limited amount of time. You must invoke the weapon for it.

You need not have the weapon equipped. Select "spells" and scroll the "spell scroll" until the weapon appears. Click. The "bound weapon" spell contained in the weapon will be cast and you will keep the "bound weapon" (which is daedric and fortifying) in your hand until the spell expires. But - when the spell expires, the magical weapon, which cast the spell, will occur in your hand and your original weapon will not be restored.

That's the drawback of the weapons you have seen. First, the spell is much cheaper. Second, you will need to switch to spellcasting and cast the spell in any case. And third, when you cast the spell, you will get the same "bound weapon" but when the spell expires, you will keep your original weapon in hand.

The daedric weapons summoned by bound item spells are very powerful, infact they are more powerful than normal daedric weapons because they also bring up one skill that uses that weapon by 10 (IE: bound axe raises axe skill, bound dagger raises short blade skill). I don't prefer to carry real daedric weapons because they are so heavy and don't provide that skill boost. What I normally do is buy a decent weapon (for example, bonemold longbow) and inchant it with the corresponding bound weapons (bound longbow) so I can get that weapons whenever I want, but if by some chance the spell runs out of power, I still have a decent weapon to use. Bound spells don't cost very much to enchant and don't use many enchantment points. My custom "Demon Longbow" can make a bound longbow that lasts well over 300 seconds, and many times a day. It works better overall that going hunting for a real daedric longbow.

You can also create a constant bound item effect. Just enchant a contant bound item spell on a normal weapon and evoke the spell ( save your game first cause your game may crash ). The deadric weapon that appear will last forever. You can keep the item that you put the bound enchantment spell on a save place and carry the daedric weapon. It's weightless so don't worry about getting encumbered. The bad thing though you can't get rid of the daedric weapon once you got tired of it. It'll stay in your inventory forever.