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It's unclear to me whether "two-handed" means just two-handed melee weapons, or if it includes bows.

Logically, a bow is used with two hands, so it should work, but I want to make sure before I waste a black soul gem on a 13% fortify two-handed magic ring.

So, does "Two-handed attacks do 13% more damage" apply to bows, or just melee weapons?

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2 Answers 2

up vote 17 down vote accepted


Bows are not considered 'Two-handed weapons' in this sense because they're based on the Archery skill, not the Two-Handed skill.

If it makes it easier, think of the skill as being named Two-Handed Melee and abbreviated.

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Makes sense. Thanks. I was thinking of Two-Handed as a weapon property instead of the skill. –  dpatchery Nov 14 '11 at 4:18
I thought the same thing, that a bow is a "two-handed" weapon. But all the enchantments, equipment and potions I tried out, did not make any difference for me. I was doing just fine with poisons applied, so I took off all one handed and two handed perks in the skill tree and put them into Archery and Alchemy. –  user47576 Apr 26 '13 at 5:25

Yes. Bows are included in the two-handed skill tree even though it has a skill tree of its own.

It's because the bow requires two hands to wield, and the game mechanic is a tribute to real life, since it's impossible to fire a bow and arrow with one hand.

In Skyrim, you also can't fire a bow and arrow with one hand. But, by using a bow, you only gain half the XP for the two-handed skill tree that you would gain from a hammer or great sword

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Punctuation is your friend! Also, do you have a source for this? It sounds flat-out wrong. –  Frank Jun 15 '12 at 14:51
@Matthew This thread disagrees with you. –  kalina Jun 15 '12 at 14:57
My personal experience totally disagrees with this. i have 100 in archery and like 20 ish in two-handed (more or less where it started). So, no xp gain on my end. –  TrewTzu Jun 15 '12 at 15:41
Down vote. This is just plain wrong. –  Jonas Söderström Dec 21 '12 at 11:16

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