My Stealth Archer build isn't working right.

[Muspell]

Any news regarding the bows dealing "x1 stealth damage" instead of x3?
I still don't understand why it happens, when it happens and what im supposed to do.

If i knew half of my stealth shots were going to do regular damage i would have tried a battlemage class or something similar, now im not really enjoying my first run to be honest.

[jonoliveira12]

Oblivion is not a stealth archer game. You also have to power attack with a bow, to get better Sneak Damage multipliers, not just one-tap the attack button.

It still always deals less multiplier than daggers and shortswords.

[Muspell]

But i always do, and i think it was the same thing in skyrim.
In Skyrim the arrow would actually fall on your feet if you didn't charge the shot.

The "1x Sneak Damage" multiplayer doesn't seem to be correlated to that nor to hitting the head or somewhere else

[halfmonkey]

There's a weird change to "distance vs damage" this time around (and I think they removed height advantages) but the randomness is annoying. I do know that headshots, torso shots, and limbs have differently weighted damage this time around, so maybe those changes are borking the fuzzy maths of the Creation engine's bonuses?

[Muspell]

That's possible
In 45 hours of failed stealth shots i think there's could actually be a slight increase of "x3 bonuses" when hitting the torso instead of the head, but that's not reliable either

[AoD_lexandro]

Its a current known issue with archery & stealth. No-one has been able to pin down and exact cause, and there does not seem to be a consistent trigger for it that can be avoided.

My advice is to load your shots with poison as much as possible and add damage enchantments asap. The DoT effect of poison helps to counter the 1x effect by giving you DPS over time that you missed.

[DeadJericho]

i think headshots are a thing now.

im sure i saw a video on youtube of someone demonstrating how headshots were doing more damage and taking down enemies in one shot

could try heads. difficult at range tho

i do know that certain enemies i can kill instantly (like trolls) but human enemies i barely do any damage to, when stealthed

maybe thats a bug. i dunno.
without damage numbers its hard to know