The Hero of Kvatch vs The Dovahkhiin - Who Would Win?

The Hero of Kvatch vs The Dovahkhiin – Who Would Win?

Tamriel is a land plagued in war and conflict. This great land has birthed many heroes across the eras but two of the most identifiable are the hero of Kvatch, the playable character from the Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion and the Dovahkhiin, the playable character from the Elder Scrolls V Skyrim. In a fight to the death in a neutral arena and no outside assistance you who win in a fight to the death? Let’s find out.

 

Firstly I should mention this is based on gameplay and not lore. Judging lore is extremely difficult as we can’t actually see it. The power of dragon shouts for example is described as powerful enough to shout down cities in the lore surrounding Talos but they are far more modest in game.

 

Firstly I should mention this is based on gameplay and not lore. Judging lore is extremely difficult as we can’t actually see it. The power of dragon shouts for example is described as powerful enough to shout down cities in the lore surrounding Talos but they are far more modest in game. It also seems fitting for them to fight it out in the Imperial City’s arena. So onto the battle.

 

A good place to start seems to be weapons and armour. According to the internet the best unique weapon in Oblivion in the sword Umbra while the best in Skyrim in the sword Chillrend. As for non-unique weapons the strongest the hero of Kvatch has access to are Deadric weapons. The Dovakhiin also has access to Deadric weapons, however he can also obtain Dragonbone Weapons which have a higher damage output. Therefore strictly on weapons power the Dragonborn has more powerful damage output from un-enchanted weapons. The Dragonborn can also improve his weaponary though smithing. Both combatants can enchant their weaponry too, however the Dragonborn also has the advantage here as thanks to the enchanting skill tree he can create stronger enchantments. He can also place two enchantments on one weapons.

 

Armour is a similar story. Both have Deadric as their strongest armour here however the Dragonborn can improve the armour further through smithing as well as create better enchantments through the enchanting skill tree. This also implies to Jewellery which can be enchanted futher, however it should be noted the Hero of Kvatch can wear two rings while the Dragonborn can only wear one.

 

The key factor with the enchantments however is due the restoration potion loop the Dragonborn can raise their enchanting skill to essentially infinite. If you don’t know about this loop then advise looking it up but you can keep boosting the level of your fortify enchanting levels. You can then enchant fortify alchemy gear and keep repeating until you have potions to the level you want. Then simply create fortify enchanting and smithing potions and boom, you can create weapons far more powerful than what the game intended. You can create potions that fortify your enchanting by millions of percent making the Dragonborn capable of creating weapons as well as gear far beyond what the Hero of Kvatch can. On equipment the Dragonborn is the obvious winner.

 

The Dragonborn has a far more varied set of skills in the form of the perks from skill trees. While the Hero of Kvatch can move faster and jump around more with Athletics and Acrobatics and the Dragonborn does not have a hand to hand skill tree, there are some notable perks in Skyrim that make certain styles far more powerful. A good example is the impact perk in destruction magic. While not technically a skill, shouts are available to the Dragonborn and while they are as I mentioned earlier quite modest in comparison to the lore and shouts are mainly used for our own amusements (Using unrelenting force to throw Lydia off the Throat of the World for example) some still are useful for combat. Unrelenting force is always good, Dragon Aspect is a good addition and many others could be used such as become ethereal and slow time. Additionally the Dragonborn has more powers such as benefits from black books.

 

It may sound like I’m saying the Dragonborn completely outclasses the Dragonborn. This is far from the case. The thing that stands out for me in favour of the hero of Kvatch is the spell creation mechanic. The Dragonborn’s spells do not compare to what the hero of Kvatch can create in the spell creation centre. Advantage to the hero of Kvatch.

 

So far we’ve determined the Dragonborn can hit people with stuff better and get hit with stuff better while the hero of Kvatch can shoot pretty lights at people more effectively. The last thing to talk about is how the combat mechanics themselves factor in. Due to the change in combat the hero of Kvatch has another advantage. This is partly due to the wielding system in Skyrim, while I really liked it as a gameplay mechanic it does prevent the dragonborn from wielding a weapon, shield and spell, while the hero of Kvatch can due to magic being selected similarly to powers in Skyrim. Therefore the hero can wield a sword, shield and spell or a two handed weapon and a spell. Archery is pretty similar however due to Skyrim attempting to be more realistic and streamlined the Dragonborn swings a weapon more slowly and moves more slowly, especially factoring in the athletics perk the Hero of Kvatch is faster. It would therefore be easier to move around the arena giving the hero of Kvatch another plus over the Dragonborn.

 

So who would win? The strange thing none of the above actually matters. With the right selection of armour and jewellery it is possible for one of these combatants to have a combination of 101% reflect damage, 115% magic resistance and 100% resistance to poison, disease and paralysis. The combatant is … the hero of Kvatch who because of this is the winner here. The Dovahkhiin could use the loop to inflict enough damage with an attack to kill 50 of the hero of Kvatch stood in a line, it doesn’t matter. The 101% reflect damage and 115% magic resistance fully protects the hero of Kvatch. The weapon used is irrelevant, an iron dagger could be used. Sure it would take ages but eventually the hero of Kvatch would win. The only way I can think the Dragonborn could possibly win is using Mehrunes Razor, the Deadric artefact of Mehrunes Dagon. It has a small chance to insta kill any enemy it attacks, however it is unlikely to happen and we’ve already discussed that the hero of Kvatch can move around quickly and should be able to avoid being attacked enough times for the insta kill to take effect. The winner is the Hero of Kvatch.