Online:Blade of Woe

	Blade of Woe
Line		Dark Brotherhood
Skill Rank				Line Rank
Rank I			​	1

Blade of Woe

Blade of Woe: Call the weapon of the Dark Brotherhood to your hand and deliver a killing blow to an unsuspecting target. Experience from this target is reduced by 75%. This ability does not work on players or difficult targets.

Blade of Woe lets you instantly kill NPC targets, provided you approach them while in stealth. You only receive one quarter of the experience from such kills, meaning that it is primarily useful for avoiding a bounty when attacking innocent NPCs. You cannot use it on other players or bosses.

You receive this skill for free during the quest Voices in the Dark as part of the Dark Brotherhood DLC. It functions as a synergy.

This skill can be buffed significantly by slotting the Shadowstrike Champion Point perk.

Tutorials Description

Members of the Dark Brotherhood can call upon the Blade of Woe, an artifact with the power to instantly slay unaware targets.

To use the Blade of Woe, position yourself behind your target while hidden. If that target is vulnerable to the Blade of Woe, you will be prompted to press [MB4] to trigger the assassination. This is similar to the way you would activate a Synergy.

Killing a target with the Blade of Woe has a chance to grant you Dried Blood or Tainted Blood, which can be used to craft gear in the Assassins League style.

The Blade of Woe can only be used on humanoids, cannot be used in Group Dungeons or in Trials, and cannot be used against certain powerful enemies.

Using the Blade of Woe does not prevent you from being witnessed by bystanders, so keep an eye on your surroundings!

Notes

• The Blade of Woe also appeared in both Oblivion and Skyrim
• The Blade of Woe takes precedence over feeding as a vampire. To feed after acquiring this skill, you must be slightly further away from your target.
• Blade of Woe does not work on all humanoid NPC targets. For example, it will work on Bretons or Dremora, but not on goblins. It also cannot be used against most Elite Enemies (those with additional pips on their health status bars), such as guards and boss-level enemies; some exceptions include those Elite Enemies in the Whalefall delve. It cannot be used at all against non-humanoid targets.
• Although the Synergy prompt is shown, Blade of Woe cannot be used if the Prevent Attacking Innocents option enabled, and will show an appropriate message instead.

Patch Notes

2.6.4

• The pickpocket prompt will no longer appear while you are in the middle of using the Blade of Woe on a target that can be pickpocketed.
• Fixed an issue where you could not use the Blade of Woe on Delric Thielde in Hew's Bane.

3.0.5

• It is now possible to use the Blade of Woe on men and mer, Draugr, and Dremora found in the following public dungeons:
  • Crimson Cove
  • Hall of the Dead
  • Lion's Den
  • Lost City of the Na-Totambu
  • Obsidian Scar
  • Razak's Wheel
  • Rulanyil's Fall
  • Sanguine's Demesne
  • The Vile Manse
  • Village of the Lost

3.3.5

• Fixed an issue where some non-humanoid or boss-difficulty monsters could be killed using the Blade of Woe.
• A number of world bosses have installed thick metal backplates in response to a recent publication of "An Occultist's Guide to Preternatural Stabbing," which included a brief description of the Blade of Woe.

3.3.7

• Fixed an issue where the Blade of Woe ability could not be used after you received a Synergy from another player.

4.1.5

• Bloodfiends that could previously be targeted by the Blade of Woe are no longer subject to its powers. The Blade of Woe is no longer available against all bloodfiends, instead of sometimes working and sometimes not.
• Yet more citizens have become careless and can now be killed with the Blade of Woe.

5.0.8

• Pahmar-raht can no longer be killed using the Blade of Woe. Sorry.