Bow and arrow damage?

[jco4]

I am curious if anyone knows how bow and arrow damage accrues with certainty. I am thinking it must be one of three possibilities:

1) The bow's and arrow's damage ratings combine.

2) The lower damage rating of the two supercedes the other.

3) I forgot the third option I was thinking of but nothing else occurs to me now as straight forward as the first two.

I am thinking number one is the most likely but I would like to know for sure for the purposes of comparing the damage ratings of different ways of attacking.

[Claudius]

I don't know with certainty but I know that an in the early levels a steel arrow shot by a steel bow with 50 agility and 50 marksman does a lot more damage than a steel longsword with 50 strength and 50 blade. The numbers on the character sheet are similar so this leads me to believe that the damage must be adding the arrow to the bow. Check the oblivion wiki. Oblivion:Oblivion - UESPWiki

Found it for you:

"Archery requires both a bow and an arrow, both of which must be equipped in your inventory to be able to fire a shot. The total damage done is the sum of the damage due to the bow and the damage due to the arrow."

[jco4]

Appreciate your opinion and research. I was aware of the Wiki link but didn't think to check it for this. Thanks again.

[Belthan]

Enchantments on bow and arrows stack too, so you can come up with some pretty cool combinations of effects that way.

[EriXx]

They combine. It's the best weapon in the whole game

What you can do to save some money and enchantment is to have an heavily enchanted bow and original steel arrows for killing, when the bow is out of charge, switch to some enchanted arrows

[vickstick]

amen to that, and for the alchemist's sake, add some poison and your devious plan is complete!