Oblivion:Blunt

Blunt is the skill that governs how well your character can use crushing weapons, such as maces, hammers, and axes.  Improving your blunt skill allows you to deliver more damage with crushing weapons, and gives you access to power attacks.

In-game Description: Deliver the crushing blows of mace and axe weapons more effectively.

The name is a bit of a misnomer, as a large amount of the most useful and most commonly encountered Blunt weapons are blades (axes) or at least sharp (maces with spikes).  For this reason, it is much more useful to think of 'Blunt' weapons as hafted weapons, which is a term used to describe weapons which attach the business end to a clublike stick. It is worth noting that although axes and maces are both sharp, they depend on their weight to cause damage. Categories listing all of the blunt weapons in the game are available at Blunts One Hand and Blunts Two Hand.

Mastery
Mastery Perks
A Novice does a basic power attack with a damage bonus (2.5 times more damage) in all directions.
An Apprentice gains damage bonuses with a Mastery Standing Power Attack (3 times more damage).
A Journeyman gains the Mastery Left and Right Power Attacks, which both do 2.5 times more damage and have a 5% chance to disarm.
An Expert gains a Mastery Backwards Power Attack, which does 2.5 times more damage and has a 5% chance of a knockdown.
A Master gains a Mastery Forward Power Attack, which does 2.5 times more damage with a 5% chance to paralyze. This Paralyze effect ignores Resist Paralysis.

Skill Benefits
Your blunt skill controls how much damage you do with a blunt weapon, according to the following formula:
  Damage = BaseWeaponDamage * 0.5 * ( 0.75 + Strength * 0.005 ) * ( 0.2 + BluntSkill * 0.015 )
The   value is the amount of damage you will see listed for a given weapon in your inventory.  See also Damage Calculations and The Complete Damage Formula for more information on weapon damage.

Skill Increases
Your Blunt skill increases by 0.5 experience points each time you hit a living target with a Blunt weapon, regardless of the amount of damage inflicted. Hits on inanimate targets (such as those in the Fighters Guild training rooms) do not provide any experience.

General tips on how to increase your Blunt skill are provided at General Combat Strategies.

See also:
Increasing Skills: General tips on how to improve your skills semi-naturally.
Trainers: Pay for Blunt lessons.
 
Skill Books: Books that provide lessons in Blunt.
Increasing Attributes: Tips on training skills to improve the Strength attribute.
Free Skill Boosts: Unlike Blade, there is only one free Blunt skill boost, a 10-point boost from reading the Oghma Infinium.
Magic Items: There are multiple generic items with the Fortify Blunt enchantment.
Unique Items: A list of unique Blunt weapons, as well as several unique items that fortify the Blunt skill. These do not include Leveled Items such as those received from quests, or Artifacts.
:Unique items include:
::*Aegis of the Apocalypse is a unique heavy cuirass that can be bought from Varnado at The Best Defense. Among other enchantments, it fortifies Blunt by 5 points.
::*Helm of Ferocity is a unique heavy helm that can be bought from Agnete the Pickled at the Hammer and Tongs. Among other enchantments, it fortifies Blunt by 5 points.

Dialogue
When your skill reaches 70 or higher, NPCs will start saying: "You look like you've swung a mace or two in your time."

Character Creation
The following races provide initial skill bonuses in blunt:
+5 bonus: Dunmer, Imperial
+10 bonus: Nord, Orc, Redguard

The following standard classes include blunt as a major skill:
Archer, Barbarian, Battlemage, Crusader, Knight, Pilgrim, Warrior

Power Attacks
To perform a power attack, you hold the direction you want to move in and hold the attack key until the move is performed. With careful timing it is possible to hold the attack button and click the direction a split second later.
Skilled fighting requires skillful use of power attacks. By holding the direction slightly (i.e. walking) you can perform the attack without moving out of range.
You can also hold block while performing the power attack to reduce movement speed.
It is possible to reposition yourself in the middle of an attack by tapping the direction you want to go. For example, pull back slightly to perform a backwards attack and then rapidly tap forward to gain some forward movement.
Power attacks rapidly drain fatigue, especially with a heavy weapon - however Restore Fatigue is readily available, especially as potions.
With smaller weapons it may pay more to deliver a lot of weak hits in a short time than to perform power attacks - you can swing a dagger very quickly! 
For maximum effect, try to "chain" power attacks and other effects to make maximum use of them. For example: After a knockdown close quickly and get in as many hits as you can while your enemy is down. They will be quite vulnerable in this time, and unable to block, dodge, etc.
The "disarm" style is useful, but note that you will need to pick-up the opponent's weapon (and any nearby weapons on the ground from other fallen opponents or just incidental weapons that happen to be lying around). Otherwise, a disarmed opponent will rearm himself if any weapon is available nearby. Disarming an opponent only to watch them run to a nearby weapon rack can be disconcerting, if humorous. If you disarm your enemy in the arena he will be unable to pick his weapons as it will count as looting its enemy which is impossible. That is an effective way to defeat enemies who rely much on non-magical skills.
The "charge" (forward power attack) can be useful for attacking enemies that continually retreat, especially if using a shorter range blade.
Power attacks and close quarters combat, especially with multiple opponents, is sometimes easier to observe and perform by momentarily switching to the third person perspective.

Messages
The following table provides the messages that are displayed when your Blunt skill levels up.



Notes
The blunt weapons aren't very fast. However, compared to blades of the same quality, they do more damage. 

Fatigue has huge impact on damage applied, as explained at The Complete Damage Formula.

You can poison your weapon for extra damage for the next hit. The poison (unlike with bows) remains on the weapon until it hits someone - you can miss safely.

Some enemies are immune to normal weapons; see Resist Normal Weapons for tips on how to damage these creatures.

If you visit the Warrior birthsign doomstone you can receive the greater power War cry.  One of several benefits of this power is that it fortifies your blunt skill 10 points once a day for 120 seconds.

Once your combined Fame and Infamy reaches 30, you can also visit the Jode heaven doomstone to receive the greater power ''Jode's Blood''.  One of several benefits of this power is that it fortifies your blunt skill 20 points once a day for 120 seconds.