One-Handed Skill

One-Handed
Specialisation	Combat
Perks	10
Perk Points To Fill	21
Governing Stone	The Warrior Stone
Damage Per Point	+0.5%

One-Handed governs daggers, swords, maces and war axes in Skyrim, in one hand or two at once. At twenty-one points to fill, it is the most expensive tree in the game.

Notes

Four of its ten perks have multiple ranks, Armsman alone taking five. Filling it completely costs more than any other skill, so most characters take Armsman plus the perks matching their chosen weapon type and stop there.

The weapon-specific perks split by damage type. Bladesman raises critical chance for swords, Bone Breaker ignores armour with maces, and Hack and Slash bleeds with war axes. Committing to one weapon type is cheaper than staying flexible.

Dual Wielding

Any combination of one-handed weapons can go in both hands. Dual Flurry raises attack speed and Dual Savagery raises dual power attack damage, which together produce the highest sustained melee damage available, at the cost of being unable to block with a shield.

Weapon Perks

Daggers use Armsman and the Sneak tree.

Weapon	Perk	Effect
Sword	Bladesman	Critical hit chance
Mace	Bone Breaker	Ignores armour
War axe	Hack and Slash	Causes bleeding
Any	Armsman	Up to double damage

Progression

The eighteen skills split three ways. Full list on Skills.

Specialisation	Stone	This skill
Magic	The Mage Stone	-
Combat	The Warrior Stone	Yes
Stealth	The Thief Stone	-