Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

[A Black Falcon]

But it depends, did it make the 'hit' sound or the 'miss' sound? That's the vital difference... :)

Though of course it should have different animations for hit or miss ideally, my point is that you cannot have full control over whether it hits or misses. The quality of the enemy's armor, his toughness, your strength of hit, where you try to hit, random factors... there are lots of variables to consider (or to ignore, in many games)... a dice roll after considering a lot of factors (their armor, dexterity, avoidance skills, etc; your hit modifier, weapon modifier, strength, abilities, etc) seems to me like a simple, elegant, and overall plenty accurate way to do it. Like D&D. :)

TES of course is a bit different because it's 3d, but the principle is very similar. It should have a bit more of a skill aspect, especially if you can control your swings -- where you hit the enemy and the kind of stroke should definitely factor in to whether you hit them or not -- but in an RPG, I think that there are enough variables that it's better with a randomness factor here and not just a pure 'hit every time or miss every time after factoring in each character's stats' system or whatever they are planning on doing.