UESP Forums

I've been playing Skyrim for a while, but this problem is something I've noticed from the very beginning. Why is it that my shouts get randomly disabled in the middle of combat? They disappear from my favorites menu, and when I check my list of available shouts, they're all blacked out to indicate I can't use them. It's only temporary, but I can't figure out what causes this. I checked over all the documentation and couldn't find anything about this, and based on my testing, there isn't any rhyme or reason as to what might cause this. I initially assumed this was an intended gameplay mechanic, where your shouts are disabled after you get staggered, or after you're hit by a powerful spell, or if you've just done a power attack; but none of these are consistent factors.

My current character, a Redguard, has over 2,800 stamina thanks to fortify effects, and can easily perform an infinite chain of dual power attacks. So it doesn't have anything to do with lack of stamina. I've been training up One-Handed using dual dragonbone weapons and the Elemental Fury shout--due to multiple Fortify Shouts effects, the cooldown time for the first word is 15 sec. Yet when the cooldown timer runs its course, my shouts will randomly be disabled.

From what I've looked up, people have been asking about this issue since the game was first released. It's been present in every version, from the original release, to Legendary Edition, to USLEEP. Although it's not game-breaking, it still manages to frustrate me whenever it happens. Would anyone know the cause?

It is a rather annoying glitch that Bethesda never looked into and it seems to either be the code getting stuck on the shout happening or the game goes to activate it but it doesn't trigger. I have found switching to equipped powers then back to shout fixes it but it is annoying. It could just be one of those odd glitches that have no cause and just happens.