Is there some way to grind your sword skill without actually fighting?

[UniversalRanger]

Naturally, we all tend to grind our spear, bow, and axe skills just trying to survive. However, is there a way to grind our sword skill if we happen to kill a Njerpez Warrior who has a bastard sword?

Is there perhaps a practice dummy we can build or perhaps do we need to travel to the Iron Age culture that lives in Unreal World? Would they perhaps have practice dummies, or maybe they have NPCs with an option to spar in a practice sword fight, perhaps if they're paid for it?

[ModernNorseman]

Yes although I wouldn't think too hard about the realism in the following; You take the weapon and throw it. To do this most efficiently, throw your weapon right next to you, and pick it up with the SHIFT + , command, and repeat. It can take alot of attempts, like maybe 300 throws before you go up a single level, or you can get lucky and it happens faster sometimes. Give it a try. It does not work with shields however.

[PALU]

A slightly less cheaty method is to use the weapon for blunt attacks against targets in traps: you're going to kill them, so you might just as well get a (rather small) amount of training out of it. However, I wouldn't recommend using it against wolves, gluttons, or bears. You can also use that method against exhausted herbivores (Njerps may get a lucky strike in, which can happen with elks and reindeer as well, but the latter two are reasonably harmless if the PC is fully armored).

[Galgana]

There's a mod for that: Combat Training Dummies by Privateer

You build dummies out of njerp corpses, but I forget how many are required by the crafting recipes before you actually can start training. I think it's around 7.

[UniversalRanger]

There's a mod for that: Combat Training Dummies by Privateer

You build dummies out of njerp corpses, but I forget how many are required by the crafting recipes before you actually can start training. I think it's around 7.

I've decided to go with this one. I typically avoid the supernatural part in RPG games like these because I feel like it breaks the realism for me. I'm not complaining. It will be a new aspect of  the game to explore if I ever decide that I want too.

I decided this one because even though it's a bit of a process to get what I want, it seems like it will be a more real way to me of practicing my sword. I just have to ignore the supernatural part of it and just view it as me finding and putting dummy parts together rather than having to sneak around pine forests killing enemies that I am woefully inadequate to fight outright.

[ModernNorseman]

Well, I actually became quite content with the way the "throw-sword-one-tile-away"-practice technique. It is extremely tedious to grind it a skill from lvl 10 to 90-95-ish by this method, but I think of it as sort of realistic in way. If the throw simulates swinging and stab techniques, (it does in my head, when I'm immerged in the game) it is quite a challenge, and often takes me about one to two year ingame to get really good with a weapon. Could be faster, but that depends how tedious you think it is.