The UESPWiki – Your source for The Elder Scrolls since 1995

[edit] Magic

Magic plays a very important role in Daggerfall. Magic can make your life much easier if you use it well, but can also make your life difficult if used against you when you are not prepared. The information here comes from the Daggerfall User Manual.

[edit] Circinate Spells

The following list of The Circinate Spells is organized by their governing school of magic (useful for creating a low cost practice spell for each school). If a spell is multicuricular, it will be marked with the ¹ symbol in the primary school, ² for the spell's secondary school, as so on for each school which governs that spell. Take note that although a spell may belong to two or more schools, casting that spell will only train the primary school of that spell even though the skill levels of all schools may impact the spell's cost.

[Example: The Jump spell belongs to both Alteration, and Restoration, yet only improves the Alteration skill.]

Circinate Spells by Governing School of Magic and description of the School

School of Magic	Spells	Description
Alteration	Force Bolt² Free Action¹ Hand of Sleep² Jumping¹ Medusa's Gaze Notorgo's Curse² Paralysis Resist Cold Resist Fire Resist Poison Resist Shock Shield Sleep² Slowfalling Spell Drain¹ Spell Resistance² Spell Shield² Spider Touch Water Breathing Water Walking¹ Wizard Rend¹	The School of Alteration is one of the six avenues of magical study. This School concern's itself with magicka's ability to change, often radically, the structure and composition of any object. Unlike the School of illusion, alteration deals with actual change, not the appearance of it. Slowfalling and Shield are two classic spells of the School of Alteration. Buying, creating, and casting spells of alteration are less expensive for mages skilled in this path.
Destruction	Acidic Field Energy Leech¹ Fire Storm Fireball Force Bolt¹ Frostbite God's Fire Hand of Decay Hand of Sleep Ice Bolt Ice Storm Lightning Magicka Leech¹ Notorgo's Curse¹ Shock Sleep¹ Spell Drain² Sphere of Negation Strength Leech² Toxic Cloud Vampiric Touch² Wildfire Wizard's Fire	The School of Destruction is one of the six avenues of magical study. This School is concerned with the purely destructive capabilities of magicka evident in Spells like Fireball and Acidic Field. Buying, creating, and casting a spell devised to harm or destroy a target is less expensive for mages skilled in this path.
Illusion	Chameleon Ghost Form¹ Invisibility Light Shadow Form	The School of Illusion is one of the six avenues of magical study. This School works with magicka in its capacity to camouflage, illuminate, or obscure without changing an object's structure. Invisibility and Light are two of the School's most basic spells. Buying, creating, and casting a spell of illusion is less expensive for mages skilled in this path.
Mysticism	Banish Daedra Detect * Far Silence Fenrik's Door Jam Holy Touch Holy Word Null Magicka Open Recall Silence Soul Trap Spell Reflection² Tongues Wizard Lock Wizard Rend²	The School of Mysticism is one of the six avenues of magical study. The School experiments with the most arcane aspects of magicka and expanding these "accidents" into a useful if eclectic range of spells. Because the forces being manipulated by Mysticism are dangerous and unknown, the spell effects are purposefully specific. They include Far Silence and Soul Trap. Buying, creating, and casting spells of mysticism are less expensive for mages skilled in this path.
Restoration	Balyna's Antidote Balyna's Balm Charisma Cure Disease Cure Poison Energy Leech² Feet of Notorgo Fortitude Free Action² Heal Iron Will Jack of Trades Jumping² Magicka Leech² Nimbleness Orc Strength Spell Absorption Spell Resistance¹ Spell Shield¹ Stamina Strength Leech¹ Troll's Blood Vampiric Touch¹ Wisdom	The School of Restoration is one of the six avenues of magical study. This School is devoted to the salubrious and soothing powers of magicka, evident in spells like Cure Poison and Troll's Blood. Buying, creating, and casting a spells devised to heal a target is less expensive for mages skilled in this path.
Thaumaturgy	Buoyancy Calm Humanoid Charm Mortal Ghost Form² Levitate Quiet Undead Shalidor's Mirror Spell Resistance³ Spell Shield³ Spell Reflection¹ Tame Water Walking²	The School of Thaumaturgy is one of the six avenues of magical study. This School concentrates on exposing or manipulating known forces and objects within their natural laws. It is evident in Spells like Levitation and Detection. No Thaumaturgical spell can permanently change the appearance or structure of a force or object. Buying, creating, and casting spells of thaumaturgy are less expensive for mages skilled in this path.

^* available only via Spell Maker

[edit] Useful Custom Spells

• Create Item spell: This creates items that are salable, but are usually of limited utility to your character in game.

• Shield spells: These spells absorb physical damage. Custom versions are very easy to scale according to character level/attributes/skills.

• Combination spells that provide complimentary effects can be highly desirable. A spell with the shield effect, which defends against physical attacks, and either spell-reflection or spell-absorption is one good example. Factors such as duration and magnitude have a great effect on the spell cost and, more importantly, the casting cost. What works for one character may have too high a cost for another, and those types of equations vary over the course of individual character's development as well.

• An attack combination spell could include the effects of paralysis and continuous damage (health). If the victim fails both saves, and the effects are both harsh enough and of sufficient duration, this becomes a fire-and-forget killer.

• Identify is an effect that lends itself to customization in particular. A high chance of success usually carries a high casting cost. A low chance of success has limited utility outside of mysticism practice. Having two spells with this effect, one high- and the other low-chance offers flexibility. If a spell with this effect is cast inside the Mages' Guild, the character will still be charged as if the Guild is identifying it.

• Any spell with the open effect will open any exterior door in any town, city or village, no matter how low the chance is set. This is very useful for completing in-town quests, and it makes for a wonderful training spell for mysticism.

• Invisible (True) effects allow one to battle multiple opponents singly, while continuously gaining surprise against individual opponents in large groups. Some opponents, especially undead, are rarely fooled by any invisibility effect.