Oblivion:Acrobatics

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Skill: Acrobatics

Governing Attribute: Speed
Specialization: Stealth

Acrobatics allows your character to jump higher and fall further (without damage). At higher levels, jumping can be incorporated into combat.

1 Mastery
2 Character Creation
3 Notes

[edit] Mastery

[edit] Mastery Perks

A Novice cannot attack when jumping or falling
An Apprentice can make normal attacks -- not power attacks -- when jumping or falling
A Journeyman gains the Dodge ability, and can hold block and jump in a direction to do a quick avoidance roll, and also can perform power attacks when jumping or falling
An Expert suffers 50% less Fatigue loss when jumping.
A Master gains the Water Jump ability, and, with precise timing, can jump off the surface of water

[edit] Skill Increases

Your acrobatics skill increases 0.3 experience points each time you jump (including each time you dodge). Bonus experience is gained if you are hurt during the fall; the amount of damage does not matter, so multiple small jumps that do minimal damage are better than one large, nearly fatal jump. Also you gain extra experience if you are casting spells or sweeping with your weapon while jumping (this is very useful because you are able to increase a magical skill and the acrobatics skill at the same time).

Because you gain acrobatics skill whenever your character jumps, you will tend to constantly (but slowly) gain acrobatics skill. One implication is that it is difficult to control acrobatics skill increases.

You will only accrue experience points while moving or falling. Jumping while stationary will not gain any experience points.

Tricks to increase your acrobatics skill somewhat more artificially include:

If you just bunny hop everywhere you go, you'll level up acrobatics pretty quickly. You waste fatigue that way though, so avoid it if there's a risk of a battle.
The rise of acrobatics is also affected by taking damage on landing. However, it does not matter how much damage you take; you will always get a set amount of experience. Examples of places where you can semi-artificially increase acrobatics are the roofs of chapels, such as the one in Weynon Priory. Inside every chapel is a ladder leading to the roof. Generally speaking, any high place from which jumping doesn't cause too much damage will do.
There are some corners where your character's head is exactly touching the ceiling. If you jump when standing in one of these spots, the jump takes no time, so you can level acrobatics as quickly as you can press the jump key. Additionally, if you are casting spells or sweeping with your weapon during the process stated above, your acrobatics skill will increase faster. Such places in the major cities include, but are not limited to, the following examples:
- In the Mages Guild in Chorrol, there is a cabinet in the northwest room of the ground floor. Stand on top of the cabinet.
- In the little pond in Anvil, stand under the dock.
- In a corner of the shed behind the Colovian Traders building in Skingrad, there are two boxes stacked together. Jump on top of them and keep jumping while running toward the corner.

[edit] Dialogue

When your skill reaches 70 or higher, NPC's will start saying: "You've got a real bounce to your step. I'll bet you're quite the acrobat."

[edit] Character Creation

The following races provide initial skill bonuses in acrobatics:

+5 bonus: Bosmer
+10 bonus: Khajiit

The following standard classes include acrobatics as a major skill:

Acrobat, Agent, Assassin, Monk, Nightblade, Scout, Thief

[edit] Notes

Acrobatics is one of only two skills (the other is athletics) that can be meaningfully fortified above 100. Increasing acrobatics past 100 continues to increase the character's jump height, up to a maximum value of 255. On the other hand, acrobatics is not modified by your character's luck.
Fortifying your acrobatics to 100 does let you jump off of the surface of water.
The fall damage reduction provided by Acrobatics is so tiny as to be useless in unmodified Oblivion due to an incorrect game setting FJumpFallSkillMult. At an Acrobatics skill of 100, fall damage is only reduced by 1%.
- This bug is fixed by the Unofficial Oblivion Patch.
On the Journeyman level (above 50 skill) the dodge ability allows for a faster travel on foot by performing "goron roll": press block, forward/back/left/right and keep pressing jump ("dodge forward"). You will be moving much faster than by running. It drains your fatigue quickly, but can be performed even with fatigue at zero level without any slowdown and you can outrun most enemies (and horses) that way. You also train acrobatics that way.
If you need to fall from a high place, starting the fall in sneak mode reduces damage a little. Also not moving (walking/running) while landing reduces the damage some. If you can, look for narrow ledges, diagonal slopes and such, and try to hit them while falling, landing on them, even if you slip off them immediately significantly reduces falling damage.
If you accidentally fall from a very high place and you probably won't survive the impact, you can either use fast travel or save/reload to save yourself. Saving and reloading will keep your character's location intact, but will reset the velocity.
If you press jump while underwater, it does nothing except decrease your fatigue (it takes no time, but also does not improve your acrobatics skill). However, if you are swimming along the surface and facing upwards at a high enough angle when you press jump, you will jump out of the water. (This is not the same as the Master level Water Jump ability.)
If you visit the Steed birthsign doomstone you can receive the greater power Hellride. This allows you to fortify your acrobatics skill 20 points once a day for 120 seconds.
Once your renown reaches 10, you can also visit the Jone heaven doomstone to receive the greater power Jone's Shadow. One of several benefits of this power is that it fortifies your acrobatics skill 30 points once a day for 120 seconds.