Oblivion:Increasing Skills

All skills in Oblivion increase in level as you use the skill. Each time you use a skill, you gain experience points; the number of points gained depends upon the particular skill and how you use it. Those experience points count towards your next increase in skill level. Once enough experience points have accumulated, your skill level increases. (Note that "experience points" are not visible to the player in-game unless you use the console; you see only your "skill level" values in the journal.)

The number of experience points that you must accumulate to advance a skill increases with level -- at the start of the game, you will quickly gain skill levels, but later in the game you will need to practice a skill for much longer in order to gain one level.

The number of experience points is also influenced by whether the skill is part of your character's class:

• Skills that are not part of your class are base skills and require the most experience points to advance.
• For the seven skills that are associated with your class specialization (Combat, Magic, or Stealth), only 75% of the base experience is needed.
• For the seven major skills, only 60% of the base experience is needed.
• For any skills that are both specialization skills and major skills, only 45% of the base experience is needed.

Your character's level advances when any combination of your class' seven major skills have increased 10 skill levels (and you sleep). For example, you can raise a single skill by 10 skill levels, or two skills by 5 skill levels, or five skills by 2 levels... or any other combination that adds up to 10 skill level increases. Note that even though minor skills do not count towards your level up count, they still contribute to attribute bonuses. So for example, if you raise your alchemy skill, even though it isn't a major skill it will increase your Intelligence bonus option upon leveling up.

Acquiring Experience Points

The following table specifies which Actions are necessary to gain experience in each skill, and how many experience points are gained each time the action is done (Exp./Action). In general, actions must have a valid target to count for experience: weapon blows must land on a creature or NPC, not an inanimate object (even the training dummies in Fighters Guilds do not count); spells must be cast upon yourself, a creature, or an NPC. See the individual skill pages for more details on these actions.

Under Total Actions the table provides the total number of actions necessary to train a skill from a level of 5 to 100 (assuming the skill is not a major skill or specialization skill). A few skills provide times in hours; in all cases, these are hours of real time. See Total Experience Points for more discussion.

Training Tip provides a single suggestion for how to train this skill effectively for each action that trains the skill. A complete list of tips for each skill is provided on each skill page. The tip shown here is just one technique that is considered to be useful for most characters in most situations.

Trainers and skill books will grant experience points equal to the amount necessary for a full skill level. Using a trainer for a base skill at level 50 will therefore grant 91.51 experience points, allowing any extra points to roll over to the next level. Free skill boosts, on the other hand, effectively grant exactly enough experience points to reach the next level, always leaving the skill at zero experience for the new level.

In all cases, see the individual skill page for more details on the actions necessary to gain experience, and for a more complete list of tips on how to advance the skill.

Skill	Att	Action	Exp./ Action	Total Actions (Base)	Total Actions (Spec)	Total Actions (Major)	Total Actions (S+M)	Training Tip (complete tips are provided on skill pages)
Combat Skills
Armorer	End	each use of a repair hammer	1.5	6,812	5,109	4,088	3,066	Create a custom 3 point, 1 second Disintegrate Armor, then cast repeatedly and repair armor after each cast.
Athletics	Spd	time (secs) spent running	0.03	94.6 hrs	70.5 hrs	56.4 hrs	42.6 hrs	Run whenever possible.
		time (secs) spent swimming	0.04	70.9 hrs	53.2 hrs	42.6 hrs	31.9 hrs	Use Water Breathing and auto-swim against an object.
Blade	Str	each hit on a target	0.5	20,435	15,327	12,261	9,196	See General Combat Strategies.
Block	End	each blocked hit	1.25	8,174	6,131	4,905	3,679
Blunt	Str	each hit on a target	0.5	20,435	15,327	12,261	9,196
Hand to Hand	Str	each hit on a target	0.6	17,030	12,773	10,218	7,664
Heavy Armor	End	each hit taken	1.25	8,174	6,131	4,905	3,679
Magic Skills
Alchemy	Int	each potion created	5.0	2,044	1,533	1,227	920	Create Restore Fatigue potions.
		each ingredient eaten	0.5	20,435	15,327	12,261	9,196
Alteration	Wil	each spell cast with a valid target	4.0	2,555	1,917	1,533	1,150	Create a custom Shield spell (3 points, 1 second) (or use Protect) and cast repeatedly.*
Conjuration	Int	each spell cast with a valid target	6.0	1,703	1,278	1,022	767	Create a custom Summon Skeleton spell with a duration of 1 sec and cast repeatedly or cast Summon Skeleton and use Turn undead on the skeleton repeatedly.*
Destruction	Wil	each spell cast with a valid target	1.2	8,514	6,386	5,109	3,832	Create a custom Weakness to Element on self (3 points, 1 second) repeatedly or use Entropic touch on a valid target repeatedly.*
Illusion	Per	each spell cast with a valid target	3.0	3,406	2,555	2,044	1,533	Create a custom Light spell (3 points, 1 second) (or use Starlight) and cast repeatedly.*
Mysticism	Int	each spell cast with a valid target	3.0	3,406	2,555	2,044	1,533	Create a custom Detect Life spell (3 points, 1 second) (or use Minor Life Detection) and cast repeatedly.*
Restoration	Wil	each spell cast with a valid target	0.6	17,030	12,773	10,218	7,664	Create a custom Restore Fatigue spell (3 points, 1 second) (or use Minor Respite) and cast repeatedly.*
Stealth Skills
Acrobatics	Spd	each jump or dodge	0.3	34,059	25,545	20,436	15,327	Mash the jump button while climbing a hill (or stairs), or stand underneath a low overhang (like a dock) and jump repeatedly.
		each damaging fall	3.0	3,406	2,555	2,044	1,533
Light Armor	Spd	each hit taken	1.5	6,812	5,109	4,088	3,066	See General Combat Strategies.
Marksman	Agi	each shot hitting a target	0.8	12,772	9,579	7,664	5,748
Mercantile	Per	each sales transaction	0.4	25,544	19,158	15,327	11,495	Sell items one by one, not in stacks.
Security	Agi	each tumbler fixed	1.5	6,812	5,109	4,088	3,066	Fix the first three or four tumblers of a hard or very hard lock, then exit the menu; repeat.
		each click of the Auto-Attempt button
Sneak	Agi	time (secs) spent undetected while moving in sneak mode	0.75	3.78 hrs	2.84 hrs	2.27 hrs	1.72 hrs	Autorun in sneak mode next to a sleeping person
		each undetected opening and closing of pickpocket dialogue	2.0	5103	3834	3065	2322	The Sneak page has a list of people who don't mind being pickpocketed
Speechcraft	Per	each turn (4 wedges) of minigame	2.4	4,258	3,194	2,555	1,917	Play the speechcraft minigame without trying to win
Skill	Att	Action	Exp./ Action	Total Actions (Base)	Total Actions (Spec)	Total Actions (Major)	Total Actions (S+M)	Training Tip (complete tips are provided on skill pages)

*Training methods with an asterisk have two possiblilities. The first option is the cheapest/easiest option for training the skill, but requires access to the Arcane University. The second option is the cheapest option for training the skill if you do not have access to spell making.

Experience Points Needed

The following table shows the specific number of experience points needed to increase any skill from the listed level to the next level. The experience points depend upon whether the skill is a major skill or a skill in your class' specialization (Spec). Any extra experience points will roll over to the next skill level.

For example, if you gain 4 experience points at skill level 5, but you only needed 2.89 to advance the skill level, 1.11 points will 'roll over' to advancement in skill level 6, and only 2.69 more experience points will be needed to reach skill level 7.

The formula for the base experience points required to go up a level is:

 Base_experience = 0.25883 * skill_level^1.5

This formula is controlled by construction set parameters, in particular FSkillUseFactor (default value 0.35), FSkillUseExp (default value 1.5), and FSkillUseMinor (default value 1.25). If using a mod that alters the default parameter values, the formula becomes:

 Base experience = FSkillUseMinor * (FSkillUseFactor * skill_level)^FSkillUseExp

The conversion factors, as used in the table, are:

• Base to Spec = Multiply by 0.75 (FSkillUseSpecMult)
• Base to Major = Multiply by 0.6 (FSkillUseMajorMult / FSkillUseMinor)
• Base to S+M = Multiply by 0.45 (FSkillUseSpecMult × FSkillUseMajorMult / FSkillUseMinor)

(Note that "base" skills are treated by all these equations as if they were "minor" skills, even though no skills in Oblivion are ever described as minor skills).

Level	Base	Spec	Major	S+M		Level	Base	Spec	Major	S+M		Level	Base	Spec	Major	S+M		Level	Base	Spec	Major	S+M
Novice						Apprentice						Journeyman						Expert
						25	32.35	24.26	19.41	***		50	91.51	68.63	54.90	41.16		75	168.1	126.0	100.8	75.64
						26	34.31	25.73	20.58	***		51	94.27	70.70	56.56	42.42		76	171.4	128.6	102.8	77.16
						27	36.31	27.23	21.78	***		52	97.05	72.78	58.23	43.66		77	174.8	131.1	104.9	78.68
						28	38.35	28.76	23.01	***		53	99.87	74.90	59.92	44.94		78	178.3	133.7	106.9	80.22
						29	40.42	30.31	24.25	***		54	102.7	77.03	61.62	46.20		79	181.7	136.3	109.0	81.78
5	2.89	*	**	***		30	42.53	31.89	25.51	19.12		55	105.5	79.17	63.34	47.50		80	185.2	138.9	111.1	83.34
6	3.80	*	**	***		31	44.67	33.50	26.80	20.10		56	108.4	81.35	65.08	48.80		81	188.6	141.5	113.2	84.90
7	4.79	*	**	***		32	46.85	35.13	28.11	21.08		57	111.3	83.53	66.82	50.12		82	192.1	144.1	115.3	86.48
8	5.86	*	**	***		33	49.07	36.80	29.44	22.08		58	114.3	85.74	68.59	51.44		83	195.7	146.7	117.4	88.06
9	6.99	*	**	***		34	51.31	38.48	30.78	23.08		59	117.3	87.97	70.38	52.78		84	199.2	149.4	119.5	89.66
10	8.18	6.13	**	***		35	53.59	40.19	32.15	24.10		60	120.2	90.21	72.17	54.12		85	202.8	152.1	121.6	91.26
11	9.44	7.08	**	***		36	55.91	41.93	33.54	25.14		61	123.3	92.48	73.98	55.48		86	206.4	154.8	123.8	92.88
12	10.76	8.07	**	***		37	58.25	43.68	34.95	26.20		62	126.3	94.77	75.81	56.86		87	210.0	157.5	126.0	94.50
13	12.13	9.09	**	***		38	60.63	45.47	36.37	27.28		63	129.4	97.07	77.65	58.24		88	213.6	160.2	128.2	96.14
14	13.56	10.17	**	***		39	63.04	47.28	37.82	28.36		64	132.5	99.39	79.51	59.62		89	217.3	162.9	130.3	97.78
15	15.04	11.28	**	***		40	65.48	49.11	39.28	29.46		65	135.6	101.7	81.38	61.02		90	220.9	165.7	132.5	99.44
16	16.57	12.42	**	***		41	67.94	50.95	40.76	30.56		66	138.7	104.0	83.26	62.44		91	224.6	168.5	134.8	101.1
17	18.14	13.60	**	***		42	70.45	52.83	42.27	31.70		67	141.9	106.4	85.17	63.86		92	228.4	171.3	137.0	102.7
18	19.77	14.82	**	***		43	72.98	54.73	43.78	32.84		68	145.1	108.8	87.08	65.30		93	232.1	174.0	139.2	104.4
19	21.44	16.08	**	***		44	75.54	56.65	45.32	33.98		69	148.3	111.2	89.01	66.74		94	235.8	176.9	141.5	106.1
20	23.15	17.36	**	***		45	78.13	58.59	46.87	35.14		70	151.5	113.6	90.95	68.20		95	239.6	179.7	143.7	107.8
21	24.91	18.68	**	***		46	80.75	60.56	48.45	36.32		71	154.8	116.1	92.91	69.68		96	243.4	182.5	146.0	109.5
22	26.71	20.03	**	***		47	83.40	62.55	50.04	37.52		72	158.1	118.5	94.87	71.14		97	247.2	185.4	148.3	111.2
23	28.55	21.41	**	***		48	86.07	64.55	51.64	38.72		73	161.4	121.0	96.85	72.64		98	251.1	188.3	150.6	112.9
24	30.43	22.82	**	***		49	88.78	66.58	53.26	39.94		74	164.7	123.5	98.85	74.14		99	254.9	191.2	152.9	114.7

* A value less than 10 is not possible for a skill in the class' specialization.
** A value less than 25 is not possible for a major skill.
*** A value less than 30 is not possible for a major skill that is also in the class' specialization.

Examples

Example 1

A Dunmer Mage will start the game with 30 Alchemy skill. Alchemy is both a specialization and a major skill for the standard Mage class. In order to advance to skill level 31, the Mage needs 19.12 experience points in alchemy. Since each potion created gives 5 experience points to Alchemy, creating a mere 4 potions will increase the Mage's alchemy experience by 20 points and raise his level from 30 to 31. This will also earn 1 skill advancement towards level advancement because Alchemy is a major skill for a Mage.

Example 2

A Dunmer Assassin will start the game with 25 Alchemy skill. Alchemy is a major skill (but not a specialization skill) for the standard Assassin class. In order to advance to skill level 26, the Assassin needs 19.41 accumulated experience points. The same 4 potions that the Mage had to make to raise in level from 30 to 31 will only advance the Assassin in level from 25 to 26 (and will also earn a skill advancement towards leveling up) even though the same 20 experience points were earned.

Once the assassin reaches level 30 (after making 21 potions), 25.51 experience points are needed to advance to level 31, 4.03 of which would roll over from the previous level. Therefore, 5 potions must be made (rather than the 4 potions needed for the Mage).

Example 3

A Dunmer Nightblade will start the game with 10 Alchemy skill. Alchemy is a specialization, but not a major, skill for the standard Nightblade class. Since it only takes 6.13 experience points to advance to level 11, creating a single potion will be just short of level 11 (that one potion earns 5 of the 6.13 experience points required). In fact, if the Nightblade created the same number of potions as the Mage and Assassin in the examples above (i.e., 4 thus earning 20 experience points in Alchemy), the Nightblade would have a skill level of 12 in Alchemy and put the Nightblade only 1.28 skill advancement points away from skill level 13.

Once the Nightblade reaches level 30 (after making 69 potions), 31.89 experience points are needed to advance to level 31 (0.33 of which would roll over from level 29). 7 potions need to be made.

Example 4

A Dunmer Thief will start the game with a 5 Alchemy skill. Alchemy is neither a specialization nor a major skill for the standard Thief class. Since it only takes 2.89 experience points to advance to level 6, a single potion puts the Thief at level 6. Furthermore, if the Thief created the same four potions as the Mage and Assassin in the previous examples, the Thief would have a skill level of 9 in Alchemy.

Once the thief reaches level 30 (after making 96 potions), 42.53 experience points are needed to advance to level 31 (4.85 of which would roll over from level 29). 8 potions need to be made.

Total Experience Points

Another way to interpret the above information is to consider the number of times a skill must be used in order to raise that skill to the maximum value of 100.

• To increase a Base skill from 5 to 100: 10220 experience points.
• To increase a Specialization skill from 10 to 100: 7647 experience points.
• To increase a Major skill from 25 to 100: 5950 experience points.
• To increase a Specialization and Major skill from 30 to 100: 4381 experience points.

Racial bonuses, which cause skills to start at values larger than the minimum values, will reduce the amount of experience necessary to train a skill to level 100.

10220 experience points is converted into the number of actions necessary to train each skill in the table under Acquiring Experience Points.

Monitoring Experience in the Console

On the PC, it is possible to use the Console to obtain a summary of your character's current skill usage. Using the commands tdt and sdt 10 displays a screen showing:

• In the left-hand column, exactly how many experience points have been acquired and how many are needed to advance for each skill.
• In the middle column, the number of skill advances counting towards each attribute bonus the next time your character levels up. This column contains information on attribute bonuses for multiple levels, if you have not slept since your last level up became available.

See also TESCSWiki.

Strategies for Increasing Skills

Many players will find that their skills increase naturally from normal gameplay: combat and defense skills will automatically increase each time you engage a creature in a dungeon, for example. However, as part of more advanced game play strategies, such as Efficient Leveling, more controlled practice may be desired, for example to be able to train skills in a specific environment, or to train one skill independently of other skills.

Note that some attributes and skills are closely linked, and by training one you will most likely also train another (whether you like it or not)! Strength and Endurance/Speed is one such example: It requires special dedication to practice close combat without increasing Light/Heavy armor skill (or simply wear no armor at all--if your plan is to avoid getting hit, you don't need armor).

This section provides some general strategies that are applicable to multiple skills. Strategies specific to each skill are detailed on the individual skill pages. Some of these techniques may be considered exploits or bugs.

General Combat Strategies

The primary strategy for increasing combat skills is to hit creatures with a weapon thereby damaging their health. It is useful to practice on weak and/or summoned creatures. The sole factor that will determine the speed with which you amass experience is the number of times you score a hit, not the amount of damage dealt with each blow. Therefore it is recommended to practice with lighter weapons (daggers or shortswords for the blade skill or one-handed weapons for the blunt skill) as these weapons swing faster and allow you score more hits in the same timeframe.

The greatest challenge with increasing combat skills is to only practice one skill at a time: defense skills (Block, Light Armor, or Heavy Armor) and offense skills (Blade, Blunt, Hand to Hand, or Marksman) often must be used at the same time; after combat your equipment will need to be repaired, causing Armorer skill to also go up.

Before starting combat practice, it is strongly recommended to remove unnecessary enchantments, such as Reflect Damage that will make your target die more quickly.

Another possible preparation is to change the difficulty slider setting. If you are practicing defensive skills, set the difficulty slider to the easiest value; this makes you receive only 1/6 of normal damage (and you would also deal 6 times normal damage if you engaged a target). If you are practicing offensive skills, set the difficulty slider to the hardest value, so you only deal 1/6 of normal damage, maximizing the lifetime of your target (this generally only works against a target who will not fight back). In addition, if you first exhaust your fatigue (repeated jumping, for example), you will do minimal damage to the target. It is also helpful to use Turn Undead on a zombie, allowing you to get free hits in without fear of retaliation.

If you are training a skill by attacking non-stop, the game may not register the attacks or notify you of any skill increases until you stop attacking. Other than the delayed notification, this does not affect the amount of experience that you obtain.

Weak creatures provide good ways to practice defensive skills. They will automatically attack you, but they do so little damage that you can survive multiple hits. If you don't mind simultaneously training Restoration, you can periodically cast healing spells. Or you can kill the creature and then rest to restore your health without training restoration.

• The Imperial City sewers are a good place to encounter rats and mudcrabs for just this purpose. You can even find a bedroll or two to sleep on while you're down there to restore your health if desired.
• Shores of any body of water are a good place to find mudcrabs. Walk around Lake Rumare for example (and simultaneously look for nirnroot to kill two birds with one stone).
• Go into a city's barracks and pick up a worthless item (the bounty should only be one gold). Resist arrest, and the guards will start attacking you. When you have had enough, yield and pay the bounty. Be careful about doing this outside of the barracks, as citizens may come to your defense, causing important quest-related people to be killed.
• Go to an area with many archers, like Rockmilk Cave, and get close to them so that they switch their attack from bows to daggers. Daggers have the advantage of being the fastest weapons (you will get struck more often per minute than with short swords, two-handed swords, axes etc), having the weakest attack strength, and wearing out on your armor (with reduced damage-dealing power) the fastest. With four archers attacking you with daggers at once you will gain experience very fast and lose health at a manageable rate. Once an archer switches their attack from bows to daggers they will continue to stab and slash you with the daggers and do not revert to archery, even if you run away from them. As a result, archer daggers will wear out completely after a while and they will switch their attack to hand-to-hand. You may want to dispatch these enemies quickly once this happens since a hand-to-hand blow from NPCs will neither damage your armor nor increase your armor skills.
• Go to the basement of Arvena Thelas' house in Anvil and get the four rats there to attack you (for example, by casting a non-damaging offensive spell on the rats like Absorb Mercantile). This is one of the best ways to train because the four rats attack quickly and deal minor damage. Once you've had enough, simply exit the room and the four rats will become calm once more.
  • You can also use these rats to build up Strength skills (Blade,Blunt,Hand to Hand), or Marksman Skill. Up the Difficulty all the way and attack. Then use a Restoration spell like Convalescence (Restore Health 15pts on Target) to heal the rats when their health gets too low. Then leave and do a wait outside the basement door to regain your Health and Magicka. Be sure to watch your health level and the health of the rats closely. Also you'll need to be at Apprentice level in Restoration in order to use that spell. And make sure it's not a Major Skill.
• Fort Carmala has an area with 5 rats locked in a room, which work equally as well as the previous method.
• The haunted cavern section of haunted mine has a rat pen with around 5 rats.

Summoned creatures can be used for offensive practice. After three hits they will turn on you, allowing them to also be used for defensive practice if desired. If you wish to use this technique a lot, you may want to create a custom Summon Skeleton spell (the cheapest summon effect) with an extra-long duration. This minimizes the number of times you need to cast the summon spell, and reduces the extent to which you will simultaneously increase your Conjuration skill. When using a summoned creature to do defensive training, the most efficient way of raising endurance is to have no shield, wear only heavy armor and use hand to hand combat. This way when you block you will be blocking with your hands covered in heavy armor and both skills will increase at the same time, then you can repair damaged equipment which will also raise you armorer skill.

Besides standard Summon spells, other ways to obtain practice targets include:

• Use the Staff of Everscamp from the Whom Gods Annoy quest. The four scamps respawn continuously. You can kill them before actually accepting the staff (Rosentia Gallenus does not mind), and after you have finished the quest you can return to Darkfathom Cave to find the scamps and continue using them as a never-ending supply of weaklings.
  • An easy way to train your offensive skills is to attack one scamp and trap it between the two pillars in front of the stairs. This allows you to freely hit it without being hit yourself (provided you stay out the scamp's reach) and you have less of a chance to accidentally train an armor skill or even die while training.
• With the Wizard's Tower official plug-in, the Atronach Altars can be used to summon atronach familiars, each of whom can be attacked repeatedly without ever turning on you. However, they also all have Reflect Damage, so you will still take damage from melee attacks. Ranged attacks will not be reflected, so the Atronachs make great target dummies.
• With the Vile Lair official plug-in you can obtain an unkillable sleeping prisoner (in the Cattle Pen upgrade), who can be used for perpetual target practice.
• With the Thieves Den official plug-in you can obtain Bacon the warthog (with the Fence upgrade), who is also unkillable and can be used for perpetual target practice.
  • Be wary, however, for Bacon hits back. Although he will usually just walk off after going unconscious two or three times, it will be more difficult to get him to stop attacking after enough hits.
• In Fort Roebeck go to the room on the first level with the drawbridge. Jump across, or lower the bridge then raise it and cross before it raises. Continue forward until a Conjurer spots you and starts to chase. Run back to the drawbridge room and jump in the water. The Conjurer will get stuck at the bridge and endlessly summon creatures that are dropped into the water if you position yourself southeast of the center. The creature summoned depends on your level, but some of them such as scamps can't swim and will not fight back while you practice your offensive skills on them. Having the Fin Gleam helmet is helpful but not necessary.
• Before starting Peryite's Daedric quest, go the shrine and attack the frozen worshippers. If you use this exploit too often, your game may become unstable because you have committed too many "unreported" (but zero bounty) crimes. To fix the problem, commit an assault against a normal NPC and then pay the fine; this clears the entire stack of unreported crimes. It is probably safest to do this periodically instead of waiting for your game to become unstable, because once your game starts to crash it may be too late to recover.
• On the Weynon Priory grounds, in an area across from the stables, there are two sheep. The female (without horns) will not attack you and will hardly move even when being bashed around. Use a poor quality weapon and heal the sheep (with spells or by waiting) as needed.
• Use your horse for target practice. If you have obtained Shadowmere, she is unkillable. Otherwise, be sure to do minimal damage and only attack until your horse's health is low, then let your horse heal for an hour.
  • This must be done in a safe and remote location as mutilating your horse is illegal and you will get arrested.
  • Your game can become unstable if you use this exploit too often. As with Peryite's worshippers, the problem is that you have accrued too many "unreported" crimes because attacking your horse is considered theft by the game. Legally resolving a crime clears out all the "unreported" crimes which are overloading the engine. Simply stealing an item, getting caught, and paying the fine will fix the issue. (source: readme file for the Unofficial Patch)
  • If you have not installed the latest patches, another problem with this approach is that damaging your own horse will get you kicked out of ALL guilds that you are a member of: Fighters Guild, Mages Guild, Thieves Guild, AND the Dark Brotherhood (assuming you have not become silencer rank). This is because striking a horse counts as theft against the horse's owner. Since you are a member of those guilds, it counts as stealing from a guild member, even though the victim in question is yourself.

Note: This has been corrected by the Oblivion 1.2 patch.

• Similarly, you can attack any horses found outside city stables; as long the gate to the corral is closed, the horses cannot run away from you. However, you need to be careful that you are not seen while attacking horses.
• Once you have completed the Dark Brotherhood questline, your speaker will remain in the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary. She is an essential character, and you may attack her as often as you wish. You will never get a bounty for this, the others in the sanctuary will never come to the aid of one or the other and when knocked unconscious she will shortly recover without any effect on her disposition towards you. She will fight back, however will always accept your yield if you have had enough.

To avoid simultaneously training Armorer skills, you can use junk equipment for training. Take any equipment that you have obtained in loot and were planning to sell, and use the equipment until it is completely broken. You can then sell the damaged item; as long as your Mercantile skill is 25 or higher, you will receive the same amount of money. Or stash the damaged items at your home base until a later time when you want to train armorer skill. Or, alternatively, enchant armor with anything and you will still be able to wear it when it is broken while still earning experience. Or if you're training offense and not defense, just don't wear armor at all. Your weapon, of course, will still need repairs. (Unless it's a Bound weapon, which would be training your Conjuration skill instead.) Or if you have the funds, you can always just trek into town and have your local blacksmith do the repairs for you.

• If you have the Shivering Isles expansion, you can kill Gaius Prentus at the Strange Door without getting a bounty

Some more unusual techniques for training offensive skills include:

• Blade and blunt skill can be trained using Shagrol gro-Uzug's weapons if you have the Fighter's Stronghold official plug-in. Shagrol has three special training weapons (an axe, a warhammer, and a dagger) which do no damage. If you pickpocket one of the weapons from him, you can use the weapon to attack anybody for as long as you like without inflicting any damage. The attack still counts as a hostile act, however, so attacking friendly NPCs will result in a bounty.
• Using 100% Chameleon allows you to attack anyone you like at will without any hostile retaliation. Good targets for training when using 100% Chameleon are ones with the ability to heal themselves (Dread Zombies, Spider Daedra, Spriggans, Trolls, Umbra, etc.) because you can train indefinitely.
• If you are level 15+ you can create two short duration custom weakness spells - Weakness to Poison 100%,Weakness to Magicka 100% all for 3-5 sec. Then make a few potions of magicka (alchemy 50+ would be nice) and a few poisons of Damage Fatigue. Go to some location with undead enemies for example - Vendir(Ayleid ruins just south of Chorrol), find a dread zombie, then drink your restore magicka potions, cast your Weakness spells as many times as you can(make sure that when you cast the next spell, the first one has not yet worn off, at least 10 times each). The resistance should be drastically lowered and you can now poison zombie, thus decrease its fatigue by thousands or even millions, zombie will collapse to the ground and you can use it as training dummy. If the difficulty slider is set to max, you will never be able to kill the zombie with simple unenchanted weapon or with moderate spells, as it regenerates hit points too quick.

General Magic Strategies

To increase any magic skill, all that you need to do is find a cheap spell and cast it over and over again. Only actual spells provide skill experience; casting Lesser Powers, Greater Powers, and Scrolls will not increase any skills. An exception to this rule is the spell Telekinesis since casting it does not increase your Mysticism skill, regardless if the spell successfully connects with an object.

In order to have a guaranteed target for the spell, it is best to use "on self" spells as practice spells. These practice spells can be cast continuously: as you walk through town to get to the store, as you explore the countryside, as you walk back out of a dungeon that you have finished exploring. In most cases, you do not have to wait for the previous spell to expire; you can recast the spell as soon as the casting animation is done. To cast spells even more rapidly, hold the Block key down while spellcasting. Also, the spell does not have to be "needed" for the spellcasting to be effective at providing experience. For example, a Restore Health spell can be cast on yourself even if your health is at 100%; it won't increase your health, but it will increase your Restoration experience.

The Spells page provides a complete list of the standard spells that are available for sale in the game. Identify the cheapest novice-level "on self" spell for each magical school, then track down the NPC who sells that spell and purchase it. That spell provides a good starter spell for practicing your skill.

Even more effective practice spells can be custom-made at the spellmaking altar. Create a custom 1 second, 3 point, on self spell using the cheapest spell effect available in the school. A practice spell that only costs 1 magicka to cast is ideal, and can be cast repeatedly without depleting your magicka reserves.

On the PC, magic skills can be auto-trained by placing a weight on the "cast" button on your keyboard. To increase casting speed, you can additionally draw a weapon and tape down the right mouse button in order to be blocking while casting. This is not possible on Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 (holding down the cast control does not cause a spell to be cast repeatedly).

Experience Calculator

An Excel spreadsheet has been made as an interactive experience calculator. The way it works is you put in your current skill level and your desired skill level in their respective spots. Then you choose which skill you want, replacing the 0 beside it with a 1, and changing the 1 back to a 0 on whichever skill was previously selected (the default is armorer). Finally, where it says "Special?" and "Major?" change to 0 to a 1 if the skill in question if one of your specials or majors.
File:OBexpCalc.zip

A simpler alternative EXE application is available for those who do not have Excel installed.
File:OblivionSkillCalculator.zip

See also

• How to Level
• Leveling
• Efficient Leveling
• Under Leveling
• Free Skill Boosts
• Skill Books