Oblivion:Enchanting

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Enchanting magic items can be done in two distinct ways:

1. Using a Sigil Stone recovered from a plane of Oblivion,
2. Using a soul gem at an Altar of Enchantment at the Arcane University, the Arch-Mage's Quarters in said University, or Frostcrag Spire.

Both follow the same basic procedure. You'll choose an item to enchant, pick one or more magical effects to enchant into the item, define parameters on those effects, select a power source for the enchantment, and give the item a name. After this is all selected, the item is completed.

All enchantments on weapons are of the "cast upon strike" variety, which affect the target when you hit it with the weapon. Such effects are charged; the weapon has a set number of charges depending upon the power source, and a certain number of those charges are used up each strike depending on the effect(s) in question.

All enchantments on clothing, armor, and jewelry are of the "constant use" variety. There are no charges to these items; the magic effect is permanent, and works as long as you wear the item.

Magical staves are of the "cast upon use" variety, but it is not possible for the player to create these (except for the custom one you can get by following the Mages' Guild quest line). A Staff cannot be used as as a melee weapon; "attacking" with the staff will cast its magical spell once.

Contents 1 Enchanting by Sigil Stones 2 Enchanting by the Altar(s) 3 Useful Enchantments 3.1 Value of Enchanted Items 3.2 Worn Enchantments 3.3 Cursed Enchantments 4 Soul Gems 4.1 Soul Trapping 4.1.1 Soul Trap Spell Tips 4.1.2 Soul Trap Weapon Tips 4.2 Black Soul Gems 4.3 Azura's Star 5 Recharging Weapons 5.1 Purchasing Recharges 5.2 Varla Stone Recharging 5.3 Soul Trapping

[edit] Enchanting by Sigil Stones

Sigil stones provide a relatively easy way to enchant weapons, armor, or apparel. Details on the process are provided at the page on Sigil Stones. The most difficult part is acquiring the sigil stones, which can only be found by going through Oblivion Gates. The available effects and the strength of the enchantment are determined when you grab the stone. Not all effects are available from sigil stones (see Effects and Magnitudes for the list of all possible effects), but at high levels, sigil stones may provide more powerful enchantments than are possible using soul gems at an enchanting altar. For weapon however, there is still a downside to enchanting by sigil stone because you can only apply one effect on it.

[edit] Enchanting by the Altar(s)

Most Altars of Enchantment are located at the Arcane University. There are four inside the Chironasium, and one inside the Arch-mage's personal quarters. You cannot use these unless you are a member of the Mages Guild, and have access to the Arcane University. There is now also one inside Frostcrag Spire if you have the plugin, but you must purchase the magetallow candles and upgrade the altar before it can be used.

The magical effects that you choose to use for enchanting must be from spells that you know and are able to cast, although not all effects can be enchanted into an item (e.g. you cannot do a permanent Restore Health). Therefore, if your only Frost Damage spell is too powerful for you to cast (e.g. it requires Journeyman level in Destruction, and your level is Novice/Apprentice), then you can not choose Frost Damage as an effect.

When you enchant an item through the Altar, you must select:

• The item you wish to enchant (weapon or armor). The parameters of your effects are different for weapons and for armor.
• An energy source, in the form of a filled soul gem.
• One or more Magical Effects to enchant. For weapons, you can define the parameters of the effects.
• A name for the item.

The effect(s) and parameters will determine the gold cost of making the item. Click done, and the item will be created if you have enough gold to pay for it.

For armor and other worn items (rings, necklaces, amulets, clothing), only a single magical effect can be selected. The enchantment will provide a permanent effect, as long as the item is equipped. The strength of the enchantment is preset, based upon the strength of the soul trapped in the selected soul gem.

For weapons, multiple enchantments can be selected. The strength of the soul trapped in the selected soul gem determines the weapon's total magicka charge, e.g., the magicka stored in the weapon when fully recharged. Each use of the weapon (e.g., each strike with a melee weapon or each arrow fired with a bow) drains a fixed amount of magicka; the magicka cost is determined by the magnitude of selected enchantment(s). The maximum allowed magicka cost for a custom enchantment is 85. Together, the soul strength and the enchantment magicka cost dictate the maximum number of weapon uses between recharging: uses = charge/cost. Enchanting a weapon with a Grand Soul (1600 magicka charge) and selecting a maximum magnitude enchantment (85 magicka cost) results in only 18 uses. If you choose a large magnitude (high magicka cost) enchantment, you will need to recharge your weapon frequently, so an ability to trap souls and carrying multiple soul gems are recommended.

Unlike Morrowind, the actual item that you are enchanting has no effect on the enchantment (for instance, a copper ring can hold as good an enchantment as a gold ring). This is balanced by the generally poor quality of enchantments across the board. Sadly, this means that yet again the best source of enchantments in the game does not come from soul gems.

After enchanting, an item always has a health of 100%. For damaged items, this means that enchanting always repairs the item. However, if you are expert level in Armorer, it can instead mean that the health of an item is decreased from 125% to 100%. Therefore, enchanting can appear to decrease the quality of the enchanted items. All you need to do is immediately repair the item to return it to 125% strength, and the quality is restored.

Additionally, any stolen item that is enchanted will have its ownership properties reset. In other words, enchanting an item will "launder" it and remove the stolen tag on it.

[edit] Useful Enchantments

A list of suggestions for custom enchanted items can be found at Useful Enchantments.

[edit] Value of Enchanted Items

Enchantments add to the price of the item. For constant-effect enchantments, the increase in value is dependent upon the Barter Factor provided on the Spell Effects page.

For enchanted weapons the value depends upon whether the item is fully charged. The increase in value is:

+ 0.4 * (Enchantment Cost + Item Charge)

These equations also govern the value of most (but not all) standard enchanted items in the game.

[edit] Worn Enchantments

Worn Enchantments create permanent effect items. Only one effect can be added to any piece of apparel. The level of the soul gem used to create the item determines both the magnitude of the spell effect and the cost in gold to create it.

The full formula to calculate the effect magnitude and the cost is:

Effect Magnitude = (Base Cost * Constant Effect Enchantment Factor * Soul Level)
                   + fMagicCEEnchantMagOffset

Enchantment Cost = Effect magnitude * Barter Factor

The Base Cost and the Barter Factor can be found on the Spell Effects Page. The Soul Level is a numeric value of 1 to 5 corresponding to the strength of the captured soul. fMagicCEEnchantMagOffset is a floating point game setting which applies to all constant enchantments you make (default value: 5.0).

The table below lists most of the common spell effects and the magnitude of the effect for each soul gem type.

Effect	Petty soul		Lesser soul		Common soul		Greater soul		Grand soul
	Charge 150 Level 1		Charge 300 Level 2		Charge 800 Level 3		Charge 1200 Level 4		Charge 1600 Level 5
	Mag	Gold	Mag	Gold	Mag	Gold	Mag	Gold	Mag	Gold
Chameleon	8	520	11	715	14	910	17	1105	20	1300
Detect Life	8	120	11	165	14	210	17	255	20	300
Feather*	14	350	23	575	32	800	41	1025	50	1250
Fire Shield**	6	600	6	600	7	700	8	800	9	900
Fortify Attribute	6	600	7	700	8	800	9	900	10	1000
Fortify Fatigue	9	225	13	325	17	425	21	525	25	625
Fortify Health	6	900	7	1050	8	1200	9	1350	10	1500
Fortify Magicka	9	900	13	1300	16	1600	20	2000	24	2400
Fortify Skill	6	600	7	700	8	800	9	900	10	1000
Frost Shield**	6	600	6	600	7	700	8	800	9	900
Light	12	150	19	237	26	325	33	412	40	500
Night-Eye***	-	100	-	100	-	100	-	100	-	100
Resist Disease	10	150	15	225	20	300	25	375	30	450
Shield	6	600	7	700	8	800	9	900	10	1000
Shock Shield**	6	600	6	600	7	700	8	800	9	900
Water Breathing***	-	2000	-	2000	-	2000	-	2000	-	2000
Water Walking***	-	2000	-	2000	-	2000	-	2000	-	2000

* Custom Feather enchantments are generally a poor choice, since the equivalent Fortify Strength enchantment is more powerful and has additional perks; see Feather vs Fortify Strength for details.

** A petty soul gem and a lesser soul gem produce the same results for the same price for these effects.

***Night-Eye, Water Breathing and Water Walking effects are flat cost effects and are not dependent upon the type of soul gem used. In other words, a petty soul filled gem is enough to have these effects on an item.

[edit] Cursed Enchantments

Usually destructive spells will be used to enchant weapons, and restorative/defensive spells will be used to enchant armor and other worn items. However, it is possible at the Altars of Enchantment to use any effect at your disposal to enchant any item. In this manner, it is possible to create cursed items, i.e., items that when worn do damage to the wearer.

While you probably don't want to wear cursed items yourself, items with harmful enchantments can be used to nerf and assassinate opponents without incurring bounties

1. A silence enchantment neutralizes spellcasting mages (such as Kalthar) -- any size soul gem results in the same permanent silence effect.
2. Any direct damage (elemental, health, drain) effect can be added for 5 pts to clothing etc.
3. Zero-weight items can be placed in the inventory of any NPC. (As with any pickpocketing, this is easiest while they sleep.)
4. When the NPC awakens, they will wear their inventory (at least one of every type, generally the strongest/best AC in case of a tie). Since most NPCs lack a hood, a zero-weight Mage's Hood is ideal for this.
5. If the item is constant damage, the NPC will take damage until dead (and their empty attempts to heal themselves have failed).

Other damaging enchantments will add a fixed malus to the related attribute: e.g. Damage Strength 5pts will drop Strength by just 5 points. You can use a "Robe of Rust" or any other item enchanted with Disintegrate Armor to damage your own equipment and then repair it, in order to train your armorer skill. Just put the item on and take it off again repeatedly (by binding that item to a quick item key).

Tips:

• For Dark Brotherhood quests, location still matters; if you use this to kill someone in a public place, you will not get the incentive bonus.
• Whether you're detected pickpocketing or not, you won't get a murder bounty.
• This is the equivalent of using poisoned apples with more certain and immediate impact.
• Another benefit is that after they're dead, you can loot the corpse, take back the cursed item, and use it as many times as you want.
• NPCs will not wear the item if it is stolen. However this is a moot point given that, as mentioned above, when a stolen item is first enchanted it looses its stolen status.

[edit] Soul Gems

Soul gems are used to capture the souls of dying creatures. The energy from a captured soul can be used as a power source for enchanted items, either when initially creating an item or to recharge a depleted weapon.

[edit] Soul Trapping

To trap a soul, you need two things: a method of casting the Soul Trap spell on the target, and a soul gem to hold the soul. You can cast the spell yourself (from memory or a scroll) or use a weapon enchanted with the Soul Trap ability. There are several standard varieties of soul gems: Petty, Lesser, Common, Greater, and Grand. The Miscellaneous Items page provides soul gem statistics, including costs, weights, and item codes. In addition there are special Black Soul Gems and one unique Daedric artifact, Azura's Star. The page on Souls provides details on the soul strengths of various creatures.

Soul Gem capacities (and soul strengths) are as follows:

Soul Gem	Capacity
Petty	150
Lesser	300
Common	800
Greater	1200
Grand	1600
Black*	1600
Azura's Star**	1600
Soul Tomato***	1600

^* The only Soul Gem which can trap NPCs.
^** Can be reused.

^*** Added by The Shivering Isles Expansion Pack. Used in The Museum of Oddities.

A soul will always fill the smallest empty Soul Gem that can accommodate it. If none of its level are available, it will look for a higher level stone until it finds an empty one to fill.

Example: You are trapping a Common Soul and you have one empty Petty Soul Gem, one full Common Soul Gem, one empty Greater Soul Gem, and one empty Grand Soul Gem in your inventory. The soul will be stored in the Greater Soul Gem because it is the smallest empty gem that fits. This can be expensive if you accidentally trap a Lesser Soul when you only have empty Grand Soul Gems. Note that Black Soul Gems can hold non-NPC souls, and that Black Soul Gems will take precedence over Azura's Star. Therefore, a Petty Soul will be placed in a Black Soul Gem if it's the only one in your inventory that can hold the trapped soul.

If you get the message, "There is no soul gem in your inventory capable of holding such a soul," then you don’t have an empty soul gem big enough to hold it (or you have attempted to capture the soul of an NPC and you do not have any empty Black Soul Gems). There are no partial captures; it is all or nothing.

Once you use a filled Soul Gem it is gone. One notable exception to this is Azura's Star, which is the equivalent of one Grand Soul Gem but is reusable. You can find more at your local magically inclined or general merchant, if it is part of their inventory (this is a replicable commodity and non-general merchants who carry soul gems will create more on a regular basis like arrows). Mages Guild members and thieves can also find soul gems lying around in most guild halls.

The Staff of Worms (acquired during the Mages Guild quest Confront The King) allows you to resurrect a dead creature or NPC for 30 seconds after which they die again allowing you to keep trapping the same soul repeatedly to fill multiple Soul Gems.

[edit] Soul Trap Spell Tips

You can purchase the soul trap spell at every Mages Guild. You need to be at least apprentice level in Mysticism to be able to cast the cheapest version of the spell.

Your Mysticism skill does not determine the strength of souls that you can trap. A one-second Soul Trap spell works as well as a 60-second Soul Trap spell, as long as you kill the target while the spell is active. Increased Mysticism skill will allow you access to Soul Trap spells of longer duration, and will allow you to cast the spells for less Magicka cost.

When you cast the Soul Trap spell on a target, you have until the spell wears off to slay it or you will fail to trap the soul. One strategy is to have a long-duration Soul Trap spell available so that you have the largest possible window in which to finish off your target (in case it takes longer than you expected). An alternative strategy is to cast the spell only after you have whittled down the target's health to a quickly dispatchable level.

Custom spells that combine Soul Trap with a damage effect can be particularly effective. Make sure that the soul trap effect lasts at least as long as the damage effect(s) in the spell. A spell which works on touch will be cheaper to cast than one cast on a remote target. Since this spell is best when used only to deliver the coup de grace, it is OK for it to be used at close quarters.

[edit] Soul Trap Weapon Tips

There are a few standard weapons that provide the Soul Trap effect. The most well-known weapon is Umbra. Several generic magic weapons are also available. You can create a Mage's Staff with Soul Trap, although because the staff does not simultaneously do any damage, it is used just like a spell.

Custom weapons can be created with the soul trap enchantment. It is best to use a high-damage weapon for the enchantment. The duration of the soul trap effect should generally only be 1 second (unless being combined with other damage effects that last more than one duration). Other effects, such as 100 pts Drain Health for one second, can be included to make the weapon more powerful. There is also a Sigil Stone with the Soul Trap effect, although the fixed duration of the sigil stone enchantment makes it less efficient than a weapon created at the Enchanting Altar.

A weapon with soul trap should only be used to deal the final blow to an enemy. When you're fighting and notice the enemy's health getting low, switch from your standard weapon to the soul trap weapon. The reason why you shouldn't use this as a standard combat weapon is that with many foes (especially weaker ones) the number of hits needed to kill the creature with the Soul Trap weapon will likely use up more charges than its soul will refill.

[edit] Black Soul Gems

Regular Soul Gems can only trap creatures, not NPCs (note that some creatures, like Dremora, are actually classed as NPCs). Necromancy has researched the rituals necessary to create Black Soul Gems that are capable of trapping the souls of NPCs. The details of those rituals are described on the page describing Black Soul Gems. Once you have a filled Black Soul Gem, it is used exactly like a regular Soul Gem. A Black Soul Gem can hold as much as a Grand Soul Gem (1600), but it is much easier to fill since any humanoid is 1600 units.

[edit] Azura's Star

Azura's Star is essentially the most powerful Soul Gem in the game, and can be obtained by completing Azura's Daedric Quest. Its quality is the same as a Grand Soul Gem; however, it has infinite uses and it is not used up after enchanting or recharging. It cannot be turned into a Black Soul Gem, and thus cannot hold NPC souls. See the page on Azura's Star for more details.

[edit] Recharging Weapons

[edit] Purchasing Recharges

The easiest (but most expensive) way to recharge enchanted weapons is to pay for a recharge at a Mages Guild location. Each Mages Guild has one member who will provide recharging services, as listed under Other Services. This costs 1 Gold for every unit of charge. Unless you're rolling in cash, or the charge required is very small, this method of recharging can be prohibitively expensive.

You may also purchase filled soul gems from various merchants in the game for roughly one quarter the cost of the recharge fee (see Soul Gem costs for details). The drawback of this approach is that merchants will only have a limited supply of soul gems at any time; you may need to wait a week before they restock.

[edit] Varla Stone Recharging

Varla Stones can be used to recharge all the magical items in your inventory.

A list of all the Ayleid ruins that contain Varla Stones is provided on the Varla Stone page. Once you have one in your inventory, activating it will fully charge all enchanted weapons and staves in your inventory. Each stone is worth 1000 gold, but it isn't wasteful at all considering that this is far less than what you'd spend on those same recharges at a guild. Keeping one or two Varla Stones in your inventory may be a wise thing in case your trip to Oblivion doesn't go entirely according to plan and lasts longer than you'd wish.

Varla stones are not to be confused with the smaller, blue Welkynd stones, also found in ruins, which can only be used to refill your magicka. Welkynd stones are much more common than Varla stones. Both Varla and Welkynd stones are unique, non-random, non-leveled items and don't respawn (the only exception being the Varla and Welkynd stones in Vahtacen, which are random in number but still non-respawning).

[edit] Soul Trapping

By far the cheapest method is to capture creatures' souls in Soul Gems and use their energy to recharge your weapons. The same tips discussed above under Soul Trapping also apply when collecting souls to recharge items.