Oblivion talk:Fortify Skill

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Contents 1 Effect on Leveling 2 Skill Perks 3 Skill Availibility 4 Enchantments?

[edit] Effect on Leveling

I've seen the various reports that Fortify Skill has the bad side effect that it takes longer to train a skill; and, conversely, the reports that Drain Skill can be useful to train a skill more rapidly. I just tested both of these ideas and could find absolutely no validity to either rumor. Yes, Fortify Skill and Drain Skill have an effect with trainers. But when it comes to the amount of effort necessary to gain experience and level up, there was no effect.

I tested this both using Alchemy and Conjuration (which happen to be particularly fast to train), with a character starting at level 5 in both skills. I counted how many spell-casts/potion-creations were necessary to advance the skill for each level from 5 to 15. I then did the same test with +10 Fortify Skill active. There was absolutely no change in the number of actions necessary to change any skill level (and it should have taken about twice as many actions). I also did the same test using Drain Skill, and again there was no change in the number of actions necessary with or without Drain Skill.

Does anyone have any idea where this myth came from? Or any other suggestions of tests that need to be done? If not, I'll try to root out this misinformation from the wiki. --Nephele 04:02, 27 November 2006 (EST)

I think it depends on how the skill was raised. A standard enchantment may not have any effect, but a scripted skill adjustment, such as that from the Skeleton Key, very definitely has an effect. However, I think these scripted adjustments are by far in the minority. (In fact I'm having trouble thinking of any other examples at the moment.) --TheRealLurlock ^Talk 09:32, 27 November 2006 (EST)

Good point. The Skeleton Key does indeed make it much harder to increase your level. Looking into it more closely, it appears that any ability that provides a Fortify Skill effect (as listed at Free Skill Boosts, i.e. also Gray Prince's training, Night Mother's blessing) enhances both the skill value and the skill base value: getav and getbaseav both return the boosted value of the skill. Whereas other versions of Fortify Skill (spell, enchantment) do not change the base skill value (getav > getbaseav). Similarly for normal Drain Skill effects, the base skill value is unchanged (getav < getbaseav).

So it looks to me like the value returned by getbaseav is used to determine how much training is needed. For normal Fortify Skill/Drain skill effects, getbaseav is unaffected. For abilities, getbaseav is altered. Sound right? --Nephele 21:38, 27 November 2006 (EST)

[edit] Skill Perks

I just reinstated the original text that states that using Fortify Skill there are a few (only a few!) skill mastery perks that become available. Note that the text never claimed that the repair magic items perk becomes available via boosting. That perk is like the vast majority of perks that you must earn by naturally raising the skill. The section of the page that was modified is specifically to provide information on the few existing exceptions.

The mercantile perk at level 75 is quite easy to test: if you walk into any store that allows investing and cast a high enough magnitude Fortify Mercantile spell, the "Invest in this Store" dialogue will appear when you talk to the merchant.

The armorer to 100 perk is a bit harder to be absolutely sure of, but I have used this exploit repeatedly and never had a repair hammer break when my armorer was boosted to 100. To check one more time, I just used the ruined Ayleid Crown of Lindai (see the Armorer page). I took a character with 75 Armorer Skill, boosted it to 100 using items with a Fortify Enchantment spell, then repaired the crown as many times as I had the patience for... definitely more than 100 times. I didn't break a single hammer (and in earlier tests I've done with Armorer=99, I broke a hammer about one in 10-15 times). If anyone has ever had a repair hammer break while using this exploit, I'd be interested in hearing about it, but so far I'm not aware of any such examples.

--Nephele 21:19, 7 December 2006 (EST)

[edit] Skill Availibility

Seeing as it is availible to get the spell via doomstones, vampirism, (probably) spell tomes, and then make a custom spell at the spell making altar, should the availiblity be changed to reflect that; under the chart to the right on the main page? Also, the article does not say if this effect is disabled at the enchanting altar or not. --Scxe 01:12, 6 March 2008 (EST)

As stated in the introductory section on the Magical Effects page:

Spell: shows whether this effect exists as a standard spell (an asterisk in this column indicates that non-standard spells may be possible under some circumstances)

Fortify Skill does not exist as a standard spell; there are no Fortify Skill spells listed on the Spells page. Therefore an asterisk is the correct entry in that table, signalling that custom spells are possible but that some extra effort is necessary in order to gain access to the effect.

Also, the effect is available at the enchanting altar. Articles only note cases where an effect is not available at the enchanting altar (otherwise redundant notes would be needed on 95% of the effect articles). --Nephele^Talk 12:21, 6 March 2008 (EST)

Oh. Makes sense now. --Scxe 13:24, 6 March 2008 (EST)

[edit] Enchantments?

I keep hearing that fortifying a skill above 100 will not make any difference, but my Ring of Wizardry seems to make all spells cheaper. Does it only work with enchanted items and not spells? 68.166.69.89 15:15, 7 March 2008 (EST)