oblivion how to get more enchanting effects

Table of Contents

Understanding the Enchanting System

Acquiring Powerful Soul Gems

Unlocking the Sigil Stone Farm

Mastering the Arcane University

Strategic Use of Fortify Skill Effects

Exploiting the Weakness to Magic Loop

Crafting Specialized and Synergistic Gear

Conclusion: The Path to Ultimate Enchantment

The art of Enchanting in *The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion* is a path to unparalleled power, allowing the player to imbue weapons, armor, and apparel with magical effects. However, new practitioners often find their creations lacking, limited to a single weak effect. The journey from crafting a simple Frost Damage dagger to forging a sword that paralyzes, drains health, and silences foes is defined by understanding how to get more enchanting effects. This pursuit involves a deep dive into the game's mechanics, strategic acquisition of resources, and mastery of several advanced techniques.

At its core, enchanting requires a soul, a soul gem, a magical effect known to the enchanter, and access to an enchanting altar. The primary limitation is the "Enchant" value of the item being enchanted. A grand soul gem filled with a grand soul provides a fixed pool of points. Each effect added to an item consumes a portion of this pool, with more powerful magnitudes and areas of effect costing more. Therefore, to get more enchanting effects, one must either increase the size of this pool or reduce the cost of the individual effects. This fundamental principle guides all advanced enchanting strategies.

The foundation of any potent enchantment is the soul gem. Petty and lesser souls yield meager pools, severely restricting possibilities. The goal is to consistently acquire grand soul gems filled with grand souls. Black Soul Gems, which can capture the souls of humanoid NPCs (always grand souls), are the most reliable source. These can be found as loot, purchased from certain vendors, or, most efficiently, created through a quest for the Mages Guild. Pairing these with a weapon enchanted with Soul Trap ensures a steady supply of the most powerful souls, dramatically expanding the enchanting point pool for every item.

For those not wishing to engage in soul trapping, the Oblivion Gates offer a unique and powerful alternative. Sigil Stones, obtained upon closing a gate, are pre-enchanted items of exceptional power. Their enchantments are always at their maximum magnitude and, crucially, often contain multiple effects on a single stone. A Sigil Stone can grant a piece of armor with Fortify Strength, Fortify Endurance, and Fire Shield simultaneously—three effects for the "cost" of one enchantment slot. By saving before taking a stone and reloading, players can farm for stones with the exact combination of effects they desire, a direct method to get more enchanting effects on their gear without traditional enchanting.

To access the full potential of custom enchanting, joining the Mages Guild and progressing to the Arcane University is non-negotiable. Here, the only enchanting altars in Cyrodiil are found. More importantly, the university provides access to the Spell Making altar. This is critical because to enchant an item with an effect, you must know a spell that uses it. Through spell crafting, you can create a cheap, low-magnitude spell for any effect you have learned, thereby "learning" that effect for enchanting purposes. This allows you to add diverse effects like Drain Skill, Reflect Damage, or Silence to your enchanting repertoire.

A transformative technique involves enchanting apparel with the "Fortify Skill" effect. By creating multiple pieces of clothing or jewelry that each Fortify the Enchant skill by 20 points or more, a player can temporarily boost their Enchant skill far beyond its natural limit. With a high enough boosted skill, the cost of each effect applied during the enchanting process is reduced. This reduction means that from the same grand soul, you can fit a greater number of effects, a higher magnitude, or a wider area of effect. This self-reinforcing loop is essential for creating the most complex and powerful custom items.

The most advanced method to get more enchanting effects involves a potent, albeit exploitative, alchemical loop. By crafting a potion that grants "Weakness to Magic," drinking it, and then using a spell or enchantment that causes damage with a second "Weakness to Magic" effect, the weaknesses can stack multiplicatively. When applied to an enchanted weapon, this means subsequent strikes from that weapon can deal astronomically increased damage. While this doesn't add more discrete effects to the weapon itself, it exponentially amplifies the power of the damage effects present, making a simple Fire Damage enchantment catastrophic. This requires careful setup but showcases the extreme heights of Oblivion's interconnected magic systems.

True mastery lies not in cramming every effect onto one item, but in strategic specialization and synergy across an entire gear set. A helmet might be enchanted with Fortify Intelligence and Willpower for magicka, while a cuirass focuses purely on Fortify Health. A sword could combine Drain Health and Paralyze, while a ring provides Resist Magic. By distributing effects logically across multiple slots, you effectively get more total enchanting effects active on your character simultaneously than any single item could hold. This approach, powered by a large pool of grand souls and a fortified Enchant skill, allows for the creation of a truly god-like character, specialized for stealth, combat, or magic.

The path to unlocking more enchanting effects in Oblivion is a rewarding journey through the game's deepest mechanics. It begins with securing grand souls and access to the Arcane University, expands through the strategic use of Sigil Stones and Fortify Skill enchantments, and can culminate in the sophisticated synergy of a fully enchanted kit or the raw power of the Weakness to Magic loop. By moving beyond the basics and engaging with these systems, the player transcends the limits of ordinary gear, crafting legendary artifacts that define their experience in Cyrodiil. The power of oblivion itself becomes a tool to shape a destiny of limitless potential.

Over 220 arrested on first night of curfew in U.S. Los Angeles
In pics: General Debate of 80th session of UNGA
Israeli strikes on Iran draw Mideast condemnation over sovereignty violation, escalation risks
U.S. experts urge dialogue, cooperation in U.S.-China ties
Estonia summons Russian envoy over "airspace violation," Moscow denies breach