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Oblivion talk:Useful Spells/Archive 3

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This is an archive of past Oblivion talk:Useful Spells discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page, except for maintenance such as updating links.

Fun Spells

Just like with the regular spells (see above), I propose we do something with the Fun Spells. A few spells are noteworthy, and deserve to stay in my opinion. But the rest is really not appropiate for this page.

  • A spell should stay if it is funny to use for more than one time.

This should, I think, be the guideline here. I think a expanded debate on what is funny and what not might be going too far in this case. I think we can get there with public opinion and common sense.

So this is the list I propose:

Spell name Proposal Reason
Apparition of Oblivion Merge Merge with Odd Little Trick. This spells simply expands upon it, so it should be listed there.
Bar-Fight Delete Already covered by Frenzy
C-4 Keep Many players have reported the fun they had playing around with Oblivion's physics. This spell is a good tool for playing.
Duplicate Delete Might be nice to see one or two times, but that does not add much.
Earthquake Delete Paralyzing one opponent already shows what happens. This spell is that, but just more of the same.
Heart Attack Keep The spells promises an effect not usually seen. Spell can be expanded to play around with.
Hysteria Delete Same reason as with Bar-Fight.
Knock Down Delete This spell does add little to what Paralyze already does.
Mana Flare Delete This is not a spell on its own.
Morph Delete This might be nice to see one or two times, but it does not add much. I doubt it will actually work. Summons appear behind or in front of you.
Muscle Cramp Delete Effect of Paralyze is common knowledge. What effect it has if you cast it on yourself holds nothing new.
Lingering Chill Keep A very expensive spell, but I can imagine it is fun to play around with. Most players do not know much about the Frost Damage spell effect, and this can be a good way to familiarize yourself with it.
Odd Little Trick Keep There is a surprisingly large amount of players that want to set themselves on fire. If this trick works than I'd say let's keep it. This spell can also be expanded on.
Running Jump Delete This doesn't seem to add anything new to the Fortify Skill/Fortify Attribute spell effects.
Self Destruct Delete This is not much more than a regular Fire Damage spell. Just adding a few more visuals does not do it.
Teleport Delete I can imagine this might look nice from another's perspective, but it doesn't look much if you do it yourself.
Trip Delete This is just the Paralyze effect, and it adds nothing.

Any thoughts on this list? --Timenn < talk > 10:53, 15 June 2008 (EDT)

I think the muscle cramp should stay because i heard somewhere that if u fall from really high and cast a self paralyze in mid fall u will take no damage (haven't tested though) but if that doesnt work delete Tabloes
That's untrue, unfortunately. I just tried it with a bottle of Daedric Lava Whiskey, which has a really long paralyze effect, and I took full falling damage. --Robin Hood (Talk • E-mail • Contribs) 20:53, 15 June 2008 (EDT)
How about a separate page for spells that are only interesting the first few times so newcomers can still get a few quick laughs? --Debatra 12:54, 2 November 2008 (EST)

Astral Parasite

I've been tinkering with a spell that uses Chameleon 100% + Command + Absorb Health. The idea is to invisibly drain health from the subject, while keeping him in place with command. Good way to replenish health, or weaken/kill subjects without being noticed/getting bounty. The duration on chameleon and command are a few seconds, and Absorb Health is set to a small amount. Obviously, this spell is meant to be chained, so I was thinking of trying to use the Fortify Magicka 100 chain cast trick used in a few other spells on this page. I set the spell up to use less than 50 magicka per cast, but it doesn't seem to be working like the other chain spells, it just runs out of magicka as normal. Clearly I've miscalculated somewhere; anyone got any ideas for a workable effect order/duration/magnitude scheme? My character's Illusion is 100, and Restoration is 69.

Also, you think I'd suffer any drawbacks by swapping out Chameleon 100% for Invisibility and save a few magicka? I figure I'll be rapidly casting this anyway, so invisibility would be sufficient to keep me cloaked for the duration (assuming I start out invisible before the first casting of Astral Parasite), right? Padomay 18:14, 25 June 2008 (EDT)

The most common Spell Chaining problem seems to be that people forget that they're wearing armor at the time. At 95%, your spells will have to cost 46 Magicka or less. --Debatra 13:02, 2 November 2008 (EST)

Freeze-Frame Spell

(moved from the article)

This spell stops enemies dead in their tracks, melee are useless against you, but don't get too close because as they can still swing, beware of archers and spellcasters.
An AOE is highly recommended, but not needed.
Set X too however long you want too talk too victims about their demise.
The Light is just for effect, see Mana Flare.
Weakness to Frost is also for effect, but it makes sure you end your enemies swiftly if you follow up with a Frost Damage spell.

I've moved this because it seems to be a random collection of spells. It's a mishmash of effects there purely for... err.. effect, and the only really useful part is the Drain Strength. Unless the author can give some compelling new information, it doesn't deserve a place on the page. –Rpeh•T•C•E• 14:44, 26 June 2008 (EDT)

I think that this guy's trying to recreate "Cutscene Mode" or something similar. Here's what I'd recommend:
He basically wants to freeze them in their tracks without paralyzing them. This will work better. Dispel would be used to make it reflect-proof with Y=Magicka Cost/4. --Debatra 13:18, 2 November 2008 (EST)
You could also add Silence to temporarily prevent Spellcasting, or Drain Marksman to make the target's arrows less damaging.

Fist of Flame

Moved this from the article:

Requires an Apprentice in Destruction.
This spell is good for people who use hand to hand. After casting this spell when you punch the enemy they will gain the fire damage part of the spell, and multiple punches during the time reset the spell to do more damage. It also gives an attractive visual effect. Be careful when casting this spell near non hostile npcs, as they will also get set on fire if you touch them. If you remove the strength effect, this spell can be used to clear groups of enemys by running through them.

I've just tried it to get to work, but I couldn't. While I was under the effect of the spell I punched some other NPCs, but the Fire Damage effect didn't appear in their Active Effects list. Would this spell have worked it would have put some question marks on how we believe Oblivion's spell system works, as I have never seen something like this before. That's why I removed it from the article. --Timenn < talk > 05:39, 6 August 2008 (EDT)

It looks like they just misunderstand how spells (or at least fire damage) work in Oblivion. All that will happen is a fire damage effect on self and slightly higher damage from the fortified strength.--Alphaman•T• 05:52, 6 August 2008 (EDT)

Quality tag

Given Timenn's great work in improving this page and removing the chaff, what would people think about taking the Quality tag off? It got added because the page was being treated as a forum for everybody to add their own favorites, but now that it just lists the good spells, I don't think we need to flag the page anymore. Thoughts? –Rpeh•T•C•E• 03:05, 14 August 2008 (EDT)

While the literal meaning of the tag still applies (it's heavily-edited), it has indeed risen above the likes as Oblivion:Gripes or the Oblivion:Roleplaying subpages. I agree with rpeh that the tag is no longer necessary, as changes are now possible to patrol effectively. --Timenn < talk > 09:26, 14 August 2008 (EDT)
I'll third that motion. --Robin Hood (Talk • E-mail • Contribs) 10:22, 14 August 2008 (EDT)
I agree. Good work Timenn. Orange-laser-cube 12:19, 15 August 2008 (EDT)

Multiple Pages

We should divide this into multiple pages sorted by spell type. That way more people could add spells without having to worry as much about the page being too long. Like Useful Destruction spells, useful illusion spells and so-on. Crowbar 19:47, 29 August 2008 (EDT)

I don't think it needs that - at least not yet. See the discussion above - there are far fewer genuinely useful, non-obvious spells than you might think. –Rpeh•T•C•E• 01:39, 30 August 2008 (EDT)

Suggest replacing Hellshock/etc

Badly named, poor mechanic, each type is ineffective against against certain creatures, not Magicka effective / unnecessary requirements. "Soul Snatch" - Touch, Soul Trap 1 sec, and Drain Health 75 has no requirements. With Drain Health 100 has the same Apprentice requirement, but either is far more effective and works against everything. --Aliana 01:02, 2 November 2008 (EST)

Spell Chaining with Fortify Intelligence

Does anyone know for sure if this works? I won't be able to test it myself for a while. --Debatra 12:14, 2 November 2008 (EST)

Just tried it: it doesn't work. Fortify Magicka and Intelligence, however, does. --Debatra 16:36, 19 November 2008 (EST)

I agree. I tried to construct a chaining spell using
   * Fortify Magicka 100 pts for 2 secs on Self
   * Fortify Intelligence 100 pts for 2 secs on Self
   * Any effect you want x pts for y secs on Self

as in the 'Chaining' example and it did not work. This is on an Xbox 360, and it seems to me that the effect of one of the 'Fortify' elements is dealt with entirely before the other is started. In the above example, this would entirely negate the effects of the 'Fortify Intelligence' component for chaining purposes.

Please could you explain the how you got the "Fortify Magicka and Intelligence, however, does." conclusion? --82.9.73.46 06:45, 19 February 2009 (EST)

For the record, I'm on the PS3, GOTY.
I made a few test spells; one with only Fortify Magicka, one with only Fortify Intelligence and one with both. I made sure I wasn't wearing any armor, and tested them. The one with only Fortify Intelligence didn't work, but the others did. --Debatra 09:39, 19 February 2009 (EST)
I'm on the 360 and this does not appear to work!
   * Fortify Magicka 100 pts for 2 secs on Self
   * Fortify Intelligence 100 pts for 2 secs on Self
   * Soul Trap for 3 secs on Target
   * Shock Damage 84 pts for 2 secs on Target

For my character, the spell cost is 150 Magicka. I also verified my spell effectiveness is 100% and that the spell icons are still available on each subsequent casting (I even used the "blocking fists" trick mentioned below to improve the casting speed). Essentially the effect is my character receives the initial 300 points extra Magicka when I cast the spell the first time (boosting my character's base 286 Magicka to 586 and deducting the 150 cost of the spell, as described) but none of the subsequent castings improve my actual Magicka -- they just maintain the base at 586...

   First Casting Magicka:  438/586
   Second Casting Magicka: 302/586
   Third Casting Magicka:  161/586
   Fourth Casting Magicka:  22/586

I was relatively quick in checking the stats but there's obviously some random element I've introduced. As you can see, the effect does not produce the results "as advertised" (again -- on the 360, as mentioned earlier by another contributor). I struggle to understand why this SHOULD work "as advertised" given that this is essentially the same effect that keeps replacing itself on your character. Seems like a glitch being exploited on some of the other platforms... You may be able to make it work by creating multiple (uniquely named) spells and just calling each in order, though I tried this with alternating between two versions and was again limited to four castings. 72.208.20.214 04:34, 27 April 2009 (EDT)

Can PS3 users endlessly cast 150-magicka/Fortify-Magicka+Intelligence spell chains?
Yes as long as the spells components start with Fortify Intelligence then Fortify Magicka.--Vukodlak 21:07, 30 August 2009 (UTC)
Running GOTY on PC, Fortify Magicka+Intelligence spells that cost over 50 magicka give me diminishing-magicka spell chains similar to what is described above, NOT endless spell chains. I get the one-time boost of 300 to total magicka on the 1st cast, but remaining magicka falls with each subsequent cast until it's lower than the cost of the spell, at which point I get the "You don't have enough Magicka" message, and the spell chain ends. (I'm blocking fists to recast quickly and not wearing armor.)
Regardless of how it works on PS3, I believe Oblivion:Useful_Spells#Chaining should be edited to make it obvious that on PC and Xbox 360 1) Fortify Intelligence only gives a 300 point boost to total magicka, which is only useful at the start of the spell chain, and 2) chaining with spells costing >50 magicka isn't endless. --RavenBlade 07:35, 8 May 2009 (EDT)

I have now tested both on computer and the ps3 versions of the game and can confirm the eternal chain works perfectly on both with Fortify Intelligence then Fortify Magicka. In either case the chain will fail if Fortify Intelligence is no the first component on the list. So if your eternal chain is failing its because you put Fortify Intelligence second instead of first on the components list. So this example below, (assuming maxed out destruction)

   *Fortify Intelligence 100 for 3 secs on self[MUST BE FIRST NO EXCEPTIONS!]
   *Fortify Magicka 100 for 3 secs on self
   *Shock Damage 30pts for 2 secs on target
   *Fire Damgae 20pts  for 2 secs on target
   *Frost Damage 20pts for 2 seconds on target
   *Damage Health 20pts for 2 seconds on target
   *Paralyze for 1 sec on target
   *Light 100ft for 1 sec on target

Cost 148 with my 100 Destruction I'm guessing it works perfectly on the 360 version of the game as well, but carries the same restrictions. --Vukodlak 03:19, 12 December 2009 (UTC)

Blood Hunt

I added this spell a while ago. It's basically:


I use this spell a lot because it helps a lot in exploring caves or looking for people to feed on as a vampire, especially if you're a stealthy character. But it was deleted because "night eye and detect life generally don't work well together". I believe that's more of a "personal" reason then a common one (though I can understand why it could be difficult), I even went back and checked the spell again under different Brightness settings and I realised that it only caused me trouble if I had pretty high brightness on my game. Is the Night eye-detect life combo really a problem (Maybe it's computer vs. tv screens)? Zirakseez 20:34, 16 November 2008 (EST)

It's not a problem as that it makes it much worse, it's just that both spells don't improve each other. Detect Life has a distinct purple glow, which is removed with the blue filter of Night-Eye. So where Detect Life helps you in detecting enemies by marking them in contrast with a usually dark environment, Night-Eye helps by just revealing all that is in darkness. You will still find that you can mix these two effects, but specifically combining them into one spell should promise a certain bonus effect. Invisibility arguably improves every spell that you cast on yourself, so it's not noteworthy enough to mention on a Useful Spells page. --Timenn < talk > 07:16, 20 November 2008 (EST)
Well I created this spell because I tried the "Spell of the Spelunker" that is also on the list (it's pretty similar to this spell), and realized that Night-Eye worked much better for 2 main reasons. The first was that Night-Eye was a much more efficient way of seeing your surroundings; that's why I included Night-Eye, not because it compliments Detect-Life (it doesn't), but because it let's you see everything there like chests(not just within a 30 foot radius like the light spell). The second reason was that Invisibility and Light didn't really work if you were trying to be stealthy. If you interacted with anything and lost your invisibility, the light spell would make you much easier to see, so it kind of defeats the purpose of the invisiblity spell and stealthiness. The creator of the Spell of the Spelunker was smart in having Invisiblity last longer then light, but that would only help if you're didn't really touch anything. --Zirakseez 18:02, 20 November 2008 (EST)
Just something I'd like to add about the Spell of the Spelunker, the Light and detect life attributes in the spell are so weak that they are completely pointless. And they're both 30 feet, so not only would you have already seen the enemy with the Light spell by the time you reach him, but chances are you would have seen him even without Light anyway because he's only 30 feet away! ---Zirakseez 15:17, 28 November 2008 (EST)
So I'm guessing I can move it back now? If there's any other reason why the spell shouldn't be there then it can be discussed here and the spell removed if need be. --Zirakseez 15:23, 28 November 2008 (EST)
The light effect on the Spell of the Spelunker is more for seeing treasure and traps than the enemies. I've deleted the Blood Hunt spell again because the points raised by Timenn are still valid - the two effects don't work together. –Rpeh•T•C•E• 02:07, 29 November 2008 (EST)
Then why does it even have detect life in 30 feet if Light is 30 feet too? It's really just irrational. My point is that this is a superior version of Spell of the Spelunker. I also don't think you read the whole argument. Timenn's original argument was that Night-Eye and Detect life together don't offer any bonuses, not that they don't work together. And I already addressed that point. --Zirakseez 16:40, 3 December 2008 (EST)

"Greater Spells" Section?

I think we should have a "Greater Spells" section here where more powerful spells requiring larger amounts of Magicka or a mastery in a magical skill are required. That way we can also post spells that the more experienced players may like, which would also allow more complex spells. At the momment, there is a great limit because all spells posted have to be convinient for beginner characters. --Zirakseez 20:40, 28 November 2008 (EST)

Agreed. --Debatra 21:36, 28 November 2008 (EST)
I don't think this is a good idea. This page is for clever, useful or non-obvious effects rather than vastly-powerful spells. There's no real need for such spells except to produce large duration or AOE effects. If the spell is genuinely useful it's a better idea to list it here with a smaller duration or AOE so it has a lower skill requirement. –Rpeh•T•C•E• 02:10, 29 November 2008 (EST)
I think you completely misunderstood what I'm saying here. When I say "Greater Spells" I don't mean just normal over-powered spells or ones with a large AOE/duration. These are spells that simply require more magicka and higher skill because of their complexity or simply because the effects themselves require higher skill regardless of duration. Not every spell can simply be "dumbed down" to make it more convenient for weaker characters. --Zirakseez 09:48, 29 November 2008 (EST)
Please post an example of what you have in mind on here first. We don't want to turn the man page back into a free-for-all. –Rpeh•T•C•E• 12:01, 29 November 2008 (EST)
This isn't a very good example, but one spell that I've found myself to be using a lot lately is this:

Serpent's Eye

Weakness to Poison 100% for 10 seconds on Touch

  • Weakness to Magic 100% for 5 seconds on Touch

Paralyze for 10 seconds on Touch

  • The Weakness to Magic is there because the blade I'll be hitting them with is enchanted too (and has it's own Weakness to Poison enchantment).

The Spell is a great way to start a battle when your weapon is poisoned. Just smack the guy with the spell then hit him with your poisoned weapon. When you're facing multiple enemies, this is a nice way to basically take care of one and move on to the others. You'll ofcourse need a moderately good poison too, but the weakness enchantment helps a lot. I also have a few more spells that I'll also be adding later, but I'm trying to perfect them before I post them.

That's a perfect example of what shouldn't be on the page: it's overpowered and obvious. –Rpeh•T•C•E• 03:39, 1 December 2008 (EST)
Understood, I've just recently been making some new spells and will likely post some of them once I perfect the concept. --Zirakseez 17:49, 5 December 2008 (EST)
I'm with Zirakseez.

Super mass kill spell, with very little chance of backfiring/getting interrupted

I use this one as the ultimate "Kill anything" spell.

  • Fortify Intelligence 100 for 6 seconds
  • Fortify Magicka 100 for 6 seconds
  • Weakness to Magic in 10 ft for 3 seconds on touch
  • Invisibility for 3 seconds on self
  • Command Creature up to level 25 in 10 ft for 1 second on touch
  • Command Humanoid up to level 25 in 10 ft for 1 second on touch
  • Absorb Fatigue 57 pts in 10 ft for 1 second on touch
  • Absorb Health 35 pts in 10 ft for 1 second on touch

Total cost when all relevant magic schools are at 100: 141 mana. Absorb Fatigue and Absorb Health can be lowered to keep spell at 141 mana.

141 Mana is the magic number for infinite casting with both Fortify Int and Fortify Magicka at 100. 6 seconds allow me to get up from a knockdown and still chain cast it.

Command spells will cause most monsters to stop attacking you. If the first cast doesn't work, the 2nd will when boosted with weakness to magicka. Invisibility keeps you hidden so they just stand there after the command effect goes off.

Absorb Fatigue is a significantly better "Paralyze" spell than paralyze, because if absorb fatigue is reflected, nothing happens to you. And Absorb Health is just better than damage health, plus it heals you.

Of course, if you meet someone with 100% magic resistance, this spell doesn't work.

Also, how come nobody mentioned chaining spells using both fortify intelligence and fortify magicka? This raises the spell cost limit to 141 instead of sticking with around 50.

ZirePhoenix 01:34, 28 December 2008 (EST)

No. This would fall into the "Just a combination of powerful effects" category. For example, Command Creature and Command Humanoid never even work together. Furthermore, the spell requirements are very close to being a Master in Restoration. When you try to keep the effects low enough for it to be "just" an Expert spell, the Absorb Health is too low to make a significant effect. Remember that when casting spells, not only the magicka requirement comes into play, but also the time it takes to take down an opponent. --Timenn < talk > 05:28, 28 December 2008 (EST)
For this spell, time is not a factor. Try using it on anything and they'll just stand there until they die. There isn't a single creature in the game that can counter this except for 100% magicka resistant creatures.
Command Humanoid and Command Creature DO work together if the area of effect includes both humanoids and creatures, which is very common inside Oblivion Gates. Realize that if you reduce Absorb Health and Fatigue until it is expert level, you're still instantly removing 200 HP from *ANY* creature due to the Weakness to Magicka and Drain Health effect. This spell works just fine with very minimal Absorb Health. Higher just makes killing really strong guys faster.ZirePhoenix 15:49, 30 December 2008 (EST)

Here's a new version at Expert requirement:

  • Fortify Int 70 for 4s
  • Fortify Magicka 100 for 4s
  • Invisibility 3s on self
  • Weakness to Magic 100% in 10ft for 3s on touch
  • Drain Health 100 in 10ft for 1s on touch
  • Command Creature 25 in 10ft for 1s on touch
  • Command Humanoid 25 in 10ft for 1s on touch
  • Absorb Health 25 pts in 10ft for 1s on touch

With all magic skills at 100. 77 mana cost.

This spell works perfectly fine at higher level. Tweak Fortify Int/Absorb Health until you can cast it continuously. Command Creature, Humanoid, and Weakness to Magic causes EVERY creature in the game to lose aggro. They will just stand there while you absorb 50 hp per cast. First cast kills anything at 125 hp. Next one kills anything at 250 hp. The combination of safety, large area kill, infinite casting, and no retaliation is rather "unique" for a spell. Absorb Fatigue isn't necessary, but if you want the stun factor, you'll need it. ZirePhoenix 16:02, 30 December 2008 (EST)

This spell is simply overpowered and will ruin the game. It's very clever, but given the net effect you may as well put on God mode using the console and not bother with anything else. Such overpowered spells aren't worth listing. –Rpeh•T•C•E• 16:37, 30 December 2008 (EST)

Fill Azura Gem

Found this neat one that you can cast infinitely to get souls for Azura's Star.

  • Summon Ghost for 2 seconds
  • Soul Trap in 20 ft for 1 second on TARGET
  • Drain Health 100 pts in 20 ft for 1 second on TARGET
  • Fortify Magicka 100 pts for x secs

This summons a Ghost and instantly soul traps + kills it due to the AOE effect, and fills your gem instantly.

If your skills aren't high enough and the cost is too much to cast infinitely, add Fortify Intelligence until it works.

Haven't tried with stronger monsters, but it's the same principle. ZirePhoenix 01:40, 28 December 2008 (EST)

No particular benefit other than that you have to cast one spell instead of two. Just combining them doesn't make it more special. The advantage of keeping them apart is that you can customize the Summon. --Timenn < talk > 05:30, 28 December 2008 (EST)
Actually, you can't do infinite chain cast if they are separate spell, unless your spell regen is so high that you can cast the summons every 4 seconds. This spell allows you to fill your Azura Star without interruption to refill Transcendent Sigil Stone charged items (5600 charges...)
Also, to switch spells, it takes at least 2 seconds. If you have a cast on self ability, the summon will most likely have disappeared after 2, so you'll be spending more mana to cast a longer duration summon. ZirePhoenix 15:46, 30 December 2008 (EST)
This is actually a pretty useful spell, putting both the "summon" and the "destroy" effect as one makes it very convenient. --Ovais 16:14, 4 April 2009 (EDT)
Let me clarify my earlier statement (after having tried this spell out a few times). The spell is still pretty usefull, but there are 2 problems with it:
  • 1. Ghosts (even summoned ones) level up with you, so it gradually get's much harder to kill them in 1 blow.
  • 2. Because of this, the Magicka cost is too much to make it "chainable", because the fortify magicka enchantment doesn't work. I originally believed the Max health on Ghosts was 72, but in order to kill my ghost I had to use 100 pts of drain life and some extra shock damage. --Ovais 18:43, 5 April 2009 (EDT)
Let me say it again. Simply combining two spells to make it more convenient may help, but it isn't noteworthy enough for the Useful Spells page. If we add all these kinds of combinations, the page will become bloated again. --Timenn < talk > 09:04, 8 April 2009 (EDT)
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