Enchantments inThe Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remasteredare going to dramatically change how your character functions, and serve as one of the most fluid ways that you’re able to change your character’s efficacy in an instant. It’s easy enough to amass a wealth of enchanted gear, and you’re limited only by your carrying capacity in terms of what you can bring.
Armor enchantments also work a little bit differently than weapon enchantments; weapon enchantments need constant maintenance in the form of recharging themwith soul gems. Armor enchantments need to be applied to your armor once, and then act as passive effects while they’re equipped.
There are nearly endless enchantment combinations possible in Oblivion; one list couldn’t possibly contain every great option. But, this will provide a good basis for understanding some of the best options, and for how they can work together.
7Chameleon
Be One With Your Surroundings
Chameleonis going tomake you partially invisible; the thing with armor enchantments is that it’s easy to stack multiple enchantments at the same time. And sowithChameleon, it’s possible to gain perfect invisibility by combining multiple armor pieces with the effect.
While this does not make you entirely undetectable, it brings you very close to it. This canbe a game-changerfor a stealth build, and can be a good complimentary set to bring around in certain situations, especially if you put on low-weight items so they don’t take up too much of your carry weight.
6Fortify Strength
Carry More, Hit Harder
Fortify Strengthis going to provide apassive Strength bonuswhile you have that piece of gear equipped. You’ll reap all the benefits of that extra strength, which does include some combat perks with heavier weapons, but it also increases your carry weight.
Strictly in terms of carry weight, there’s an argument to be had that a Feather Enchantment would be better, but the Strength is multi-faceted, while Feather has a single purpose. Either way,it’ll help you carry more, and more than make up for the actual weight of the armor, provided the bonus is of considerable magnitude.
5Fortify Health
You Can Take It
Fortify Healthis an obvious choice for one of the better armor enchantments, and its effect is clear:it makes you harder to kill. Stacking quite a few of these on a character can significantly increase their health, and can have great value for a melee-focused character.
You could have a backup set ofFortify Healthgear in your inventory, andswap to it when your own health gets low. This will basically heal you for the value of the combinedFortify Healtheffect of the armor, and could be a cheaper method than using a healing spell, and would save you on potions.
4Fortify Magicka
Their Magic Is Your Magic
For a Mage,Fortify Magickacan be an important enchantment. Certain powerful spells require an incredible amount of Magicka to cast, and that cost can be prohibitive, particularly if you plan on using a follow-up spell immediately afterward.
Fortify Magickawill increase your Magicka pool, and make this a bit less of a problem. One thing to note about this is that it’s also going to increase your Magicka regeneration rate, because your Willpower restores a percentage of your maximum Magicka. So, making your maximum Magicka pool bigger via an enchantment means your Willpower restores more Magicka with each tick.
3Shield
Shrug It Off
TheShieldenchantment is going toincrease your Physical Armor rating. Physical Armor reduces all incoming physical damage, but does nothing to stop incoming magical damage. Still, many enemies in the game are going to attack with physical damage, making this a consistently useful enchantment.
You could stack multipleShieldenchantments together, andessentially give you the armor rating of heavier gear, without the drawbacks of the heavier weight that gear would apply. This can help a build maintain both survivability and maneuverability.
2ElementalShield
Walk Through The Flames
WhileShieldprovides a Physical Armor bonus,elemental shields will provide a defensive effect against their related elements. This comes in three varieties:Fire Shield,Frost Shield, andShock Shield. All of these provide protection specifically against that effect, and nothing else.
While these have a bitmore of a targeted focus thanShield, there are situations in which they can provide an immense benefit. Certain enemies, or certain locations, have a heavy focus on certain damage types; fire being a ready-made example with certain monsters.Fire Shieldcan provide a lot of benefit in those instances.
1Dispel
No Magic Can Keep You Down
Dispel can be a complicated enchantment in a lot of situations, because many times, similar effects can come from many different sources.Dispel is going to negate any spell effect used on you that has any kind of duration, which can be extremely beneficial, particularly whenfighting Mageswho like to use a variety of debuffing effects.
But Dispel gets rid of all spell effects,whether they’re positive or negative. That means you can wear a Dispel enchantment that will make you immune to a lot of different effects, but you also won’t be able to rely on any positive effects, either.For a character entirely uninterested in magic, this can be very helpful, often offering help in situations where you aren’t even aware you’ve been helped.
