Enchanting Skill
| Enchanting | |
|---|---|
| Specialisation | Magic |
| Perks | 9 |
| Perk Points To Fill | 13 |
| Racial Bonus | Altmer, Imperial, Orsimer |
| Governing Stone | The Mage Stone |
Enchanting is the Magic crafting skill in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and one of the three crafting skills alongside Smithing and Alchemy. It binds magical effects to weapons, armour, clothing and jewellery.
Raising the skill does two things: it increases the strength of new enchantments, quadratically, up to twenty-five per cent more effective at level 100, and it increases the number of charges an enchanted weapon holds. The tree has nine perks but costs thirteen points to fill, because Enchanter has five ranks.
The Three Things An Arcane Enchanter Does
Everything happens at an arcane enchanter, and the station offers three separate actions that players often conflate.
- Disenchant an item to learn the effect it carries. The item is destroyed and only the effect type is learned; its magnitude is irrelevant. Staves, artifacts and most unique items cannot be disenchanted at all and never appear in the list.
- Enchant an unenchanted item, using a known effect and a filled soul gem. The soul gem's size sets the magnitude.
- Recharge a depleted weapon with a filled soul gem.
Arcane enchanters sit in most Jarls' palaces, in the court wizard's quarters, and turn up in dungeons held by necromancers, vampires and mages. Falkreath and Winterhold have no court wizard. Most player houses can be fitted with one.
Weapons Versus Apparel
The two behave differently and it decides how you spend soul gems.
Weapon enchantments are charged. They fire on hit and deplete, and a larger soul gem buys more charges. When enchanting a weapon a slider trades magnitude against charges. Apparel enchantments are constant while worn, never deplete, and never need recharging.
Muffle and Waterbreathing are all-or-nothing effects with no magnitude, so a petty soul gem produces exactly the same result as a grand one. Spending a grand soul on either is wasted.
The Crafting Loop
Enchanting is the hinge of the three crafting skills. Fortify Alchemy and Fortify Smithing are apparel effects, so stronger enchantments make stronger potions, and stronger potions make stronger enchantments. Four pieces of Fortify Smithing is what pushes gear past what the Smithing perks allow alone.
One restriction catches most players out: an enchanted item cannot be tempered at a grindstone or workbench without the Arcane Blacksmith perk. Enchant a weapon before taking that perk and its quality is frozen where it stands.
Perk Tree
Nine perks, thirteen points, in three branches off Enchanter.
| Perk | Ranks | Skill | Requires |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enchanter | 5 | None, 20, 40, 60, 80 | None |
| Soul Squeezer | 1 | 20 | Enchanter |
| Fire Enchanter | 1 | 30 | Enchanter |
| Frost Enchanter | 1 | 40 | Fire Enchanter |
| Soul Siphon | 1 | 40 | Soul Squeezer |
| Storm Enchanter | 1 | 50 | Frost Enchanter |
| Insightful Enchanter | 1 | 50 | Enchanter |
| Corpus Enchanter | 1 | 70 | Insightful Enchanter |
| Extra Effect | 1 | 100 | Corpus or Storm Enchanter |
The Three Branches
Only two of them lead anywhere.
| Branch | Perks | Reaches Extra Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Elemental | Fire, Frost, Storm | Yes, via Storm |
| Armour | Insightful, Corpus | Yes, via Corpus |
| Soul | Soul Squeezer, Soul Siphon | No |
The soul branch buys convenience rather than progression: it keeps enchanted weapons charged, but neither perk unlocks anything further. Full effect lists are on Enchantment Effects.
