How Does Spell Effectiveness Work in Oblivion Remastered

Spell Effectiveness is a hidden stat in The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered that governs how powerful a spell will be when cast. Lower spell effectiveness means worse results, and vice versa.

Players hoping to get the most out of their magic skills will want to know how, exactly, spell effectiveness works, how to improve it to 100%, and how to mitigate the downsides when it is low. Here is how it works.

What Is Spell Effectiveness in Oblivion Remastered

spell effectiveness in the elder scrolls 4 oblivion remastered

Spell Effectiveness is a percentage value that dictates how effective the spell cast by a character will be in Oblivion Remastered. Any time a spell is cast by the character, the spell effectiveness percentage will be applied to the spell’s magnitude, changing the result.

For example, if you cast a Fireball Spell that deals 100 points of Fire damage and your spell effectiveness is 90%, the damage that Fireball deals will be 90 instead of 100. If your spell effectiveness is 85, the damage will be 85, and so on.

Certain spells, however, do not have magnitude. For these spells, spell effectiveness applies to the duration instead. So, if an invisibility spell was going to last for 50 seconds, with 90% spell effectiveness, it would last for 45 seconds instead.

Check current Spell Effectiveness in the 'Magic' tab at the bottom of the left pane.

How to Increase Spell Effectiveness in Oblivion Remastered

maxed out heavy armor skill in the elder scrolls 4 oblivion remastered

By default, Spell Effectiveness in Oblivion Remastered is 100%. However, this value is reduced by a certain amount for every piece of light or heavy armor you have equipped. The exact amount depends on your rank in the respective armor skill.

Spell effectiveness will always be 100% if you are not wearing light or heavy armor. Clothing or Robes have no impact on this stat. This is also the reason why pure mage characters prefer not wearing armor.

The formula that applies is the same for both light armor and heavy armor. Here’s the breakdown:

Light/Heavy Armor Rank	Spell Effectiveness
Novice Rank	Individual pieces of armor reduce spell effectiveness by ~7-10%. A full set of five will reduce spell effectiveness by ~18%, which would equal ~82%.
Apprentice Rank	Individual pieces of armor reduce spell effectiveness by ~6-8%. A full set of five will reduce spell effectiveness by ~14%, which would equal ~86%.
Journeyman Rank	Individual pieces of armor reduce spell effectiveness by 5%. A full set of five will also reduce spell effectiveness by exactly 5%, which would equal 95%.

When worn together, individual armor pieces will reduce spell effectiveness by a higher percentage than if they were worn alone. For example, individually, a light body armor worn at Novice Rank will reduce spell effectiveness by 9%, and a light Boot piece worn at Novice Rank will reduce it by 7%. However, when both of these pieces are worn together, the total reduction will only be 11%.

Shields also qualify as armor pieces and will further reduce spell effectiveness by a certain amount (except at Journeyman Rank).

Expert and Master Rank do not further reduce the spell effectiveness penalty, meaning you will never reach 100% spell effectiveness while wearing armor; 95% is the limit. The only way to increase this percentage further is by forgoing the use of armor altogether.

At higher levels, the Alteration spells are just as good, if not better, at providing defenses to a mage compared to armor.

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