Wabbajack (Skyrim)

"And as for you, my little mortal minion...feel free to keep the Wabbajack. As a symbol of my...oh, just take the damn thing."

- Sheogorath

The Wabbajack is the Daedric artifact of Sheogorath, a mysterious staff that casts random spells ranging in effect from the complete disintegration to the transformation or empowerment of the target. These abilities are able to completely alter the course of battle in one of any number of ways.

The Wabbajack is one of five Daedric artifacts made by the Daedric Prince of Madness, Sheogorath. Its rogue nature is a reflection upon Sheogorath's own chaos, choosing at random to either help or hinder those he encounters.

Acquisition
The Wabbajack is given to the Dragonborn after the completion of Sheogorath's quest The Mind of Madness.

Known effects

 * Fireball
 * Thunderbolt
 * Frost Rune
 * Unrelenting Force effect; throw back
 * Heal Other
 * Disintegration
 * Transformation
 * Summon effects: mudcrab, daedra, rabbit, chicken, chicken that explodes after 20 seconds
 * Effect canceled on hit: chicken, rabbit, dremora lord, or a random draugr. Examples: Jyrik Gauldurson, goat, spectral, mudcrab
 * Effects that eliminates target: sweetroll, fountain of septims, or random books spawn
 * Leveled dremora (Common)
 * Invisibility
 * Summon enemy dremora
 * Ice Spike
 * Instant kill (ghostly remains; ghostly remains with sweetroll; normal remains; no body)
 * Fear
 * Drain stamina
 * Paralyze
 * Unequip target's armor
 * Absorb health
 * Target explodes, turns into ghostly remains and scattered gold and pitchforks. Taking the gold counts as stealing
 * Changes target's armor
 * Decapitation
 * Reanimate targeted dead body (possibly no limits to level except bosses like Alduin) with double health. Fights the wielder
 * No effect
 * May switch places with target
 * Replace enemies with random amounts and kinds of cheese
 * Teleports enemy a short distance away

Follower level
Transforming a follower with the Wabbajack and letting them change back is currently the only way to force a follower to level up to match the Dragonborn's level on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of Skyrim. Characters in Skyrim are usually locked at the level at which they are first spawned (when they were first encountered). On the PC it can be corrected with console commands. This method does not work with housecarls, however.

Note: If patch 1.6 (or higher) is installed, then this is no longer an issue for any of the versions of Skyrim (Xbox, PS3, or PC).

Trivia

 * In keeping with Lewis Carroll's theme of insanity and allusions to Alice in Wonderland, the name of the artifact may be inspired by the title of Carroll's poem Jabberwocky.
 * The head of the staff resembles three of Sheogorath's faces in the differing moods that the daedric lord tends to alternate arbitrarily between.
 * The head of the staff also resembles the faces of the Strange Door in Niben Bay, which was also modeled on Sheogorath, and which led to the Shivering Isles.
 * If the staff's effect that transforms the target into a mudcrab is cast on a mudcrab, it will grow larger.
 * The staff seems to very regularly change mudcrabs into chickens.
 * The character called "Madwoman" can appear at random locations chanting, "Wabbajack, Wabbajack, Wabbajack, Wabbajack," and may request to be hit with a spell from the Wabbajack. If you have completed "The Mind of Madness," she will know that you have acquired the Wabbajack, even if it is not in your inventory when you encounter her. She uses the word Wabbajack as a verb, and the only Wabbajack effect is to transform her into a rabbit.
 * The Wabbajack has a higher chance of instantly killing or turning dwarven centurions into sweetrolls.
 * Another copy obtained using the  console code has an enchantment described as "It's all you've got..." This version is only used in the Mind of Madness quest; using it like the normal Wabbajack does not yield any transformation or destruction abilities.
 * If Sheogorath is summoned into Skyrim with console commands, he may use a variant of the Wabbajack that looks the same, but casts adept and expert Destruction spells.
 * All attacks made using this staff are from the Destruction school, so fortifying Destruction to 100% will make the charge cost zero and allow infinite uses without need of recharging.
 * When the staff is used on a dragon, essential npc, dead thrall or giant, it will always cast an exploding Destruction spell, such as fireball.
 * Based on the Wabbajack book, it seems this staff has a detrimental effect on users, making them obsessive and outright insane. This keeps with the theme of the staff's creator, and implies an explanation for how Sheogorath looks if The Hero of Kvatch is really who the character meets in The Mind of Madness.
 * The Wabbajack is an easy weapon to earn and a very powerful staff.
 * If used to turn a victim in the Abandoned Shack into an animal, it will count as killing them, even before the effect wears off. When the effect does wear off, the victim will be dead.
 * The staff has an innate damage stat on it, however, this cannot be accessed, as the staff cannot be used as a melee weapon.
 * Miraak and Karstaag have immunity to the Instant Kill effects.
 * If an enemy is turned into an animal with the staff, it should be noted that this is only a temporary effect; the enemy will turn back into whatever they were to begin with after a short time, approximately 20 seconds.
 * If the cast effect is a food or other item, this effect, unlike the effect that turns enemies into animals, is permanent, meaning that characters and enemies cannot come back from being turned into, say, a sweet roll.
 * If using this on followers to level them up, it should be noted that if they are turned into a mudcrab or Daedra they will be hostile in that form, so it is best to evade the attacks until the follower changes back, when all hostilities will cease, or simply hold up your shield to level the block skill.
 * Bandit chiefs will have their inventory reset after being transformed by the Wabbajack.

Bugs

 * Transformation effects on guards do not change them, but instead summons whatever they were supposed to change into. However, this often makes the guard stop attacking the user. This is because the transformation effect normally works by de-spawning the target and spawning a generic creature in their place; for some reason, guards cannot be despawned even using the console.
 * If a target dies while being transformed, the transformation may be spawned.
 * Attacking a summoned dremora lord with the Wabbajack may cause the game to crash.
 * When given to followers, the Wabbajack only appears to use damage-dealing attacks.
 * If a spawned dremora lord fades while being decapitated, it may remain alive without a head, but their speech options won't work, rendering them useless.
 * The Wabbajack can disappear when placed in a weapon display case or rack.
 * Targets transformed by the Wabbajack may never turn back, and cannot be damaged.
 * Sometimes, a transformed item cannot be picked up.
 * The Wabbajack may only do frost rune, fireball or lightning effects on non-killable characters such as children or quest characters. This is also true for dead thralls.
 * Sometimes when used on a wild animal, the game will start running slowly.
 * Sometimes when the Wabbajack is given to Lydia or Faendal (not yet tested on other followers) it glitches in the follower's hand and disappears when unsheathing. Opening the follower's inventory shows no Wabbajack.
 * Sometimes disappears randomly from inventory.

Appearances


Wabbajack (Skyrim) Wabbajack (Skyrim) Ваббаджек (посох) Łabadżak (Skyrim) Wabbajack (Skyrim)