Acrobatics (Oblivion)

Acrobatics is a stealth arts skill that affects the player's ability to jump. The higher the acrobatics skill, the farther and higher the player can jump, and the more likely he or she can avoid or lessen the amount of damage after falling great distances.
 * Governing attribute: Speed

Skill Levels

 * Novice (0-24): Unable to attack while jumping or falling.
 * Apprentice (25-49): Can make normal attacks while jumping or falling.
 * Journeyman (50-74): Gains the Dodge ability.
 * Expert (75-99): 50% less Fatigue loss while jumping.
 * Master (100): Gains the ability to jump on the surface of water.

Leveling tips

 * One way you can really quickly increase your acrobatics skill is the go to the Imperial Prison, and go up the stairs to the east of the armory on the east side of the wall, and jump off of the roof to the ground, you will lose health every time, so be sure to wait to restore your health before each time, by doing this you will quickly increase your skill
 * You can quickly increase your skill in this by jumping as you travel. Movement while jumping forward is the same speed as running. After reaching Journeyman Acrobatics (lvl 50) by moving forward with dodges it is even faster than running and it also increases your acrobatics skill nicely.
 * Another (Very fast) way of leveling your Acrobatics skill is to travel to Kvatch, and enter. Go to the broken house to the left (By the head) and jump up the broken wall. Eventually you'll get yourself stuck there and you can continuiously jump until you raise your Acrobatics level to a desirable amount. From there, fast travel anywhere to get out.
 * Taking damage from falling increases the skill ten times faster than a regular jump. A good place to do this is at the Chestnut Handy Stables. Jump on top of the house with the sign attached to it, and then from the very peak, jump to the ground in front of the building. You should receive little damage compared to jumping off of the cliff nearby, and you can do it over and over again, and simply wait an hour if you run out of Magicka/Health. Another good place is inside the Thieves Guild. (Available after completing all the thieves guild quests) At the very top level, just outside the Guild Masters Quarters, is a flight of stairs with a curved ceiling. If you run forward off the top of the stairs you follow the curve of the ceiling and your forward momentum is converted into falling damage. Run back up the stairs, turn around and run forward again. Your acrobatics skill will increase very quickly, either heal yourself with a spell or wait an hour when your HP gets low. -Note- This may be dependent on having a high Speed attribute.
 * Try finding a place where there is little space to move upwards, then jump rapidly. With some macrosoftware you can even set it to jump rapidly while you are away from keyboard and it can do it even a lot faster than yourself. Cheydinhal mage's guild there is a barrel that you can jump on top of and do this tip. Be sure to keep moving forward or use auto-run as well, as that seems to be required for this rapid-improvement technique. Otherwise, you will only increase your acrobatics if your Fatigue meter is not empty.
 * If for some reason you were kicked out of The Mage's Guild, or if you simply want alternative locations, you can also use Jearl's House in Bruma. His house is located in the south-eastern edge of Bruma, to the bottom-left of the church. Walk up to his porch and jump up onto the rail. You won't have room to, but if you "walk" towards his house, the roofline and rail will prevent you from falling off. You can jump extremely fast here because the gap between the rail and the roof is about the size of a character, meaning as soon as you jump the game thinks you have landed because you can't jump that high to begin with. By using auto-run, or by holding the joystick up, you can just keep button-jamming. I leveled from 54 to 55 in Acrobatics in a minute and a half, and Acrobatics is not a major skill, nor is my class under Stealth so I have no bonuses to help raise it.
 * You may also go to Castle Skingrad and jump off of the bridge.
 * An easy way to quickly gain experience is to travel to the Lonely Suitor Lodge, in Bravil, and jump while on the bar, and to increase the amount of experience, swing your weapon while jumping.

Acrobatics trainers

 * Refer to the Trainers page.

Books that permanently increase the Acrobatics skill

 * Thief
 * A Dance in Fire, v1
 * A Dance in Fire, v4
 * The Black Arrow, v 1
 * Mystery of Talara, v 1

Leveling text
Apprentice-level text:
 * After long, arduous hours of practicing jumping and controlling your falls, you have become an Apprentice of Acrobatics. You can now attack while jumping or falling. However, you cannot use power attacks while in mid-jump or mid-fall, only regular attacks.

Journeyman-level text:
 * After long, arduous hours of practicing jumping and controlling your falls, you have become a Journeyman of Acrobatics. You now have the Dodge ability. Blocking while jumping makes you dodge in the direction of the jump. You will do a tumbling roll and possibly avoid an attack.

Expert-level text:
 * After long, arduous hours of practicing jumping and controlling your falls, you have become an Expert of Acrobatics. Now it costs half as much fatigue to jump.

Master-level text:
 * You have become a Master of Acrobatics. You gain the Water Jump ability. Jump just as you touch the water, and you can jump again as if it were a solid surface. Miss your timing... and fall into the water. With practice, you can jump several times in a row all the way across a body of water.

NPC Dialogue
Once your Acrobatics skill level reaches 70 or higher, NPCs will say to you: "You've got a real bounce to your step, I bet you're quite the acrobat."

Usefulness
Acrobatics is good for escaping enemies by jumping to where they cannot go. It is also good for helping to raise your speed stat which in turn helps your light armor rating. A lot of dungeons do not have any safe places to jump to in order to get away from your opponents. However many dungeons have alternate routes that are only accessible via a very high acrobatics skill. These alternate routes allow you to run the dungeon in reverse and get to the boss chests quickly. Also, while attacking, it is useful to be able to jump over enemies or fall from heights that will kill them if they follow.

Skyrim
It has been confirmed that Acrobatics will not be a skill in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim