Enchanting (Skyrim)

The more powerful the enchanter, the stronger the magic he can bind to his weapons and armor.

Enchanting is a skill in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Enchanting falls under The Mage play-style. As such, this acts as The Mage's crafting skill as opposed to The Thief's Alchemy and The Warrior's Smithing.

To enchant items, first an item with a pre-existing enchantment must be disenchanted, using an Arcane Enchanter. The item is permanently destroyed after doing so. Henceforth, the character can imbue items with that quality using filled Soul Gems (weapons have a charge and damage of X, where X is determined by rank). Soul Gems also restore the depleted enchantments of weapons, some of the Perks giving additional bonuses to this feature. The quality of soulgem used for weapons determines the amount of charge the weapon has to begin with and is not used for determining charge count or damage amount like it is for non-weapon pieces.

Leveling
Leveling Enchanting can be done in the following ways. Enchanting an item seems to give the same skill regardless of materials used. A cheap method to level enchanting would be to craft Iron Daggers, or use loot from adventuring before you sell it, and enchant it using Petty Soul Gems before selling for the cost of materials. If you are trying to maximize your gold return from the items you are enchanting in order to buy more soul gems, pay attention to the value of the item as you place enchantments on it as some enchantments raise an items' value more than others.


 * Disenchanting items that have a pre-existing enchantment on them.
 * Enchanting items that do not currently posses an enchantment.
 * Using Soul Gems to recharge weapons (Soul Siphon does not count). PC checked
 * If the player owns the Black version of Azura's Star (gained from the quest The Black Star) he can enchant a weapon with Soul Trap for 1 second and reload it after every kill for easy progress.

The following books will provide a single skill increase when read:
 * Catalogue of Weapon Enchantments
 * Complete Catalogue of Enchantments for Armor
 * Enchanter's Primer
 * Twin Secrets

Enchantments
''Note: Not a complete list. As the game becomes older we will re-edit until complete.''

Weapon Echantments

 * Absorb Health
 * Absorb Magicka
 * Absorb Stamina
 * Banish
 * Binding
 * Fear
 * Fiery Soul Trap
 * Fire Damage
 * Fortify Unarmed
 * Frost Damage
 * Huntsman's Prowess (Bonus damage to animals)
 * Lunar (Burns target if the moons are out)
 * Magicka Damage
 * Notched Pickaxe
 * Paralyze (Chance on hit)
 * Shock Damage
 * Soul Trap
 * Stamina Damage
 * Turn Undead

Obtaining Enchantments
Players do not start with any Enchantments, but Altmer, Imperial, and Orc characters gain a +5 boost to Enchanting at the start of the game. To gain enchantments to place on items, you must first disenchant a magic item. This destroys the object but allows you to use the ability for enchanting your own objects.

Enchanting Perks
The following are the perks that become available to select as the skill is leveled up

Note: it will usually be more worthwhile to take an extra rank in Enchanter vs. taking something like Fire or Frost enchanter unless you've maxed out Enchanter already.

Training

 * Sergius Turranius at The College of Winterhold teaches up to Expert level Enchanting.
 * Hamal in Temple of Dibella in Markath teaches up to Master level Enchanting(after completing The Heart of Dibella quest).