Exploits (Oblivion)

For other uses, see Exploits.

See also: Bugs (Oblivion)

Exploits are unintended, emergent mechanics of a game that players can make use of to acquire resources, speed up leveling, make use of flaws in the world design or engine, or otherwise break the game to benefit their character or have fun.

The exploits listed here fall into three basic categories: exploiting known bugs, using internal console commands, and means to abuse the game engine without actually "breaking" any rules.

Console commands[]

For a full list of console commands, see Console Commands (Oblivion).

The PC version of the game gives players access to the debugging console, which is typically used by employees when play testing the game. As such, the console allows the player to directly manipulate the game world in ways not normally intended. To access the console, press the tilde key, '~' (usually, next to the 1 key). This will pause the game and display the console cursor, and any recent commands that may have been run.

Some users may have trouble bringing up the console. It is said that in such cases the ' or @ key may work, or the key directly left of the 1 (assuming that's not the ~ key.) Also, there is a known issue with Windows Media Center edition, when the infrared unit is connected to the USB port when you boot your system, you cannot access the console (or, apparently, use the ~ key at all) until you unplug the unit and reboot.

Gold and items[]

The AddItem console command allows the player to add any number of any item in the game directly to the inventory. The command looks like this:

actor.AddItem itemid amount

The term actor here just means an object that represents some character in the game. The word also appears in many of the commands that affect NPCs, but for these purposes, the global actor name player always refers to the player's character. The ItemID for gold is 0000000F. The leading 0's to the ItemID are not necessary, so all that would have to be entered is the letter F. Item IDs for most other items can be found in the list mentioned above. So, to endow the player with an additional 1000 gold, the command to enter is:

player.additem 0000000F 1000

Or, alternately without the leading 0's, the command would be:

player.additem F 1000

Note that calling AddItem with no parameters will make a complete copy of the player character itself. Do not attack this clone, as it belongs to all of that already joined guilds and there will be the usual repercussions.

There is a way to get unlimited money on consoles. Find a person named Dorian in Imperial City (Talos Plaza district). Make sure some money is possessed, persuade him but drop his approval, then bribe him. The more money he is bribed by, the faster the rate the player's money goes up. Then kill him and loot his corpse, but don't take it all as the game may freeze. His money won't run out until his corpse disappears. This is a good way to get into the Dark Brotherhood, as Dorian is useless.

Skills and attributes[]

Several commands exists that let you alter the skills and attributes of your character. The ModPCAttribute and MODPCSkill command (abbreviated modpca and modpcs) allow you to increase an attribute or skill on the player character. Set SetActorValue function (abbreviated setav), when called on the player object, allows you to directly set the value of an attribute or skill. (Note that SetActorValue can also edit other information about your player, such as your bounty, chameleon level, magic resistances, etc.)

The difference between the two methods for changing your skills involves the levelling process. When you use ModPCSkill to raise a skill, it doesn't actually advance your "usage count" to the minimum needed for that level. This technically gives you negative progress towards your next skill increase. Using completely made-up numbers, if you needed to cast 50 spells to raise Destruction, and you had already cast 25 of them, using ModPCSkill to raise Destruction would mean you had -25 uses. This means you'd need to cast 25 more spells just to get your progress meter back to 0. Using SetActorValue in this same case would leave you with 25 uses out of whatever the new total needed was. On the other hand, ModPCSkill increases count towards your character level, while SetActorValue increases do not.

A word of warning: Trying to set values over 255 will roll them back to zero. Negative numbers also work, though they may cause unstable behavior (especially if you lower a skill or attribute below the minimum requirements for your current skill level, class, etc.).

These commands are used like so:

ModPCAttribute attribute increase
ModPCSkill skill increase
actor.SetActorValue valuename newvalue

For example, to raise your Strength by 15, your Marksman by 25, make yourself a master in security, and give yourself a permanent 200 foot Detect Life condition:

modpca Strength 15
modpcs Marksman 25
player.setav Security 100
player.setav DetectLifeRange 200

Targeted commands[]

In some cases, you can execute commands on other objects in the world. The easiest way to do this is to enter the console while the object (item, corpse, NPC, etc.) is on screen, and while the game is paused, click on them. The item's name and ID will appear across the top of the screen. Certain commands will automatically affect the targeted item, such as:

Resurrect: Brings the targeted corpse back to life
Kill: Instantly kills the targeted creature or NPC
Disable: Remove targeted object from the game, permanently.

Miscellaneous commands[]

A number of other console commands can be used to alter the basic game behavior. The most frequently used commands are:

ToggleGodMode or tgm: Enable "God Mode"
PlayerSpellBook or psb: Add all spells to your spellbook.
ToggleMapMarkers or tmm: Reveal (or hide) all map location markers
ToggleCollision or tcl: Turn collision detection (what makes you fall and makes walls solid) on or off. Useful for fixing bugs where a quest is rendered unfinishable because a character has become stuck in a place where they cannot be conversed with or killed.
ToggleAI or tai: Disable all AI processing, making everything but you freeze.

Finish the main quest in 20 minutes[]

Beat Oblivion1 — The paintbrushes floating in the air.

Beat Oblivion2 — The door lodged in the ground.

To finish the main quest in twenty minutes, several paintbrushes will be required.

Make a ladder outside of the Temple of the One using the paint brushes (which float where the player drops them).
Climb up to the top of the Temple of the One (preferably above the door)
Fall down onto the door portal (remember to heal; there will be Daedra)
Go through the door. The Temple should be in its destroyed state. If not, wait an hour.
The door is lodged in the ground and it can only be seen from one side.
Go outside and minor Oblivion Gates with Daedra pouring out should be found.
Kill a scamp and walk around a bit until the Journal updates, saying that Dagon has entered Nirn.
Go back into the Temple and wait 24 hours. Martin should be there in the Temple.
Talk to Martin.

After this, the main quest has been completed and the ending of the game will be shown.

Known bugs[]

The full list of known bugs has been moved here.

Some bugs commonly used to exploit the game are:

Note that bugs are constantly being fixed by Bethesda, so these exploits may not always work on the latest patch. See the bugs article for more details.

Exploits[]

Exploits are degenerate strategies that tend to emerge from complex systems. Whether or not a strategy can be considered an exploit can be a bit of a judgment call, since exploits are not, strictly speaking, cheats: they are part and parcel of the rules of the game.

Some strategies will seem "unrealistic" when compared to the theme of the game, but still be balanced within the abstract scope of the game mechanics. Other exploits will make total perceivable sense, but undermine the balance of the game.

Arena[]

To gain an unfair advantage against an opponent in an Arena match, simply jump and toggle sneak mode while turning backwards toward the right wall, near the entrance.

If this is performed before or during the countdown, it will be possible to glitch through the wall and fall out of the Arena; then try to move forward while falling and it will spawn the player in the middle of the ring a few seconds ahead of the opponent, allowing extra time to prepare and hide.

Leveling[]

For general skill leveling tips, see [[Skill Leveling Tips (Oblivion)]].

There are a number of techniques for leveling specific skills without using them in any productive manner. Some of these techniques are obviously against the "spirit" of the game, while others may be completely reasonable for your character. One word of warning: some of these exploits can allow you to level your skills unattended. If you raise a skill too many levels at once, you will effectively be wasting attribute bonus points on your next character level, since those max out at +5.

Athletics: Use the "auto-run" command to have your character run into a wall, mountain, boulder, or other obstruction. Even more effective is finding a place where you can swim into a wall. As long as your character is trying to move forward, his or her Athletics skill will increase.
Acrobatics: Head to Cloud Ruler Temple and move to the massive fireplace in the main room. Get close to the fire and jump while moving forward. If this is done correctly you shouldn't ever land, instead you simply hover in one place above the fire continuously until you move away or stop jumping.

You can also go to Tove The Unrestful's house in Bliss. Go upstairs to Tove's "skyboat." It will have a "roof" of sorts over the boat. Stand just under the edge of the "roof" and jump repeatedly while pushing forward toward the boat slightly. This will allow you to raise your acrobatics fifty to sixty levels within as little as half an hour.

You can also go to the Bruma Mages guild, go to the left of the main room and up the stairs. Repeatedly jump on the banister whilst pushing forwards.

In the Imperial City Waterfront, Go on to the Pirate ship. Where all of the Pirates attack you the first time you arrive. Go into the Captain's room, and stand on his bed. Look towards the wall painting, if done correctly, you'll jump and land in a very short amount of time, increasing your Acrobatics quickly.

All Combat (Spells and Physical): Find Peryite's shrine...all of his followers are locked in stasis and cannot die or be knocked unconscious. Least useful for Marksman, as retrieving arrows from the followers' bodies is impossible. Suggestion is to buy all the Iron arrows you can find and buy a couple iron bows as they are relatively cheap and useless in combat. All attacks will make the frozen NPCs move backwards. One way to get over this minor inconvenience is to push the Argonian in between a big boulder and little boulder almost directly behind him, as he cannot move and it makes training much easier.
All Combat (spells and Physical): If you have downloaded the "Deepscorn Hollow" DLC and you have purchased all of the add-ons, there is a cell in one of the side rooms with a prisoner in it. The prisoner can't fight back or die, and he doesn't move (unless attacked with magic, then he stands up, but he remains "asleep").
All Combat (Spells & Physical): Complete the Dark Brotherhood quest, The Purification, given to you by Lucien Lachance. He rewards you with the steed, Shadowmere, which cannot be killed. You can attack it freely with spells or weapons, allowing you to level in any of these disciplines (recommend using base weapons so as not to waste charges). Please note that Shadowmere might try and wander away, so be sure to lock it in a stable to prevent it from wandering off or simply get on it and fast travel to another safe location. Especially useful for Marksman (can recover some arrows from Shadowmere if and when it passes out)and Destruction skills.
Sneak: Locate an NPC that doesn't move, such as a city guard, preferably near a corner. Begin sneaking behind the NPC, out of his or her field of vision. Using the "auto-run" command to start moving forward into the wall. As long as you keep moving, near the NPC but not noticed by them, your Sneak skill will continue to improve.
Sneak: Continually pickpocket NPCs that are traveling as your companions, such as the adoring fan from the Arena. These NPCs, and a few others you may run into (such as Armand Christophe), won't care how often you pickpocket them, as long as no one else sees you. Your companions will continue to obey your direction, even if they begin to strongly dislike you. If pickpocketing a Dark Brotherhood Murderer they will attack after enough pickpocketing, using a charm spell and yielding will allow you to give them orders, but when the charm wears off, they go back to attacking you.
Sneak: Go to the Inn of Ill Omen BEFORE you kill Rufio. Go down to the basement. Open the door to Rufio's room and go inside. Go into sneak mode, face the corner away from Rufio's bed, and press the auto run key (default is Q). Leave the game for a few hours, and you will have leveled up to the next major level (25, 50, 75, and 100). When you close the journal entry that says you're now an apprentice/journeyman/expert/master of sneak, you'll have to press Q again.
Sneak: If you do get in trouble and go to jail, and you are by yourself, such as I got into trouble in the Imperial City and I used the rubber band exploit for a wired controller, while in sneak I snuck into the left-most corner and used that and fell asleep and then I woke an hour or two later and the message that came up was that I had reached Master level, although i did choose it as one of my primary skills, i leveled up,as in actual levels not sneak levels, 4 times in about 5–10 min. Also another way to level up quickly is to before you enter the sewers, drag the emperor's body close to the secret doorway, so that you can use the rubber band exploit, to sneak in the farther corner where Baurus cant see you.
Sneak: at the beginning of the game there is a rat pen in the cave find one of the rats and move around it until you reach your preferred level because the rats won't attack until the pen is open
Schools of Magic: Repeatedly cast low-cost spells that target yourself, such as Shield (Alteration), Detect Life (Mysticism), Light (Illusion), or Heal (Restoration). Even if the spell has no real effect, if it successfully hits its target (you), you get credit. You can also cast low-level Conjurations repeatedly, as they always succeed. Note that Restoration skill tends to level much more slowly than others, and Conjuration skill tends to level fastest.
More Schools of Magic: Go to a spell creation altar, and make a spell in whichever school you want to level at its absolute minimum power and shortest duration. This should ensure that it won't cost enough Magicka to be an issue. Then make it targeted on yourself. Cast it repeatedly. Some good spell types for each school include

Alteration: Burden, Feather, Water Breathing, Water Walking, Shield, or variant shield spells

Conjuration: Bound Items or Turn Undead (if it can be cast on self)

Destruction: Damage Health or Corrode Armor or Weapons (if you want to get Armorer up as well)

Illusion: Chameleon, Invisibility or Charm

Mysticism: Soul Trap or Dispel

Restoration: Most anything, really. Heal, Absorb, Restore, etc.

Conjuration: Summon a bound weapon and sheathe it. The spell ends immediately and can be re-cast.
- Or create Summon cheap summon spell a cast it 1000x times
Extended Casting: You can use the table in the Arena Bloodworks to extend the above processes. After you win an Arena match, the table will replenish your magicka fully when you activate it. Thus, you can cast a string of spells until your magicka is gone, replenish immediately, and cast again. Ayleid Wells, Essence Wells on the Oblivion planes, and Welkynd Stones can also be used, but aren't as easily replenished. You can also go to one of your houses, cast spells till your magic is depleted, and then sleep for an hour. This will replenish your magic completely. Waiting also works like this as well.
Security: Use the skeleton key from the Shrine of Nocturnal on a Very Hard level lock (such as one to the sleeping quarters of a count). Just keep on failing to unlock the lock.

The following techniques can also be used to rapidly raise skill levels, but arguably fall within the realm of expected behavior for a player character. As such, they are not always considered exploits:

Infinite Casting: Use a spell that does "Fortify Magicka" (x) points, then add an effect you want, making sure that the total cost of the spell is half of (x) or less. Select the spell and then just keep "c" pressed down.
Mercantile: Whenever selling items to any vendor, find a vendor with a low mercantile skill. Use a combination of persuasion and Charm spells to raise their disposition as high as possible. Then, begin selling your items, one at a time, starting with the least expensive. Each time, attempt to haggle the price up one step higher, until you are rejected. Then back down and continue selling items. Selling at the maximum possible haggling level will raise your mercantile skill, at which point you can haggle even higher and keep going.
Alchemy, Mercantile and Big Money: Alchemy is a good way to make some fast gold, while simultaneously raising your skill. Gather every alchemy ingredient you can find, including taking crops from farms and small gardens. You can also buy ingredients from alchemists, innkeepers, and other merchants at fairly low prices. Use these ingredients to make a large volume of potions, even if they are useless, to raise your Alchemy skill. Alchemists and traders will then buy back these potions at a substantial profit. The Imperial City, for example, has two alchemy shops, plus two inns that sell food, in the same district. Or, if you're lazy, you can clone a few ingredients that can be mixed together hundreds of times so that you can continually tap the A button and make several hundred potions within minutes. (You can get to Master level in alchemy if you make about a thousand potions this way. It should take less than an hour and isn't actually as strenuous as it sounds.)
Alchemy, Mercantile, and Big Money, Part Two: At high enough levels, you can obtain an arbitrarily large amount of alchemy ingredients from your own properties. Eyja from Rosethorn Hall will give you Shepherd's Pies upon request; if you are a Master Alchemist, you can make potions from this single ingredient. In addition, Frostcrag Spire and Deepscorn Hollow both have gardens; Frostcrag also has an Alchemy-enhancing altar in the next room for more valuable potions.
Alchemy: Use a cloning glitch on two ingredients with same abilities. (Even restore fatigue (e.g. Bread loaf) will work, as it is basic) Then just get the two ingredients and create away. You can get an alchemy of 100 very quickly this way.
Alchemy: Go to Skingrad and pick every grape in the vineyard you will get around 85–100 grapes then head north east along the Skingrad wall till you see a tomato farm pick all of those to get around 80 tomatoes to make an extremely large quantity of restore fatigue potions.
Blade and Block: Go to the Cloud Ruler Temple watch the Blades train for a few minutes and it will soon increase your Blade and Block skill up 2 points. Also, especially if you have a set of equipment that makes you invisible, you can use the Fork of Horripilation on a Mage. The fork does a negligible amount of damage, allowing the Mage to heal him or herself whilst you continually hit them with the Fork. You can strike very quickly with the Fork (almost as quickly as you can tap the attack button), and this quality also makes it great for raising your blade skill before "forking it over" to Big Head, so to speak.
Block, Heavy Armor, Light Armor: Rosentia Gallenus's House in Leyawiin. As long as you haven't completed the quest "Whom Gods Annoy" there will be 4 scamps that respawn. Hit them once then immediately reduce the difficulty level to the minimum. The scamps will attack you while doing minimal health damage and maximum upgrade speed.
All offensive combat skills: Rosentia Gallenus's House in Leyawiin. As long as you haven't completed the quest "Whom Gods Annoy" there will be 4 scamps that respawn. Adjust the difficulty up then attack one of the scamps. Keep attacking and backing up.
Acrobatics: In the Bruma mages guild up by the "head mages" room, there is a beam on the roof right above a railing. Jump onto the beam and hold the forward button and repeatedly press the jump button as fast as you can. You can do this forever because you can't fall.
Confiscated loot chest: Stolen loot confiscated from the player when taken to jail is stored in a chest on the premises of the same jail, often easily accessed.
Thieving glitch: When in a shop (for example Slash 'n' Smash) you can push the owner behind a corner for about 5 seconds which is enough time to loot the shop.

Killing by blocking[]

The intended feature:
If you have a high disposition with someone, you can yield to them immediately after attacking them (hold "Block," and press (A) or "Activate" while facing the character). The character will say something like "I accept your yield" and go back to passive behavior. The yield was introduced so that accidental attacks on friends could be "un-done," rather than having to reload due to a simple mistake.

The exploit:
You can keep attacking and then yielding to a friendly/neutral NPC until they are dead! Both their health and disposition are lowered by attacks; if they are attacked at low disposition, they will refuse to yield, persuasion or bribes will raise it again. Couple this with sneak attacks to drain their health faster.

Note that if you do this in cities, the city guard will inevitably try to find you as it counts as an assault. You should have enough time to kill most people within their houses with this method, though.

Killing by summoning[]

If you need to kill an NPC, especially guards, without getting a penalty, a quick way is to summon a high level Daedra and make it go rogue. Dremora work especially well, as they are strong, use both melee and magical attacks, and are universally considered 'evil' by NPCs. Simply summon the Dremora near a guard and punch it three times. It will go rogue, and the guard will run in to help. You can then step back and let the Dremora wear the guard down, and repeat as needed. Beware! It is unknown in other versions of the game, but, on the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions, if you force a summoned creature to go rouge, and it kills someone, the guards will see that you caused the creature to go on a rampage, and, because its your creature, you are liable for its actions, and you will get a 1000 gold blood price for murder, and since you didn't actually attack the person, you save 40 gold from assault charges, but you still have to pay the price for murder if someone was killed. Note that not all creatures are considered evil by all NPCs.

Killing by raging[]

Create or buy a Frenzy Spell of fairly high level (Touch of Rage is a good one) and cast it on someone you want to kill. Casting the spell on the person is not considered a crime, and it will cause them to attack you, so fighting back and killing them won't be considered a crime either. This is good for Dark Brotherhood Quests, as it will allow you to do them without upping your infamy. Does not work on guards.

Exploits using the Sanguine Rose[]

Since the staff is a ranged weapon, and you would have to cast it on an NPC, this will incur a bounty if done against a non-hostile NPC within city boundaries. However, if one can summon a creature, and then use the staff on the summon; all nearby NPCs will take up arms against the creature summoned. This can be useful if you want a piece of gear from a nearby NPC but don't want to murder them. If you use this method outside of the Arcane University (inside the gates), where there are numerous random NPC mages, they will almost always summon bound armor and after the creature is banished, have no clothing whatsoever.
It is possible to sneak attack guards with the Sanguine Rose and incur no bounty, albeit rare. In addition, the Sanguine Rose is a fantastic way to farm Imperial Legion Armor off Imperial City Guardsmen (great for making a lot of gold in a short period of time). Fire the staff at a guard, repeating as often as necessary until the Daedra kills him. The guard will for a split second run towards the player, then switch targets to the Daedra. After the fight is over (or the guard dead, whichever), usually most guards won't chase you and as long as you avoid conversing with them, you'll be fine. You will incur the usual bounty for assault, not murder.
Even better, the staff works on corpses. You can drag a corpse from one end of the Imperial City Market District (or wherever you happen to be), drop the corpse in front of a guard, use the Sanguine Rose on the corpse, and a Daedra will summon. Once you have this one corpse, you will never incur a bounty so long as you cast at the corpse. Having Azura's Star and Soul Trap (and lots of Magicka potions if you're an Atronach) will more or less allow you to repeat this sequence indefinitely. A player character can usually make about 800–1500 gold off a single guard's inventory, depending on Mercantile and other attribute adjustments.

Free Daedric equipment[]

There are at least three known methods for getting "free" high-level Daedric equipment. Two methods involve tricking the game into allowing you to drop a bound item. Under normal circumstances, the game will not allow you to drop conjured equipment, or even unequip it. Attempting to drop the item fails with a message that it cannot be dropped; even simply sheathing the weapon causes it to vanish. However, using one of the following techniques, you will be allowed to drop the item onto the ground. When the spell ends, the game attempts to remove the item from your inventory, but it is no longer where it should be, and so it is never removed from the game.

The first method requires access to an Altar of Spellmaking, such as the one at the Arcane University. This technique only works for creating permanent weapons, as follows:

First, learn two or more Conjuration spells to summon weapons.
Create a spell with two Bound Weapon effects, with a short duration.
Cast the spell, causing the first item in the effects list to be equipped.
The second weapon will be in your inventory, but not equipped, and you are free to drop it.
Wait until the spell effect ends, and pick up the weapon.

The second technique works for both weapons or armor, you can do it at any Armorer skill. The process is as follows:

Cast any single bound weapon or armor spell.
Cause the item to take damage.
Repair the item with a Repair Hammer
Once the item is repaired, you will be allowed to drop it.
Wait until the spell effect ends, and pick up the item.

Damaging the equipment may be a bit tricky, as you are presumably not creating these items in the middle of combat. Since you are already a Conjurer, one easy solution is to use a summoned creature. If you can create spells, a custom Disintegrate Weapon/Armor On Self spell also works well.

Both techniques have the added benefit of increasing your Conjuration skill in the process. Also, if you are an expert in armorer and want to easily increase this skill, repairing these permanent items from 100% to 125% will help significantly. Repairing Daedric equipment has a larger effect than 'normal' equipment, because they have more health points than any other.

These items are not only very powerful weapons or armor, but unlike physical Daedric equipment, the bound items have no weight. The summoned versions of Daedric equipment still adversely affect your spellcasting effectiveness, and are somewhat more fragile than their real counterparts. The Cuirass and Greaves count as Heavy, the rest Light; they can be repaired at any Armorer skill level, and sell for zero Septims.

Another way is to summon a dremora and kill it while tapping A. If done right you will search the summoned dremora and can take it's armor.

100% Chameleon[]

Join the Arcane University. Enchant 5 clothing/armor items with 20% Chameleon. Wear them all at once. The effects will stack giving you 100% Chameleon. Now you can attack monsters all day and they will never see you or counterattack. You can also steal anything you want. If you are caught pickpocketing, you can just resist arrest and walk away from the guards. An easy way to obtain the grand souls needed is to steal a grand soul gem from the Arcane University and change it into a black, then duplicate it. Go to bandit camps and soul trap the bandits. This should give you a grand soul.

Another way of doing this is to enter a Plane of Oblivion, get to the Sigil Stone, save, then grab the stone. If you get the silence for x secs on target/Chameleon 30% on self stone, then all you have to do is use the item duping cheat. If you do not, reload your save and grab the stone again. Use the duped sigil stones on four un-enchanted items that are wearable, and you will have a 120% Chameleon effect. You can also achieve this with the silence for x sec/chameleon 15% sigil stone obtainable at level 8 with 7 pieces of un-enchanted armor. Then the world is your playground.

Cheap, instant kills[]

It is necessary to have access to the Arcane University for this, but it will work for either an enchanted weapon or a created spell.

Enter the University, and find the Altar of Spellmaking or Enchanting and create a spell with the effect Drain 100 Health for 1 second. A Destruction skill of 25 is all that is necessary for this to work.

Under level 30, this will kill anything. After this level, it is likely that targets will not be instantly killed anymore. This can be worked around by adding some more damaging effects (Damage health, fatigue, etc.).

If this is made as an enchantment rather than a spell, the same Destruction and magicka requirement applies, and the final weapon won't require much magic to recharge.

To kill stronger enemies, try creating a spell with the same effect as above, though with Drain 80–90 Health for 2–3 seconds. This will be more costly, but you will be able to kill much stronger creatures.

Try adding a weakness to magicka 100% for 1 second, as this will double the spells effects.

Permanent boosts[]

To gain several permanent stat/skill boosts, gain any quest item that has a constant boosting effect on it and cannot be removed (e.g. the Boots of Springheel Jak). Equip this item and either get yourself arrested or do a quest in which all your items are removed. When you get out of jail (or get your items back), you will see that the boost is still in effect but you are not wearing the quest item. You can now equip any other item in place of the quest one, but you will not be able to wear the quest item again (though the boost will remain permanently).

This can be done with the latest patch using scrolls:

Pick any enchanted item in your inventory, even ones that you made yourself. Then duplicate
Double click on any two scrolls
Drop the item you wish to duplicate.
Pick up the enchanted item and its duplicate.
Equip either one.
Double click on five scrolls.
Drop the duplicated item that is not equipped.

You can no longer wear the item, but the effect remains on you permanently. This has not been verified on the PC version of the game.

Be careful what you do this with, you might get permanent weight added on too!

Near-invincible stats[]

Your character should preferably be beyond level 25 to do this!

One method to become nearly invincible is as follows:

Collect the following items:

Spell Breaker - Reflect Spell 30% on Self (acquired in the Daedric quest: Peryite).
Bladeturn Hood - Resist Normal Weapons 11% on Self, Reflect Damage 10% on Self, Shield 12% on Self (acquired through the Unearthing Mehrunes' Razor Quest).
Either the Necklace of Swords or the Amulet of Axes - Fortify sword/blunt skill 25 pts on Self, Reflect Damage 33% on Self.
Raiment of the Crimson Scar - Fortify Agility and Speed 15 pts on Self, Fortify Sneak, Marksman and Blade 25 pts on Self, and Reflect Damage 35% on Self (in a closet after purchasing all items for the Vile Lair).
Ring of Namira - Reflect Damage 12% on Self, Reflect Spell 10% on Self (reward for the Namira's Daedric quest).
Mundane Ring - Reflect Spell 35% on Self, Resist Magic 50% on Self (randomly generated loot, but only at very high levels).

Final stats (plus any racial modifiers)[]

Resist Magic 50
Resist Normal Weapons 10
Shield 12
Reflect Damage 90
Reflect Spell 75

Another method is as follows:

With a high enough Alchemy skill you can make your own Reflect Damage and Spell potions.

At Journeyman level, you can make Reflect Damage potions by combining Green Stain Cups and Scamp Skin.
At Expert Level you can make Reflect Spell potions by combining Glow Dust and Cinnabar Polypore Yellow Cap.

As always, the strength of these potions is determined by both your Alchemy level and the level of the equipment used. Add Shield spells and you're invincible.

Another way to become near invincible for Bretons[]

Pick enough magical items to get damage reflection to 100% and the Mundane Ring. Stats shown for leveled items are the stats if you obtained them at their highest level.

Mundane Ring - Reflect Spell 35% on Self, Resist Magic 50% on Self. Randomly generated loot, but only at very high levels; Mankar Camoran will also be wearing one at high levels.
Escutcheon of Chorrol - Fortify Attribute: Reflect Damage 35%, Endurance 10 pts. Acquired from "Sins of the Father" quest
Necklace of Swords - Reflect Damage 33%, Fortify Skill: Blade 25 pts. Randomly generated amulet.
Amulet of Axes - Reflect Damage 33% on Self, Fortify sword/blunt skill 25 pts on Self. Randomly generated.
Raiment of the Crimson Scar - Reflect Damage 35% on Self, Fortify Agility and Speed 15 pts on Self, Fortify Sneak, Marksman and Blade 25 pts on Self. Found in a closet after purchasing all items for the Vile Lair).
Ring of the Iron Fist - Reflect Damage 33%, Fortify Hand to Hand 25 pts. Randomly generated.

You're now immune to magic with 35% spell reflection and immune to melee damage (you still take damage from arrows but they are easy enough to dodge)

Another method to be near invincible[]

Ayleid Crown of Nenalata - Reflect Spell 25%
Savior's Hide - Resist Magic 25% (if Breton, feel free to substitute this for something else)
Greaves of Resilient Flesh - Resist Normal Weapons 11%, Resist Poison 50%, Resist Disease 50%
Boots of the Atronach - Resist Fire, Frost, and Shock 50%
Gloves of the Atronach - Resist Fire, Frost, and Shock 20%
Mundane Ring - Resist Magic 50%, Reflect Spell 35%
Ring of Ironfist - Reflect Damage 33%
Necklace of Swords - Reflect Damage 33%
Escutcheon of Chorrol - Reflect Damage 35%

Totals:

Reflect Spell 60%
Reflect Damage 101%
Resist Magic 75%
Resist Frost 70%
Resist Fire 70%
Resist Shock 70%
Resist Normal Weapons 11%
Resist Poison 50%
Resist Disease 50%
In order to get 100% spell reflection, equip Spellbreaker & ring of Namira
+Racial modifiers—no explanation needed

After leaving the sewers go across the lake and kill the bandits, take their arrows and go to the Imperial marketplace. Sell the arrows and any other treasures in Three Brothers Trade goods then go to The Mystic Emporium and buy his grand soul gem and scrolls. Duplicate the gems then sell them back to the merchant then raise the barter to 49 (should be able to sell them 100 per) and sell them to him in batches of ten. You should be able to easy rack up cash by duplicating gems and selling them back.

Duplication[]

There is a much simpler way to duplicate items and weapons (that aren't one of a kind or quest items).

To do this unequip (if the weapon or item is equipped) and change the inventory screen to the page that holds scrolls and select one (there must be more than one of the same scroll for this to work and it must NOT be over 250 otherwise the game will lag and freeze eventually) you then go to the item you want to duplicate and drop it and when you come out of the inventory the item will drop but there will be how ever many scrolls of the same that were selected. It is a good idea to buy two of the same scroll and duplicate another which will be easier than hunting them out. Note that some items cannot be duplicated or need full health or enchantment (if enchanted) or both to be duplicated.

Alternately, if you haven't started the Mages Guild Quest line yet, you can get 4 Beguile scrolls from Kud-Ei, I started out with 4 (providing you're in the thieves guild, Varon Vamori's disposition is either 100 or close to it) and I made it up to 1,000+ scrolls, not of the same kind, just 200 scrolls here and there. Also if you have some money (preferably 200+) or you just bribe the wife for the staff's location)).