Daggerfall:Enchanting Items

This page gives information and tips on how to best enchant items, from loopholes to tons of statistics, as well as some tips and hints for successful item making and some items which would make your adventuring life much more enjoyable.
 

Item Making
right|thumb|The Magic Item Maker

Characters must be at least 5th rank in the Mages Guild or the Temple of Julianos to access the Item Maker.

Find the person with the "Make Magic Items" option and talk with him. The process is fairly simple. Choose an item you wish to enchant, add the appropriate effect(s), and pay the fee. You may choose a total of 10 advantages or disadvantages. The cost of the item is 10 GP per enchantment point of the effect(s) you choose, plus any additional cost for certain advantages or disadvantages.

Advantages
Advantages provide benefits to the user of the item.

Cast When Held enchantments are always in effect when the enchanted item is equipped.
Cast When Used enchantments are used much like spellcasting, except they use the item's power instead of your spell points. When a spell effect is aborted (Destruction-based effects and targeted effects), the aborted points are added to your spell points, so these items can also be used to refill depleted spell points.
Cast When Strikes enchantments may be applied to any weapons, including melee weapons and bows, so that when the weapon successfully strikes a creature, the creature will have the enchantment cast upon it. Note that while these enchantments may also be applied to items other than weapons, they will have no effect in that case; this inconsistency is corrected in Daggerfall Unity, where these enchantments may only be applied to weapons.
Absorbs Spells activates the class advantage "Spell Absorption: General" when the enchanted item is equipped. Note that this enchantment is more efficient than a "Cast When Held: Spell Absorption" enchantment, as a) the "Absorbs Spells" enchantment is always active and has no inherent chance of failure as long as you have sufficient free/"empty" spell points to absorb the spell's full cost with the cost calculated as the cost of the spell if you had cast the spell, while the "Cast When Held: Spell Absorption" enchantment has an inherent chance of failure according to the circinate spell listed here, b) the "Absorbs Spells" enchantment requires only 1500 enchantment points, while the "Cast When Held: Spell Absorption" enchantment requires 1720 enchantment points as described here, and c) the "Absorbs Spells" enchantment does not subject the enchanted item to possible degradation, while the "Cast When Held: Spell Absorption" enchantment does subject the enchanted item to possible degradation as described here.
Enhances Skill increases one skill by 15 points when the enchanted item is equipped. Enhanced skills can exceed 100%. This effect stacks with other items that have the "Enhances Skill" effect for the same skill.
Extra Spell Pts increases your total spell points by 75 points under certain conditions (during certain seasons of the year, during certain phases of the moon, and near particular kinds of enemies) when the enchanted item is equipped. This effect stacks with other items that have the "Extra Spell Pts" effect.
Feather Weight sets the weight of the enchanted item to 0.25 kilograms, regardless of its unenchanted weight.
Good Rep With increases your reputation with a specific group (commoners, merchants, etc.) or with all groups when the enchanted item is equipped. It is the inverse effect of "Bad Rep With".
Improves Talents improves an already existing talent (Athleticism, Acute Hearing, Adrenaline Rush) when the enchanted item is equipped.
Increased Weight Allowance increases your total encumbrance capacity when the enchanted item is equipped. This effect does not stack with other items that have the "Increased Weight Allowance" effect, and a "50% Additional [allowance]" equipped enchanted item's effect will override a "25% Additional [allowance]" equipped enchanted item's effect.
Potent Vs causes a weapon to do more damage to a specific creature type per successful strike. It is the inverse effect of "Low Damage Vs". Note that while this enchantment may also be applied to items other than weapons, it will have no effect in that case; this inconsistency is corrected in Daggerfall Unity, where this enchantment may only be applied to weapons.
Regens Health regenerates your health at a rate of 1 point every 4 in-game minutes under certain conditions (all the time, in sunlight, or in darkness) when the enchanted item is equipped. This effect stacks with other items that have the "Regens Health" effect.
Repairs Objects repairs over time any damaged non-magical weapons and armor in your inventory (including both equipped items and items held in inventory) when the enchanted item is equipped. Note that if you add the line "magicrepair 1" to the Z.CFG file in your Daggerfall game directory, this enchantment will also repair any damaged magical weapons, armor, clothes, and miscellaneous items. This effect stacks with other items that have the "Repairs Objects" effect.
Strengthens Armor increases your armor rating by 5 points when the enchanted item is equipped. This effect does not stack with other items that have the "Strengthens Armor" effect. It is the inverse effect of "Weakens Armor".
Vampiric Effect allows the enchanted item to transfer health to you from an enemy at range when the enchanted item is equipped (in this case, the enchantment will passively transfer 1 point of health to you from an enemy in melee range approximately every 20 real-time seconds), or when the enchanted weapon successfully strikes an enemy. Note that while the "Vampiric Effect: When Strikes" enchantment may also be applied to items other than weapons, it will have no effect in that case.

A complete list of advantages (called "Powers" in the Item Maker) and their item enchantment point requirements can be found here.

Disadvantages
Disadvantages hinder the carrier of the item, but will increase the number of available Enchantment Points for the item.

Bad Reactions From reduces your to-hit chance and armor rating by 5 points when fighting the creature type indicated when the enchanted item is equipped.
Bad Rep With reduces your reputation with a specific group (commoners, merchants, etc.) or with all groups when the enchanted item is equipped. It is the inverse effect of "Good Rep With".
Extra Weight sets the weight of the enchanted item to 4 times its unenchanted weight.
Health Leech damages your health under certain conditions (when you use the enchanted item - including, for weapons, when you successfully strike an enemy - or when you don't use the enchanted item within a specified period of time when the enchanted item is equipped). (Note that the "Health Leech: Whenever Used" enchantment may be exploited to create extremely powerful enchanted armor, clothes, and miscellaneous items, as this enchantment will increase these items' available enchantment points by 4000, and will have no adverse effect if the items are then enchanted with any advantageous enchantment other than those in the "Cast When Used" category: the items will never need to be actively "used" to benefit from such passive enchantments, and thus will never apply the Health Leech effect.) This effect stacks with other items that have the "Health Leech" effect.
Item Deteriorates causes the enchanted item to wear out faster under certain conditions (all the time, in sunlight, or in holy places) when the enchanted item is equipped.
Low Damage Vs causes a weapon to do less damage to a specific creature type per successful strike. It is the inverse effect of "Potent Vs".
Soul Bound will be explained in the next section.
User Takes Damage damages your health under certain conditions (in sunlight, or in holy places) when the enchanted item is equipped. This effect stacks with other items that have the "User Takes Damage" effect.
Weakens Armor reduces your armor rating by 5 points when the enchanted item is equipped. This effect does not stack with other items that have the "Weakens Armor" effect. It is the inverse effect of "Strengthens Armor".

A complete list of disadvantages (called "Side Effects" in the Item Maker) and their item enchantment point effects can be found here.

Creating Items with Bound Souls
The "Soul Bound" enchantment is considered a disadvantage, whereby the enchanted item is bound to a non-human creature's soul (as listed here). The more powerful the creature, the more powerful the enchanted item may be (as most creatures' souls will apply a negative modifier to the enchanted item's total enchantment point capacity, thus increasing the item's net available capacity). Moreover, certain creatures' souls apply additional advantages and disadvantages to items enchanted with them. If the enchanted item breaks, the creature is released and will attack you. Applying this enchantment requires you to have a soul gem in your inventory containing a creature's soul.

To acquire a non-human creature's soul, you must buy a soul gem and have a spell with the effect "Soul Trap". Cast the spell on a creature, then kill it before the spell's duration expires. If you are successful, one of your soul gems should indicate in the info tooltip that it contains a creature's soul. An easier way to trap creatures' souls is to have Azura's Star: whenever you kill a creature, if Azura's Star is currently empty, the creature's soul will be trapped inside the Star. Details regarding the effects related to the use of various creatures' souls in the Soul Bound enchantment are provided here, along with the monetary value of soul gems containing each type of creature's soul.

Item Enchantment Points
Ever wanted to know exactly how much you could enchant that Orcish bow you found? 
The following tables list the enchantment point capacity of most items found in  , sorted by item type and alphabetically.
Weapons - List of all weapons, including the various material types.
Armor - List of all armor, including the various material types where applicable.
Clothes - List of all non-armor apparel, shirts, pants etc.
Miscellaneous - List of enchantable gem stones, bracers, rings, and other miscellaneous items.

Durability of Item Maker Items
The health of magical items made using the Item Maker service other than items made with "Cast When Held", "Cast When Used", "Cast When Strikes", or "Item Deteriorates" enchantments (e.g. items made with "Absorbs Spells", "Enhances Skill", "Extra Spell Pts", etc. enchantments) will never decrease due to the applied enchantment. However, the health of magical items made with "Cast When Held", "Cast When Used", "Cast When Strikes", or "Item Deteriorates" enchantments will decrease with enchantment usage; for details, see Magical Items.

Tips
As described above, the "Health Leech: Whenever Used" enchantment may be exploited to create powerful armor, clothes, and miscellaneous items enchanted with advantageous enchantments other than those in the "Cast When Used" category.
Items that enhance your skills are useful, but should be removed before rest and before seeking training in those skills. In particular, enchanted weapons that enhance the skill to use that weapon are a natural choice.
Have a set of "dungeon" items and a set of "town/diplomacy" items. For example, dungeon items may have very expensive "User Takes Damage: In Sunlight" disadvantages instead of "Soul Bound" enchantments (as it's always dark in dungeons anyway).
A useful item is a "Cast When Used: Recall" item. This item can get you out of a dangerous situation quickly without using your own spell points, assuming an anchor has already been set.
Any item with "Extra Spell Points: Near ___" serves as a handy monster detector, but is more useful when combined with an "Absorbs Spells" enchantment or similar effect (as "Absorbs Spells" only protects from damage if your spell points are not full). If a creature is close enough to trigger the effect, rest will be impossible, meaning the extra spell points cannot actually be gained through rest.
Another very useful enchantment is "Repairs Objects". This enchantment repairs over time any damaged non-magical weapons and armor in your inventory (including both equipped items and items held in inventory) when the enchanted item is equipped. Items with the "Repairs Objects" ability work additively, meaning that by equipping two such items, repair time is halved. This form of repair can also be very useful to repair damaged magical weapons, armor, clothes, and miscellaneous items (including artifacts); however, you must edit the game files for the repair effect to apply to magical items. (The magical item repair effect available in the game at the time of its initial release was subsequently removed from the game through an official patch, but was made available again through official patch 2.00; however, you must add the line "magicrepair 1" to the Z.CFG file in your Daggerfall game directory for this effect to work. If you do not add this line to the file, only non-magical weapons and armor will be repaired by the "Repairs Objects" enchantment.) The effect applies first to the items you have equipped, then in turn to the items in your inventory (wagon included), working from the item positioned at the top of the inventory column downwards. So, if you want a specific item repaired, position it at the top of your inventory or wagon. If necessary, you may drop all other items to the ground until you only have the item you want repaired in your inventory.