Oblivion:Conjuration

Conjuration magic is the art of summoning creatures from other planes, creating magical weapons and armor, and repelling undead creatures.  Summoning creatures is particularly useful, providing the spellcaster with an ally in combat.  A wide range of different creatures can be summoned, depending upon the spellcaster's ability.

In-game Description: Cast spells to summon otherworldly creatures, summon magical weapons and armor, and turn the undead.

Mastery
Mastery Perks
A Novice can only cast Novice level Conjuration spells.
An Apprentice can cast Apprentice and Novice level Conjuration spells.
A Journeyman can cast Journeyman, Apprentice and Novice level Conjuration spells.
An Expert can cast Expert, Journeyman, Apprentice, and Novice level Conjuration spells.
A Master can cast all Conjuration spells.

Skill Benefits
As your Conjuration skill increases, the Magicka cost to cast conjuration spells decreases, according to the following equation:
 Cost = BaseCost * (1.4 - 0.012 * Skill)
The maximum value for Skill in this equation is 100; increases past 100 will not continue to decrease spell-casting cost.

Skill Increases
You gain 6 experience points every time any conjuration spell is cast upon an appropriate target, regardless of the magicka cost.  Of all the spellcasting skills, this is the highest rate of experience gain, and therefore increasing conjuration requires the fewest spell casts.

General tips for increasing spell-casting skills are provided at General Magic Strategies.

The best non-custom conjuration spell for practice is Bound Dagger. It is one of the cheaper conjuration spells, and it is the easiest spell to chain cast.  In general, bound weapon spells can more easily be chain-cast than bound armor spells: all you have to do is sheath the weapon, and the effect terminates, allowing it to immediately be cast again.

To create a custom practice spell, the best effect is probably Summon Skeleton.  It is the cheapest summon effect, so a one second duration spell has a base cost of 1 Magicka.  On the other hand, most bound armor effects are almost as cheap, so some characters may prefer to create a short-duration bound armor training spell.  The cheapest conjuration effect is Turn Undead, but it requires an undead target to gain experience (which can be overcome by summoning an undead creature as a target, especially if you are in an enclosed area so your target won't run too far away).

See also:
Increasing Skills: General tips on how to improve your skills semi-naturally.
Trainers: Pay for conjuration lessons.
 
Skill Books: Books that provide lessons in conjuration.
Increasing Attributes: Tips on training skills to improve the Intelligence attribute.
Magic Items: There are multiple generic items with the fortify conjuration enchantment.
There are no Unique Items that fortify the conjuration skill. These do not include Leveled Items such as those received from quests, or Artifacts.

There are no Free Skill Boosts available for Conjuration.

Dialogue
When your skill reaches 70 or higher, NPCs will start saying: "You smell of death.  Been conjuring up dead things?"

Character Creation
The following races provide initial skill bonuses in conjuration:
+5 bonus: Altmer
+10 bonus: Breton

The following standard classes include conjuration as a major skill:
Battlemage, Mage, Sorcerer, Witchhunter

If you choose Conjuration as one of your major skills, you will start with two Conjuration spells: Summon Skeleton and Turn Undead 

Magical Effects
A list of all standard conjuration spells can be found on the Spells page.  The effects available through conjuration fall into three general groups: Summon effects; Bound effects (Bound Armor and Bound Weapons); and Turn Undead.  None of these effects are available as custom potions.  Following are all of the individual effects (see the individual effect pages for full details on availability; the Magical Effects article also provides a summary):


Messages
The following table provides the messages that are displayed when your Conjuration skill levels up.



Notes
Summoned monsters can have their souls trapped.
Conjured creatures are unaffected by the difficulty settings, leaving them just as destructive and durable. This makes conjuration excellent for a high difficulty game, while lessening its power somewhat on an easy game.
Conjuration spells are still affected by the armor you are wearing, but in a different way to most spells. Since they have no magnitude (apart from Turn Undead), your Spell Effectiveness is applied to their duration instead.
The Chorrol Mages Guild specializes in conjuration; Alberic Litte and Athragar sell the most conjuration spells.
Once your combined Fame and Infamy reaches 50, you can visit the Magnus heaven doomstone to receive the greater power Skein of Magnus.  One of several benefits of this power is that it fortifies your conjuration skill 15 points once a day for 120 seconds.
Conjuration can be a great way to train other skills as well, by summoning creatures and treating them as enemies.
A conjurer can attack conjured creatures two times without getting attacked back.  The third blow provokes retaliation.
If you provoke a summoned Dremora or Dremora Lord while in jail the guard will open the jail cell to end the fight, giving you a chance to cause a jailbreak.