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IM a level 34 battlemage and am nearing the ends of most major quests.

But throughout the entire game i never really thought about the purpose of soul trapping or enchanting with soul gems.


I was just curious as how to soul trap creatures, i have all the spells to do it and have plenty fo soul gems.

and how do i enchant after i soul trap the creatures?

ruaerikoholic wrote:IM a level 34 battlemage and am nearing the ends of most major quests.

But throughout the entire game i never really thought about the purpose of soul trapping or enchanting with soul gems.


I was just curious as how to soul trap creatures, i have all the spells to do it and have plenty fo soul gems.

and how do i enchant after i soul trap the creatures?

in order to soul trap a creature, (one you have summoned, or one you will kill) you must have two things, the spell, and empty gems, preferably grand soul gems. the gems must be empty. cast the soultrap spell on the creature before you kill it, then finish the job and you will recieve a message stating you have captured a soul. An easier way to do things would be to buy grand soul gems, that are grand level, from the magic shop in the imperial city. they are pricy, but offer the highest enchantment.

okkk...to enchant the items with the gems, you must have access to an enchanting stand, those can be found only in the mages guild. simply walk up to the stand (in the arch-mages quarters, or the other located in one of the buildings) select the item you wish to enchant, and the ability you wish it to have. after the whole ordeal, you will have a very unique, and permanently anchanted item.

enchant any thing?

So does that mean i could encahnt any thing i wanted to like to say a katana or some thing and could it also be infinatly enchanted.

Well the charge on a weapon will run out. But it can be recharged at a hefty cost. Also its not as easy as u think to enchant weapons unless your a good mage.

Is oblivion like morrowind in that the material holds a different amount of enchantment. For example would an obsidian cuirass hold more enchantment than an iron one???

Claudius wrote:Is oblivion like morrowind in that the material holds a different amount of enchantment. For example would an obsidian cuirass hold more enchantment than an iron one???

No it's not, the material of the item is irrelevant, all that matters is the quality of the gem. Again, unlike Morrowind, all gems of the same type have the same charge potential*, nothing like Azura's Star loaded with Vivec's soul in this game. In fact in Oblivion Azura's Star is virtually worthless, it's only advantage is that you can re-use it, but with their being a plentiful supply of Grand Soul Gems even that doesn't mean much. It's also inferior to Black Soul gems, which are easy to make once you knw the trick.

* That is all Grand Soul Gems are equal, no matter what creature the soul came from.

Thats astonishing! I thought that all souls of a given type were equal whether they were trapped in whichever soulgem type. So a lesser soul in a grand soulgem is equal in enchanting to a grand soul in a grand gem?

All you need then are Grand gems and conjuration spell summon scamp or ghost or whatever!

Well, actually it's the size of the soul that matters, not the size of the soul gem. But a grand soul can't fit in a common soul gem. TES4 will put any soul in the smallest gem that's big enough to hold it. For example, if you soul trap a minotaur lord (grand soul) and the biggest empty soul gem you have in your inventory is a lesser soul gem, it won't fit and nothing will happen. But unlike TES3, it will put a soul in a gem that's "too big". So if you soul trap a mudcrab and the only empty soul gem you have in your inventory is a grand soul gem, you'll end up with a petty soul in your grand soul gem. And if you enchant something with it you'll only get the petty soul's worth of enchantment. So unlike Morrowind, you have to pay attention to what soul gems you have in your inventory and don't soul trap anything smaller than what your smallest soul gem will hold.

there are also weapons that you can find that have a soul capture enchantment. i have a glass claymore with soul capture as an enchantment, as galraen says i have found that soul gems are plentiful in oblivion. also varla stones are good for recharging weapons.

Claudius wrote:Thats astonishing! I thought that all souls of a given type were equal whether they were trapped in whichever soulgem type. So a lesser soul in a grand soulgem is equal in enchanting to a grand soul in a grand gem?

All you need then are Grand gems and conjuration spell summon scamp or ghost or whatever!

Woops, I obviously mislead you Claudius, sorry about that, poor choice of words. It does make a difference between petty/lesser/common/greater/grand if trapped in a Grand/Black Soul gem. The type of soul is the defining factor if you have a petty soul in a Grand Soul gem, then you'll only get the charge of a petty soul. What I meant in the previous post was that there are no differences between the different types of grand souls, so no difference for example between a Minotaur Lord and a Gloom Wraith, unlike Morrowind where there was a big difference between say a Hunger and a Golden Saint.

sinbad71 wrote:there are also weapons that you can find that have a soul capture enchantment. i have a glass claymore with soul capture as an enchantment, as galraen says i have found that soul gems are plentiful in oblivion. also varla stones are good for recharging weapons.

Varla stones are rare, and it is frustrating to carry around empty grand soul gems, only to have them filled up with lesser souls. The best way to trap souls would be with Azura's Star, as it is reusable.

A winning combination for enchantments is Umbra and Azura's star, which are both items that are obtainable from Daedric quests.

Azura's star, which as a few other members mentioned before is an unlimited use soul gem, can be obtained as a reward through the Azura shrine.

Umbra can be obtained during the Malcus Vile quest, as long as you do not return it to the shrine once you have gotten it. Umbra deals a lot of damage and traps souls, as long as you have a vessel for them.

So if you earn both Azura's star and Umbra, all you have to do is kill an enemy with the sword to obtain the power of a full soul gem. It's a nifty combination, and guides to both of the Daedric quests can be found on this site.