Crafting in Oblivion: A Different Flavor
The rolling hills of Cyrodiil. The ominous glow of a Daedric portal. The epic saga of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion captivated a generation of gamers with its vast open world, compelling quests, and the freedom to forge your own destiny. But amidst the battles with mythical creatures and political intrigue, a fundamental question often arises: can you truly craft in Oblivion?
The desire to craft, to create, and to customize your experience is a common thread in many role-playing games. Players often want to forge their own legendary weapons, brew powerful potions, or build personalized bases. But does Oblivion, with its expansive world and intricate gameplay, allow you to embrace the creative aspects of crafting? The short answer is both yes and no. While Oblivion doesn’t boast a full-fledged crafting system in the way that some modern RPGs do, it does offer a nuanced and rewarding approach to creation through its alchemy and enchanting mechanics.
This article will delve into the heart of Oblivion’s crafting systems. We’ll explore the intricacies of alchemy, the art of potion-making, and the mysteries of enchanting. We’ll examine how these systems work, what you can achieve with them, and how they contribute to the immersive gameplay experience of this beloved classic.
Before we fully explore the realms of potion-making and item enhancement, it’s important to understand the context of crafting in Oblivion. Unlike games that feature extensive blacksmithing, woodworking, leatherworking, and similar crafting options, Oblivion takes a more specialized approach. You won’t be able to personally forge a katana or construct a house from lumber you’ve painstakingly gathered. Instead, the game focuses on two main areas of crafting: alchemy and enchanting.
This difference from the systems you may see in modern games doesn’t diminish the overall experience. In fact, the design choices in Oblivion promote a deeper connection to the world, requiring exploration and interaction with its environment. The constraints of Oblivion’s crafting systems allow players to appreciate the details of both potion ingredients and enchantment resources within the game.
Compared to the robust crafting systems found in later Elder Scrolls titles like Skyrim, Oblivion offers a more limited, but arguably more focused, crafting experience. Skyrim allows for crafting a wide variety of weapons, armor, and other items. Oblivion, however, keeps the focus on brewing potions and imbuing items with magical effects. This streamlined approach allows players to concentrate on the intricacies of these two crucial skills.
Alchemy: The Alchemist’s Crucible
Alchemy in Oblivion is a captivating system that allows you to transform simple ingredients into powerful potions that can enhance your abilities, heal your wounds, or deliver devastating effects to your enemies. It’s a journey of experimentation and discovery, where you learn to identify the properties of various plants, fungi, and monster parts, and combine them to create unique elixirs.
The first step in embarking on your alchemical adventures is finding an alchemy table. These can be found in many places throughout Cyrodiil, including the Mages Guild halls, various shops, and even the homes of alchemists. Interacting with an alchemy table brings up the alchemy menu. Here, you can see the ingredients you possess and attempt to mix them.
The core of the alchemy system lies in the ingredients themselves. Each ingredient in Oblivion possesses up to four different effects. You discover these effects by consuming an ingredient raw, which identifies one effect, or by experimenting with combinations at the alchemy table. This means that trial and error is key, but there are also ways to improve your alchemy skill and the efficiency of the process.
As your Alchemy skill increases, you will identify more effects of each ingredient. This allows for better potion-making as your experience and knowledge develop. With better skill, you will be able to make stronger and better quality potions that affect gameplay positively.
To create a potion, you need to place at least two ingredients with at least one shared effect into the alchemy table. The resulting potion will then have the shared effect. The more ingredients you use and the more shared effects the ingredients possess, the more complex and powerful your potions will be. The success of your concoctions, the resulting value, and the skill points earned for the resulting potions, are all dependent on your skill in alchemy.
The possibilities are truly endless. You can create potions that heal your wounds, restore your magicka, increase your strength, fortify your skills, or even damage your enemies. Each ingredient has its own set of properties, and the effects can be combined in fascinating and often surprising ways. Some players like to create deadly poisons to apply to their weapons, while others might prefer the healing potions for their character builds.
Some of the most common and useful potions to create include:
- Healing potions: Essential for survival in combat.
- Restore Magicka potions: Crucial for mages who rely on spells.
- Invisibility potions: Allows for sneaking around foes.
- Fortify Attribute potions: Boosting key attributes for a limited time.
- Weakness to Poison potions: Useful for applying to weapons.
Alchemy offers a significant advantage to your character. It also encourages exploration, which is the heart of the gameplay experience. By gathering ingredients from the world, your skills become more powerful as time passes. It rewards players with a sense of accomplishment for discovering new combinations and mastering the art of potion-making.
Enchanting: Imbuing the Mundane with Magic
Enchanting is the art of imbuing your weapons, armor, and other items with magical properties. These enchantments can provide you with a variety of benefits, from improving your combat abilities to enhancing your skills. It’s a powerful tool that allows you to further customize your character and tailor your equipment to your specific playstyle.
To begin your enchanting journey, you’ll need access to an enchanting altar. Like alchemy tables, these can be found in various locations. The Mages Guild is the most obvious place to start, as they house enchanting altars within their halls. By interacting with the altar, you can begin the enchantment process.
The Enchanting process involves combining an item you wish to enchant, a filled Soul Gem, and a chosen enchantment. Items that can be enchanted include weapons, armor, rings, necklaces, and other wearable items.
Soul Gems are the lifeblood of enchanting. These gems are vessels that hold captured souls. You use these gems to power the enchantments you apply to your items. Soul Gems come in varying sizes and capacities, each holding souls of different power. The larger the Soul Gem, the more powerful the enchantment you can create. You can find Soul Gems throughout the world.
The process of filling a Soul Gem is known as soul trapping. To soul trap, you need to cast the Soul Trap spell on a creature or enemy before you kill it. When the creature dies, its soul is automatically captured in the nearest empty soul gem. The quality of the soul captured depends on the type of creature.
The enchantment itself is the magical effect you wish to apply to your item. There’s a wide variety of enchantments to choose from. Some of the common enchantments include:
- Fortify Skill: Improves a specific skill, such as Blade, Heavy Armor, or Alchemy.
- Damage Health: Inflicts damage to your enemy upon each strike.
- Absorb Health: Steals health from your enemy and transfers it to you.
- Cast on Strike: The item will cast a spell on hit.
- Fortify Attribute: Temporarily increases an attribute, such as Strength or Endurance.
- Paralyze: Temporarily freezes a target.
- Chameleon: Grants invisibility.
The potency of your enchantments is directly tied to your enchanting skill level, the size of the soul gem used, and the item being enchanted. As your skill increases, you can create more powerful enchantments. More powerful soul gems allow for more potent enchantments.
The Limits and Value of Oblivion’s Crafting
It’s crucial to acknowledge the limitations of crafting in Oblivion. Unlike many modern RPGs, you can’t build your own home, or create weapons and armor from scratch. This can be a drawback for players who are accustomed to complete control of their character progression. The focus on alchemy and enchanting only requires a specific set of resources, and removes other crafting systems such as forging or woodworking. However, the limitations of Oblivion’s crafting are balanced by the focus on the quality of gameplay, and the depth of character customization.
The value of alchemy and enchanting, then, lies in the additional layer of depth that they add to the game. The freedom to create custom potions and enchanted items enhances the player’s ability to enjoy and control their journey through the world. Rather than providing a way to level up and create a specific character build, these systems give the player additional freedom.
Conclusion: Crafting Your Legacy
So, *can you craft in Oblivion*? The answer is a qualified yes. While the game doesn’t feature a comprehensive crafting system in the traditional sense, the alchemy and enchanting systems offer a rich and rewarding experience.
Alchemy allows you to experiment with the properties of ingredients to create powerful potions that can heal, enhance, and empower your character. Enchanting enables you to customize your equipment with magical properties, further developing your character’s combat prowess. These systems encourage exploration, experimentation, and a deeper connection to the world of Cyrodiil.
Embrace the thrill of mixing ingredients, the excitement of discovering new potion effects, and the satisfaction of imbuing your equipment with magical power. Master the art of alchemy and enchanting, and you’ll discover a whole new layer of depth and customization in this timeless classic. Crafting, in its own unique way, is an integral part of the Oblivion experience, shaping your adventure and allowing you to leave your mark on the world.
