The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion/Alchemy

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The Ingredients

While there are many different alchemy ingredients to be found, the biggest focus is on the effects they carry. You need to find ingredients with the same effects, such as restore health, on 2 different ingredients to be able to make a potion. The different effects you can find from alchemy ingredients are listed below.

• Burden
• Chameleon
• Cure Disease 
• Cure Paralysis 
• Cure Poison
• Damage Fatigue 
• Damage Health 
• Damage Magicka 
• Damage Strength 
• Damage Intelligence 
• Damage Willpower 
• Damage Agility 
• Damage Speed 
• Damage Endurance 
• Damage Personality 
• Damage Luck
• Dispel
• Feather
• Fire Damage
• Fire Shield
• Fortify Fatigue 
• Fortify Health 
• Fortify Magicka 
• Fortify Strength 
• Fortify Intelligence 
• Fortify Willpower 
• Fortify Agility 
• Fortify Speed
• Fortify Endurance
• Fortify Personality
• Fortify Luck
• Frost Damage
• Frost Shield
• Invisibility
• Light
• Night-Eye
• Paralyze
• Reflect Spell
• Reflect Damage
• Resist Disease
• Resist Magic
• Resist Paralysis
• Resist Fire
• Resist Frost
• Resist Shock
• Restore Fatigue
• Restore Health
• Restore Magicka
• Restore Strength
• Restore Intelligence
• Restore Willpower
• Restore Agility
• Restore Speed
• Restore Endurance
• Restore Personality
• Restore Luck
• Shield
• Shock Damage
• Shock Shield
• Silence
• Water Breathing
• Water Walking

Alchemy

To create a potion you will first need a minimum of a mortar & pestle. You can also have an Alembic, Retort and Calcinator, each of these will help make more powerful potions. Additionally all 4 alchemical tools have 5 levels of quality, Novice (lowest), Apprentice, Journeyman, Expert, and Master (highest). The other factors that contribute to the power of the potions you make are your alchemy skill and your intelligence.

To make a potion combine any 2 ingredients that have at least 1 shared property. If the property is benifical (restoration, fortification, etc) you will create a pink potion that you can drink to benefit yourself. If the property is negative (shock damage, damage health, etc) you will create a green potion that you can add to a weapon, the first hit on an opponent with that posioned weapon will use the potions effects on the target in addition to normal damage.

If you make a potion with multiple ingredients you can make potions with multiple effects, such as a potion that restores health and turns you invisible. If you make a potion with multiple effects, the potion will always take the name of the first effect (a restoration + invisibility potion with the first effect listed being restore health, the potion will be called Restore Health). Additionally, if a potion has both positive and negative effects it will become either a posion (green) or a potion (pink) based on the first effect listed. So if you create a potion that fortifies strength but also damages health, when you use the potion on yourself you will also be effected by the damage attribute, or if it is a posion with a benefical effect, such as damage health and fortify strength, when an enemy is hit with that posion their health will be damaged, but they will also get the strength bonus. You can have a maximum of 4 ingredients per potion with an unknown maximum of effects (I personally have made many potions with 5 effects).

Knowing how a potion is made is only a small part of the process, the biggest problem is knowing what ingredients have the properties you want and also do not share any properties you don't want.

Once you have created a potion you will find potions also stack when used, what this means is if you use 2 or more Fortify Intelligence potions, and each increases your intelligence by 10, you will have your intelligence increased by 20 for the duration of the potions. The maximum amount of potions you can have active on your character at one time is 4.

Potions are highly useful to all characters and learning how to make them is a very important skill. If you get the hang of it you will find even the toughest challenges of the game to be incredibly easy.

All characters can effectively use magicka, health and fatigue restoration potions. Stealth characters, or even non-stealth characters can effectively use invisibilty potions. All characters can benefit from water breathing, water walking, feather, resistance, fortification and cure potions. Melee characters can benefit from the poison effect potions. Magic characters can benefit from fortify intelligence potions to increase their maximum magicka to allow them to cast more powerful spells.

So practice your alchemy skills and master this skill, play with the different ingredients and find some potions that work for your character.

My Potions

I find that there are a few very effective potions for my personal method of playing Oblivion. Most are very situational and very specific, such as an invisibility potion, but others are more general, such as a restore magicka potion. What ever the use may be, here are some of the most useful potions I can think of.

The power of these potions vary based on your equipment used to make potions, your alchemy skill and intelligence, and also the fact that you need to be at least an expert to make most of these potions. Because of the difference I decided to use a character with an alchemy skill of 75 (lowest level expert) with only novice equipment and 25 intelligence to acquire a basic low value. And I also used a character with an alchemy skill of 100 with master equipment and 100 intelligence to create a basic high value.

Strong Poison (weight = 0.1) Radish, Nightshade, Clouded Funnel Cap, Harrad

• Burden 21-45 points for 86-180 seconds 
• Damage Health 4-8 points for 15-30 seconds 
• Damage Endurance 1-3 point for 6-12 seconds 
• Damage Magicka 7-15 points for 29-61 seconds

 

Combat Potion (weight = 0.1) Blackberry, Arrowroot, Cinnabar Polypore Yellow Cap, Elf Cup Cap

• Fortify Strength 15-45 points for 57-146 seconds 
• Fortify Endurance 15-45 points for 57-146 seconds

 

Restore Health Potion (weight = 0.3) Fly Amanita Cap, Ham, Blackberry, Cinnabar Polypore Yellow Cap

• Restore Health 4-13 points for 17-43 seconds 
• Restore Fatigue 9-27 points for 34-86 seconds 
• Fortify Endurance 15-45 points for 57-146 seconds

 

Restore Magicka Potion (weight = 0.2) Blackberry, Bog Beacon Asco Cap, Corn, Potato

• Restore Magicka 8-24 points for 31-78 seconds 
• Shield 17-51% for 65-166 seconds 
• Restore Fatigue 9-27 points for 34-86 seconds

 

Feather Potion (weight = 0.2) Somnalius Frond, Sweetcake

• Feather 90-272 points for 345-880 seconds

 

Invisibility Potion (weight = 0.1) Redwort Flower, Tinder Polypore Cap

• Invisibility for 21-50 seconds

 

Night-Eye Potion (weight = 0.2) Carrot, Bonemeal

• Night-Eye for 37-91 seconds

 

Reflect Damage Potion (weight = 0.1) Green Stain Cup, Cinnabar Polypore Yellow, Strawberry, Glow Dust

• Reflect Spel 7-21% for 26-67 seconds 
• Restore Fatifue 9-27 points for 34-86 seconds 
• Reflect Damage 8-24% for 31-78 seconds 
• Damage Health 3-1 points for 12-1 seconds

 

Magicka Potion (weight = 0.1) Nightshade, Carrot, Clouded Funnel Cap, Ginkgo Leaf

• Fortify Intelligence 15-45 points for 57-146 seconds 
• Damage Endurance 1-1 points for 5-1 seconds 
• Damage Luck 1-1 points for 5-1 seconds 
• Fortify Magicka 28-83 points for 105-268 seconds