Oblivion:Endurance

Endurance is the governing attribute for Block, Armorer, and Heavy Armor. It affects:

• Fatigue = Endurance + Agility + Strength + Willpower (NPCs and player)
• Base health = Endurance × 2 (player only)
• Health increase on leveling = Endurance ÷ 10 (rounded down) (player only)
  • If increasing Endurance on level up: Above + (Increase x 2).
• How long your character may breathe underwater before drowning.

In-game Description: Affects how much Fatigue you have, your Health, and how much your Health will increase when you sleep and raise levels. Governs the skills of Block, Armorer, and Heavy Armor.

If your Endurance is increased while leveling, your health will increase both because the base health has increased and because of the health increase on leveling. In other words, base health is recalculated at each level-up after applying any Endurance gains.

Character Creation

• The Races page provides a table summarizing the initial Endurance for each race and gender.
• Initial +10 Endurance bonuses are possible by selecting either Lady or Warrior as your birthsign.
• The following standard classes have Endurance as a class attribute (initial +5 bonus):
  • Acrobat, Pilgrim, Scout, Sorcerer, Spellsword, and Warrior
• Any custom class can select Endurance as one of its two attributes.

Health Gains

The health gain each time you level is dependent on your current Endurance value; this increase is not retroactive. To maximize health, you should raise your Endurance to 100 as quickly as possible. The following table compares the health for five characters who all reach 100 Endurance by level 20:

Level	Case 1			Case 2			Case 3			Case 4			Case 5
	Endur.	Health		Endur.	Health		Endur.	Health		Endur.	Health		Endur.	Health
1	30	60		30	60		60	120		60	120		60	120
2	35	73		30	63		65	136		60	126		60	126
3	40	87		30	66		70	153		60	132		60	132
4	45	101		30	69		75	170		60	138		60	138
5	50	116		30	72		80	188		60	144		60	144
6	55	131		30	75		85	206		60	150		60	150
7	60	147		35	88		90	225		60	156		60	156
8	65	163		40	102		95	244		65	172		60	162
9	70	180		45	116		100	264		70	189		60	168
10	75	197		50	131		100	274		75	206		60	174
11	80	215		55	146		100	284		80	224		60	180
12	85	233		60	162		100	294		85	242		60	186
13	90	252		65	178		100	304		90	261		65	202
14	95	271		70	195		100	314		95	280		70	219
15	100	291		75	212		100	324		100	300		75	236
16	100	301		80	230		100	334		100	310		80	254
17	100	311		85	248		100	344		100	320		85	272
18	100	321		90	267		100	354		100	330		90	291
19	100	331		95	286		100	364		100	340		95	310
20	100	341		100	306		100	374		100	350		100	330

The minimum Endurance you can start with is 30, while the maximum is 65. This results in a 37-point difference in maximum health between these two characters, assuming both max out their Endurance as soon as possible. If, however, you neglect to level Endurance until as late as possible, a character following the efficient leveling guide, with the maximum level of 46, will have between 384 and 486 health, a deficit of over 100 to a character who started with 30 Endurance and maximized it by level 15.

Notes

• Any Fortify Endurance effect will also provide a health increase equal to two times the Endurance boost. These effects will not modify the health gained when you level up.
• Conversely, Damage Endurance or Drain Endurance effects cast on you will decrease your health. Damage Endurance is significantly more expensive than casting a Damage Health spell, whereas Drain Endurance is cheaper than Drain Health, although Drain Endurance is a temporary effect and challenging to find.
• However, using a Damage Endurance or Drain Endurance effect on NPCs does not decrease their health.
• Fortifying Endurance to values greater than 100 continues to increase your health and fatigue.
• It is possible to permanently increase your base Endurance past 100, allowing for a slight increase in health upon leveling:
  • The Knights of the Nine official download confers a permanent bonus to one attribute upon completing the questline. Mara's Blessing (obtained by praying at Sir Casimir's tomb) increases Endurance by +5. Note that an Endurance of 105 will round down to 10 points of health gained on leveling. Consider taking this bonus early to benefit from the added Endurance and then switch to a more practical bonus when the extra points are no longer useful.
  • The Shivering Isles expansion includes a quest where you become addicted to a substance called Felldew. This addiction lowers your base attributes by a certain amount depending on its severity. Because the base attribute is lowered, this allows it to be raised back up to 100 and once the addiction is cured, all lowered points will be returned. The maximum Endurance bonus from this method is 10 points, resulting in a total of 110 Endurance (11 health gained per level).
    • In total, a maximum base Endurance of 115 is possible, although this will be rounded down to a maximum of 11 health gained per level.

See Also

• Increasing Attributes: Tips on how to increase Endurance.
• Magic Items: There are multiple generic items that fortify Endurance.
• Unique Items: A list of unique items, of which several fortify Endurance. These do not include leveled items, such as those received from quests, or artifacts.

Unique items include:

• Dondoran's Juggernaut: Obtained from Olfand at Nord Winds, this heavy cuirass fortifies Endurance by 10 points.
• Fists of the Drunkard: Obtained from Maenlorn at The Flowing Bowl, these heavy gauntlets fortify Endurance by 5 points.
• Ring of Wortcraft: Obtained from Falanu Hlaalu at All Things Alchemical, this ring fortifies Endurance by 5 points.
• Circlet of Omnipotence: Obtained from the non-journal quest A Ring of Keys, this circlet fortifies all attributes, except Luck, Personality, and Intelligence, by 3 points.