Skyrim:Illusion

Skill: Illusion
Specialization: Magic

Illusion is one of the five schools of magic in Skyrim. Illusion magic focuses on changing the perception of the world from the viewpoint of the target. Increasing this skill reduces magicka cost when casting Illusion spells. The Illusion skill tree has a total of 13 perks, requiring a total of 13 perk points to fill.

In-game Description: The School of Illusion involves manipulating the mind of the enemy. This skill makes it easier to cast spells like Fear, Calm, and Invisibility.

For historical information, see the main lore article.

Summary

Illusion contains a range of spells that play with your enemies' minds. While no Illusion spell does any direct damage, spells and perks in this school are a good supplement to Stealth-focused characters, and make stealthy play more viable for mages.

Main Effects

Progressively more powerful spells with each of these effects are available as your character develops. Some of these effects can also be produced using Alchemy and enchantments.

• Pacify spells minimize aggression and cause the affected to lose the will to fight unless attacked first.
• Fear spells minimize confidence and cause the affected to run away.
• Frenzy spells maximize aggression and cause the affected to lose allegiance and attack anyone they see.
• Rally spells maximize confidence and increase the stats of the affected and prevent them from fleeing.
• Muffle helps the caster to sneak around by reducing the noise made by walking.
• Invisibility removes the ability to be detected by sight, but unlike sneaking, wears off immediately if the caster touches something, casts a spell or uses a weapon.

Spell Types

For each effect type, the pattern of spells is consistent:

Type	Targets	Duration	Spell Level	Target Level	Pacify	Fear	Frenzy	Rally
Missile	Single target	30 seconds	Novice	6			Fury	Courage (60 second duration)
			Apprentice	9	Calm	Fear
Area Missile	Targets within 15' of impact	60 seconds	Adept	14			Frenzy	Rally
			Expert	20	Pacify	Rout
Wide Area	Targets within 250' of caster	60 seconds	Master	25	Harmony	Hysteria	Mayhem	Call to Arms (100' radius / 10 min. duration)

Target Level does not apply to Rally effects. All missiles, area or not, are range 469 feet.

Usage

Illusion is a formidable tool against almost every enemy in Skyrim, dragons being a notable exception. It can be used on its own as a combat tool, but it is best used in conjunction with another skill to take on enemies.

The only effect that serves as a combat tool is Frenzy, which can be used to cause groups of enemies to decimate each other. Frenzy spells can also be useful for hunting deer and other fleeing animals, as they will turn and attack you instead of running away. Furthermore, casting a Frenzy spell on someone is not considered a crime if you are hidden when you cast it (regardless of whether or not you have the Quiet Casting perk). This can make some of the Dark Brotherhood contracts much easier.

You can simply avoid combat with Fear, or Pacify, the latter of which has the additional use of allowing you to converse and trade with otherwise hostile NPCs. Pacify spells may also allow you to set up additional sneak attacks if the first did not kill your opponent. Invisibility and Muffle can allow you to bypass enemies, even in full daylight, or setup sneak kills. Followers can be rallied to provide better protection at times too. Quiet Casting also affects use of the Thu'um, so you will be able to shout and stay undetected.

Drawbacks to the skill are that undead, Daedra, and dwarven automatons are unaffected by Illusion spells until the perk Master of the Mind is activated. Without the Quiet Casting perk, enemies will be able to hear the casting of the sneak-oriented spells Muffle and Invisibility, and may still be able to detect you.

Skill Perks

Novice Illusion

Animage

Kindred Mage

Quiet Casting

Apprentice Illusion

Adept Illusion

Expert Illusion

Master Illusion

Hypnotic Gaze

Aspect of Terror

Rage

Master of the Mind

Illusion Dual Casting

Illusion Perk Tree

Perk	In-Game Description	Notes	ID	Skill Req.	Perk Req.
Novice Illusion	Cast Novice level Illusion spells for half magicka.		000f2ca9
Animage	Illusion spells now work on higher level animals.	Adds +8 levels to the spell maximum.	000581e1	20 Illusion	Novice Illusion
Kindred Mage	All Illusion spells work on higher level people.	Adds +10 levels to the spell maximum.	000581e2	40 Illusion	Animage
Quiet Casting	All spells you cast from any school of magic are silent to others.	All shouts are also silent.	000581fd	50 Illusion	Kindred Mage
Apprentice Illusion	Cast Apprentice level Illusion spells for half magicka.		000c44c3	25 Illusion	Novice Illusion
Adept Illusion	Cast Adept level Illusion spells for half magicka.		000c44c4	50 Illusion	Apprentice Illusion
Expert Illusion	Cast Expert level Illusion spells for half magicka.		000c44c5	75 Illusion	Adept Illusion
Master Illusion	Cast Master level Illusion spells for half magicka.		000c44c6	100 Illusion	Expert Illusion
Hypnotic Gaze	Calm spells now work on higher level opponents. Cumulative with Kindred Mage and Animage.	Adds +8 levels to the spell maximum. Applies to Pacify and Harmony as well as Calm.	00059b77	30 Illusion	Novice Illusion
Aspect of Terror	Fear spells work on higher level opponents. Cumulative with Kindred Mage and Animage.	Adds +10 levels to the spell maximum. This perk also gives an extra 10 (15 if both ranks of Augmented Flames are unlocked first) points of damage to fire spells, as they also utilize a fear effect.	00059b78	50 Illusion	Hypnotic Gaze
Rage	Frenzy spells work on higher level opponents. Cumulative with Kindred Mage and Animage.	Adds +12 levels to the spell maximum.	000c44b5	70 Illusion	Aspect of Terror
Master of the Mind	Illusion spells work on undead, daedra, and automatons.		00059b76	90 Illusion	Quiet Casting or Rage
Illusion Dual Casting	Dual casting an Illusion spell overcharges the effects into an even more powerful version.	This slightly more than doubles the maximum level of any level-based Illusion spell, while it instead improves the duration of Courage, Rally, and Call to Arms. Level adjustments from Animage, Kindred Mage, Hypnotic Gaze, Aspect of Terror, or Rage are applied before the doubling effect (2.2 times the spell power for 2.8 times the magicka cost).	000153d0	20 Illusion	Novice Illusion

†For the spells Courage, Rally, and Call to Arms, this number is instead added to the stat boosts granted by those spells.

††Animage and Kindred Mage check the target both for having the necessary trait and for lacking the undead trait; accordingly, Master of the Mind and these perks will never affect the spell at the same time against an undead target (primarily of interest against vampires).

Spells

	Spell Name (IDs)	Skill Level	Tome	Magicka Base Cost	Skill XP	Description and Effect Details	Where to Get
	Clairvoyance Spell ID: 00021143 Tome ID: 000ff7d1	0 Novice	50	25/s	0.25/s	Shows the path to the current goal: Clairvoyance, for 1 sec	Can be purchased from: Calcelmo, Drevis Neloren, Falion, Farengar Secret-Fire, Madena, Nelacar, Riverwood Trader, Sybille Stentor, Wuunferth the Unliving, Wylandriah Can be found in Embershard Mine
	Courage Spell ID: 0004dee8 Tome ID: 0009e2ad	0 Novice	46	39	39	Target won't flee for 60 seconds and gets some extra health and stamina: Courage, 100 pts for 60 secs Fortify Health, 25 pts for 60 secs Fortify Stamina, 25 pts for 60 secs	Can be purchased from: Calcelmo, Drevis Neloren, Falion, Farengar Secret-Fire, Madena, Nelacar, Sybille Stentor, Wuunferth the Unliving, Wylandriah Can be found in Treva's Watch
	Fury Spell ID: 0004deeb Tome ID: 0009e2ac	0 Novice	43	67	20	Creatures and people up to level 6 will attack anything nearby for 30 seconds: Fury, 6 pts for 30 secs Courage Secondary, 6 pts for 30 secs	Altmer start with this spell Can be purchased from: Calcelmo, Drevis Neloren, Falion, Farengar Secret-Fire, Madena, Nelacar, Riverwood Trader, Sybille Stentor, Wuunferth the Unliving, Wylandriah
	Calm Spell ID: 0004dee9 Tome ID: 000a2711	25 Apprentice	91	146	36	Creatures and people up to level 9 won't fight for 30 seconds: Calm, 9 pts for 30 secs	Can be purchased from: Calcelmo, Drevis Neloren, Falion, Farengar Secret-Fire, Madena, Sybille Stentor, Wuunferth the Unliving, Wylandriah
	Fear Spell ID: 0004deea Tome ID: 000a2712	25 Apprentice	80	153	38	Creatures and people up to level 9 flee from combat for 30 seconds: Fear, 9 pts for 30 secs	Can be purchased from: Calcelmo, Drevis Neloren, Falion, Farengar Secret-Fire, Madena, Sybille Stentor, Wuunferth the Unliving, Wylandriah
	Muffle Spell ID: 0008f3eb Tome ID: 000a270f	25 Apprentice	88	144	144	You move more quietly for 180 seconds: Muffle, 1 pt for 180 secs	Can be purchased from: Calcelmo, Drevis Neloren, Falion, Farengar Secret-Fire, Madena, Sybille Stentor, Wuunferth the Unliving, Wylandriah
	Frenzy Spell ID: 0004deee Tome ID: 000a2714	50 Adept	330	209	104/target	Creatures and people up to level 14 will attack anyone nearby for 60 seconds: Frenzy, 14 pts for 60 secs in 15 ft Rally Secondary, 14 pts for 60 secs in 15 ft	Can be purchased from: Drevis Neloren, Sybille Stentor
	Frenzy RuneDB Spell ID: xx0177b7 Tome ID: xx0177bd	50 Adept	310	278	278	Targets up to level 20 that fail to resist are frenzied for 30 seconds: Cast on ground Frenzy Rune, 20 pts for 30 secs	Can be purchased from Talvas Fathryon after completing the quest From the Ashes. Only available with the Dragonborn add-on
	Orum's Aquatic EscapeCC Spell ID: FExxx851 Tome ID: FExxx866	50 Adept	350	165		Caster is invisible for <dur> seconds. Activating an object or attacking will break the spell. Can breathe water for 15 seconds. Improved night vision for 15 seconds. Orum's Aquatic Escape, 15 sec Water Breathing, 15 sec Night Eye, 15 sec	Can be found in Hob's Fall Cave during The Lost Library quest. Can be purchased from: Drevis Neloren, Sybille Stentor Only available with the Arcane Accessories creation.
	Rally Spell ID: 0004deec Tome ID: 000a2713	50 Adept	300	113	34/target	Targets won't flee for 60 seconds and get extra health and stamina: Rally, 100 pts for 60 secs in 15 ft Fortify Health, 25 pts for 60 secs in 15 ft Fortify Stamina, 25 pts for 60 secs in 15 ft	Can be purchased from: Drevis Neloren, Sybille Stentor
	Fenrik's WelcomeCC Spell ID: FExxx84F Tome ID: FExxx867	75 Expert	350	116	0	Caster becomes invisible and can open locks with level Expert and below for 5 seconds. Activating an object or attacking will break the spell. Fenrik's Welcome, 5 sec	Can be found in Hob's Fall Cave during The Lost Library quest. Can be purchased from: Drevis Neloren Only available with the Arcane Accessories creation.
	Invisibility Spell ID: 00027eb6 Tome ID: 000a2715	75 Expert	625	334	83	Caster is invisible for 30 seconds. Activating an object or attacking will break the spell: Invisibility, for 30 secs	Can be purchased from: Drevis Neloren
	Pacify Spell ID: 0004deed Tome ID: 000a2717	75 Expert	610	290	72/target	Creatures and people up to level 20 won't fight for 60 seconds: Pacify, 20 pts for 60 secs in 15 ft	Can be purchased from: Drevis Neloren
	Rout Spell ID: 0004deef Tome ID: 000a2718	75 Expert	653	316	79/target	Creatures and people up to level 20 flee from combat for 30 seconds: Rout, 20 pts for 30 secs in 15 ft	Can be purchased from: Drevis Neloren
	Call to Arms Spell ID: 0007e8dd Tome ID: 000a271b	100 Master	1150	655	65/target	Targets have improved combat skills, health and stamina for 10 minutes: Fortify Marksman, 25 pts for 600 secs in 100 ft Fortify One-handed, 25 pts for 600 secs in 100 ft Fortify Two-handed, 25 pts for 600 secs in 100 ft Fortify Health, 25 pts for 600 secs in 100 ft Fortify Stamina, 25 pts for 600 secs in 100 ft	Can be purchased from: Drevis Neloren (only after Illusion Ritual Spell has been completed)
	Harmony Spell ID: 0007e8db Tome ID: 000a271a	100 Master	1220	1052	841/target	Creatures and people up to level 25 nearby won't fight for 60 seconds: Harmony, 25 pts for 60 secs in 250 ft	Can be purchased from: Drevis Neloren (only after Illusion Ritual Spell has been completed)
	Hysteria Spell ID: 0007e8de Tome ID: 000a271c	100 Master	1240	866	216/target	Creatures and people up to level 25 flee from combat for 60 seconds: Hysteria, 25 pts for 60 secs in 250 ft	Reward for quest Illusion Ritual Spell
	Mayhem Spell ID: 0007e8da Tome ID: 000a2719	100 Master	1250	990	396/target	Creatures and people up to level 25 will attack anyone nearby for 60 seconds: Mayhem, 25 pts for 60 secs in 250 ft Rally Secondary, 25 pts for 60 secs in 250 ft	Can be purchased from: Drevis Neloren (only after Illusion Ritual Spell has been completed)
	Vision of the Tenth Eye Spell ID: 000b323e	N/A	N/A	0	0	See what others cannot. Vision of the Tenth Eye, for 30 secs	Not available for purchase Given by Drevis Neloren as part of the quest Illusion Ritual Spell

Spell List Notes

• The base cost for spells is the amount of magicka that would be necessary to cast the spell at 0 skill without any perks. The magicka cost at 100 skill is 41% less than the base cost; the cost can also be reduced via enchanted apparel and by unlocking various perks. See Spell Cost for the full magicka cost equation.
• Skill level indicates which skill perk needs to be unlocked to decrease the spell's magicka cost. "N/A" is used for special spells whose cost is not affected by any perks.
• The "Where to Get" column only lists guaranteed locations for obtaining the spell tomes. Most spell tomes are also available in random loot; see Spell Tome Locations and the table below for details.
• For higher-level spell tomes to become available for purchase, your skill in the school must be high enough (see the table below). Also, master-level spell tomes can only be acquired once that school's ritual spell quest has been completed.
• All spell tomes have a weight of 1.
• Skill XP can be modified by scripts and by the game engine itself under various circumstances. The exact XP you receive may vary from the numbers listed here.
• Magicka cost and skill XP are rounded down, both in game and on this page. Because of this, you may find that you cannot cast a spell even though it appears you have exactly enough magicka to do so.

Tomes by Level

Spell Level	Skill Level	Character Level, Boss Chest	Character Level, Random Chest
Novice	0	1	1
Apprentice	0	11	10
Adept	40	23	-
Expert	65	35	-
Master	0/90	-	-

†Master level spell tomes require the appropriate ritual spell quest to be completed to be sold; while the quests have a skill level requirement of 90 to initiate, if you have completed the quest and reset the skill by making it legendary, the spell tome should still be available for sale.

Magical Effects

A list of standard Illusion spells can be found on the Spells page. The following individual effects are all considered to be part of the school of Illusion (see the individual effect pages for full details on availability; the Magical Effects article also provides a summary):

• Clairvoyance
• Rally
• Fear
• Frenzy
• Pacify
• Invisibility
• Muffle

Skill Increases

Character Creation

The following races have an initial skill bonus to Illusion:

• +10 bonus: Altmer
• +5 bonus: Breton, Dunmer

Trainers

• Atub in Largashbur (Expert)
• Drevis Neloren in the College of Winterhold (Master)

Skill Books

• 2920, Sun's Dawn, v2
• Before the Ages of Man
• The Black Arts On Trial
• Incident at Necrom
• Mystery of Talara, Part 4

Free Skill Boosts

• +1 Illusion reward from Sybille Stentor for completing the quest Kill the Vampire.
• +1 Illusion reward (+1 every magic skill) from Pantea Ateia (Bards College) for completing the quest Pantea's Flute.
• +5 Illusion (+5 every magic skill) by selecting "The Path of Magic" when reading the Oghma Infinium after completing the quest Discerning the Transmundane.

Gaining Skill XP

• Casting higher level spells gives generally faster skill increases (Novice<Apprentice<Adept<Expert<Master).
• It is possible to reduce or even completely eliminate the magicka cost of spells by stacking Fortify Illusion enchanting effects, which is very helpful for Illusion training. The Secret of Arcana^DB power does the same thing, but only for 30 seconds.
• Casting Muffle on yourself repeatedly will level up your Illusion quickly, even if there are no enemies around.
• If you reset your Illusion skill after learning the master-level spells (after completing the Master Illusion Ritual quest), casting Harmony repeatedly in a heavily populated area, such as Whiterun, will (re)level up your Illusion significantly. Combined with the Secret of Arcana and depending on how many NPCs the spell hits, you could level from 15 to 100 in under 30 seconds by casting the spell.
• Casting Courage or Rally on NPCs is effective and is not considered a crime. Courage uses less magicka, but Rally will level the skill more quickly. However, both can rarely turn a few otherwise non-hostile NPCs hostile, such as Vigilants of Stendarr and Revelers.
• If using Rally to level, try to hit as many people as possible in one shot. Casting it into groups of people will raise the skill much faster than hitting single targets.
• Simultaneously casting Rout and Pacify (one assigned to each hand) on an enemy will rapidly level Illusion. Although the effects of Pacify should keep the target stationary, this is best done in a small enclosed area to ensure that you can hit the target each time the spells are cast.

Dialogue

When the player reaches a high level in this skill, NPCs (particularly guards) will sometimes comment: "You're the one that casts those illusions. Impressive."

Notes

• Clairvoyance, Invisibility, and Muffle can be cast to gain experience even if there is no one around. All other spells must be cast on a valid target to gain experience, although this does not have to be an enemy.
• Casting Invisibility without the Quiet Casting perk may allow your character to still be detected. Enemies will investigate the sound, and may find you even if you have moved from where you originally cast the spell.
• Vampires are not affected by Illusion spells unless you have Master of the Mind. Even then, they are considered undead rather than people for the purposes of the Kindred Mage perk.
• The Necromage perk in the Restoration tree helps with making Illusion spells work against higher level undead.
• Falmer can be affected by Illusion spells without Master of the Mind, but are not affected by Kindred Mage or Animage.
• Dragons are immune to all Illusion spells cast at them, regardless of skill level or perks.
• Vision of the Tenth Eye can be used as a kind of Night Eye spell with some effectiveness if needed, which does not appear to increase the ability of NPCs to detect you and allows for vision beyond the limited range of Candlelight and Magelight, though its long cast time, short duration and glare from light sources can be considerable downsides.
• Master-level Illusion spells do not benefit from Dual Casting; however, they can still overcome the level 50+ cap with the relevant perks and by using Fortify Illusion potions.
• Casting Mayhem will often cause items in the vicinity to shift around and become irretrievable.
• Quiet Casting also affects shouts.
• There are indications in the data files that at one point in the game's development, Mysticism would have been present as a school in place of Illusion. This is evidenced by an unused texture file containing names of all of the skills, in which Mysticism is present instead of Illusion, as well as the hardcoded order of Actor Values in the Creation Kit, in which Illusion is listed under "M" where Mysticism would go.

Bugs

• Aspect of Terror adds extra damage to fire spells, including chaos damage spells. This extra damage is affected by the Augmented Flames(/Frost/Shock for chaos) perks as long as the perks are obtained in the following order: Hypnotic Gaze, Augmented perks, Aspect of Terror, Animage. In any other order some of the damage might be lost upon a Save/Load.
  • The Unofficial Skyrim Patch, version 1.2, fixes this bug.
• Neither "Fenrik's Welcome" nor "Orum's Aquatic Escape" from the "Arcane Accessories" Creation appear to give *any* experience to Illusion at all. ^?
• Repeatedly casting Rally spells may spontaneously cause a CTD. It might be advisable to save often if one is doing this in order to train Illusion.