Skyrim:Spell Absorption

	Spell Absorption
School	Destruction
Type	Defensive
Effect ID	000e40c6
Alchemy
ID	fexxx812
Availability (Click on any item for details)
Dragonskin, The Atronach Stone, Atronach, Miraak's RobesDB

Absorb <mag>% of the magicka from hostile spells for <dur> seconds.

Spell Absorption is a rare effect that simultaneously provides defense, by negating hostile spells, and restoration, by refilling your Magicka reserves. There are only three ways to obtain this effect (four with the Dragonborn expansion). Each of these uses a different variant of the Spell Absorption effect, but the effects stack with each other.

• The Breton Dragonskin racial greater power provides 50% Spell Absorption for 60 seconds, once per day (effect form ID 000e40c6)
• The Atronach Stone provides permanent 50% Spell Absorption, at the cost of slower Magicka regeneration (effect form ID 000e5f50).
• The Atronach perk from the Alteration skill provides 30% permanent Spell Absorption (effect form ID 000954d6).
• Miraak's Robes^DB provide 15% Spell Absorption, which can be strengthened up to 25% if also wearing Miraak's Gloves and Miraak's Boots.

Unlike Resist Magic which always reduces magic damage taken by a percentage displayed, Magic Absorption has a chance - equal to the percentage displayed - of completely blocking all damage. If it activates you take no damage from an enemy spell and, if the spell had a Magicka cost, you gain Magicka equal to the base casting cost of the spell. If it doesn't activate, you take full damage from the spell as normal. However, do note that Magic Absorption is calculated before Magic Resistance, so even if it doesn't activate you're still eligible for damage reduction from your Magic and Elemental Resistance.

Interestingly, Magic Absorption works not only with spells but also with every effect in the game that is not the following:

• Normal damage from melee or ranged attacks
• Falling damage
• Drowning damage
• Scripted damage (exceptions might apply)

Note that self-applying spells (such as Alteration Flesh spells or Restoration Heal spells) will not be absorbed (see bugs). Therefore it is possible for Magic Absorption to negate effects of shouts, poison, diseases, weapon enchantments, various debuffs, etc. However if the effect had no associated Magicka cost you will not gain any Magicka from it.

Getting 100% Spell Absorption

In the vanilla game, and without using glitches or bugs, a value of 100% is only temporarily possible. This can be achieved with the Breton racial power Dragonskin along with the Atronach Stone as the active Standing Stone. Other characters can have at most 80% Magic Absorption, using the Atronach Stone and Atronach perk from Alteration skill. However, there are two glitches to boost this to 100%:

• Using a Fortify Restoration potion before activating the Atronach Stone or a Fortify Destruction potion before getting the Atronach Perk will permanently boost their effects. This glitch makes it possible for all races to reach 100% Magic Absorption, depending on the strength of the potion consumed.
  • The Unofficial Skyrim Patch, version 1.3.0, fixes this bug.
• A vampire taking the Necromage perk before taking both the Atronach Perk and Atronach Stone can reach a permanent 100% spell absorption, thus becoming immune to all spells affected by Spell Absorption.
  • The Unofficial Skyrim Patch, version 1.2.3, fixes this bug.

The Dragonborn expansion adds Miraak's Robes, which can be combined with either Miraak's Boots or Miraak's Gloves, the Atronach Stone power, and the Atronach Alteration perk to get 100% absorption on any character.

Another method is creating Spell Absorption potion with Rare Curios^CC ingredients. It offers 50% spell absorption.

Alchemy

The following alchemy ingredients can be used to create a potion of Spell Absorption:

• Blind Watcher's Eye^CC
• Comberry^CC
• Daedra Venin^CC
• Fire Petal^CC
• Lichor^CC
• Watcher's Eye^CC
• Withering Moon^CC

Notes

• The Destruction school is only associated with the Atronach variant of Spell Absorption (even though the Alteration school provides the perk). The other two variants do not have any associated school.
• Spell Absorption grants the user the ability to absorb the magicka from the Guardian Circle spell granting you practically infinite magicka. ^{Does not work on Xbox 360; sometimes works but mostly unreliable on Xbox One.}
• The Ward Absorb perk from the Restoration school works similarly to Spell Absorption, but does not stack with it, as spells that hit the ward will not hit the user.
• Despite what might be considered, spell absorption also works with animal attacks, such as those from bears and wolves. This is because the chance to catch a disease from them is considered a magical attack by the game, and you will even gain magicka from an absorbed attack, though the chance of catching a disease is absorbed, not the physical damage. Because of this, spell absorption can be used as a sort of disease resistance. Poison attacks from frostbite spiders and chaurus can also be absorbed, as well as the poison attacks of falmer.
• Melee attacks with enchanted weapons can be absorbed, but only the enchantment effect.

Bugs

• Whenever Spell Absorption is active, you may also absorb your own Summon spells, preventing you from successfully casting the spells. Sneak's Shadow Warrior perk can also be absorbed.
  • The Unofficial Skyrim Patch, version 1.0, fixes this bug.
  • When your own summon spell is absorbed, you lose the magicka you spent casting the spell, the same as if you had successfully cast the spell, but then one of two things can happen:
    • The spell succeeds to summon anyways and you get back the magicka you spent OR
    • The spell fails to summon and you get 0 XP, but you regain magicka equivalent to the base cost of the spell - This means that if your Conjuration skill level is high, you can regain significantly more magicka than you originally cast. For example, it might cost you 32 magicka to cast Conjure Familiar but you will absorb 107 magicka. Therefore, this bug can be exploited to refill your magicka (as long as you have enough magicka to cast a summon spell).
  • Reanimate spells will still work with 100% Spell Absorption, and can be used as a successful alternative to summoning.
  • Staves of the Conjuration type can also be absorbed by spell absorption, and grant magicka each time it is absorbed, even though staves do not require magicka to cast.