Skyrim:Spell Absorption

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

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. Each of these uses a different variant of the Spell Absorption effect, but the three 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 up to 30% permanent Spell Absorption (effect form ID 000954d6).

With Dragonborn this effect is also available on Miraak's Robes and is strengthened if also wearing Miraak's Gloves and/or Miraak's Boots. This can be used to add a maximum additional 25% Spell Absorption.

Unlike Resist Magic which always reduces magic damage taken by a percentage displayed, Magic Absorption has a chance to completely block all damage, equal to the percentage displayed. 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

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.

Notes

• This is a separate effect from Resist Magic, so they stack, with Resist Magic reducing the damage if Spell Absorption does not trigger on a spell.
• 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.
• A value of 100% is only temporarily possible in the vanilla game. 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. 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. One can also gain 100% spell absorption while blocking with Spellbreaker, equipping Ahzidal's Gauntlets of Warding, and having the Atronach Stone power. This allows any character to temporarily reach 100% absorption without any perk investment, and without the once per day restriction of the Breton racial ability.
• Spell Absorption does not interfere with Necromancy.
• Spell Absorption grants the user the ability to absorb the magicka from the circle of protection spell granting the player practically infinite magicka.

Bugs

• 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.
  • This bug is fixed by version 1.2.3 of the Unofficial Skyrim Patch.
• 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.
  • This bug is fixed by version 1.0 of the Unofficial Skyrim Patch.
  • When your own summon spell is absorbed, you initially lose the amount of magicka you spent casting the spell, the same as if you had successfully cast the spell. However, no summoning portal or summoned creature appears. At that point, you regain magicka equivalent to the base cost of the spell (as with all absorbed spells). 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).