Elder Scrolls Oblivion Remastered: Best Necromancer Build

Discover everything you need to know about the best Necromancer build in Elder Scrolls Oblivion Remastered, including some valuable tips and tricks to optimize the build.

The Necromancer build in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is a high-damage-dealing build using only magic and summoning creatures. The Necromancer role possesses attributes of Intelligence and Willpower, allowing you to cast all sorts of spells to damage, summon, repel, absorb, heal, and shield on the battleground. Using all the best spells from each magic school can allow you to eliminate enemies easily. The Necromancer can utilize both weapons and spells to dominate the battlefield. Balance your Magicka and Health, use defensive skills, and heal to keep yourself alive in battle. Use spells from all magic schools to both explore and fight in Cyrodiil.  

However, it all depends on how you choose to play as a Necromancer, as there are a lot of systems in the background that enhance its effectiveness. From faction and specialization to weapons and armor, everything is crucial for a Necromancer build. Choosing the right class and race for your Necromancer build is important to maximizing your effectiveness. Choosing the best race, attribute, and skills are crucial for the Necromancer build in Elder Scrolls Oblivion, as your gameplay mostly depends on it. With the right combination of skills, race, and weapon choices, you can easily become a confident Mage with no fear. In this guide, we’ll discuss the best Necromancer build in Elder Scrolls Oblivion Remastered, including the best skills, weapons, and armor to choose from.

Everything About Necromancer Build in Elder Scrolls Oblivion

The Necromancer build is all about spamming the right spells on the battlefield for crowd control and damage to the enemies. Due to Intelligence being one of the prioritized attributes for the Necromancer, you can learn spells from each magic school. Leveling up the main skills will let you unlock the powerful spells that you can utilize accordingly to destroy the enemies. There is no doubt that Conjuration is probably the best magic school in Oblivion. You can summon allies and let them do the fighting for you. Moreover, the Destruction spells will be your bread and butter to cast different elemental spells on enemies. Furthermore, Alteration spells can help you reduce the incoming damage with Shield or even make you lighter to carry more stuff.

Now, playing a Necromancer build in Elder Scrolls Oblivion highly depends on your initial decisions of choosing the effective Race and Birthsign. The Breton stands out as the best race for the Necromancer build due to the bonus of magic resistance and the Dragon Skin trait. Moreover, this race grants bonuses for all the major skills, making you more effective in the core play style. For the Birthsign, the Mage stands out the best, as you will be able to cast more spells right from the beginning. The Mage Birthsign grants 50 Magicka points permanently with no penalty on elemental resistances. 

Last but not least, choosing the best Major Skills, Minor Skills, Specialization, and armor is crucial for this build, as picking the wrong one can negatively impact your build.

Necromancer Build Pros	Necromancer Build Cons
High Damage Output	Resource Management
High Survivability	Heavy Armor Penalty on Magic
Crowd Control

Build Key Aspect

Below are all the important and essential aspects of the Necromancer Build in Elder Scrolls Oblivion Remastered:

• Class: Custom or Mage
• Race: Breton
• Birthsign: Mage
• Specialization: Magic
• Attributes: Intelligence, Willpower, Endurance
• Major Skills
  • Alteration
  • Blade
  • Conjuration
  • Destruction
  • Illusion
  • Mysticism
  • Restoration
• Minor Skills
  • Acrobatics
  • Alchemy
  • Athletics
  • Light Armor
  • Mercantile
  • Sneak
  • Speechcraft
• Weapons: Apotheosis, Umbra Sword, Daedric Dagger
• Armor: Elven Armor, Shrouded Armor
• Faction: Mage Guild
• Trainer: Falion

Class

Making a Necromancer build will require you to select a number of things in the initial hour of the game. Before you can reach Cyrodiil, you will have to select and confirm your race, birthsign, and class. The class plays a major role in defining your character in Cyrodiil. The best pre-built Class for the Necromancer build is the “Mage” class. You can choose and make a Custom Class and select the 2 attributes yourself, but the Mage class offers the attributes of Intelligence and Willpower by default. So, overall, it is the best class to pursue right from the beginning to make a strong Necromancer build.

Moreover, selecting the Mage class will give you access to its seven Major Skills. It includes Alchemy, Alteration, Conjuration, Destruction, Illusion, Mysticism, and Restoration. All of these skills are for unlocking various types of spells from different magic schools. As a Necromancer, it is crucial for you to cast every type of spell during combat and during exploration to deal with the threat/situation. In the case of choosing the Armor, you must stick with the Light Armor or Robe. It is because wearing a Heavy Armor negatively impacts the overall magic in Oblivion.

However, for the Necromancer, you only need Conjuration, Destruction, Alteration, and Restoration. The rest of the skills will not play a major role. Instead of the others, you can try and pick Blade and Sneak skills, as they will open up more opportunities for you. So, if you want other skills, make the Custom Class and choose the 7 Major Skills yourself. Furthermore, you can increase the other skills as Minor Skills to improve the overall playstyle. After all, playing on the high difficulty will require you to have skills like Athletics and damage resistance.

Best Race

Choosing a potential race for your character is necessary to optimize a build. For the Necromancer build, we recommend you select the “Breton” race. It is one of the best races under the Human race options in Elder Scrolls Oblivion, especially for spellcasters. This race has a touch of elven ancestry, which makes them the best mages and spellcasters. Acquiring this race will provide you with bonuses for all the major skills of the Necromancer. Furthermore, this race provides great stats for the Intelligence, Luck, and Willpower attributes. All of these are essential for a Necromancer build.

The Breton comes with four special bonuses. The first one is Fortify Magicka, which lets you gain +50 points to Magicka. It also provides 50 points for Magic Resistance and a bonus to Disposition while with other Bretons. Lastly, it gives a Dragon Skin trait, which is a greater power and increases the armor rating by 50 for 60 seconds once a day. This trait specifically works as a shield, and while we will be using Light Armor with Robes, it will increase our survivability in tougher fights.

However, there are some negative effects of this race. The major negative impact is that you have lower Agility. It means you will have low Marksman, Security, and Sneak skills. Moreover, the male form of Breton also has a lower Speed attribute. The female form of Breton has a lower Strength. We recommend you go for the Male form of Breton to have a bit more strength right from the beginning.

Breton Race Origin

In addition to choosing the Body Type for the Breton Race, the stats do not allocate until you select the respective Origin. As we told you that Male is better for Necromancer, due to the Strength attribute, you must also choose the respective background for the stats to actually allocate. Now, each race has two different Origins, determining the background of the character. So, Origin of the Breton Race for the Male character is “Systres”.

“As a child you were always spending time on the docks of one of the islands, gaining some money by helping merchants carrying their goods and learning from their adventures.”

With such a background, the male body type of the Breton Race will have 10 points worth of more Strength than the female. As we will be using Blade weapons in close quarters, it is essential for the build to have more Strength.

Best Birthsign (Mundus)

The final major choice for effective optimization of the Necromancer build is choosing a potential Birthsign. You will get to make this choice earlier in the game and before leaving the sewer to explore the world. The best Birthsign that is effective for the Necromancer build is the Mage. It provides a +50 points bonus to Magicka, which is crucial for spellcasting, without any significant drawbacks. However, this Birthsign doesn’t offer any other significant bonuses or drawbacks, making it a safe, general-purpose choice. This Brithsign focuses more on Agility that benefits skills like Sneak, Block, and Security.

You can also choose Atronach for a high gain for Magicka. Selecting the Atronach will give you +150 Magicka and grant you +50% Spell Absorption. However, it restricts the Magicka from regenerating casually. Instead, you will have to use the Fortify Magicka spell or use potions to regenerate Magicka.

Best Attributes

Intelligence, Willpower, and Endurance are the best attributes for the Necromancer build in Elder Scrolls Oblivion. The more you invest in these attributes, the more effective your build becomes. Investing in Intelligence will affect your overall Magicka and magic use. The more Magicka you have, the more often you will be able to cast the spells. Moreover, this attribute also governs the Conjuration and Mysticism skills, which are the major skills of a Necromancer. The Willpower affects how quickly you regenerate Magicka. As a Necromancer, you must regenerate Magicka quickly to cast spells repeatedly. Running out of Magicka can be bad for you, especially during tougher fights. The Willpower also increases the overall Fatigue. Moreover, it governs the Skills of Destruction, Alteration, and Restoration. All of these are the major skills of a Necromancer, so enhancing Willpower will enhance the use of magic for the corresponding spells.

The Endurance is crucial for the overall Fatigue and Health of your character. Having more Endurance will let you have more Fatigue and Health. Moreover, every time you level up, your Health will increase more than usual. Lastly, this attribute is also crucial for breathing underwater. You will have less chance of drowning with high Endurance.

In addition to these attributes, you can also choose to enhance Agility, Speed, Strength, Personality, and Luck. However, these attributes are not associated with the Necromancer. The only way to increase the additional attributes is to level up the Minor Skills of the Necromancer.

Major Skills

Selecting the Mage class will grant you seven Major Skills that are somewhat crucial for the Necromancer build. Out of those seven, the five best major skills to improve for the Necromancer build are Alteration, Conjuration, Destruction, Mysticism, and Restoration. The Restoration is only viable until mid-game. You can choose to enhance the Alchemy or Illusion if you like. Alteration is helpful both in exploration and combat. You can utilize the Feather spell to become lightweight if your Strength is low. Moreover, you can use various Shield spells to negate the incoming damage. Conjuration offers the most overpowered spells in the game, as you can just summon allies to fight for you. There are a variety of summoning spells that you can utilize during tougher fights.

Destruction will be your main source of damaging enemies with direct magic. You can cast different elemental spells to damage a target’s health, fatigue, or magicka. Moreover, you can apply elemental weaknesses to the targets, which can help you deal additional damage with respective elemental spells. Mysticism will help you more in exploration. It contains various viable spells like Detect Life, Trap Soul, Telekineses, and more. Lastly, Restoration will help you restore your health, fatigue, and magicka, absorb them from a target, fortify them, cure diseases, and gain resistance to different elemental effects.

As you play the game, you must utilize the major skills to enhance them. The Major Skills are enhanced easily than the Minor Skills. So, make sure to do corresponding actions to the skills to enhance them.

All Major Skills for a Necromancer build

In addition to the major skills above, there are other potential skills as well for a Necromancer. If you are going for a Custom Class, we recommend you select the seven major skills mentioned below. Here is a brief overview of all the Major Skills for a Necromancer build in Elder Scrolls Oblivion Remastered.

• Alteration: Allows you to alter the physical world. Gain shield to negate incoming damage.
• Blade: Increases the overall damage for sharp weapons like daggers, shortswords, longswords, and claymores.
• Conjuration: Allows you to summon various minions to assist you in combat.
• Destruction: Use it to deal direct damage to the enemies with various elemental spells.
• Illusion: Use it to cast spells like conceal, command, paralyze, and more actions. It is mainly for crowd control.
• Mysticism: Allows you to open lockboxes, move objects, detect life nearby, and more.
• Restoration: Use it to restore health, fatigue, and magicka and boost other attributes.

Minor Skills

Minor Skills play a small role in the overall effectiveness of the Necromancer build. Unlike Major Skills, these skills are harder to level up and are usually associated with attributes other than your main attributes. However, there are still some crucial Minor Skills that you can utilize to optimize the Necromancer build. The best Minor Skills that we recommend you to improve and level up are the following.

• Acrobatics: Jump longer distances and avoid damage when falling great distances.
• Alchemy: Allows you to recognize potential alchemical properties of ingredients and craft potions.
• Athletics: Run and swim faster and regenerate lost fatigue faster.
• Light Armor: Gain decent defensive stats by wearing Light Armor.
• Mercantile: Get better deals when buying or selling goods.
• Sneak: Allows you to move around undetected, pick pockets, and do more damage to targets while sneaking.
• Speechcraft: Allows you to lower the disposition of the target and helps you persuade them easily.

These minor skills are associated with Agility, Speed, Endurance, and Personality. Leveling up these skills will let you improve the other attributes for further bonuses.

Best Spells

Here are the best spells to use as a Necromancer in Elder Scrolls Oblivion Remastered.

1. Detect Life: Reveals all visible and invisible creatures with a soft purple glow.
2. Summon Zombie: Summon a Zombie for 30 seconds to fight beside you.
3. Summon Skeleton: Summon a Skeleton for 40 seconds to fight beside you.
4. Guard: Shield 30% for 30 seconds on self, reducing the incoming damage.
5. Debilitate: Paralyze a target for 3 seconds on touch.
6. Flash Bolt: Deals 20 Fire Damage to a target on impact.
7. Lightning Bolt: Deals 35 Shock Damage to a target on impact.
8. Weakness to Fire: Makes a target weaker to Fire by 25% for 30 seconds.
9. Weakness to Shock: Makes a target weaker to Shock by 25% for 30 seconds.
10. Fortify Magicka: Fortify Magicka 30 points for 60 seconds.
11. Night Mother’s Caress: Restore health for 10 points for 2 seconds.

Feel free to change the spells according to your playstyle. Moreover, enhancing the major skills will let you unlock a better version of these spells. If you have enough Magicka at your disposal, acquire the latest spells for more effectiveness.

Equipment

Equipment in Elder Scrolls Oblivion consists of weapons, armor, clothing, and various other items. Players can equip them to increase their character’s abilities and stats. Weapons are crafted from different items, and each has different stats and appearances. You can even enchant the weapons with magical effects like damage, debuff, or health regen. Use the soul gems to recharge the enchanted weapons. Armor is another equipment that protects you from incoming attacks from enemies. Each piece of armor has an armor rating, which determines how much damage it can absorb. You can equip up to 9 pieces at one time. Light Armor or Robe is the best option available for the Necromancer build in Elder Scrolls Oblivion Remastered.

Best Weapons

For the actual weapons, I recommend you use a staff. It will allow you to continuously cast damaging spells on targets if you run out of Magicka or your spells are on cooldown. However, you still can use melee weapons like Daggers or Shortswords. We have mentioned the best staff under the Unique section below. Here are the best weapons to use for the Necromancer build in Elder Scrolls Oblivion.

1 Daedric Dagger

• Damage: 19
• Health: 532
• Base Value: 2700
• Weight: 10

The Daedric Dagger is a one-handed weapon that has the highest base damage among any other dagger in the game. Daggers are the fastest melee weapons, allowing you to deliver their enchantments faster. Use this dagger to take down enemies in melee range or for stealth take down. You can enchant the Daedric Dagger with effects like Poison, damage, or fatigue. Daggers are lightweight but deal less damage than swords or maces.

2 Umbra Sword

• Damage: 28
• Health: 700
• Weight: 45
• Base Value: 5508

The Umbra is an enchanted sword with the highest base damage of any one-handed weapon in the game. Unlike other weapons, this weapon is unique, and you can only get it by eliminating Umbra during the Calvicus Vile quest. Due to the highest damage, this is the best sword that you can use with a shield to have both high output damage and high defensive stats. Moreover, this weapon is just more than a regular longsword as it has the ability to soul trap. You will be using this very situationally unless you have a Goldbrand that you can charge with the souls you trap with Umbra.

Goldbrand is an amazing Katana damage, but it is only powerful while charged up. Whereas Umbra can dish out 40+ damage with a high Strength attribute. Engaging in combat with enemies with no damage and magic resistance will die easily with Umbra. So, I prefer Umbra over Goldbrand.

Best Armor

For the Armor, we recommend equipping the Light Armor or Robe. The main reason for this is that wearing Heavy Armor has a negative impact on magic in Oblivion. In order to negate the negative impact on your magic, it is best to stick with the Light Armor. Moreover, you will still have high survivability as you can increase the armor rating and gain a shield with your spells.

Elven Armor

• Armor Health: 3520
• Class: Light Armor
• Base Value: 1740
• Weight: 35.1

Another great armor to equip for a Necromancer build is an Elven Armor because it can protect your player from any incoming attacks. It grants you a good balance of protection and stealth, especially the cuirass and boots. It can be looted from Azani Blackheart through the Fighters Guild questline. Elven armor is a good option for early to mid-game characters. Elven armor has a distinctive appearance, with a metallic sheen and red cloth under the armor. There are variants of Elven armor, such as the Light Elven Armor and Gilded Elven Armor.

Unique Items

In addition to regular Weapons and Armor, use the following items to further increase the potential of the Necromancer Build.

1 Apotheosis

• Health: 20
• Weight: 10
• Base Value: 3500
• Effects: Fire Damage 33 pts, Frost Damage 33 pts, Shock Damage 33 pts

Apotheosis is the best staff weapon that you can use to deal damage to enemies without using Magicka. It deals 33 Fire, Shock, and Frost Damage to enemies on impact. If you run out of Magicka or your spells are on cooldown, you can switch to a staff to continue dealing elemental damage. Since it is an expensive staff to get, you can use the Lesser Staff of Frost in the early/mid-game. This staff will allow you to deal 20 Frost damage to a target on impact.

2 Shrouded Armor

• Armor Health: 520
• Base Armor: 17.5
• Base Value: 0
• Class: Light Armor

Shrouded Armor is one of the best Armors to use while running the Necromancer build in Elder Scrolls Oblivion. This armor set consists of two parts, the Shrouded Armor and the Shrouded Hood. It offers several enhancements that favor stealth-oriented characters. The Ancient Shrouded Armor is relatively easy to acquire. Shrouded armor is a single piece of equipment that covers the whole body except the head. It also has unleveled stats and enchantments, meaning the effectiveness increases as you level up in the game. This armor includes the enchantment that boosts backstab damage and poison resistance.

Best Potions

Potion of Absorption, Potion of Endurance, and Potion of Sorcery are the best potions to include in your Necromancer build in Elder Scrolls Oblivion Remastered.

• Potion of Absorption: The Spell Absorption 15 points for 15 seconds.
• Potion of Endurance: Fortify Endurance 10 points for 30 seconds.
• Potion of Sorcery: Restore Magicka for 50 points.

Best Sigil Stones

Damage Health, Shock Damage, and Fortify Blade are the best Sigil Stone’s effects in Elder Scrolls Oblivion Remastered. Sigil Stones are magical items obtained by closing Oblivion gates, which are portals that connect Nirn to the plane of Oblivion. You can use them to enchant weapons, armor, and jewelry with a variety of effects. This offers powerful and unique enchantments that can be more potent than those created using Soul Gems. You can obtain the Sigil Stone after defeating the Daedra, who inhabits an Oblivion gate.

• Damage Health: It mitigates the value of the target’s health for a specific point for 1 second.
• Shock Damage: Use shock to damage the target’s health for a few seconds.
• Fortify Blade: It increases the sharp weapons damage for a short duration.

Leveling Strategy

Focus on using magic skills to level a Necromancer effectively in Elder Scrolls Oblivion Remastered. Use skills like Alteration, Conjuration, Destruction, Mysticism, and Restoration to gain +5 bonuses at each level. Use Alteration spells to buff yourself and explore the environment. You need to heal yourself and others with Restoration spells to keep your skills active. Invest in attributes that will enhance your major skills.

Leveling up is based on Skill Increases and the Attributes you assign. Every time you level up, you will get to increase three attributes. Focus on attributes that align with your playstyle. Your Birthsign gives a significant bonus to your stats. You must sleep in a bed to level up. Leveling in Oblivion can take time, so try to balance your activities between exploring, combat, and practicing skills.

Factions

Mage Guild is the best choice for the Necromancer build in Elder Scrolls Oblivion because it focuses on magic and skills that complement a Necromancer’s abilities. Necromancer excels with skills like Destruction for potential damage, Conjuration for summoning, Alteration for buffs, and Restoration for healing. This makes the Mages Guild a good fit for their playstyle, allowing them to dominate enemies.

Trainers

Falion is the best trainer for the Necromancer build in Elder Scrolls Oblivion Remastered. He is a redguard mage in Morthal who studies vampires and can cure vampirism. Falion is available in Morthal, a town near the north end of the map, southwest of Ustengrav. He can perform a ritual to cure vampirism, but it requires a filled black soul gem. Trainers allow you to spend gold to increase your skill levels, which can help you level up skills.  Different types of trainers allow you to reach different skill level caps. These trainers can train a specific skill for a set number of times per character level.

How to Play the Necromancer Build

Level up the skills like Conjuration, Destruction, and Restoration, while also investing in skills like Alteration and Mysticism. The best combat strategy for running this Necromancer build is using the magic for both combat and exploration. It will allow you to level up in your major skills quite easily. If you run out of Magicka, you can switch to the Staff weapon to start casting damage spells on targets. Alternatively, you can switch to melee in close-range combat and use defensive buffs. Magicka is crucial for casting spells, so use your magic wisely. Cast any buffs that might be helpful before engaging any enemy.

Since you’ll be on the frontlines, wear a decent Light Armor and enhance it with spells to protect your character. Focus on attributes like Willpower, Intelligence, and Endurance to enhance your combat effectiveness while running this build. Use the high ground to use spells for maximum damage output. It’s best to craft the potions that buff your character and debuff the enemies.  Equip Daedric Dagger to deal massive damage in close-range combat. Use a dagger to deal melee damage or stealth take down in combat. Keep your distance and use spells to eliminate enemies if you’re fighting them in ranged combat.

Best Gameplay Tips and Tricks for the Necromancer Build

Here are the best gameplay tips and tricks for the Necromancer build in Elder Scrolls Oblivion Remastered.

• Use magic to weaken the enemies from a distance, then switch to melee when required.
• You need to use stamina wisely, or else you can become vulnerable in most combat situations.
• Use your weapons wisely, as equipping a lower damage-dealing weapon gives room for the enemies to attack you.
• Use Speechcraft and your charisma to avoid unnecessary conflict.
• Use Alteration spells to increase the armor rating for enhanced defense.
• Choose the faction, race, and specialization that complements your playstyle and synergizes with the build.
• Use potions to heal your character from time to time in combat, so carry them in your inventory.
• Joining the Mages Guild is a great choice as a Necromancer in ESO, as it provides access to magical resources, training, and spells.
• Focus on leveling your Destruction, Alteration, Restoration, Conjuration, and Mysticism for casting higher-level magic spells.

FAQs about Necromancer build in The Elder Scrolls Oblivion Remastered

What is a Necromancer build in Elder Scrolls Oblivion Remastered?

The Necromancer build in Elder Scrolls Oblivion is a high damage-dealing build using only magic and summoning creatures. Moreover, they have the ability to equip melee weapons to take out enemies effectively in close-range combat.

Which is the best weapon for a Necromancer build in Elder Scrolls Oblivion Remastered?

Apotheosis is the best weapon for a Necromancer build in Elder Scrolls Oblivion Remastered. It is the best staff weapon in the game, allowing you to deal Fire, Frost, and Shock damage to enemies without consuming Magicka. In addition to the staff weapons, use the Daedric Dagger to tackle physical combat along with magic spells.

Which is the best race for a Necromancer build in Elder Scrolls Oblivion Remastered?

Breton is the best race for Necromancer build in Elder Scrolls Oblivion due to its 50% magic resistance and the Dragon Skin trait.

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