Alteration | Skyrim Wiki

Alteration or the School of Alteration is one of the five schools of magic in Skyrim. Alteration spells allow players to cast spells that alter the world for their comfort, providing utility and convenience through spells such as Waterbreathing and Magelight but also giving players great assistance in battle through spells such as Stoneflesh and Paralysis. The Alteration skill tree has a total of 10 perks and it requires a total of 14 perk points to complete the skill tree. The School of Alteration involves the manipulation of the physical world and it's natural properties. This skill makes it easier to cast spells like Waterbreathing, Magical Protection and Paralysis.

School of Alteration in Skyrim

Skills Homepage

Alteration Spells

Alteration Perks

Skyrim School of Alteration Spells

Quick Search of All Alteration Spells

Click the header to sort the table.

Spell Name	Mastery (Level)	Base Magicka Cost	Description
Candlelight	Novice (0)	21	Creates a hovering light that lasts for 60 seconds.
Equilibrium	Novice (0)	25 Health per second	Convert health into Magicka at a rate of 25 points per second. Caster can be killed by this effect.
Oakflesh	Novice (0)	103	Improves the caster's armor rating by 40 points for 60 seconds.
Magelight	Apprentice (25)	84	Ball of light that lasts 60 seconds and sticks where it strikes.
Stoneflesh	Apprentice (25)	166	Improves the caster's armor rating by 60 points for 60 seconds.
Ash Shell	Adept (50)	251	Targets that fail to resist are immobilized in hardened ash for 30 seconds. (Dragonborn DLC)
Detect Life	Adept (50)	100 per second	Nearby living creatures, (but not undead, machines, or daedra) can be seen through walls.
Ironflesh	Adept (50)	266	Improves the caster's armor rating by 80 points for 60 seconds.
Telekinesis	Adept (50)	170 per second	Can pull an object to you from distance. Add it to your inventory or throw it.
Transmute Mineral Ore	Adept (50)	88	Transmute one piece of unrefined Iron Ore to Silver, or Silver Ore to Gold, if the caster is carrying any.
Waterbreathing	Adept (50)	222	Can breathe under water for 60 seconds.
Paralysis Rune	Adept (50)	172	Cast on a nearby surface, it explodes when enemies are nearby, immobilizing them for 8 seconds. Available with Arcane Accessories creation.
Ash Rune	Expert (75)	418	Cast on a nearby surface, it explodes when enemies are nearby, immobilizing them in hardened ash for 30 seconds. (Dragonborn DLC)
Detect Dead	Expert (75)	37 per second	Nearby dead can be seen through walls.
Ebonyflesh	Expert (75)	341	Improves the caster's armor rating by 100 points for 60 seconds.
Paralyze	Expert (75)	450	Targets that fail to resist are paralyzed for 10 seconds.
Dragonhide	Master (100)	837	Caster ignores 80% of all physical damage for 30 seconds.
Mass Paralysis	Master (100)	937	All targets in the area that fail to resist are paralyzed for 15 seconds.

Skyrim School of Alteration Perks

Perk Points in Skyrim

Players gain 1 perk point every time they level up their character. A player will need 251 perk points to get every perk to the maximum level which is achieved at level 252.

Before spending perk points to get the bonuses from the perk, the player must first unlock the perk. Perks can be unlocked on their respective skill trees by having enough levels in the skill as well as the prerequisite perks leading to the perk. All skills have their base perks unlocked with perks further into the tree being unlocked as points are invested and levels gained.

Perks can have multiple levels to them giving increasing bonuses with more perk points invested in them. Different skill trees will need different number of perk points to fully unlock all the perks in each tree. Players may want to check and consider the number of perk points they need for their builds and at what level they will need to be to unlock everything they want to have.

Reclaiming Perk Points in Skyrim

There are 2 ways that players can reclaim the spent perk points in Skyrim that are quite difficult to get to so players do still want to be careful with their perk points. At level 100 players can set the skill to be Legendary. This will refund all perks invested into that tree as well as set the skill back to level 15. This will also allows players to increase the skill experience once again and gain new levels and more perk points.

Alternatively players who have completed the Dragonborn main questline will be able to reclaim points repeatedly by using the Black Book: Waking Dreams. This will require them to have a dragon's soul from hunting a dragon.