Oblivion:Telekinesis

	Telekinesis
School	Mysticism
Type	Other (Non-hostile, No enchanting)
Effect ID	TELE
Base Cost	0.49
Barter Factor	0
Availability (Click on any item for details)
Spells Scrolls Staves

Telekinesis M feet for D seconds.

Allows you to move an item located up to M feet away for D seconds.

Usage of Telekinesis spells is not necessarily intuitive. When you are ready to cast a Telekinesis spell (but you have not actually cast it yet), moving your icon over an item will indicate whether it is within reach of the spell. The icons are the same ones used when you are standing next to the item; i.e., you will see an open hand with the message that the activate button will "take" the item. However, the activate button will in fact do nothing. Also, icons will appear for items which you cannot interact with using Telekinesis, e.g. containers.

Once you've decided on an item to target, cast the spell at it. If you miss the target (easily possible with Welkynd Stones, where the bracket holding the stone gets in the way), a Telekinesis icon flashes in the upper right corner and immediately disappears. If, on the other hand, the spell was successful, the Telekinesis icon will stay up in the upper right corner, indicating that the spell is active. You should now be able to move the item:

• The turn controls move the item side-to-side or up and down.
• The attack key pushes it further away from you.
• The block key pulls it closer to you.
• Simultaneously using the attack and block keys causes the item to be dropped.
• When the item is close enough to you, you can use the activate key to put the item in your inventory.

Breaking line of sight for more than a split second—by moving or jumping, for example—will terminate the spell, and the item will sometimes fly off in unexpected directions. Putting the item in your inventory ends the spell.

There are several common uses of Telekinesis:

• Retrieving items that are out of reach, for example retrieving Welkynd Stones and Varla Stones that are mounted in elevated brackets.
• Tripping tripwires and other Traps.
• Moving items you would like to steal out of an observer's line of sight (moving an item using Telekinesis is not considered stealing, although adding a moved item to your inventory does still count as stealing).

Notes

• This effect can be gained for spell making via spells only.
• Telekinesis is one of the enchantments available for making a custom mage's staff (it is also found on random generic staves).
• If you're pushing the item away, then drop it, it will instead get flung in that direction. Throwing the item isn't generally useful, however, since the object won't hurt anyone.
• When you have a Telekinesis spell selected, you can see the name of any object that can be activated when you move your cursor over it, as long as it is within reach of the spell. This can be helpful for, as an example, finding unharvested plants in the wilderness, even though you will still have to harvest them by hand.
• Having active Spell Absorption effects can block the use of a Telekinesis spell. Because spell absorption returns the base cost of a spell, absorbing a Telekinesis spell at Mysticism levels above 33 will actually cause an increase in Magicka. Absorbing at 100 Mysticism returns 5 times the nominal cost, so this is an effective way for Atronach-birthsign characters to regain Magicka. When your magicka absorb rate is 0.5 (e.g. you have only Atronach birthsign), the expected value of magicka return becomes positive since 75 mysticism skill level regardless of any base cost.
• Telekinesis will not raise your Mysticism skill, so using this trick won't interfere with Efficient Leveling.
• Telekinesis spells are also very useful for decorating owned houses. (Ex. placing objects in display cases in Rosethorn Hall).

Bugs

• Spells cast from Telekinesis scrolls always "miss" their targets. This is because using a scroll automatically switches your current spell to the default Heal Minor Wounds spell, which removes the unique controls of the Telekinesis effect, therefore causing it to immediately stop. The only time you can make use of a Telekinesis scroll is if you are also equipped with a Telekinesis staff, allowing the spell to be sustained.