Spellcrafting in Oblivion Remastered is exactly what returning fans wanted—and also exactly what’s driving a lot of them up the wall.
It gives players the power to craft custom spells with wild combinations that stretch the game's magic system in every direction. Despite the freedom, the system is riddled with bugs, UI problems, and strange limitations that make the whole system feel like it’s running on duct tape and nostalgia.
Starting with the positives: spellcrafting is incredible when it works. The system lets you layer multiple effects onto a single cast, meaning you can design something as over-the-top as a Fortify Speed + Health Regen + Invisibility combo that basically makes your character untouchable.
Mix in things like Absorb Health, Paralyze, and Weakness to Magic, and you’ve got a custom-made death spell that can wipe out a whole group of enemies. It’s easy to see why players are still obsessed with the system—it’s one of the few mechanics in modern RPGs that gives this much control without holding your hand.
Once you get serious about crafting spells, the problems begin to pile up. One of the most reported issues involves Fortify and Drain effects.
You might go to create a Fortify Acrobatics spell, but the menu locks you into something like Armorer and won’t let you change it, no matter what. Sometimes, exiting and restarting the game does nothing to fix it.
It’s such a widespread problem that players on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC alike have been trading tips just to get the altars to work. The fixes are all over the place since nothing reliably works for everyone, and the bug has a mind of its own. Aside from that, there are still other weird quirks. Feather spells begin to glitch when your Alteration skill reaches its peak.
They sometimes don’t boost carry weight and can even reduce encumbrance to zero, blocking any new effects. The issue isn’t a glitch but a confusing consequence of the way weight is calculated behind the scenes. The game doesn’t explain this, so most players learn it the hard way. So yes, spellcrafting in Oblivion Remastered is as brilliant as ever—but also just as broken.
It gives players near-limitless creative freedom, but only if they’re willing to babysit the system and jump through a dozen hoops just to get it to function properly. For those who stick with it, the rewards are massive. But there’s no denying that the system could use a serious tune-up. Until then, crafting spells feels like casting magic in real life: powerful, unpredictable, and just a little cursed.