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oblivion what does dispel do

In The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Dispel is a Mysticism effect that removes active magical effects from a target – both harmful debuffs and beneficial buffs – if your Dispel is strong enough.

What Dispel Actually Does

  • It attempts to remove all temporary spell effects currently on the target (you, an enemy, or another NPC).
  • This includes things like:
    • Damage-over-time spells (fire, frost, shock over time)
    • Drain/Absorb/Silence/Paralyze type magic
    • Shields and other defensive buffs
    • Summoned creatures (their summon effect can be canceled)

If it works, those effects end instantly, as if they were never active.

How the Magnitude Works

Here’s the slightly tricky bit that confuses a lot of players:

  • The magnitude of Dispel in Oblivion is effectively its “power threshold.”
  • A simple way to think of it:
    • Every spell effect in the game has an underlying “strength” based on its cost.
    • Your Dispel must be strong enough to beat that strength score.
  • If your Dispel is too weak , it usually:
    • Does nothing at all , and
    • Does not partially shorten the duration in the base game (it’s all-or-nothing in vanilla Oblivion).

That’s why a spell like “Dispel 50 pts” is significantly stronger than it looks on paper: people often estimate that the actual “spell strength” it can clear is several times that number, so a mid-magnitude Dispel can clear a lot of common enemy effects.

Dispel on Self vs Dispel on Target

Dispel on Self

Most useful for:

  • Removing nasty status effects:
    • Silence (so you can cast again)
    • Damage-over-time spells that are still ticking
    • Drain Attribute / Absorb Attribute effects
  • Canceling your own buffs when they’re inconvenient:
    • Water Walking if it’s keeping you from diving
    • Long-duration utility spells you don’t want anymore

Many players keep a custom “cleanse” spell or potion that combines:

  • Cure Disease
  • Cure Poison
  • Restore Attributes
  • Dispel

So they can just hit one panic button instead of guessing what exactly is wrong.

Dispel on Target

More situational, but it has some sharp uses:

  • Stripping enemy Shield or buff spells.
  • Removing Summoned creatures by dispelling the summon effect on the caster or the summon.
  • Canceling powerful enemy damage-over-time spells they have on themselves (for example, a self-buff that drains your stats).

The downside:

  • Enemies, especially mages and Daedra, often have big magicka pools and can recast buffs or summons.
  • If your Dispel magnitude is too low, you waste magicka with no effect.

Why It Sometimes “Does Nothing”

Players often cast Dispel when:

  • The thing hurting them is poison (e.g., weapon poison, green effect on the character).
    • Dispel doesn’t remove poison in vanilla – you need Cure Poison instead.
  • The spell on them is coded as immune to Dispel (certain special scripted effects/creatures).
  • Their Dispel magnitude is too low to beat the spell’s strength.

In all these cases, the spell just appears to “do nothing,” which is why many people ignore it.

Practical Tips for Using Dispel

  1. Use it as a panic button for Silence and strong debuffs.
  2. Combine it with other cures in a custom spell or potion so you don’t have to diagnose the exact problem.
  3. On enemies , reserve it for:
    • Powerful mages who rely on Shield and summons.
    • Situations where you know they’re heavily buffed and you want to strip everything at once.
  4. Don’t spam low-magnitude Dispel hoping it will “chip away” at durations; in vanilla Oblivion, multiple weak Dispels do not stack to imitate a strong one.

Why People Call It Underrated

Many players skip Mysticism or never bother with Dispel because:

  • It’s hard to “see” that it’s working.
  • The magnitude/strength interaction is opaque.

But in tougher fights, a well-timed Dispel:

  • Can instantly stop your health from dropping from a strong DoT.
  • Can cancel Silence so you regain spellcasting.
  • Can erase an enemy’s layered magical defenses and summons in one cast.

Used that way, it’s less a “comfort” spell and more of a tactical “reset button” for magic-heavy encounters. TL;DR:
In Oblivion, Dispel is a Mysticism effect that tries to wipe out all active magical effects on a target in one go; if its magnitude is high enough, it removes every temporary spell (good and bad), and if it’s not, it does nothing. It’s best used as a quick cure for nasty spell debuffs on yourself and as a way to strip enemy buffs and summons when you know they’re relying heavily on magic.