Oblivion:Souls

Every soul in Oblivion is one of six possible strengths: Petty, Lesser, Common, Greater, Grand, and Black. More powerful creatures have more powerful souls. Souls are trapped in soul gems by using a soul trap spell. Trapped souls are used to enchant and recharge items.

Souls Alphabetically

This table provides soul strengths for most of the standard creatures in Oblivion. Unique creatures (like the lich Lorgren Benirus) generally have leveled souls that are not in this table. See individual creature pages for full details on their souls.

Souls with a superscript (e.g., ^L:-1) are leveled; see the later section for details. In a few cases (Ogres, Sanctified Spectre) there are several different versions of the creature sharing the same name but having different souls; see those creatures' pages for details.

Creature	Soul Level
Ancient Ghost	Common
Black Bear	Common
Boar	Lesser
Brown Bear	Greater
Clannfear	Common
Clannfear Runt	Lesser
Daedroth	Greater
Deer	Petty
Dog	Petty
Dread Zombie	Greater
Dremora	Black
Faded Wraith	Common
Flame Atronach	Common
Frost Atronach	Greater
Ghost	Pty/LsrL:-1
Gloom Wraith	Grand
Goblin	Petty
Goblin Berserker	Common
Goblin Shaman	leveledL:-5
Goblin Skirmisher	Lesser
Goblin Warlord	leveledL:+0
Headless Zombie	Common
Horse	Lesser
Imp	Pty/LsrL:-1
Land Dreugh	Greater
Lich	Grand
Minotaur	Common
Minotaur Lord	Grand
Mountain Lion	Common
Mud Crab	Petty
Nether Lich	Gtr/GndL:-7

Creature	Soul Level
NPC (any race)	Black
NPC (essential)	none
Ogre	Gtr/GndL:-3
Rat	Petty
Sanctified Dead/Spectre	leveledL:-5*
Scamp	Lesser
Sheep	Petty
Skeleton	Petty
Skeleton Champion	Greater
Skeleton Guardian	Lesser
Skeleton Hero	Common
Slaughterfish	Petty
Spider Daedra	Greater
Spiderling	none
Spriggan	Common
Storm Atronach	Greater
Stunted Scamp	Petty
Timber Wolf	Lesser
Tribe Goblin Berserker	leveledL:+1
Tribe Goblin Farmer	leveledL:-3
Tribe Goblin Guard	leveledL:-1
Tribe Goblin Shaman	leveledL:+0
Tribe Goblin Skirmisher	leveledL:+0
Tribe Goblin War Chief	leveledL:+2
Troll	Lesser
Vampire	Black
Will-o-the-Wisp	Common
Wolf	Petty
Wraith	Greater
Xivilai	Grand
Zombie	Lesser

Location-specific creatures(respawning)

Creature	Soul Level
Dark Guardian	leveledL:+0
Everscamp	Lesser
Minotaur of the Grove	leveledL:+0
Ogre (Pale Pass, Redguard Val.)	Common
Troll (Azhklan,Kalperklan)	leveledL:+0
Undead Akaviri Soldier	leveledL:-1

Quest creatures(non-respawning)

Creature	Soul Level
AuroranKOTN	Lsr/CmnL:-2
Benirus Manor Ghost	leveledL:-1
Deranged Zombie	Lsr–GtrL:-1
Painted Troll	leveledL:+0
Savage Goblin	leveledL:+0
Savage Minotaur	leveledL:+0
Savage Ogre	leveledL:+1
Savage Troll	leveledL:+0
Swamp Troll	leveledL:+0
Spectral Sailor	leveledL:+1
Uderfrykte Matron	Grand
Unicorn	Greater

Souls by Strength

These lists only include creatures with fixed soul strengths.

Soul type	Value	Creatures
Petty	150	Deer, Dog, Goblin, Mudcrab, Rat, Sheep, Skeleton, Slaughterfish, Stunted Scamp, Wolf
Lesser	300	Boar, Clannfear Runt, Goblin Skirmisher, Horse, Scamp, Skeleton Guardian, Timber Wolf, Troll, Zombie
Common	800	Ancient Ghost, Black Bear, Clannfear, Faded Wraith, Flame Atronach, Goblin Berserker, Headless Zombie, Minotaur, Mountain Lion, Skeleton Hero, Spriggan, Will-o-the-Wisp
Greater	1200	Brown Bear, Daedroth, Dread Zombie, Frost Atronach, Land Dreugh, Skeleton Champion, Spider Daedra, Storm Atronach, Wraith
Grand	1600	Gloom Wraith, Lich, Minotaur Lord, Xivilai
Black	1600	Humanoids (the ten races of Tamriel), Vampires and Dremora are all considered NPCs.

NPC souls, as listed above, can only be trapped in black soul gems. This practice is considered akin to necromancy in the Mages Guild questline, and can also be ethically questionable in the roleplaying sense.

Black-soul trapping, however, is one of the only ways to acquire Grand-soul values for enchanting before level 20.

Soul Strengths

There are six possible soul strengths:

Soul Level	Soul Strength
Petty	150
Lesser	300
Common	800
Greater	1200
Grand	1600
Black	1600

A creature's soul strength is determined in one of two ways.

1. Most standard creatures have fixed souls. For example, every Flame Atronach will have a common soul, regardless of location or player character's level.
2. Most unique creatures and some other creatures have a soul strength based upon the player character's level--either the PC's level or an offset of the PC's level.

Offsets as low as -10 and as high as +10 exist, but the table below illustrates some common offsets:

Soul level	L:-3	L:-2	L:-1	Baseline L:+0	L:+1	L:+2
Petty	1-4	1-3	1-2	1
Lesser	5-9	4-8	3-7	2-6	1-5	1-4
Common	10-15	9-14	8-13	7-12	6-11	5-10
Greater	16-20	15-19	14-18	13-17	12-16	11-15
Grand	21+	20+	19+	18+	17+	16+

Examples:

• When the PC is level 4, a Bloody Hand Rat Farmer (offset L:-3) will have a petty soul and all other Bloody Hand goblins (offsets L:-1 to L:+2) will have lesser souls.
• When the PC is level 5, a Bloody Hand Goblin War Chief (offset L:+2) will have a common soul and all other Bloody Hand goblins (offsets L:-3 to L:+1) will have lesser souls.

An additional complication is that some creatures have a minimum or maximum level that also caps their soul.

For Instance:

• Ghosts have a maximum level of 4--their souls will be at most lesser strength. With an offset of L:-1, ghosts will have petty souls until PC level 3 and lesser souls at PC level 4 and above. This is summarized in the chart by "<=Lesser^L:-1".
• Ogres have a minimum level of 16--their souls will be at least greater strength. With an offset of L:-3, ogres will have a greater soul until PC level 21 when their souls will be grand. This is summarized in the chart by ">=Greater^L:-3"

Creatures with no maximum or minimum soul level (any soul strength is possible) are stated with "leveled" followed by a superscript providing the offset.