Picking your birthsign in The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered is one of the first tough decisions you’ll make. You’ll do so during the tutorial, after creating a character (including choosing your race).
Birthsigns depict the constellation your character is born under, with each granting your character unique passive or active powers. There are 13 birthsigns, but with your character limited to just one, you must consider your choice carefully.
Below, we’ve highlighted what we believe is the best birthsign to pick in Oblivion Remastered, along with details on its buffs and some tips on utilizing it.
All birthsigns in Oblivion Remastered
You pick your birthsign in Oblivion Remastered during the tutorial at the beginning of the game. After customizing your character, continue through the sewers until you reconvene with Emperor Uriel Septim and his men.
There are 13 birthsigns in Oblivion Remastered. Here are all of them plus the active and passive powers they grant you:
- Fortify Magicka: Increases Magicka by 100 points
- Weakness to Magic: Increases susceptibility to magic by 100%
- Fortify Magicka: Increases Magicka by 150 points
- Spell Absorption: 50% chance of absorbing incoming spells cast
- Stunted Magicka: Magicka regeneration is halted
- Fortify Willpower: Increases Willpower by 10 points
- Fortify Endurance: Increases Endurance by 10 points
- Shield: Increases Armor Rating by 15
- Resist Magic: Increases magic resistance by 15%
- Lover’s Kiss (greater power): Use this power once a day to paralyze an opponent for 10 seconds at the cost of 120 points of Fatigue
- Fortify Magicka: Increases Magicka by 50 points
- Mara’s Gift: Restores 200 points of health, can be used once a day
- Blessed Word: Forces the undead to flee in horror for 30 seconds, can be used multiple times a day at a cost of 40 Magicka points per cast
- Serpent spell (greater power): Deal 3 points of damage for 20 seconds, also cures Poison, dispels 90 points, and damage Fatigue 100 points to caster, can be used once a day
- Moonshadow (greater power): Grants invisibility for 60 seconds once a day
- Fortify Speed: Increases Speed by 20 points
- Fortify Agility: Increases Agility by 10 points
- Fortify Luck: Increases Luck by 10 points
- Fortify Speed: Increases Speed by 10 points
- Tower Key: Opens locks of average difficulty, can be used once per day
- Tower Warden: Reflects 5% of all incoming damage for 120 seconds, can be used once a day
- Fortify Endurance: Increases Endurance by 10 points
- Fortify Strength: Increases Strength by 10 points
Can you change your birthsign in Oblivion?
After selecting your birthsign, Oblivion Remastered gives you one final chance to change it (and any other character customization choices) before you leave the sewers. After that chance, your birthsign is permanent.
If you’re playing Oblivion Remastered on Windows PC, however, you can use a console command to change your birthsign. Press the tilde key (~) to open the cheat console, then type in ‘showbirthsignmenu’ (without the quotes) to bring up the birthsign menu and change your birthsign.
Best birthsigns in Oblivion Remastered
The best birthsign in Oblivion Remastered is the Atronach, followed closely by the the Warrior and the Thief. Below, we’ll explain why these are the best birthsigns in Oblivion Remastered.
Image: Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks via Polygon
- Fortify Magicka: Increases Magicka by 150 points
- Spell Absorption 50% chance of absorbing incoming spells
- Stunted Magicka: Magicka regeneration is halted
The Atronach is perhaps the best defensive birthsign in Oblivion Remastered. This birthsign is great for those who want to focus on a magic build or playstyle, as it gives you a 150 Magicka boost, the highest permanent Magicka boost in the game.
The real stand-out power of this birthsign, however, is its 50% spell absorption. This means that half the time, magical spells (and potentially hits from magic weapons) do no damage to you, instead, they regenerate your Magicka. This is incredibly helpful for defense, but also because the downside of this birthsign is that it gives you stunted Magicka – in other words, it prevents normal Magicka regeneration.
In the early game, that stunted Magicka may be a bit of a pain, but it comes into its own as you progress. Initially, you need to use Ayleid Wells, Welkynd Stones, and Magicka potions to effectively restore Magicka, but eventually, you’ll likely need fewer potions in your inventory, and this tradeoff will prove its worth.
What’s more, Spell Absorption stacks. So, you could, for example, combine the Spelldrinker Amulet (which gives 26 points) and the Sorcerer’s Ring (which gives 25 points) to make up the other 50 points of Spell Absorption, granting you 100% Spell Absorption and making you immune to magic.
This makes The Atronach a great future-proof birthsign and a great choice for High Elves (as it gives them the highest initial base Magicka), for those looking to maximize their Magicka, or for those who wish to improve their magical defense – even if you don’t plan to spell cast much.
Image: Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks via Polygon
- Fortify Endurance: Increases Endurance by 10 points
- Fortify Strength: Increases Strength by 10 points
If spellcasting and magic aren’t your style, and you value health and strength more, then The Warrior is a good option.
The extra Endurance provided by The Warrior birthsign helps to quickly improve your maximum health, as your Endurance level directly affects how much your maximum health increases each time you level up. Having a high Endurance level early on puts you in good stead for later in the game, just keep trying to level it up.
The Strength boost here is great for those who want to focus on melee, but if you want that Endurance boost, but would rather focus on magic than brute force, The Lady is a good alternative to this as it provides the same 10 points of Endurance but 10 points of Willpower instead of Strength.
Image: Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks via Polygon
- Fortify Agility: Increases Agility by 10 points
- Fortify Luck: Increases Luck by 10 points
- Fortify Speed: Increases Speed by 10 points
The Thief is a solid birthsign for those who want a well-rounded character and are more focused on the early game over the late game.
Straight off the bat, this birthsign gives you 30 extra stats (compared to the 20 of other birthsigns), including 10 points to Luck, which impacts all skills and is the slowest attribute to raise normally. That equates to about four extra points to each of your stats and is helpful early in the game, especially if you’re a new player, but this birthsign eventually becomes somewhat redundant as you progress.
