Morrowind:Levitate

	Levitate
School	Alteration
Type	Defensive
Base Cost	3.0
Availability (Click on any item for details)
Spells Built-In Potions Scrolls

Levitate M points for D seconds

Causes the target to be able to walk on air. The speed of movement through the air is determined by the value M, and also by the character's Speed attribute. This can be used both to reach high inaccessible places and also to gain an advantage in combat. Attacking non-flying, non-archer/mage opponents while levitating will often cause them to run away in terror since they are unable to hit you. Casting levitate on friendly targets does not start combat.

Levitation can also be used as an offensive spell if its strength is set to a low value. It costs little magicka and renders enemies almost immobile, similar to burden.

You may not rest on the ground while levitating, but you can rest in a bed. You may also find that in some cramped quarters, it will be impossible to move while levitating, as your head gets stuck in the ceiling. You should also be careful to keep an eye on the duration of the spell so that it does not wear off while you are in mid-air, causing you to fall and get hurt or even killed. (A Slowfall spell or any other method can help prevent this.) There does not seem to be any known height ceiling to levitation. You can keep going up for a very long time, long after the game-fog completely obscures your view of the ground. If you cast a Levitate spell, and then use fast travel, the spell will continue to its full duration as if the travel was instantaneous, even though in game-time it can take hours on certain routes.

Notes

• Athletics plays no role on levitation speed. Levitation speed is purely a factor of Speed and Encumbrance.
• Using Levitate 1pt with Fortify Speed is a lot more efficient than increasing the magnitude of Levitate. However as a spell it will be governed by either Alteration or Restoration depending on which is lower, and as an enchantment Levitate must be the first effect and its Fortify Speed needs to be at least 2 pts.
• With a high enough intelligence it is possible to get an effective speed well above 100 by creating potions (if you have problems with moving too fast to control your character try switching to third person as this slows you significantly).
• The speed of Levitate overrides the movement penalty from swimming. For characters who already have high speed boosts (such as from the Boots of Blinding Speed) or poor Athletics, a single point of Levitate can dramatically speed up a character's movement through water.
• You cannot levitate in Mournhold. The in-universe reason given is that levitation offends the goddess Almalexia, but the technical reason is presumably because the city is in an interior cell, and levitation would make it possible to fly over the walls and see the unrendered world beyond.
• You also cannot levitate in Mortrag Glacier. No in-universe reason for this is given; this was likely done by the developers so it is harder to avoid the powerful enemies inside the dungeon.
• Several items offer you the ability to levitate. You can find a guaranteed Steel Blade of Heaven in Odirniran, and you will be given the Travel-stained Pants over the course of the Main Quest. The Boots of the Apostle artifact also possess a levitation enchantment.
• A Daedric Tower Shield, one of the most enchantable items in the game, can be enchanted with a constant effect levitate effect for 15 points. This eliminates the need to worry about the effect ending, and still grants a decent magnitude. Having an enchanted shield like this precludes the need to carry levitate scrolls or potions, and also provides a considerable (heavy) armor boost.
• Likewise, an Exquisite ring or amulet can be enchanted with a constant effect levitate effect for 8 points, giving you a levitate effect that can be started or ended quickly. If you are wearing two, or all three, the effect stacks.

Related Effects

• Jump, Slowfall, Fortify Acrobatics, Fortify Speed

Alchemy Ingredients

The following ingredients can be used to make a potion of Levitate:

• Coda Flower
• Racer Plumes
• Sweetpulp ^TR
• Trama Root

Bugs

• If you levitate into lava, it will not hurt you, even if you're knee-deep in it.
• If you levitate while entering a door to another cell, your PC sometimes snags on the floor and cannot move until you go up, above the floor. This bug progresses from a minor annoyance to a major obstruction in the South Wall Cornerclub if you have an extended levitation in effect, where even the previously described work-around does not work; you can talk to Sottilde if you point at her hand, but you can move no further until either the effect wears off, or you leave the cell. ^?
  • This bug affects different races differently. For example, a levitating Altmer leaving the Redoran Underworks or entering the Balmora Mage's Guild from the main door is guaranteed to snag, while a Bosmer in both of those situations will not snag.
• Cliff Racers affected by the levitate spell effect will crash to the ground and take falling damage. ^?
  • OpenMW fixes this bug.
• If an enemy affected by the levitate spell effect dies in an interior cell, the corpse will fall through the floor. This glitch doesn't seem to apply to guards. ^?