Originally posted by theImmortalThief
And how the hell do I do all this?

Enchanting
While you can find more powerful items in the game than you can create, enchantments are incredibly useful. Enchanted items regenerate their charges, which arguably makes them more useful than spells, since spells use mana points that can only be restored by having your character rest.

Here's some enchantment tips:

• You need a soul gem and the ability to cast Soultrap. Soul gems and scrolls of Soul Trap (Gem Feeding) are commonly available as random treasure in bandit caves and Daedric ruins. You can also buy some lesser soul gems from a few merchants, and purchase the Soul Trap spell from the Mages Guild. ZAPHOD'S NOTE: If you have the Tribunal expansion, you can also buy Grand Soul Gems from the enchanter merchant in Godsreach, Mournhold.
• Soul gems come in different sizes. Larger gems are needed to hold the souls of more powerful creatures in order to create more powerful items. You'll need Grand Soul Gems to hold the most powerful Daedra.
• To trap a creature's soul, you have to cast a Soul Trap spell on the creature prior to killing it. If you're using a scroll, it's relatively easy to target a creature effectively. If you're casting the Soul Trap spell, ensure you're very close to the creature or the spell won't be effective. A fog-like ring will circle the creature if a Soul Trap spell or scroll has been effectively cast. Some very powerful creatures, such as Golden Saints, will occasionally dispel the effect, but generally once you've successfully cast a Soul Trap spell you'll have 60 seconds to kill the creature. Once you kill the creature, its soul will automatically be trapped in an available gem and you'll get a message to that effect.
• Once you have a trapped soul in a gem, you can either try to create an enchanted item on your own, using your character's Enchantment skill, or you can pay an enchanter to create the item. You can improve your character's Enchantment skill by trying to create enchanted items, but you won't have much success until your character has a relatively high enchantment skill (40+). Practice on weak creatures using small gems, which is also an easy way to make money, or purchase some skill points from trainers. To create more powerful items, however, it's worthwhile paying an enchanter who can create more powerful items without failure. There's little else to spend money on anyway.
• Even if you're not playing a spell-casting character, you should buy spells from vendors so that you can use their effects in future enchantments. You should at least buy spells that cast the following effects: Divine Intervention, Almsivi Intervention, Levitation, Night Eye, Mark, Recall, Fortify each attribute, Water Walking, Water Breathing, Swift Swim, Restore Fatigue, Restore Health, Paralysis, and all Summoning spells.
• You can't strip enchantments from magic items, regardless of whether you created or found the item. Don't make a mistake when enchanting it by selection an effect that has a greater charge cost than charges available.
• The strength of the enchantment that an item can store depends upon the type and quality of the item. Better quality items of clothing and jewelry (exquisite items are best) can store more powerful enchantments. Similarly, more valuable armor and weaponry (Daedric and Ebony items are best) can store more powerful enchantments. But weapons and armor can only store relatively weak enchantments, while amulets and rings can store the most powerful enchantments. The most enchantment points an item can have is 120, which only exquisite rings and amulets possess. The next best items are extravagant rings and amulets, which can have 60 enchantment points. Most weapons and armor items can only hold a handful of points (shields can hold the most). Clothing items (belts, shirt, pants, skirt) can hold a respectable number of enchantment points and are good choices for enchantments.
• To give an item a constant magical effect, you need a Grand Soul gem with the trapped soul of either a Golden Saint or an Ascended Sleeper. Ascended Sleepers are most commonly found within the ghostfence, and Golden Saints are found at Daedric Ruins. You can purchase a spell or scrolls to summon your own Golden Saints and then trap their souls. You need to be a powerful spell-caster to be able to cast the summon Golden Saint spell, but by buying the spell you can have an item enchanted to summon Golden Saints on demand.
• Enchant all of the items you're wearing. Even if your enchanted greaves only grant a minor Night Eye effect or raise your character's strength by a point or two, there's no reason not to have that benefit.


Good effects to create on items are:

• A constant, or long-lasting Night Eye effect of 20 or so points to make it much easier to see what you're doing in dark caves;
• A constant levitation effect. You should use an exquisite ring or amulet for this item to ensure that the item grants a levitation effect of about 10 points. You can get a faster levitation effect if you instead select a levitation effect with a limited duration. In some ways an item with a limited duration levitation effect is less convenient, however, because it will have a limited number of charges and you can't immediately turn-off the effect as you can with a constant effect item. Since you can run and jump must faster than you can levitate, it's desirable to be able to turn off levitation when you no longer need it.
• A long-lasting Water-walking effect. You can also create an Exquisite ring or amulet that will give both a Swift Swim effect and a Water Breathing effect of a reasonable duration.
• A constant restore health effect, and a second item with a constant restore fatigue effect. Those two items will make your character practically invincible. You can't create an item that restores magicka, although there are some user-made, unsupported patches for the PC version of the game that will allow you to create such items.
• While you can find them as fairly common random treasure items, it's extremely helpful to have amulets of Mark, Recall, Divine Intervention and Almsivi Intervention, so you should create any you don't find as soon as you can.
• An amulet with Summon Golden Saint is a good item to allow you to trap the souls necessary to craft constant effect items. You'll need to have previously purchased the Summon Golden Saint spell in order to create an enchanted item with that effect. The only NPC who sells Summon Golden Saint is Felen Maryon in Tel Branora. ZAPHOD'S NOTE: If you have the Tribunal expansion, that same enchanter merchant in Godsreach also sells the Summon Golden Saint spell, and he's easier to get to Felen Maryon.
• Items that provide a constant boost to attributes are always useful. Fortify Strength is a good enchantment to put on clothing and armor items if you can't think of anything else you need at the moment, since it'll allow you to lug around additional items.
• For weapons, paralysis is always a good effect, although once your opponent has been paralyzed you should switch weapons to avoid giving your helpless opponent the opportunity to break the paralysis by resisting magic on a subsequent attack. Absorb health is also a good effect for weapons, as are any of the magical damaging effect (frost, fire, shock). Since you're not creating a constant effect item, you don't need to use a soul gem with a trapped Golden Saint or Ascended Sleeper, but it's still worthwhile to use the most powerful soul gem you have available so that your weapon will have more charges.