How to become nigh invincible

This guide will show you how to play on god mode without using god mode. So this is not cheating, it's just a perfect gear setup which will make you nearly unkillable by any means.

Introduction

Ah so you want to know how to be invincible without cheating. Well I got you covered, in order to do that all you need to do is become immune to both magical and physical damage. In this guide I will mostly focus on magical resistances as physical have only 1 effect worth using as the remaining won't work. In a moment I will explain which and why, after which we will move on to magical resistances. Apart from that I will also explain how to become immune to poison and disease, which for most part is easy as you only really need 1 item for that. Good news is most of these gear combinations can be used even if you are playing some very old version of Oblivion which doesn't even have any DLC's. So even if you are playing on console and/or a very old version of the game you can still seek guidence here.
With that said I will also mention alternate variations, some of which will require DLC's.

Physical resistances

There are 3 - Shield, Resist Normal Weapons and Reflect Damage.

Shield

It is not just a magical effect it is also your armour rating, if you are wearing armour that gives you 20 armour rating and have 20% Shield you effectively have 40% Shield/armour rating.
Shield reduces physical damage by the amount you have, meaning if you have 50% Shield you will only take 50% damage. However, Shield cannot stack beyond 85%, so if you are using a Shield spell that gives you 100% Shield you are effectively wasting magicka as you will only gain 85% in the end.
In fact wearing Daedric armour which was repaired up to 125% using the expert armorer perk and being a master of heavy armour should give you 92 armour rating, but you will notice it's only 85.
This is why you cannot gain immunity to physical damage using the Shield effect. Also it should be noted that there are elemental variations of these effect i.e. Fire Shield, Frost Shield and Shock Shield, which work the same but also grant the same amount of resistance to the corresponding element. Meaning if you have 20% of each you will gain 60% Shield and 20% Resist Fire, Frost and Shock, while if you have 60% Frost Shield then you have 60% Shield and 60% Resist Frost.

Resist Normal Weapons

Unlike Shield, Resist Normal Weapons can stack up to 100%, however, it is very difficult to reach 100% with this effect. You among other things have to become a Vampire to get there and the effect is not as great as you may think. Fact is all Ghosts and Wraiths always have 100% Resist Normal Weapons, however, it doesn't do them much good in the end does it? This is because Silver, Dremora, Daedric and enchanted weapons bypass it, also being a journeyman in Hand to Hand will allow you to bypass it using your fists, which is the reason why creatures will also be able to damage you even at 100%.
There is, however, one distinct advantage of having 100% Resist Normal Weapons, it will protect you against physical traps, so if you fall on some spikes at 100% you will take no damage from it.
All in all the effect will be pretty much useless, most notably inside Oblivion as everything apart from the traps will bypass it.

Reflect Damage

Like the former it can also stack up to 100%, but unlike the former going over 100% is beneficial. As the name implies it reflects damage back at the assailant, if you have 50% then you only take 50% of the damage while the assailant takes the remaining 50%. At 100% you will reflect all the damage while you will take none. If you go over 100% then the reflected damage will be increased accordingly i.e. at 200% the reflected damage will be doubled.
It will, however, not protect against arrows or traps, also if you intend to train your Light and/or Heavy armour skill it will be impossible at 100% as your armour must get damaged to increase it.
Overall it's the best one and it's the one I will focus on in this guide in combination with magical resistances.

Requirements

In order for this to work you need to do a few things.

Obtaining random magical items

Oh yes some of the required items are only found at random at higher levels, which can be frustrating. So I will give you a few pointers on how to do it.
Best place to look for random magical items are monster dungeons, the boss chests have 25% chance to contain magical trinkets. Monster dungeons are those that contain beasts like Minotaurs, Ogres and Trolls.
Another way is if you complete the "Turning a Blind Eye" Thieves Guild quest. The Blind Moth Prelate in the last chamber always carries a random magical item and he respawns every 3 in-game days. Just save before entering the door to the Shrine of The Moth and reload if the item is not the one you are looking for. You don't have to kill the Prelate on your own you can just stand behind him while sneaking and wait for the Dark Welkynd Stone in front of him to do it for you.

Character requirements

For this to work you must be at least level 25 as some of the required items have leveled magnitutes. While some of the random magical items only appear at higher levels.
For most optimum effect you should also be a master of Heavy Armor and expert Armorer. Also depending on your choice you may require a high Light Armor skill too.

Sigil Stones

Which also have leveled magnitudes, but you only need to be level 17 to get the strongest i.e. Transcendent Sigil Stones. Problem is that their effects are also random and you will need a few with the appropriate effects. Good news is that the effects are only decided after they are added to your inventory, so you can save right before the Sigil Stone is moved to your inventory and if the effect is not the one you want reload and check again. Or if you don't want to risk it save before activating it instead of during the animation, but that will take longer as you will have to watch the whole animation for each attempt.

Resist Magic

Resist Magic is my personal recommendation as it will protect against all magical effects including ones that aren't really magic. This includes the damaging mist in the Frostfire Glade, stepping into fireplaces, magical traps like Dark Welkynd Stones, and the Pillar of Flame on which Sigil Stones are found which deals 10000 DPS. Apart from that it is also the only effect that will protect you against enemy Reflect Spell, like when fighting a Lich if you cast a spell or strike it with an enchanted weapon you will be in no harm's way even if the effect gets reflected back at you.
Resist Magic can be countered with Weakness to Magic effect, however, at 100% all magnitudes of such effects will be reduced to 0 making it impenetrable.
Resist Magic works by reducing the magnitude or duration of a magic effect used against you. Duration is reduced if the effect has no magnitude like Silence or Paralyze.

List of requirements:

• A full set of Daedric or Perfect Madness Armour minus the shield (Daedric Armour can be found starting at level 20 while Perfect Madness Armour can be crafted at Cutter's Weapons from Madness Ore starting at level 23)
  
• 5 Transcendent Sigil Stones with 20% Resist Magic effect (there are two variations, one with Soul Trap and another with Silence)
  
• The level 25+ version of the Escutcheon of Chorrol - grants Fortify Endurance 10 pts and Reflect Damage 35% (obtained for completion of the "Sins of the Father" quest if you return the Honorblade of Chorrol to it's rightful owners)
  
• The Ring of Vitality - grants 100% Resistance to Disease, Paralysis and Poison (found as random loot starting at level 20) It should be noted that 100% Resist Magic will grant immunity to nearly all poisons itself. However, there are exceptions like Paralyze and all Elemental damage, but most notably poison traps will also damage you without 100% Resist Poison
  
• The Ring of the Iron Fist - grants Fortify Hand to Hand 25 pts and Reflect Damage 33% (found as random loot starting at level 20)
  
• The Amulet of Axes or the Necklace of Swords - both grant Reflect Damage 33%, however the former grants Fortify Blunt 25 pts while the later Fortify Blade 25 pts (either is good, which is better depends on which weapons you prefer i.e. blunt or blade, if you are master at both it's irrelevant, both are found as random loot starting at level 20)
  
• The Mundane Ring - grants Reflect Spell 35% and Resist Magic 50% (found as random loot starting at level 20, you may also obtain it from Raven Camoran's corpse if you kill him at level 22+ during "The Path of Dawn" quest) It's not really needed, however, you may wear it temporarily in place of the Ring of Vitality until you obtain all 5 Sigil Stones.

Once you have everything, enchant all 5 pieces of your armour with your Sigil Stones, then wear the whole set along with the Escutcheon of Chorrol, Ring of Vitality, Ring of the Iron Fist and Amulet of Axes or Necklace of Swords. Your final stats will be as follows:

• 100% Resist Magic
  
• 100% Resist Disease
  
• 100% Resist Poison
  
• 100% Resist Paralysis
  
• 101% Reflect Damage
  
• 25 Fortify Hand to Hand
  
• 25 Fortify Blunt or Fortify Blade
  
• 10 Fortify Endurance (effectively gives you +20 HP)
  
• up to 85 armour rating (if you are a master of Heavy Armour and expert Armorer)

With this you will be impervious to almost anything your enemies can throw at you including poisons, which includes poison traps. However, there are some exceptions.

Things that can still harm you:

• Projectiles i.e. arrows, however, if your armour rating is at 85 the damage will be reduced to 15% or even less if you block them with your shield (maximum low is 3,75% if you are at least an expert at Block skill)
  
• Physical Traps
  
• Enemy Reflect Damage
  
• The lava in planes of Oblivion
  
• Sun Damage (like if you are a Vampire)
  
• Falling from a high cliff
  
• Drowning
  
• Astral Vapors disease which you can get from Dread Zombies - due to a bug you may still be infected by it even with 100% Resist Disease, it is particularly nasty as it will give you 25% Weakness to Magic thus reducing your Resistance to Magic until you get cured. It will also give you Stunted Magicka, which means it will not regenerate on it's own and Damage Magicka 15pts. So be wary around Dread Zombies which spread it. If you have the Unofficial Oblivion Patch then it should fix the issue.
  
• Porphyric Hemophilia disease which you can get from Vampires - like the former you can still be infected even with 100% Resist Disease, however, unlike the former it's not a bug it's simply done so you can become a Vampire.
  
• Script effects like that from Poisoned Apples - Resist Poison will not prevent it even though one might think it should.
  
• Even though you will have 100% Resist Paralysis enemies may still Paralyze you by using the same perk that you can obtain by becoming a master of the weapons you use. However, even then they will not be able to hurt you. (This is not a bug the weapon skills master perks simply ignore Resist Paralysis)

Variations:

Racial

You can add Water Breathing among your effects, thus also gaining immunity to drowning, by playing as an Orc, Breton or Argonian.
Orcs and Bretons have Resist Magic among their racial skill's - 25% for Orcs and 50% for Bretons. So an Orc character will reach 105% Resist magic with just 4 Sigil Stones, while a Breton will reach 110% with just 3. So you can just enchant one of your armour pieces with a petty soul gem with the Water Breathing effect. Bretons can also enchant the last piece with another useful effect of their choice like Fortify Magicka or Feather.
Argonians naturally have Water Breathing as a racial skill, they also have 100% Resist Poison and 75% Resist Disease. So you may swap the Ring of Vitality for the Mundane Ring and only need 3 Sigil Stones to reach 110% Resist Magic, then enchant one of the remaining armour pieces with Resist Disease to reach 100% (requires a Greater Soul at least to get 25%) and have the last piece to enchant with an effect of your own pick. You will no longer have the Resist Paralysis effect, however, enemy Paralyze spells will have no effect on you anyway due to 100% Magic Resistance. Alternatively you can become a Vampire and thus gain 100% Resist Disease and Paralysis regardless, thus giving you 2 armour pieces for enchantments of your choice. A clear benefit of this combination is that you will also have 35% Reflect Spell.

Alternate Gear

You can also add Water Breathing by gaining 100% Resist Magic with just 4 armour pieces. This can be done by wearing the level 25+ Ayleid Crown of Lindai, which can be obtained during the "Secrets of the Ayleids" quest (assuming you don't give it to Umbacano) which has 35% Resist Magic, and either the Saviour's Hide obtained for completing the "Hircine's Daedric Quest" or the level 20+ version of Morag Tong Cuirass obtained during "Unearthing Mehrunes Razor", both of which give 25% Resist Magic, so together with the crown it gives a total of 60% Resist magic. Thus leaving 1 piece of armour free to be enchanted with Water Breathing. However, this will lower your armour rating as all of these items are light armour. Even if you are a master of Light Armour and use only light armour pieces you will not reach 85 armour rating because the Escutcheon of Chorrol is a heavy shield thus wielding it will disable the perk. You can gain the perk by equipping a two-handed weapon, but you will lose the armour rating of the Escutcheon of Chorrol without which it will be greatly reduced. The highest armour rating will in fact be achieved by still wearing mostly heavy armour due to which it should go up to 79.

Obviously this can also be combined with the aforementioned racial variations to add more enchantments into the mixer.

Spell Absorption

Spell Absorption at 100% will also grant immunity to magic, however, there are effects that can bypass it unlike Resist Magic. It's also more difficult to reach 100%, most easy is by first selecting the Atronach birthsign, which will instantly give you 50%, but also give you Stunted Magicka, which means it will not regenerate on it's own, but any magical effect that is absorbed will replenish it.
However, if you do normally play with Atronach as your birthsign then obviously using these combinations will be your best option.
Also it should be noted Spell Absorption is chance based so either the spell used against you is absored or not, so at 100% or more it is always absorbed.

List of requirements:

• Select the Atronach bithsign during the tutorial - grants 50% Spell Absorption, Fortify Magicka 150 pts and Stunted Magicka
  
• Magebane Greaves - they are Daedric greaves enchanted with 20% Spell Absorption (found as random loot starting at level 22) They are not really needed, however, if you do find them you will only need 2 Sigil Stones instead of 4.
  
• A full set of Daedric or Perfect Madness Armour minus the shield (Daedric Armour can be found starting at level 20 while Perfect Madness Armour can be crafted at Cutter's Weapons from Madness Ore starting at level 23) If you are using Magebane Greaves then you don't need the greaves. Also if you care about aesthetics then Daedric armour will be the better choice.
  
• 4 Transcendent Sigil Stones with 15% Spell Absorption effect (If you have Magebane Greaves then you only need 2)
  
• The level 25+ version of the Escutcheon of Chorrol - grants Fortify Endurance 10 pts and Reflect Damage 35% (obtained for completion of the "Sins of the Father" quest if you return the Honorblade of Chorrol to it's rightful owners)
  
• The Ring of Vitality - grants 100% Resistance to Disease, Paralysis and Poison (found as random loot starting at level 20)
  
• The Ring of the Iron Fist - grants Fortify Hand to Hand 25 pts and Reflect Damage 33% (found as random loot starting at level 20)
  
• The Amulet of Axes or the Necklace of Swords - both grant Reflect Damage 33%, however the former grants Fortify Blunt 25 pts while the later Fortify Blade 25 pts (either is good, which is better depends on which weapons you prefer i.e. blunt or blade, if you are master at both it's irrelevant, both are found as random loot starting at level 20)
  
• The Sorcerer's Ring - grants Spell Absorption 25% and Fortify Magicka 25 pts (found as random loot starting at level 20) It's not really needed, however, you may wear it temporarily in place of the Ring of Vitality until you obtain all 4 Sigil Stones.

Once you have everything, enchant 4 pieces of your armour with your Sigil Stones (2 if you have Magebane Greaves), while the last piece with a petty soul gem to add Water Breathing, then wear the whole set along with the Escutcheon of Chorrol, Ring of Vitality, Ring of the Iron Fist and Amulet of Axes or Necklace of Swords. If you have Magebane Greaves then you will have an additional free slot which you can enchant with an effect of your choice.
Your final stats will be as follows:

• 110% Spell Absorption (100% with Magebane Greaves and 2 Sigil Stones)
  
• 100% Resist Disease
  
• 100% Resist Poison
  
• 100% Resist Paralysis
  
• 101% Reflect Damage
  
• Fortify Magicka 150 pts
  
• Stunted Magicka
  
• Water Breathing
  
• 25 Fortify Hand to Hand
  
• 25 Fortify Blunt or Fortify Blade
  
• 10 Fortify Endurance (effectively gives you +20 HP)
  
• up to 85 armour rating (if you are a master of Heavy Armour and expert Armorer)

Like with the previous effect with this you will be impervious to almost anything your enemies can throw at you.

Things that can still harm you:

• You will be vulnerable to the exact same things as listed in the Resist Magic section, except drowning as now you will have the Water Breathing effect.
  
• Unlike Resist Magic, Spell Absorption will not protect you against environmental effects like the damaging mist in the Frostfire Glade, stepping into fireplaces, and the Pillar of Flame on which Sigil Stones are found which deals 10000 DPS.
  
• While Spell Absorption will protect you against magical traps like Dark Welkynd Stones and Fire Turrets, it will not work against Land Mines. (At level 25+ the Land Mines get bugged and won't pelt you with fireballs anymore, this is fixed by the Unofficial Oblivion Patch - so they will be no threat to you if you don't use it)
  
• As mentioned in the previous section, Spell Absorption will not protect you against enemy Reflect Spell, so be careful when fighting enemies which have the effect.

Variations:

Racial

Because you will already have Fortify Magicka 150 pts, it is a good idea to select a race that will increase it further like Breton or Altmer.
Altmer gain Fortify Magicka 100 pts thus granting you a total of 250. (If you have Magebane Greaves and enchant the last piece of armour with a Fortify Magicka Sigil Stone it will grant you an additional 50 thus giving you a total of 300)
Breton gain Fortify Magicka 50 pts, however, they can be a better choice when fighting enemies that have Reflect Spell due to also having 50% Resist Magic, thus reducing any damage taken from reflected spells. If you also wear a Mundane Ring in place of the Ring of Vitality you will have 100% Resist Magic. You may simply keep swaping the rings when encountering such enemies.

No Atronach birthsign

It is possible to reach 100% Spell Absorption without selecting the birthsign if you enchant all 5 pieces of your armour with 15% Spell Absorption Sigil Stones and then replacing the Ring of Vitality with the Sorcerer's Ring, which will give you exactly 100% Spell Absorption (105% with Magebane Greaves). However, you will no longer have Water Breathing nor 100% Resistance to Poison, Disease and Paralysis. Unless you select Argonian as your race and become a Vampire, in which case you will also have all 4 effects.

Other Gear

Magebane Greaves have a light armour equivalent called Greaves of Purity which are Glass greaves and also grant 20% Spell Absorption, so if you don't care about armour rating those will do too.
In the Shivering Isles you can find Cursed Magebane Gauntlets and Cursed Absorbing Gauntlets which are Daedric and Glass respectively. Both grant 24% Spell Absorption, however, they also give you Drain Magicka 10 pts. But even if you don't care they won't really change anything apart from the fact you will need 1 less Sigil Stone, as that won't give you more free slots for other enchantments. With Atronach birthsign you will have 109% Spell Absorption when wearing both and using 1 Sigil Stone. Without Atronach birthsign you will still have to enchant all 3 remaining pieces of armour with Sigil Stones as with just 2 you will reach 99% (ain't that that a ♥♥♥♥♥?) so with 3 you will have 114%. Also if you are aiming to maximize your Magicka then obviously they are a poor choice to use.

Reflect Spell

Unfortunately as much as you may want to it is impossible to reach 100% in Reflect Damage and Reflect Spell at the same time, unless game modding is involved. With that said it is possible to get very close. With the following combination you will reach 101% Reflect Damage and 90% Reflect Spell, but you can gain the remaining 10% using a long duration custom spell or potion.
Also, same as with Spell Absorption, Reflect Spell is chance based so either the spell is reflected or not, at 100% or more it is always reflected.

List of requirements:

• The Mundane Ring - grants Reflect Spell 35% and Resist Magic 50% (found as random loot starting at level 20, you may also obtain it from Raven Camoran's corpse if you kill him at level 22+ during "The Path of Dawn" quest)
  
• Spell Breaker - grants Reflect Spell 30% (obtained for completing Peryite's Daedric Quest
  
• The level 25+ Ayleid Crown of Nenalata - grants Fortify Alteration and Conjuration 15 pts and Reflect Spell 25% (which can be obtained during the "Secrets of the Ayleids" quest) you may get a low version of it at first but after you give it to Umbacano it's stats will be recalculated and thus you will get the correct one after you kill him
  
• The level 25+ version of Raiment of the Crimson Scar - grants Fortify Agility and Speed 15 pts, Fortify Sneak, Marksman and Blade 25 pts and Reflect Damage 35% (obtained in Deepscorn Hollow after buying all the upgrades)
  
• The Ring of the Iron Fist - grants Fortify Hand to Hand 25 pts and Reflect Damage 33% (found as random loot starting at level 20)
  
• The Amulet of Axes or the Necklace of Swords - both grant Reflect Damage 33%, however the former grants Fortify Blunt 25 pts while the later Fortify Blade 25 pts (either is good, which is better depends on which weapons you prefer i.e. blunt or blade, if you are master at both it's irrelevant, both are found as random loot starting at level 20)

Once you equip everything, your stats will be as follows:

• Resist Magic 50%
  
• Reflect Spell 90%
  
• Reflect Damage 101%
  
• Fortify Conjuration 15 pts
  
• Fortify Alteration 15 pts
  
• Fortify Agility 15 pts
  
• Fortify Speed 15 pts
  
• Fortify Sneak 25 pts
  
• Fortify Marksman 25 pts
  
• Fortify Blade 25 pts (or 50 when wearing the Necklace of Swords)
  
• Fortify Blunt 25 pts (if wearing the Amulet of Axes)
  
• Fortify Hand to Hand 25 pts
  
• Up to 62 armour rating (the Raiment and Crown are light armour while Spell Breaker is a heavy shield so you cannot gain the Light Armour master perk effect and if you equip a two-handed weapon it will reduce the armour rating to 60)

Gaining the remaining 10%

As mentioned before you can boost Reflect Spell to 100% using a spell or potion, both have custom and built-in versions that will work. However, best is probably a custom spell, if you are a master of Mysticism you can create a 11% magnitude with 120 sec duration spell. Why 11 and not 10? Because your spell effectiveness can only be up to 95% when wearing armour so it will be reduced to 10 when you use it. So unless you intend to remove your gear every time you cast it, it has to be 11%.

Things that can still harm you:

• You will be vulnerable to the exact same things as listed in the Resist Magic and Spell Absorption sections
  
• Reflect Spell will also not protect you against magical traps like Dark Welkynd Stones and Fire Turrets
  
• Same as with Spell Absorption, Reflect Spell will not protect you against enemy Reflect Spell, so don't expect the spell to bounce back and forth

Variations:

Best if you are playing Breton as then you will also have 100% Resist Magic, so there will be no need for the custom spell as whatever spell is not reflected will be resisted instead. Plus you will again be safe from magical traps. However, it's not possible to also gain immunity to poison or drowning. You may gain immunity to disease and paralysis if you become a Vampire though.
If you play as an Argonian Vampire then you will gain immunity to drowning, poison, disease and paralysis. But you will need the custom spell and you will only have 50% Resist Magic thus will still be susceptible to magic traps and reflected spells.

Well this took longer than I expected, hope you found this guide useful and found joy in your newfound immortality, thank you all for reading.

[Sydolfus]

the spiffing brit made a 100% reflect guy try checking that video out

[Drunkenstein]

No it doesn't require 50 Illusion. I guess I'll have to make a separate guide on that, to fix this misconception alone.

[Lillia Venitaes]

I love this build but my favourite was always the old have 100 Chameleon if they can't see you they can't hit you but it does taking some getting used too not to mention it requires 50 illusion and access to the Mages Guild Enchanters

[ßαsταrÐ]

wonderful guide, very much appreciate the amount of time and thought you must've put into this.

oblivion in particular seems to have an incredulous amount of depth to its mechanics, even well beyond what the developers actually intended, i think

[Drunkenstein]

No it's not possible to enchant armour with Reflect Damage unless mods are involved.
Even if you obtain the Heart of Wound Sharing and/or Tower Warden greater power it will only allow you to create custom spells, but not custom enchantments.

[InCompet4nt]

breton with mundane ring gives 100 magic resistance. a full set of any armour enchanted with reflect damage (requires shivering isles) gives 100 damage relect. that should make you unkillable

[HordHarry]

NIce guide however you made a few mistakes I think : mundane ring giving 50% resist magic, it is the only thing you need to get your 100% magic resist, leaving you slot to get something else. Also, I must check this one, but poison, paralysis, diseases etc.. are considered magic effect in my memory, so if you get you 100% resist, no need to waste a slot on the ring of vitality

[Snake Eyes ✰]

Good guide!