Oblivion:Wood Elf

Illustration of a typical Bosmer male

The Bosmer are the Elven clan-folk of Valenwood, a forested province in southwestern Tamriel.

For more information, see the main lore article.

A list of all the Bosmer in Cyrodiil can be found here.

Attributes

Male

• +10 Agility and Speed
• -10 Strength, Willpower, and Personality

Female

• +10 Agility and Speed
• -10 Strength, Willpower, and Endurance

Skills

• +10 Alchemy, Marksman, and Sneak
• +5 Acrobatics, Alteration, and Light Armor

Traits

• Beast Tongue greater power (FormID 00047AE9): Command Creature up to level 5 (20 points) for 60 seconds on Target (once per day)
• Wood Elf Disease Resistance ability (FormID 00047AE8): Resist Disease 75% on Self (constant)

In-Game Description

The clanfolk of the Western Valenwood forests, also known as "Bosmer." Wood Elves are nimble and quick, making them good scouts and thieves, and there are no finer archers in all of Tamriel. Their ability to command simple creatures is well-known.

Gameplay

The nimble Bosmer are strongly suited for a thief character, an alchemist, a woodsman, bandit or something to that effect. They are less talented at magic than about half of the races in Tamriel, but the magic they do know integrates well with what they do. They are great users of Alchemy and Alteration which helps them with the gameplay strategy of "carefully teasing their rewards" out of the world. However, they don't bother much with Destruction, Conjuration, or Restoration, which discourages Battlemage-type classes.

In combat, Bosmer are heavily focused on archery, in which they are generally understood to be the single best among the Tamriel races. They start out with a high bonus in Marksman and are well-suited to use it, since they have very high Agility and Speed attributes. They are excellent at stealth, so they are great at getting sneak attack bonuses. They don't use melee weapons that much, as they have low strength, making them better as archers and thieves, rather than warriors or close range assassins. They typically use light armor. The +5 Light Armor bonus helps sway players to stick with light armor for Wood Elves, as well as their ten-point penalty to Strength, which translates into 50 less Encumbrance.

Their greater power will prove very handy at lower levels, but will eventually become less useful as the player levels up.

Bosmer are one of the better choices for an alchemist, since poisons created with Alchemy benefit their archery, and they have a significant alchemy boost.

Enemy Bosmer will generally be encountered as Bandit Bowmen, clad in light armor and archery equipment. Among the vampires, the Acrobats, Archers, and Thieves are Bosmer.

Male Bosmer make good Scouts and Acrobats, if born under the Warrior-sign.

Race-specific Dialogue

Greetings

"What do you want, treehugger?" (if disposition is between 20 and 30)

"Greetings, Bosmer." (if disposition is 30+)

"Greetings, (brother/sister) Bosmer." (if disposition is 30+ and the target NPC is also a Bosmer)

Friendly greetings (if disposition is 70+)

"If there is anything I can do, I am humbly at your service."

"I have a feeling that you and I are about to become very close."

"Greetings and salutations."

"This is a wondrous encounter. Welcome."

"I'm so happy to see you, I could burst!"

Neutral Greetings (if disposition is between 30 and 70)

"Interesting, go on."

"From where do you hail?"

"I don't know if I can help you, but I'll try."

"Do you want something from me?"

Brusque Greetings (if disposition is below 30)

"I don't like you much."

"Can't you find someone else to bother?"

"Can't you see I wish to be left alone!"

"You annoy even me."

"I really don't want you around me."

In combat

"You're outmatched, Elf!" (if the combatant is not an elf)

"Puny Elf! I'll pick my teeth with your spine!" (if the target NPC is an Orc)

"You're a traitor to your own race!" (if the combatant is a fellow elf)

"You Elves are all the same! All flash and no fury!" (if the combatant is not an elf)

NPC Reactions

Reactions affect the base disposition of NPCs towards you depending on your relative races. Bosmer only have one modifier.

Bosmer +5