Recharging Magical Items

As you level up, you're going to find more and more magical items. Warriors and archers will find magical weapons to be especially helpful, as they'll let you deal extra damage, absorb stats and skills from your opponents, or produce any number of harmful magical effects. The catch? Magical weapons come with a certain number of charges, and when those charges run out, your magical weapon will be just another hunk of metal.

In order to recharge your magical weapons (and staffs, for you wizards out there), you're going to need two things: the Soul Trap spell, and a Soul Gem large enough to hold the soul of the creature that you're going to kill. You can find Soul Trap at the Leyawiin Mages Guild, and Soul Gems are fairly common pickups in dungeons or in magically-oriented shops throughout the land. There are five varieties in all, ranging in size from Petty to Grand. Each creature that you encounter (you can't capture souls from humanoid characters or Dremora, unless you're practicing some pretty dark Necromancy) also has a certain-sized soul, ranging from Petty (Rats, Mudcrabs) to Grand (Liches, Minotaur Lords).

If you cast Soul Trap on a creature prior to killing it, its soul will automatically be placed in the smallest available Soul Gem in your inventory. If you Soul Trap a Rat and have a Petty Soul Gem in your inventory, then, it'll go into that. If the only Soul Gem you have is a Grand Soul Gem, though, it'll go into that, essentially wasting the extra space in the Soul Gem. (Soul Gems can't be reused after they're used, and a soul can't be removed when it's inserted.)

When you've captured a soul into a Soul Gem, you can "equip" the Soul Gem in your inventory to use it to recharge a magical item. Depending on the size of the soul, you'll get a set number of charges to restore, with larger souls being worth more charges. Of course, the more powerful your weapon, the more charges it'll take to completely restore it, so as you gain more powerful items, you'll have to capture larger souls just to stay even.

Armor and jewelry cannot be recharged, because their magical effects are constant and ongoing. They don't fade over time nor can their effects be reduced.