Chain Lightning
School	Destruction
Skill Level	Adept (50)
Magicka Cost	156
Effect	Lightning bolt that does 40 (min) shock damage to Health and half to Magicka, then leaps to new target
Spell Tome	Purchase
Tome ID	000A2708
Spell ID	00045F9D

Chain Lightning is an Adept level destruction spell in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Chain Lightning has the unique ability to bounce or "arc" off of surfaces or characters to hit a target behind or around an obstacle. This spell may arc followers if they are too close to the impact location.

Contents 1 Damage capacity 2 Perks 3 Usefulness 4 Spell tome 4.1 Attributes 4.2 Acquisition 5 Trivia 6 Bugs 7 See also 8 Appearances

Damage capacityEdit

Chain lightning delivers a minimum of 40 points of damage to the target, or 60 points if the Dragonborn has Augmented Shock x 2. Chain lightning deals damage to a target's Magicka equal to half the damage done to health, so 20 points is done to magicka. Empowered Chain Lightning will jump to more targets than if singly cast.

PerksEdit

• Dual Casting - damage increases.
• Impact - stagger all opponents hit when dual-casted.
• Augmented Shock (x2) - increases damage.

UsefulnessEdit

This spell is effective against multiple low level and low health enemies such as skeevers, skeletons, and novice mages. It almost always kills the group of enemies in one cast under this condition. Because this spell strikes multiple clustered targets, followers can be struck and killed by Chain Lightning.

Spell tomeEdit

AttributesEdit

• Weight: 1
• Value: 390
• See Spell Tome for a complete table of spell tomes, their descriptions, and their values.

AcquisitionEdit

• Faralda at The College of Winterhold sells this spell once the Dragonborn reaches level 40 Destruction.
• Farengar at Dragonsreach sells this spell once the Dragonborn reaches around level 40 Destruction

TriviaEdit

• If casting this spell at the sky, it will make the sky turn a light blue color for a few seconds, as if it were struck by lightning.
• It is not advisable to use this spell when you have a follower with you as the spell can harm the follower as well if there is only one enemy in the room. This can also cause the follower to become hostile.

BugsEdit

• Possible bug involving the magic anomaly in the College of Winterhold quest line. Can cause errors if switching magic during the quest. (unconfirmed)
•  360   Chain Lightning no longer throws/tosses/launches its targets into the air. It just seems to stop them and they'll drop.
•  360   If the Dragonborn has taken the perk Disintegrate, even dragons can be turned to ash, although the ash pile is not any larger than any other creature's. Depending on the terrain, this can make it appear as though the dragon has disappeared. This does not effect the absorbing of the dragons soul.
  • Even without the perk Disintegrate, it's possible to turn a few enemies into ash with this spell even if they were only hit by the spell after it bounced off a different enemy.
  •  PC   Sometimes when attacking the enemies in the Debate Hall within the Tower of Mzark using this spell the game will crash.

See alsoEdit

• Staff of Chain Lightning

AppearancesEdit

• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (First appearance)

Destruction Spells
Arniel's Convection • Blizzard • Chain Lightning • Fire Storm • Fireball • Firebolt • Fire Rune • Flame Cloak • Flames • Frost Cloak • Frostbite • Frost Rune • Ice Spike • Ice Storm • Incinerate • Icy Spear • Lightning Bolt • Lightning Cloak • Lightning Rune • Lightning Storm • Sparks • Thunderbolt • Wall of Flames • Wall of Frost • Wall of Storms • Vampiric Drain
Schools of Magic
Alteration • Conjuration • Destruction • Illusion • Restoration
Related topics
Destruction Ritual Spell • Magicka • Perks • Magic • The College of Winterhold • Destruction trainers • Runes • Disintegrate

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