Skyrim talk:Wabbajack

MadwomanEdit

Greetings all :) This is my first post here, but I am an avid Elder Scrolls player/fanatic/junkie! ;) I just wanted to make a note. When I was walking up above Dragon's Bridge on quests in relation to Solitude - I had played the Sheogorath mini quest - which by the way was SO cool to see our favourite DLC madman again! But, a lady came running up to me, begging to be "wabbajack'd", saying it would be an honour. As I know it's a weapon, I thought about it, but then complied. Her name was "A Madwoman". I saved the game, in case in killed her, and cast Wabbajack, and it turned her into a bunny, and she went hopping off! Afterwords there was a text dialogue saying "last witness killed - bounty 41", but she didn't show up as a murder nor a kill, nor was there a bounty added. *head scratch* I didn't like the wabbajack much in Oblivion, or rather I didn't use it much, either for Martin's quest, nor as a carry around. But it seems kinda fun in this game. Would love to know more, and am looking forward to seeing these articles added to as we play on!! Am loving Skyrim so far, and the many improvements. Happy Gaming, all! Namaste - Lotus Hamilton, Washington State, USA - 98.125.208.2 07:51, 23 December 2011 (UTC)

In all probability, this is what occured: by striking the madwoman with Wabbajack you were given an "assault" charge of 40 gold (I'm not sure where the 1 is coming from) she turned into a rabbit and hopped into some sort of pit-fall: off a cliff, into a troll, etc. This killed her/the rabbit and removed your bounty as the "last witness" had died. Does that sound reasonable to you?-69.157.165.134

Well, the Wabbajack does deal damage with every strike. Hence the "assault" charge.--98.238.243.104 12:39, 3 March 2012 (UTC)

If the madwoman is facing you when you wabbajack her, you get the fine and immediately after a message about how the last witness is dead. Simply wabbajacking her from behind prevents this from occuring. 124.148.182.134 01:03, 10 February 2012 (UTC)

Charge reduction?Edit

Does anyone know if there's a magic school that reduces the charge cost for the Wabbajack? I've also wondered if that load screen blurb applied to Wabbajack. Is there a page with the formula for finding staff charge? — Unsigned comment by 67.255.88.166 (talk) at 04:50 on 1 January 2012

Wabbajack's spell effect is Destruction school in the CK. (I guess they just had to pick something.)

It doesn't appear that its charge level is handled differently from any other staff, so boost your Destruction and expect Wabbajack to work longer on a charge. 70.100.92.119 07:43, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

2021 Leveling my Destruction skill from 15 to 100 reduced the charge use, but not by much. Maybe about 30% less. People say use gear enchanted with "Destruction spells cost less to use" works better.

BountyEdit

So far, I've successfully attacked several guards with the Wabbajack without incurring a bounty. Also, when the target transforms into something else, it actually spawns a separate entity rather than transforming the target. Any thoughts? Gideon Dragontongue 16:00, 25 December 2011 (UTC)

Boss fightsEdit

It seems Wabbajack reverts to only causing explosions during boss fights, I tried using it during the boss fight at the end of Blindsighted and those are the only effects I got. 24.62.136.31 19:20, 29 December 2011 (UTC)

...And not two minuets of testing later, Mercer gets turned into a chicken. Never mind. 24.62.136.31 19:22, 29 December 2011 (UTC)

Tested against Morokei (Staff os Magnus quest Dragon Priest), no health was regenerated while turned into bunny, chicken or mudcrab. And no healt was lost when it "spawned" a sweetroll.--Elfslayerx 04:09, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

myselfEdit

What will it happen if NPC use it to attack me(Vvardfell 09:00, 1 January 2012 (UTC))

If anyone other than the Dovahkiin uses it (on anyone), all of its effects that don't deal damage are disabled, but it still works as a weapon. 142.166.16.9 19:49, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

How much damage does it do when a follower hits someone with the wabbajack?--82.46.168.98 08:44, 27 June 2012 (UTC)

leveled itemEdit

If it can respawn leveled npc,can it respawn the leveled weapon they carry and increase its level (Vvardfell 12:09, 28 January 2012 (UTC))

Glitch/bug ... Something annoyingEdit

This has been marked as a question that needs to be answered.

I ran across a bug that when Wabbajack turns the target into a Demora Markynaz, the target becomes invincible, unable to take any damage of any kind and never turns back into the original target. Is this even a bug? Can anyone Verify this? ( I play on the XBox)— Unsigned comment by J'ZhirrthePriest (talk • contribs) on 2 April 2012

This is not a bug, it really is a feature of the Wabbajack. It happens more often from the first time.Maeve the Archer (talk) 14:46, 15 May 2013 (GMT) Maeve the Archer

Actually, from what I gather, this is a bug. This has occurred only once for me, and never again. Unless it is an extremely rare effect, this is not supposed to happen. Every other time they have become a Dremora they have been killable. --- Kill Nazeem (talk) 18:39, 8 September 2013 (GMT) Kill Nazeem

Dremora effectEdit

I didn't see it listed here, but while trying to force-update a follower they were turned into a dremora valynaz. — Unsigned comment by 71.195.221.156 (talk) at 00:30 on 30 April 2012

It's listed. Quoting the article, "Along with its offensive abilities it can also randomly transform a target into a Chicken, Rabbit, Mudcrab, Dremora or very rarely a Sweet Roll or a Bottle of Wine..." • JA^Talk 01:15, 30 April 2012 (UTC)

bandit and rabbits?Edit

Once I attacked a bandit with Wabbajack and... peculiarly, it appeared that he began to poop out/give birth to rabbits. That is, he would squat down in the frightened pose, and then a rabbit would apparently spawn from his backside. He did that several times before going back to normal. I do not believe that it was just odd timing with rabbits, as it happened in a cave without rabbits in it. I've never been able to duplicate this effect, after a few hundred Wabbajackings. I was wondering if this was possibly the weirdest Skyrim glitch ever, or if it is a legitimate Wabbajack effect?184.3.29.100 03:26, 22 May 2012 (UTC)

It sounds to me like a very odd glitch. Considering the fact that the Wabbajack is able to transform the target into a rabbit, and the target can transform back to their true form a short time later, I'm assuming this is what was supposed to happen, and it just glitched out for some reason. ABCface^◥ 04:34, 22 May 2012 (UTC)

Having reviewed the source code that controls wabbajacks effects I can assure you this is not one. There is no way this happened under normal conditions. This leaves a few cases. One, you are lying. Two, it was a glitch (I doubt it). Or three, you are running mods and someone added this obscure effect in their mod as an easter egg. I can't think for any other cause. 9:27:30 pm GMT | Sunday, April 14, 2013 — Unsigned comment by 69.243.232.187 (talk)

Verifying that I've also seen this, and often. Looks to me like the script to spawn the transformed animal runs normally, but the script to remove the original target fails for some reason, possibly a lag/performance issue, possibly some other reason. This can result in turning the original target into a sweet roll (which does make it disappear), then having to inform a bunny, mudcrab and dremora that in a few seconds, they will simply cease to exist. Sadly, even with 100 speech I don't have any perks in grief counselling.--67.204.222.222 15:33, 28 June 2014 (GMT)

2 WabbajacksEdit

Ok found a glitch to get 2 wabbajacks YES TWO and one of them has UNLIMITED charges.

The wabbajack tht you get in Pelagius' mind has unlimited charges but disappears when you finish the quest. Well, if you fast travel out of Pelagius' mind after starting the dialog with sheogorath for the "I've done wht u said" bit then the quest will complete after you fast travel. You have a 10 second (ish) gap where you can put the quest Wabbajack on a weapon rack in breeze home. You will then be transported back to the pelagius wing in the blue palace and will have the normal Wabbajack in your inventory. KingK 17:49, 30 June 2012 (UTC)

But does the second do anything, or is it just the one with the script effects for the associated quest? Schiffy (talk) 02:59, 2 October 2012 (GMT)

Looking at the code, the quest Wabbajack dunBluePalaceWabbajack doesn't really do anything useful outside the quest. It has it's own enchantment with it's own Script attached, and the effects all seem to work only on very specific targets. --Alfwyn (talk) 19:56, 2 October 2012 (GMT)

I'm aware of that, I was wondering if this "unlimited charge" Wabbajack was the one that does nothing. Schiffy (talk) 11:40, 3 October 2012 (GMT)

Follower leveling trick with Shadowmere?Edit

Does anyone know if the Follower Leveling trick work with Shadowmere? He seems to die quite often for me in battle but I don't remember if I got him too early or not. Is he even leveled? 70.26.1.159 02:40, 9 July 2012 (UTC)

His level is fixed at 50. ABCface^◥ 16:50, 12 July 2012 (UTC)

Orchendor Resistant to WabbajackEdit

"During the Only Cure, you will face a powerful mage called Orchendor, who can resist its effects"

Does this mean that he is resistant/immune to some of the effects or all of the effects. This needs clarification. --Xyzzy^Talk 18:40, 28 July 2012 (UTC)

Orchendor has a constant 100% resist magic effect, thus making him immune to all of the effects of the Wabbajack, possibly even the damage done by it, I'll test it out. Jman514 (talk) 14:26, 5 September 2012 (EDT)

But the question is, if he can resist becoming an animal. He can resist the elmental effects, but can he resist the transformation effects?--Skyrimplayer (talk) 14:30, 5 September 2012 (EDT)

Having recently done the quest, I can confirm that he can be transformed into an animal, but I haven't seen anything else except Elemental Explosion and Chickenification yet. 91.7.206.30 21:54, 26 December 2012 (GMT)

then this line should be removed since he's not immune to all effects, and the reason he's immune (100% magic resist) has nothing to do with wabbajack 50.99.131.84 03:16, 15 January 2013 (GMT)

Wabbajack fix, Vigilance, and dismissalEdit

I'm on 360, vanilla version, unpatched, at level 52, and tried the Wabbajack fix on Vigilance. I first tried it via the prescribed method (ie, dismiss, Wabbajack, punch or just let the effect wear off) in the Dawnstar Sanctuary. The only thing he changed into was a hostile Dremora Valkynaz, but after reverting back, I was unable to recruit Vigilance, or even talk to him. This happened after several reloads--every time he changed, it was into the same thing, & I was unable to talk to him after reversion. Then I tried Wabbacking Vigilance without dismissing him, and he transformed into a chicken, and after reverting, he seems to be significantly tougher than before. So is dismissing a follower before Wabbajacking even necessary? I've yet to see any explanation of why they must be dismissed first.--149.160.118.51 23:49, 24 January 2013 (GMT)

Resurrection?Edit

This has been marked as a question that needs to be answered.

So I've heard that the Wabbajack's chickenification will despawn the target and spawn a chicken or a rabbit in its place until the effect wears off. What if I use a staff of zombie or something to reanimate the body and make that guy a chicken? When the effect wears off, will the respawning forget about the guy being dead and reanimated? If that is the case, maybe we could use this trick to avoid losing followers for Boethiah's quest. Thoughts? -Joshua.yathin.yu (talk) 21:53, 30 March 2013 (GMT)

Or maybe we could reanimate all sorts of strange people with it, like, say, Kodlak or Skjor from the Companions for starters. The possibilities could be endless. --Morrolan (talk) 22:07, 12 April 2013 (GMT)

The page says that it will only cause elemental explosions on dead thralls. Could be that it would be the same for all reanimates.--~The wind, forsaken~ (talk) 22:55, 14 April 2013 (GMT)

After extensive testing (I.E. blasting reanimated bodies with the Wabbajack for 90 minutes) on PS3, I never once managed to get a transformation of any kind, just elemental explosions. So, unless a PC guy proves me wrong, I'm going to say no resurrections. MetaCthulhu (talk) 01:31, 11 September 2015 (UTC)

Effect List?Edit

Should we include a list of effects. Proof is not needed as all the effects can be easily discerned directly from the script source code in the creation kit. 9:27:30 pm GMT | Sunday, April 14, 2013 — Unsigned comment by 69.243.232.187 (talk)

Please do... that would be amazing... what would be even more amazing would be to include a rough idea of how often each effect happens. — Unsigned comment by 68.98.93.16 (talk) at 08:34 on 2 July 2013

I've been trying to develop a table using http://cs.uesp.net/index.php?game=sr&script=DA15WabbajackEffectSCRIPT. The below is all I could figure out. Some things I've noticed: 1) the elemental damage doesn't seem to be affected by weakness/resistance because it uses the command "damage av". 2) I have no idea how long any of the effects last. 3) I'm guessing the absorption spell damages the targets attributes by 50% of their maximum health, magicka, and stamina, and restores the player's attributes by 50% of their own maxes. 4) No idea how much of the target's health is restored. 5) Couldn't find anything confirming transmogrification into a wine bottle. 6) The last effect (3%) might instantly kill the player? Siegfried of Skyrim (talk) 21:16, 15 December 2016 (UTC)

Chance	%	Effect
Between 1 and 50	50%	Damages the target for 60 pts of either Fire, Frost, or Shock Damage.†
Between 51 and 57	7%	Transmogrifies the target into a Chicken for 30 seconds or until they take damage.
Between 58 and 64	7%	Transmogrifies the target into a Rabbit for 30 seconds or until they take damage.
Between 65 and 71	7%	Transmogrifies the target into a Mudcrab for 30 seconds or until they take damage.
Between 72 and 76	5%	Turns the target Invisible for 30 seconds.‡
Between 77 and 81	5%	Absorb 50% of the target's Health, Magicka, and Stamina.¥
Between 82 and 88	7%	Transmogrifies the target into a Dremora for 30 seconds or until they take damage.
Between 89 and 93	5%	Heals the target by 75 pts.
Between 94 and 95	2%	Transmogrifies the target into 50 Gold and a pile of ash.
Between 96 and 97	2%	Transmogrifies the target into a Sweet Roll and a pile of ash.
Between 98 and 100	3%	Instantly kills the target.

(←) From my reading of that script the effects are not governed by a true percentage. It chooses a random number between 1 and 100, and depending on the number gives you that effect. Essential NPCs, giants, dragons, and 'CommandedActors' are assigned the number 1.

Between 1 and 50 you get the simple elemental damage,
between 51 and 57 you get a chicken,
between 58 and 64 you get a rabbit (the madwoman is assigned the number 60),
between 65 and 71 you get a mudcrab,
between 72 and 76 you turn the target invisible (the script causes the NPC to cast the spell on itself so assume the basic 30 seconds),
between 77 and and 81 you 'transfer' or absorb attributes (seems to half the targets attributes and heal yours by half your base value),
between 82 and 88 you get a Dremora,
between 89 and 93 you heal the target,
between 94 and 95 you turn them to gold (seems a set 50 gold),
between 96 and 97 you get a sweetroll,
and between 98 and 100 you kill them.

So in effect your table is right with the percentages when bundling them together (after I corrected the killing as the missing 3%), but I don't think its a proper representation of how wabbajacking works. PS the transmogrifications appear to use the spell which has a 30 second timer. Silence is Golden^{Break the Silence} 23:47, 15 December 2016 (UTC)

Updated the table, assuming the healing spell is Heal Other and the transmogrification is based on the spell. Also, notes: "^†This damage cannot be modified and is not affected by weaknesses or resistances.", "^‡Also sets the target's Magicka and Illusion to 200 for the duration of the effect." and something like "^¥Actually damages the target's attribute by 50% of the target's base values and restores the user's attributes by 50% of the user's base values." Also, should the Wabbajack infographic have the damage removed and the Quest-specific version added? Siegfried of Skyrim (talk) 02:26, 16 December 2016 (UTC)

It looks like the table was removed from the page, but it seems like a useful way to summarise it to me; should it be restored with a more accurate description of how it works (i.e- without percentages)? -- Haravikk (talk) 11:32, 8 February 2018 (UTC)

Please do restore the table, I think it is enormously useful! --95.90.190.93 12:43, 28 April 2022 (UTC)

Bones ExplosionEdit

I had this effect where it made a NPC explode into large amounts of bones,skulls and Ribcages. Sadly Im on Xbox,but could anyone look on the CK for any info. Send a Reply to my Talk page. Dunehelm (talk) 22:41, 9 September 2013 (GMT)

Using the Wabbajack on HawksEdit

I've just spent 10 minutes testing the Wabbajack on Hawks in Solitude and found that they die instantly with no visable effects normally associated with the Wabbajack, like elemental explosions etc. I added this info to the page. I did not test the Hawks added from DLC. 176.58.88.19 02:11, 1 November 2013 (GMT)

Hawks die from any magic. Even passive magic. If you fire a CALM SPELL at a hawk, it dies. Long story short, this info isn't relevant, so i'm removing it. --SitDown (talk) 04:36, 3 June 2015 (UTC)

Hawks aren't technically animals, they are containers. Other passive animals won't react to wabbajack either. Silence is Golden^{Break the Silence} 17:35, 3 June 2015 (UTC)

Interaction With Quest ItemsEdit

Given the Wabbajack's random nature and its range of possible effects, I have a question that is a bit difficult to test. However I was hoping to elaborate upon the following note:

Using the Wabbajack on plot-related NPCs can produce highly unpredictable results, as their scripts may interact with the Wabbajack's effects in ways that cannot be anticipated.

This doesn't describe any of the possible effects to watch out for so it's a bit vague. The possible effects that stands out to me as the most potentially disruptive are the instant "kill" effects (turning them into a sweet roll or coins), but given the random nature of the staff I'm not 100% sure what the exact results would be. At a guess, the obvious case would be enemies carrying quest items, since these may not be lootable (as there is no corpse), or enemies that need to be killed (depends if these effects count as the actor being dead or not); does the Wabbajack protect against either of these possible cases? If not, it might be worth listing them as examples, if it does, then what are the possible side effects? The list doesn't need to be exhaustive, but I think it would help if players had something more to go on than a note essentially staying "stuff might break". -- Haravikk (talk) 11:42, 8 February 2018 (UTC)

I think "in ways that cannot be anticipated" should be more than concerning enough for people reading the page. As it suggests there is no way to anticipate every possible outcome for every possible target. Non-exhaustive lists require heavy moderation and watching to keep them non-exhaustive, as every Tom, Dick, and Harry thinks their addition is an improvement, so they are to be avoided as much as possible. Besides the obvious kill and non-lootable corpses, turning them into something else could remove such things as the mark on a bandit leader for clearing a dungeon. These effects can also be seen when using Dead Thrall on quest targets, as the game then thinks the target is still alive. Silence is Golden^{Break the Silence} 19:07, 8 February 2018 (UTC)

Well this is really why I wanted to discuss it, because if that's the extent of the "ways that cannot be anticipated" then actually it's very easily summarised and anticipated; if there's more then listing it here in the discussion page means we can see whether it's really a huge list or not. For example, the Wabbajack already excludes essential characters and commanded actors from these effects, so that cuts out a chunk of potentially quest-breaking effects, so what does that leave? Dead Thrall at least has an easy fix in most cases (just kill the zombie to pass the check). -- Haravikk (talk) 23:50, 8 February 2018 (UTC)

Pissing about with friendly NPCs needed for quests is going to cause problems, no matter what your method of doing so, and there is absolutely no point in putting notes like that on any page except the First Time Players. You seem to have entirely missed my point that "there is no way to anticipate every possible outcome for every possible target". My examples were very basic quest breakers, that might or might not apply to certain generic targets. Those are the easy ones, because then you have the dozens of named enemies involved in quests who generally have some unique scripting meaning every single one of them would need to be tested thoroughly to see what effects each type of Wabbajacking would have on them and their quest. There are also generic enemies with location-unique scripting, which would also need tested. If you think it is easy to anticipate how hundreds of unique scripts will react and summarize that into a couple of lines, then be my guest, but don't try to make out that all the possible side-effects have already been mentioned. Silence is Golden^{Break the Silence} 01:47, 9 February 2018 (UTC)

See, if now what you're saying is that the Wabbajack is unsafe to use on any target that you do not know with 100% certainty is not, and never will be, involved in a quest in any way, then surely that's more along the lines of what the note should say, and it should be right at the top saying it? This is my point; it reads like a footnote and doesn't make clear the extent of what "ways that can't be anticipated" is supposed to mean. But even so, which effects exactly are at fault? The damaging and invisibility effects are presumably harmless, so again, is it only the instant-kill effects that are dangerous, or do the transformation effects have potential side-effects as well? Because if it's just those two then the note could become "Transforming a plot-related target can result in broken or failed quest conditions and scripts", which would surely be much clearer? -- Haravikk (talk) 08:08, 9 February 2018 (UTC)

Testing the Wabbajack (2021)Edit

I did some testing of the Wabbajack fighting Giants and Mammoths.

On NOVICE setting,

   When the Wabbajack dealt damage, it usually did around 66 damage, but 1/3 of the time did about 115.

On ADEPT

    When the Wabbajack dealt damage, it usually did around 63 damage, but 1/3 of the time did about 88.

On LEGENDARY

    When the Wabbajack dealt damage, it usually did around 61. No variation seen in my small sample.

PLAYER LEVEL 4 and 21 made no difference.

Destruction Skill of level 37 and 99 made no difference to the damage, but did make a small difference in how many charges could be used. Maybe 30% difference.

When the enemy was turned into a rabbit, crab or chicken, blasting the animal did no damage, but did turn the non-aggressive animal back into the original hostile enemy. Leaving the rabbit, crab or chicken in peace usually caused the original enemy to reappear at his previously damaged state after several seconds. If he ran away and is left in peace, he can return to non-hostile state if far enough away.

When the enemy was invisible, quickly blasting him usually did massive damage, around 5-8 X normal, but not always.

It seemed like the transformation effect was more common on Novice level, but can't say for sure.

Transformation to sweetroll occurred once in roughly 100 blasts. It DOES affect mammoths. Transformation to gold did not happen.

Transformation to Dremora (various types): at least once, the dremora started attacking another mammoth instead of me, at least until I blasted him again (dumb move).

Conclusion: the Wabbajack is a high-damage-output staff with a very small chance of instant-kill. If used by a level 4 player to attack mammoths, skilled kiting is required as you will probably need to blast the beast more than a dozen times. The transformation to animal can be useful when fighting multiple enemies or if you need time to heal/rebuff/run away.

Wabbajack immunityEdit

The Ebony Warrior and Karstaag seem to be immune to the Wabbajack (or only it's Transmogrify effect?). Are there any more NCP's who are immune, like Miraak maybe? Once this question is answered by someone who checked the game files (I don't know how to do that, no lazy or anything ;) ), it might be worth adding that info to the article. 194.49.52.254 17:17, 28 March 2022 (UTC)