Among various playstyles players try out in Skyrim, the Conjuration playstyle in particular, focuses a lot on necromancy and the use of Daedric summonings.
The summonings are not just limited to Daedric entities, but you can go further and summon weapons out of thin air.
Some spells even have utility purposes, such as the Soul Trap spell for filling Soul Gems or the Arvak spell for summoning a convenient horse anytime, anywhere.
With the plethora of available options, it can be a bit difficult to choose worthwhile conjuration spells.
To help you avoid such mishaps, we’ve gone through all the conjuration spells, tested their usefulness in combat and visual appeal, and handpicked only the best out of the bunch in the list below.
Let’s start.
Conjure Flame Thrall
This is a Master-level conjuration spell that summons a Flame Thrall. This iconic spell is essentially a permanent and much stronger version of the Flame Atronach.
This is one of the best-looking summon in the base game. This thrall has a celestial appearance with its flame-engulfed body and the subtle metallic frame resembling humanoid characteristics.
Damage-wise, the Flame Thrall isn’t the best. There are basically two move-set of the Flame Thrall, i.e., Firebolt and Flames and these deal only decent damage to all enemy types.
So, rather than using the Flame Thrall to fight enemies, this summon is best suited for when you need some form of support from a distance.
You can get this spell after completing the Conjuration Ritual Spell quest for Phinis Gestor. You can also get the spell while venturing through the Apocrypha realm in Black Book: The Sallow Regent.
Note: You can make the spells stronger by investing in the Conjuration skill tree, so use your skill points wisely and do not waste it in the wrong perks.
Conjure Frost Thrall
On the opposite end of the best-looking conjuration summons, we have the Frost Thrall. While this summon lacks visual appeal, it excels at survivability and face-tanking capabilities.
The Frost Thrall summons has nearly double the health points of the Flame Thrall. This can come in handy when you want to divert the enemy’s agro away from you.
Unlike the Flame Thrall, this summon focuses more on getting close to the enemies and dealing melee damage.
Since this is a Master-level Conjuration spell, you can only buy this spell after completing the Conjuration Ritual Spell quest for Phinis Gestor.
Conjure Storm Thrall
The Storm Thrall is the perfect balance between the two aforementioned summons. It boasts decent damage-dealing capabilities with a respectable pool of health points.
Usually, the Storm Thrall remains far from the battlefield and assists by shooting Thunderbolts at enemies.
When enemies do manage to get too close to the Thrall, it will switch its attack pattern and will instead start dealing melee damage and an AOE explosion attack. This makes it the perfect summon for any play style.
Like the aforementioned conjuration spell, this Master-level spell can only be obtained from Phinis Gester after completing the Conjuration Ritual Spell questline.
Conjure Wrathman
Wrathmen are the great undead warriors residing in the land of Soul Cairn. Visually, they resemble Draugrs with the Ancient Nord armor.
Wrathman is also the only summon with the highest health point out of all the summons in the base game. This makes them best suited for those players who wish to have a good melee class warrior fighting by their side.
Furthermore, they also wield one of the best types of weapons in the game. I.e., Dragonbone heavy weapons.
You’ll need to install the Dawnguard DLC expansion to get this Expert-level conjuration spell. Then you can find the Spell Tome while venturing into Soul Cairn.
Note: You can even get the Twin Souls perk from the Conjuration skill tree to summon two Wrathmen and watch how they mow down enemies.
Conjure Dremora Lord
Like Wrathman, the Dremora Lord summon is also among the most powerful summons in the game.
The Dremora Lord summons is equipped with the Daedric armor and wields the Daedric greatsword, which is the best item in their class.
However, the Dremora Lord is kind of like a glass cannon which emphasizes heavily on melee-based combat.
They can deal a substantial amount of damage to enemies but, at the same time, are very weak against all types of attacks.
So, this summon is best used alongside your player character rather than using them to divert enemies’ attention.
To get this Expert-level conjuration spell, you must seek the Conjuration specialist mage Phinis Gestor at the College of Winterhold.
Summon Arniel’s Shade
Arniel’s Shade is by far the most useful summon conjuration spell that the game has to offer. Casting this spell summons the ghostly form of Arniel Gane for 60 seconds.
As the summon is already in the ethereal form, it also makes him immune to all sorts of damage. This makes him the perfect distraction for enemies.
Unlike the Dremora and Wrathman summons, Arniel favors the ranged attack type. He uses the lightning spells in particular, which is also one of the most powerful destruction magic in the game.
But the most useful perk of this conjuration spell is the casting cost. Summoning Arniel’s Shade cost 0 Magicka in total. So essentially, you can use this conjuration spell at any time, anywhere.
To get your hands on this conjuration spell, you must complete Arniel’s Endeavor questline in the College of Winterhold. Then, you’ll get this spell as the quest completion reward.
Bound Weapons
Moving on to the next type of conjuration spells, the Bound Weapons. There are five different types of Bound Weapons, i.e., Dagger, Sword, Battleaxe, Bow, and Quiver.
We’ve put them all in a single category as these weapons are more of a personal preference. While these weapons are equally strong, some players may prefer the one-handed sword, whereas others may prefer the bow.
The damage rating on these bound weapons is similar to base variants of Daedric counterparts. But what really makes these bound weapons worthwhile are their convenience and utility.
Since you can summon these weapons out of thin air, you don’t have to worry about weapons carrying weight.
Furthermore, getting the Soul Stealer perk from the Conjuration skill tree will ensure that every kill you get with your bound weapon will fill a soul gem.
Not only that, but the Oblivion Binding perk will also let you banish Daedra to oblivion and make the Undeads flee from terror.
Depending on the level of the Bound weapons, you can get them from court wizards, wizard merchants, or specialist mages in the College of Winterhold.
Soul Trap
The next most useful conjuration spell is the Soul Trap spell. If you’re a fan of enchanted gear, then you know how important filled soul gems really are.
They’re needed to enchant new gears or even recharge depleted ones.
The easiest way to fill a Soul Gem is by casting the Soul Trap spell on an enemy before finishing them off. So, having the Soul Trap spell at your disposal is quite essential.
You can get the Soul Trap spell very early in the game from court wizards like Farengar, Calcelmo, or any other wizard merchants in the game.
Summon Arvak
Unlike other Daedric summons that we’ve mentioned previously, Arvak does not provide reliable support during combat. Rather it is just an undead horse that you can mount on and traverse the lands of Skyrim.
This summon can be very useful if you don’t have enough gold coins to get yourself a new horse or if you’ve lost your previous one.
And since the horse is an undead creature, you can always summon it again if it gets killed in combat or if it is lost in the wilderness.
You’ll need to get the Dawnguard DLC expansion to get this conjuration spell.
Then, venture into the Soul Cairn and find Arvak’s skull. Once you’ve retrieved his skull, the horse’s owner will give you Arvak’s summoning spell.
Dead Thrall
Dead Thrall is the Master-level spell which is also the best version among all reanimation spells in the game. Casting this spell on a dead body will bring them back to life and make them your minion permanently.
The one feature that sets this spell apart from the rest of reanimation spells is the reusability of corpses.
All other reanimation spells are single-use. Meaning once the spell time is up or your minions are killed during combat, they will crumble into purple ashes.
However, if you’ve raised the dead using the Dead Thrall spell, they will not turn into ashes, thus allowing you to revive them multiple times.
Furthermore, you can give your minion powerful weapons and enchant their existing armor to make them even stronger.
The reanimation spell is not just limited to generic NPCs, you can even bring Daedra, Followers, and unique NPCs like Orchendor back to life and make them your permanent minion.
In order to get this powerful spell, you must level up your Conjuration to level 90+. Then complete the Conjuration Ritual Spell questline for Phinis Gestor. After that, you can buy the Spell Tome: Dead Thrall from him.
Note: The reanimation spell will not work on decapitated enemies.
An Honorable Mention – Banish Daedra
This is one of the very situational spells. Banish Daedra is an Adept-level spell that lets you send the Daedric summoning of your enemies back to Oblivion.
Conjurer enemies are notorious for summoning Atronachs and Thralls. And if you’re fighting multiple conjurers at once, then you can be easily outnumbered by these summoning.
This is where the conjuration spell: Banish Daedra comes in very useful. You can simply cast this spell on the enemy’s summoning to instantly remove them from the battlefield.
You can get the Spell Tome for Banish Daedra in a chest at the Broken Oar Grotto or you can buy the Spell Tome from court wizards like Farengar or mage merchants like Phinis Gestor.
