Strange monoliths can be found throughout Skyrim’s landscape that grants you powers or boosts your abilities. They are called the Standing Stones and they act in the same fashion as Oblivion’s birth signs, but with a few crucial differences.

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There are a total of thirteen Standing Stones spread out across the province, each one granting you a different blessing. Unlike the fixed nature of birth signs, you can change your Standing Stone blessing as much as you want. These stones are designed to help you in various ways and can help strengthen your play type, but you must choose carefully since you can only have one stone’s blessing at a time.

11 The Guardian Stones

Huddled together alongside the road to Riverwood, the Guardian Stones consist of three different stones which grant a boost in increasing skills. Each stone grants you a 20 percent faster skills increase. The boosted skills are determined by which stone you choose.

The Mage Stone gives you a faster boost in magic skills, the Thief Stone lets you learn stealth skills faster. And the Warrior Stone lets you learn all combat skills a little bit faster.

• These stones are relatively easy to find since you pass them after escaping from Helgen. You can follow either Ralof or Hadvar down the road to Riverwood and they will lead you to the stones.

10 The Ritual Stone

Necromancers of all stripes want to receive the blessing of the Ritual Stone. With this stone’s blessing, you can reanimate all corpses within a large radius of where you are standing. The corpses will fight with you for 200 seconds.

You can only use this ability once a day and only corpses under level 75 will be reanimated. The Ritual Stone is located near Whiterun in the East.

• It can be found east of Whiterun beside the road to Windhelm before you reach Valtheim Towers. A necromancer and two skeletons guard the stone.

9 The Shadow Stone

With the Shadow Stone, you can become invisible without having to have a potion. The stone gives you the power to become invisible for 60 seconds at a time. You can only use this ability once a day.

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However, keep in mind that whenever you interact with an object, like a chest or a lock you will immediately become visible and your ability will be spent.

• The Shadow Stone can be found in the hills south of Riften. The stone sits atop a hill near Snow-Shod Farms and Nightingale Hall.

8 The Lover Stone

Leveling in Skyrim is based on the increase of skills. The Lover Stone allows you to increase all skills 15 % faster. This includes all skills and does not limit you like the Guardian Stones.

This stone makes playing a hybrid character even easier since all skills are affected by the bonus. However, the blessing cannot be stacked with other skill increases like Lover’s Comfort or the Well Rested bonus.

• Travel to Kolskeggr Mine in the Reach and the Lover Stone will be up a mountain which is directly east of Markarth.

7 The Atronach Stone

Designed for you to have magic as your primary weapon, this stone not only fortifies your Magika by 50 points, but also gives you 50 percent spell absorption. These benefits come at a cost because while this blessing is active your Magicka regeneration will be decreased by 50 percent.

Balancing magic use with the slowed regeneration rate is crucial when using the Atronach Stone.

• You can find the stone a short distance east of Darkwater crossing in Eastmarch. It is located in the volcanic tundra between Windhelm and Riften.

6 The Lady Stone

If you need a boost to your health and stamina regeneration, the Lady Stone has what you are looking for. Once you have accepted the blessing, your health and stamina regeneration is increased by 25 % for the duration you have this blessing active.

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The Lady Stone makes fighting harder enemies less challenging since you won’t have to keep as close of an eye on your bars.

• The Lady Stone sits on a small island surrounded by the west shore of Lake Illinata. Lake Illinata can be found west of Riverwood inside the hold of Falkreath.

5 The Lord Stone

You can boost your armor and your resistance to magic by accepting the blessing of The Lord Stone. When active, your armor rating is increased by 50 points and your resistance to magic is increased by 25 %.

The blessing can be stacked with other abilities or bonuses, like the Breton’s natural resistance to magic. However, this will be capped once you are 85 percent resistant to magic.

• You will find the Lord Sign in the hold of Hjaalmarch east of Morthal. It is on top of a mountain northeast of the shrine of Mehrunes Dagon.

4 The Apprentice Stone

Magicka regeneration rates can slow you down and make spell casting hard. But, with the Apprentice Stone, you can increase your Magicka regeneration by 100 percent making it possible to cast spell after spell.

However, while the Apprentice Stone is active you will take twice as much magic damage in every fight. Ward spells and enchanted items can help temporarily offset the effects.

• This stone makes its home in the hold of Hjaalmarch north of Fort Snowhawk. The stone lies in the southwestern part of the marshes.

3 The Serpent Stone

Paralyzing your opponent makes them easier to deal with and can help you out when a fight catches you off guard. The blessing of the Serpent Stone allows you to use a paralysis poison that will paralyze your foe for five seconds and deals 25 points of health damage.

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This ability is only available once a day and has to be applied to weapons to be used.

• Finding the Serpent Stone requires you to travel east of the College of Winterhold. The stone lies on a floating iceberg northeast of the Wreck of the Pride of Tel Vos.

2 The Tower Stone

Lockpicking can be hard, especially if you haven’t spent much time practicing the skill or investing in perks. But, the Tower Stone makes lockpicking a little easier.

Once a day, you can summon the power of the Tower stone to open a lock that is expert level or lower. This ability is useful if you find yourself thrown in jail a lot.

• The stone can be seen from the entrance of Hob's Fall Cave to the northwest on a cliff. It lies directly west of the College of Winterhold.

1 The Steed Stone

In Skyrim, there is a lot of good loot ripe for the taking. It can make you extremely wealthy, but it also makes it easy to surpass your carrying capacity. The Steed Stone is designed to let you carry even more loot around.

With this blessing, your carrying capacity is increased by 100 and your equipped armor automatically becomes weightless. This helps when you find yourself exploring Skyrim.

• If you have discovered the statue of Meridia in the province of Haafingar, the Steed Stone can be found directly north near Ironback Hideout.

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