Oblivion Soul Gem question

ok, So I have multiple soul gems, of various capacity and strength in my inventory, so how do I know where the soul of a trapped creature goes when I kill it? can they only go to empty gems? If I had a greater soul gem at petty level, I can't do anything to upgrade it? What if the only empty gem is a black soul gem and I kill a rat with it soul trapped, will the black soul gem then be stuck at the petty level?

sorry if this is worded badly, just ask and I can try and explain it again.

Souls go into the smallest empty soul gem you have. Soul gems cannot be upgraded with more or bigger souls. You'll know what level is currently occupying a particular gem by putting the cursor over it and examining the info bar the appear to the right. Check out http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Soul_Gem#Soul_Gems for more info.

The souldgem system in morrowind and oblivion are horrible, play daggerfall if you want worthwhile enchants.

Chaoticon said:

The souldgem system in morrowind and oblivion are horrible, play daggerfall if you want worthwhile enchants.

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how does that help him

When you kill a creature that you cast soul trap or whatever its called on their soul is bound to your smallest empty gem that fits them (size is based off difficulty: rats would be petty and daedra would be greater). You can do a side quest for a refillable soulgem but taht is a different story.

Everyone's right so far (except for the guy flaming Oblivion), but there's one other things you should know:

Black soul gems have the most capacity of any soul gem in the game- they are the only soul gems that can capture the soul of of any of the playable races (elves, orcs, redguard, nord, etc) Their souls are the most powerful and are what should be used to make the best enchantments.

CreganTur said:

Everyone's right so far (except for the guy flaming Oblivion), but there's one other things you should know:

Black soul gems have the most capacity of any soul gem in the game- they are the only soul gems that can capture the soul of of any of the playable races (elves, orcs, redguard, nord, etc) Their souls are the most powerful and are what should be used to make the best enchantments.

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Sadly this is only partly correct. A black soul gem has the same capacity as a grand soul gem. They both can hold up to a grand soul, which is the biggest in the game. An NPC soul would count as a Grand Soul, which is the same as say a Xivilai.