Besides perks, what other permanent abilities can I get?

Question

In another question, it was mentioned there were other permanent abilities besides perks.

What are they, and where can they be found?

Answer

There are a number of different permanent abilities besides the normal perks that you can get:

Guardian stones

There are the 13 guardian stones, found at locations throughout the world:

• Warrior: Combat skills increase 20% faster
• Thief: Stealth skills increase 20% faster
• Mage: Magic skills improve 20% faster
• Lover: All skills improve 15% faster
• Apprentice: 2x magicka regeneration, twice as vulnerable to magic
• Atronach: +50 magicka, 50% magic absorb, -50% magicka regeneration
• Lady: +25% health and stamina regeneration
• Lord: +50 damage resist, 25% magic resist
• Ritual: All dead things around you become undead and fight for you
• Serpent: Attacks have a chance to paralyze targets for 5 seconds and 25 damage
• Shadow: 60 second invisibility power
• Steed: +100 weight capacity, no movement penalty from armor
• Tower: You can unlock one expert-level or lower locked door/chest per day without lockpicks

These are mutually exclusive: you can only have one active at any time.

Quest-related "perks"

There are a few permanent abilities you get as a result of completing various side quests:

• Ancient Knowledge (+25% Armor if wearing all Dwarven armor, smithing skill increases 15% faster) received for completing Unfathomable Depths
• Sailor’s Repose (10% more health from healing spells) for completing What Lies Beneath
• Sinderion’s Serendipity (25% chance of creating an extra potion during alchemy) for completing A Return to Your Roots in Blackreach

Guild "perks"

These are received while completing quests for each of the "guilds" or organizations in the world:

• Archmage's Authority (Better prices from members of the College) for completing the final College of Winterhold quest, The Eye of Magnus
• Assassin's Aegis (+25% Armor if wearing all Dark Brotherhood Armor) for completing the Dark Brotherhood quest, Sanctuary
• Dragon Infusion (25% less melee damage from Dragons) for completing the Blades quest, Dragon Research
• Prowler’s Profit (chance of finding additional gems in chests) for completing the Thieves' Guild quest, No Stone Unturned
• Nightingale’s Aegis (+25% armor if wearing all Nightingale set pieces) for completing the Thieves' Guild quest, Trinity Restored
• Gift of the Gab (speech skill increases 15% faster) for completing the Bards College quest, Tending the Flames

Blessings

While all the Divines have temporary blessings you can get for visiting their shrines, Dibella and Mara have quests that allow you to get a permanent blessing from them. These may or may not be mutually exclusive (still need to test this):

• Agent of Mara (+15% Resist Magic) received for completing The Book of Love
• Agent of Dibella (+10% melee damage to the opposite sex) received for completing The Heart of Dibella

Meditations

After completing the initial Greybeards quests that are part of the main storyline, you can speak to Paarthurnax who will give you one of three meditations:

• The Fire Within: the Fire Breath shout does 25% more damage
• Force Without Effort: You stagger 25% less while enemies stagger 25% more
• Eternal Spirit: +25% health regeneration while ethereal

You can only have one meditation active at any given time, but you can switch at any time by speaking to Paarthurnax again.

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