What are good locations near Riverwood or Whiterun that are likely to have enchanted items or spell books? They are too expensive to buy.

Step 1 - Find literally any location that is not a town or hold.

Step 2 - Destroy all creatures inside (living or dead)

Step 3 - Loot conveniently unlocked, large chest near the toughest guy in the area.

Step 4 - Profit

Seriously, you'll find enchanted stuff pretty much everywhere. Tough enemies, chests, just lying around. They aren't difficult to find. Just wander a bit. Spell books are less likely but if you find a group of mages you might get lucky. If not just make enchanted items and sell them, sell gems, sell junk. You'll quickly make enough money to get whatever spell you need. If you start alchemy you'll make just a [censored]ton of money easily. At level 100 alch I can level a skill from 15-100 just by raiding a few giant camps and tombs and catching some butterflies and making a few potions.

halted stream camp north of whiterun. transmute spell

embershard mine near riverrun. couple of low level spellbooks.

fort amol east of whiterun: bound bow spell.

if you are going to focus on magic in early game, go to the college. their quests have higher concentration of spellbooks and useful enchanted items for mages.

best not to focus on enchanting in early game. do it passively and collect useful materials. maybe do it starting level 20.

You can also chop an infinite amount of wood. Chop as much as you need to buy what you want. It's boring, but it works.

In Oblivion places like Necromancer dens seemed to have more magical loot. I was hoping in Skyrim that specific types of enemies would in general also have more. Oh well, I'll go look for a not very large dungeon with a boss at the end.

In Skyrim you get more magical loot in mage dens, too.

Enchanting: One thing to remember is that you learn the nature of an enchantment when you disenchant, not its level. You can disenchant a cheap low-level item and then enchant a better one (with enough skill, fortify potions etc. plus a decent soul gem). So not being able to find an item with the enchantment you want isn't so much of an issue; as long as you can find a lesser version, you can make it. However, early on, you might not be able to make an item that matches the one you disenchanted, because you can't find the filled gems, and don't have much skill. Since you get experience for recharging, it can be useful to hold on to enchanted weapons and use them, using up petty soul gems you find, until they stop being useful as weapons. Then disenchanting should let you make a better one, because you built up your skill by then.

Spellbooks you find may teach you a spell you don't have enough magicka to cast. That one in Fort Amol is an Adept spell that costs 207 to cast. You'll need the Adept perk, at least, to use it. So finding it is only half the work. There are a few spells you can use just for practice, without having to cause or heal damage. Those help build your skills, and the levels gained will give you access to more magicka.

Near Riverwood, not sure, but Dwemer ruins usually have a high concentration of enchanted loot in the chests.

I always try to go to Ironbind Barrow asap (usually after talking to Balgruf after the Western Watchtower dragon attack) to get the Fiery Soul Trap enchanted steel battleaxe. Then of course you can disenchant it if you choose to, I usually wait to get the ebony greatsword/battleaxe/warhammer from the Draugr Deathlord in Labyrinthian.

err, how bad it looks if I mention the merchant "hidden" chest from dawnstar?


I always get enchanted stuff there and disenchant on Jarl's nearby palace on game start

If you're going that route, there are chests in Markarth and Solitude, too.

oh boy, I'm so looking for them now (shame on me )

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