Standing Stones

This page of our Skyrim Wiki guide lists the locations and effects of all of the Standing Stones hidden in the realm of Skyrim.

Skyrim Standing Stones Overview

Standing stones are the Skyrim equivalent to Morrowind and Oblivion's "Birthsign" specialization. However, unlike the Birthsigns, you can swap out your standing stone bonus at any point, just find another standing stone and activate it. Like the birthsigns, the standing stone can do things as simple as giving you a new spell to cast daily (e.g. The Serpent Stone) to making a major change on how your character plays (e.g. The Atronach Stone).

The first stones you find will probably be the warrior/mage/thief stones as they are just a quick jog out of Helgen. These give a 20% bonus to how quickly you level up skills in one of the 3 archetypes, so make sure to drop by and choose one to start leveling. Once you feel sufficient in your archetype, feel free to hunt down the rest of the stones.

List of Standing Stones and Where to Find Them

Click on the stone name for further information about a Standing Stone or find their exactlocations below.

Stone	Effects	Location
The Thief Stone	The Thief standing stone grants you the ability learn Stealth skills 20% faster	Just off the path to the left on the way from Helgen to Riverwood
The Mage Stone	The Mage standing stone grants the ability to learn Magic skills 20% faster.	Just off the path to the left on the way from Helgen to Riverwood
The Warrior Stone	The Warrior standing stone grants the ability to learn Combat skills 20% faster.	Just off the path to the left on the way from Helgen to Riverwood
The Ritual Stone	This allows you to re-animate all dead to fight for you once a day.	East of Whiterun
The Atronach Stone	It grants you +50 Magicka and allows you to absorb 50% spells damage, though you recover Magicka 50% slower.	In the Hot Spring Area South of Bonestrewn Crest
The Shadow Stone	It allows you be invisible once a day for 60 seconds.	Directly South of Riften
The Steed Stone	Gives no speed loss from wearing armor and gives you +100 carry weight.	Northwest of Solitude right next to Ironback's Hideout
The Lady Stone	Permanently regenerate health and stamina 25% faster.	Far North of Falkreath and just South of Ilinalta's Deep
The Apprentice Stone	This stone helps you recover Magicka 100% faster but makes you 100% weaker to it.	Northwest of Morthal and North of Fort Snowhawk
The Tower Stone	Enables you to unlock any expert or lower locks automatically once per day.	West of Winterhold and along the North Coast
The Lover Stone	This stone helps you to learn all skills 15% faster.	East of Markarth and West of Blind Cliff Cave
The Serpent Stone	This stone allows you to use a 5 second paralysis spell that also does 25 damage once per day.	East, northeast of Winterhold
The Lord Stone	Provides 50 points of damage resistance and 25% magic resistance.	On top of the mountain to the east of Morthal and to the South, southwest of Dawnstar.

Glitch: The achievement for finding all 13 standings stones can be achieved without finding every stone. Simply fast travel to a stone you've discovered and your stats in the start menu will read that you've found other Standing Stone. I have supposedly found 17 Standing Stone.