i don't understand it. I use mostly Destruction and occasionally conjuration and alteration. It's either that or my Bow. If those fail I use a sword, what class type would that be under?

Your class is usually defined before you start your character, danger of not doing so leads into your being a jack of all trades.

So battle Mage might use:

Heavy Armour, Smithing, destruction, conjuration and enchanting.

Board and sword:

Heavy armour, Block, one handed, smithing

If your RP your sword and board character he shouldn't really have a bow on him.

There is no direct class designation in Skyrim like in some other games. In the books you find in the game there are references to battlemages. Or when you fight mages in game, there are fire mages, ice mages, shock mages, etc. People with history with other games or have other RPG knowledge seem to use class designation more.

The character you are playing sounds like a mage. A well rounded ordinary mage.

Do you wear armor?

Found the internal class designation for mages for NPCs here: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Classes

Conjurer
Destruction Mage
Fire/Frost/Shock Mage
Sorcerer
Spellsword

And if you are into the entire roleplaying aspects of the game, how you handle combat in real time. If you fling spells until the enemy is close, then use your sword... you would be either a spellsword or battlemage. And yes, I would give the Wiki a good read of all the classes if you are unsure.

It doesn't have to be so cut and dry either. You could have an mage using a bow and add enchants on it to make it seem like he shoots magic rather than via hand. There are a lot of possibilites. I would recommend play what is fun

In TES, I usually go by Morrowind classes. There's a wide range of skills and most of them is nicely arranged.

In Morrowind, you'd be closest to a battlemage. The three magic schools you mentioned were their major skills, while long blade and bow were minor. However, battlemages almost always wear armor.
Alternatively, as Abacus said, you could just be a mage. Traditionally, they carry a dagger or a short sword as a backup weapon. Only the bow doesn't fit in so well.

The thing is, Skyrim has no such thing as classes. You can mix skills in every way you want, that's why it's so difficult to define which "traditional class" your character is.

Here's a page on the classes from Oblivion: http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Classes_(Oblivion)

While Skyrim doesn't have "classes", many people refer to the classes from previous games to help describe or define their character and build.

There aren't pre-defined "classes" in Skyrim, as others have said. But, you can build a thief, or a warrior, or a mage, or a ranger, depending on the skills you selct, and your play style. A thief would specialize in stealth skills, mage in magic, warrior in combat. The ranger would be a type of warrior who depends on archery primarily, then in close combat switches to sword or mace or whatever you're happy with. The straight up warrior would be more melee oriented, the thief would use sneak attacks and probably archery (and poisons), and the mage would probably not use swords at all. Hybrids are possible, of course, such as the spellsword, or the thief who is really good at stealth, but likes magic too, etc.

It's one of the things I like most about Skyrim, I'm free to be whatever I want to be. Of course, being a merchant is really difficult, but can be fun to make a run at.

Sounds like Witchhunter to me

I agree.

To give my answer to the title: We know what classes we play because we chose to make characters that have the same playstyle as the classes we made/chose in previous titles were most suited for or if we base our skill selection on that class.

OR we made a new class and named it accordingly. Like the Trickster is called that because: You just mess with people

There are hardly classes anymore in Skyrim...and many people just plays the way they want to play.

For example, my favourite playstyle is a warrior with Heavy Armor, 1h + shield, who relies* on teleportation (Alteration) to get close to his enemies, and Restoration to heal himself and his buddies. Which class is him, then?


*but not limited to.

Spell Sword Variation or Battlemage

I've always figured Battlemages to use Destruction spells, so it's not the case here...I'd have to take he's a kind of Spellsword (or an Alteration specialist, as he can also shrink and crush enemies, trap them into a stone prison, manipulate containers remotely, etc).

If the Mysticism school was still there, I'd call him a "Mystic Warrior". Shame it isn't present anymore

Sounds like somehting akin ot a Paladin or Spellsword if you ask me.

A mix of Paladin and Spellsword would be, even more having in mind I plan to add and use a ton more of Restoration spells in the final version of my build (I had only Healing spells so far). But that's my point...you cannot know (in some cases, at least) which class you have anymore...