Im gonna play as an Argonian with marksman, destruction, alteration, sneak, lockpick, illusion, restoration and maybe little bit one handed. Should i use light armor or just robes? Robes would regenerate magicka more quickly but will i be too weak? And there would probably be more light armor than robes. Any tips? Also if i wear robes is it just hood and the robe? Or will i be able to wear like bracelets or something? Thanks!

Edit: Im gonna mostly use magic.

If it were me I'd go with light armor. Robes are good for pure mages.

Well, look at the perks, alteration gives you:
4 x Effectivness on armour spells when not wearing armour.
Lengthen the spell so you don't have to cast it as often.
20% magic resist.
30% spell absorb.

Light Armour gives you:
150% more of the original armour.
50% faster stamina regen.
10% chance to dodge a melee blow.

Take your pick, the light armour tree gives you a perk to move as robes so i didn't include it here.


OB had a lot of different shoes that were pure cloth, i don't see the reason they won't come back in Skyrim.

What makes robes better than plate?


Assuming you are not looking for a swift mage, some armor, at least light armor, seems the best thing.

Robes don't give much protection so you might as well run around naked if you want speed and extra stamina

Better enchants and a mana regen bonus.

Well by "robes" I assume you mean practicing alteration?
Alteration is really only viable and intended for heavily ranged focused characters with a large emphasis on magic. The alteration "mage armor" lets you retain all of your magical prowess while still providing you with defense. It's not meant for melee at all though it's really a last ditch just INCASE you get into melee.

If you are going to go with alteration I would suggest you practice a few schools of magic so you can distract enemies or evade them in some way so you can keep your distance and focus on your ranged method of choice.

If you practice alteration you will not be too weak. Especially since it seems like you are going to be somewhat of a mage. There are even perks that buff alteration protection only if you aren't wearing any armor. That plus the added effectivity and magic regain of not wearing armor should allow you to kill things pretty quickly.

With the alteration rout though I imagine you will be leveling destruction a lot at first due to its damage potential until you become somewhat proficiant in illusion so you can turn invisible or charm.

Liked being in the Dark Brotherhood robes with bow in hands, and quiver on the back. ^^
Looked intensely badass.

EDIT: In Oblivion, that is.

Well alteration in this game is really a god send if you plan on focusing on your magic career. Not only are there perks that only work if you aren't wearing any armor (magic based perks) but the fact that you aren't wearing any armor gives you a boost to your magic regain (which is all important if you plan on using destruction as your primary means of killing stuff). Robes DO give you protection (again assuming we are using alteration) with spells like oak skin.

The protection actually gets really good surprisingly. Some of my calculations from the spells I know exist make it more powerful than light armor and almost as powerful as heavy. This is without taking any light armor perks or heavy armor perks though.

The defense is really good for someone who shouldn't be in melee anyways.

This is definitely contrasting from other games though. It is actually viable and recommended to go with alteration here if you are focusing on magic. Your life will actually be MORE difficult otherwise, waiting around for your magic bar to regenerate and not doing as much damage etc.

I tend to disagree with you completely. In OB Armour spells were the easiest ways to get insane armor, and shock shield, fire shield and frost shield were cheap ways to get armor and resistances. Alteration is THE protection school of magic really.

Furthermore, it just looks damn cool. I myself was also wondering in between robes and light armour but i went robes, simply because i never did in OB. It was flipping annoying to go robes since i couldn't get the greave slot, but now they are merged and no one feels bad about it :flameshield: