So does the Tower only work on doors or something or does it work on chest also? And if it works on both, why do we care about spells that do it? Maybe its the Warrior build talking.

maybe the only spell u can pick is the star sigh the tower? or is there no longer star signs?

You do know that in order for the mage to be as good as a "maxed out skill", the mage has to max out Alteration as well?

Or is that fact just being totally neglected?

Pros of Alteration: you just need a spell
Pros of lockpick: you can attempt to unlock ANY lock, not just limited to the level of lock your Alteration skill goes up to.

I find it hard to believe that Beth would do away with the Open Lock Spells.
For one if it was gone I'm certain that we would able to hear the screams of rage from the few that have the game though unmentioned means.

Since I haven't heard anything of the sort I'll stick to believing that the spells are in. Ether way we find out in less than 2 days.

i wouldnt be surprised if when u join the mages guild u get this spell
also books sometimes give u spells

The other command skills would be in illusion wouldn't they?

I guess when you character dies you restart the game then huh, I mean loading is cheating

Honestly everyone can play how they want.

me my character is good at lockpicking and I hate, i mean HATE, minigames so open debug console type unlock and continue playing.
if my character is a mage i use my spell and if im a warrior i skip locked items.

wouldnt transmute be able to open locks?

It would be odd if they took it out, but can't I open master locks at any skill level like in oblivion, albeit just more difficult since I don't have the perk to make it easier to open. I just hope its not like fallout 3 where you have to have a certain skill level to attempt it.

u can attempt any lock no matter of the difficulty

it is just a hell of a lot harder if u dont have high skills in lockpicking

as much as I hate to admit it... I agree. A full mage could do just about anything with little to no effort.

Time to hop on the wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhmbulance

Why would some command spells be in one school, and the others in another school?

And also, the Illusion perk tree only mentions Calm, Fear, and Frenzy, nothing about Command. I'm a bit hesitant.

In KOTOR, they had a bashing ability for those who were unskilled in opening locked containers/doors. I think you could simply bash the lock on a chest with your equipped weapon and depending on your skill you have a percentage chance of getting loot and a percentage chance of breaking all the crap in the chest and getting nothing (thats how KOTOR worked, either successful or items were broken). For example, lets say that Bash Lock works off of weapon skill, and that at weapon skill of 10, you have a 20% chance of successfully opening chest, meaning an 80% to break the items inside and get nothing. The percentage odds would adjust in favor of the player as their weapon skill increased, until at weapon skill 100, you would have a 70% chance of success, and 30% chance to destroy the items. This would give Warrior classes the opportunity to get some items locked away, while making it worthwile to those playing thiefs to have a master Lockpick skill so that they have a 100% chance of getting inside a locked chest. Please feel free to add or detract from this idea, but I really loved this aspect in KOTOR. (alos, should be noted, the % were just my personal thoughts on the fly, have no idea what the mechanics were in KOTOR, just saying that Bethesda could have created a system like this for Skyrim)

As a PC player, I could care less...

An open lock spell will be modded in within a week probably...

I suppose the problem with it in the Skyrim system is that there are no longer restrictions on spells asides from magicka. A way around it could be rather than open lock it was called 'bust lock' or something, which would be a constant use spell you keep using on lock until it breaks, your alteration skill/perks would then determine how much magicka it would take to bust it open. So trying to open a master lock with low alteration would require an insane amount of magicka (almost too much to be practical), but then a master alteration user could bust master locks with little effort.

I also like the bash ideas for more warrior focused character about having a chance to break loot depending on weapon skill. I also think by bashing stuff open like doors they create a lot of noise so attract any nearby enemies. This way although the three types do the same thing in the end (open locks) they all have different advantages and disadvantages to appeal to different types of characters.

Oh i hope this is true


Its beyond time for mages to get out of the stealing business and return some viability to thieves


Open Locks should go bye bye!

Not everyone is cheesy like that. I like to play with consequences. Oh I didn't break my pick. Reload. Oh I didn't punch that guy in the face. Reload. Oh you didn't see me steal that. Reload. Pretty soon all fun is lost when you reload any time the world doesn't work how you think it should. Might as well pop the console open and type unlock, save yourself the headache of loading.


It gets easier as you increase your skill the threshold is bigger. It's not that hard anyway. There is always the skeleton key.

Not true, if it's anything like Fallout 3, which presumably it is, you cannot attempt a lock unless you have the desired skill level.

And I'm so bloody sure that they're in the game, open lock spells have been confirmed three times. Where is this coming from?!

You can attempt locks at any level in Skyrim, saw a guy trying to open a master lock with with fairly low lockpicking skill. He got it in the end but broke a load of picks and took a fair bit of time.

If Bethesda want thieves to be more viable then they should add to Thief/Stealth gameplay, and not take away from Mage gameplay.

It never should have been a part of mage gameplay


Why did mages get everything that everyone else had?


Chameleon and invisibility = Sneak

Open Locks = lock pick

Isnt it enough you can conjure weightless weapons, conjure pets, throw fireballs, breath under water, teleport, and heal yourself?

Then by that logic why should we get weapons, armour spells and ranged attacks? Surely that just takes away from warrior gameplay.... Maybe they should just scrap magicka altogether since duplicating gameplay mechanics of the other classes is just so unfair

The problem is lack of alternatives which, in a RPG, is always a sign of bad, limited design.

BTW, I think the "open lock" spell was too lame and I'm not sad that it's gone but other characters should be able to open low level locks in other ways

Bring back the bash lock option... this way a warrior can open them with a few hits or a mage can throw destruction spells at them

Only high level locks or particularly strong doors should be in the exclusive realm of thievery thus making lockpicking a viable and useful skill

Well, if that is true (and i think it's a pretty big "if") it's the good old "unlock" command until someone mods them back in. Along with every other unnecessary removal