I was obviously pretty puzzled not to have lockpicking spells in Skyrim.

Then today, I decided to blast the wolf in White River Overwatch through the gate.

My apprentice lightning spell appeared to blast the door open.

Which I thought was pretty damn awesome. Wouldn't it be cool if they implemented this for chests as well?

I had hoped that they would include bashing chests as well. Well they took out enough other stuff. ..

Yeah, I'm a little bit ticked off about no open lock spells. In Morrowind and Oblivion you could just wave your hand over a lock to open it...if you were good enough. Y'know, open locks like a Mage would do it. Instead they force my mage to open locks like a Thief would. Forcing roleplaying in a direction the previous 2 games didn't. I honestly can't remember how locks were handled in Daggerfall. It's been about 15 years i think? I only played it once. Never played Arena.

But at least it's the same mini-game from Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas. It's pretty fun.

Anyway, I finally decided I could cast some flashy spell, then hit the ~ , select the door and type "unlock", and it has the same effect. I just don't do it, if my Alteration skill wouldn't be high enough for the lock level yet.

You are not forced to open locks.

Also peeved about the lockpick spells being gone.

You know that since we are forced to learn lockpick, those of us who use alteration are gaining levels we wouldn't have to if those spells were back in. That irked me when I thought about it. I got a mod for the lock spells in alteration, it is on the workshop.

Also my highly esteemed mage is forced to swim, instead of using his ridiculously high alteration to keep himself dry.

You are guided in the direction of doing so if you want to loot 60% of the chests/rooms in the game.

Dumb comment +1.

In Daggerfall you could try to pick a lock with your security skill (high fail rate and scarcity of lock made it hard to raise), use open or a custom spell, and if all else failed bash the door. I don't recall any locked chests.

at least water breathing spell is around.

Actually you are. There a some quests you have you unlock a door and there is no key, not every quest but there are a few. Most magic schools are lite to say the least. Restoration was a fav of mine in Oblivion but most of the good spells are gone. Absorb Health to name one, I loved that spell but I ain't becoming a vampire to use it.

I recommend Leazer's Open Lock. A must have.

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=9218

That's my pet peeve as well. It totally ruins roleplay when my dignified mage has to do things the 'manual' way, like some lowly thief.

Oi, I take offense to that.

Without underwater combat it's just about useless. Should've just removed that one as well.

Unlock spell or lock bashing would make the lockpicking tree even more redundant than it already is, so it'll never happen. But you have 2 options open to you: use that stone which can automatically open an expert lock once per day, or command a companion to pick the lock.

Lockpicking should have more perks like 'Treasure Hunter.' Give me more loot.

I have little trouble with locks and never take any perks but it would be nice to be able to pop the padlocks off chests and that kind of thing. I'm carrying a pickaxe among other tools that would easily remove a padlock. Now a big ol Dwemer door would be a different thing entirely.

Unlock spell was previously (IIRC) under the alteration skill, so no, I don't believe it would be redundant. It would however, give mages an alternative to unlocking chests. My mage is constantly called a thief, and to not go fiddling with any locks around here...yet she's never stolen anything that didn't belong to someone who didn't attack her first. My mage has no interest in using the lockpicking skill, yet is forced to do so because of a poor design decision on the part of Bethesda. redundant spell? Not hardly.

You misread my post. I said that lock spells and lock bashing would make the lockpicking tree even more redundant.

No I didn't, I read it just fine.

I never said an unlock spell would be redundant. Obviously, the more options the better. What I said is that having a single spell do the job of a whole skill tree would make said tree even more useless.

Yes, but that is not true.
Its better to have several paths to a goal than just one.
Not being able to use open spells forces my mage to use lockpicks.
Conversely, having open spells and lockpicks does not force a thief to put down his picks.

Best system to date was in Daggerfall, where rogues used their lockpicking skill, mages had open spells and warriors could bash a lock.
One path for each archetype, and nothing was 'redundant'. (Whatever that means in a single player RPG.)

Actually, you did. Lockpicking spell was not under the lockpicking skill, it was under alteration. Different skill altogether.

No, I am forced to leave loot if I don't want the lockpicking skill raising my character's level.

A mage should be using and raising magic skills to open locks, not thief skills.