Restoration spells and potions were the easiest way to restore health in Oblivion. It's not foolish to think that coming into Skyrim this would have been enhanced rather than dropped in favor of cover shooter game mechanics like auto health regen.

would you guys still use magic if it scaled at higher levels? Or do you find weapon combat more fun and visceral

The magic system needs spell making, that's all there is to it. You can scale to the end of the galaxy and it still won't compare to crafting your own spells, whether you are a beginner or Master level user.

how do you think spellmaking would work with how spells are in this game? You'd simply be able to create a stronger version of what you've currently got, due to how magic is in the game.

Flamethrower, aoe, fireball, firebolt - they all have different effects and arent simply "fire - on target". There are a bunch of different "ice - on target" and "lightning - on target" spells in skyrim. The spell creator would have to be oodles more complex than morrowind's or oblivion's.

A mod will be released for this so just wait. I don't think its a necessity though, and far too big an undertaking.

Basically, I don't blame bethesda for scrapping the spell maker. I do blame them for not including +spell damage gear

I will take me a while to get to the final levels of this game with my pure mage simply cuz im playing 3 difrent characters simultaneously;
so I am still very curious to hear how much lower in damage is a one handed - sigle target spell compared to a quick swing of a one handed best quality sword at 100 skill, and a dual casted (perked) spell vs a power attack of the same spell/sword

if for exemple the spell is like 10-20% stronger thn the weapon before gear, and after gear the weapon is 20-30% stronger than the spell, I can live with that, simply because spells give me abilities that melee dont have, like draining stamina and mana, aoe, traps, crowd control and the likes.


atm I cant stop playing either my sneak/bow sniper char, my sword and board warrior or my pure mage, find them all very unique in gameplay and fun, and this coming from a guy who usually gets anoyed of melee and sneakig around and always plays the caster types.


well the spell mechanics didnt change that much, spell crafting is still perfectly doable in skyrim but tbh, it was very overpowered in oblivion, but I digress...
the main feature of spell making was being able to tie and mix max effects of spells, for exemple making a very short debuff in your low dmg, low mana cost spell to couple with your medium or your heavy attacks, the weaker one debuffing gradually your target making it take more dmg while increasing your spell skill above 100 so you could instantly cast your heavy custom spell next at much lower mana cost while your target takes increased damage.
my favorite feature of any rpg I played by far, even if like said too overpowered when used right, I was ok with it being gone cuz frankly the dual cast system coupled with perks is awesome, and I was hoping for magicka debuff spells but so far only seen poisons :/
I really hope the final rank spells arnt as weak as some people are making it believe.

Cool, I haven't found that yet. Where can you craft spells in Skyrim?

lol no I ment that mechanicaly, the game didnt change much in how spells are programmed so they could make spellcrafting for skyrim if they wanted.
it is not in the game.

for exemple in Oblivion you had frost spells that did only that, frost damage, one of the early spells I would make was "frostbolt" that was something like>> x frost dmg + +25% vulnerability to frost + drain stamina on target x
for a complete anti melee nuke.
in Skyrim spells cant be handcrafted by they come with similiar traits, fire comes with vulnerability debuff, frost with stamina drain lightning with mana drain etc. wich the way I see it means mechanics are praticaly the same... so no reason why spell crafting isnt in if not for the devs choice to remove it :/

Man mages are ok, your damage is ok, you can paralise one guy, 2 atronach, trow stagger balls, make ppl flee, etc.

PPl just need see mages require more refined play style.

if you planned on relying on one skill the whole game, you're doing it wrong.

I am absolutely baffled by this mode of thinking. It seems pretty deep in the forums.

Here's the skinny: Bethesda didn't want someone to roll through the game using just one skill.
It's really kind of silly to think that it should even be viable.

It's a real shame you can't create spells like in the previous games. It gave csters flexibility and more playstyle choices... If they release this feature on a dlc i would gladly buy it....

In Morrowind the draining spells were all Destruction and the absorption spells were all Mysticism. So its not like doing everything from one magic school is a long standing foundation of TES.

I know everyone has their own preferences for characters and play styles, but this seems a strange reason to write off the whole magic system. Especially with perks you can make yourself the God Emperor of Restoration... but you need to borrow from other schools to do your damage. Alternatively, use a follower as your weapon and let your restoration awesomeness keep you both alive and well.

Sarcasm aside, did you even play Oblivion and Morrowind? The OP wasn't talking about anything special, he just wanted what other TES games already had. Since mage-centered players were expecting another TES game with improvements, not this. Granted, they added few more graphical/physical spell effects (like, aoe, firewall, channeling spells), and those were really needed after self/touch/ranged choice earlier on, but they removed even more spells from the game, and they removed spellcrafting. Just.... what for? Why can't I have a candlelight that eats tons of mana, but lasts 600 seconds, so I don't need to recast it, especially with a horrible UI and no hotkeys for spells.
Although, I hope it'll get added with mods, eventually. Or we'll have to make new versions spells in CS. heh.

It is a great pity that in this game magic users get pigeonholed into a singular playstyle.

Especially from a game company that in part made its fame and fortune by introducing the wonderful world of spellmaking and oodles of effects in the first place.
Its like a mars bar without chocolate.

Hopefully, they can address this with a patch. If not, a modder will fix it...

The missing spells and the lack of spellcrafting are a letdown for sure, but I wouldn't bet against DLC rectifying at least part of the problem. Until then we'll all just have to abuse the enchanting system instead.

...play an MMO as a healer if you want to beat a game while only healing. I am having tons of fun with all magic schools.

this should of been the tl;dr

I'm a little amazed at some of the responses. Prior concentrating on a single school of magic, such as restoration, was viable.

Not only viable, but then, like now, the very lore of TES supports the idea of specializing in a particular school. It's only Skyrim's game mechanics, one game out of many, that now prevents you from what was always a part of the lore and always a part of:

Ever

Single

Prior

Game

Without

Exception

You may like the new system better, but don't try and pretend that the OP has no reason to be disappointed. Even NPCs in the game are specialists of particular schools. Unfortunately only some schools (Conjuration, for example, which is not only viable but extremely powerful) are actually viable for singular specialization in this new system. Restoration is not one of them - this is because spells that once made it viable have either been given to other Schools or removed entirely.

-

It would be all too easy for me to dismiss his issues, because, quite simply, I'd never concentrate on Restoration in such a way. I'm a fan of Destruction and Conjuration in general. The thing is, I can actually see an issue that isn't my own.

Try stepping out of your own shoes once in awhile people.

Waiting for mods.

Who will mod for the 360??

the only mods I recognize as viable are bethesda ones tbh....
mods are fun, but for serious gameplay I rather use mechanics the way they were designed to be by the apropriate people.

I will not be suprised if I reach lvl 40-50 and find my mage being totally awesome as oposed to what so many people been saying tbh, noone even bothers comparing end level swings with spells?
becides the end level damage scaling, most complaints I been hearing either flatout dont make sense or are totally clueless.

in oblivion many people kept complaining magic was broken, when it was absurdly overpowered with the proper wits.

At what level were you able to kill the guy who drops it? And how?

No one can get through this game with one skill.

End of.

Also the mage races have +10 to conjuration and illusion, those are the main tools of any mage character, combat wise.

Math doesn't make sense? Denial doesn't debunk fact