Greetings fellow Skyrim players,

I'm writing to you in hope that you'll help me understand something regarding the fairness of the game. The problem is like this: in the beginning I'm told about fighting with weapons, sneaking, but nothing is seemingly told about the use of magic. Even though at some point in Helgen's keep I can pick up a book containing a spell and loot mage equipment, I'm not told anything about spells. I'm wondering if I have somehow missed the tutorial regarding spells, or if I'm only meant to learn about them later in the game (that is, after visiting the College of Winterhold). I have played a bit before recently starting over, but I can't remember what I've done back then.

So the precise question is, am I told somewhere before College of Winterhold about SPELLS and HOW TO USE SPELLS? This excludes the manual and the "Help" page in the "ESC" menu. Thank you very much!

Neither Ralof nor Hadvar are mages, they only advise you on what to use to survive but if you're a mage then they're not aware that you already know a spell or 2 to survive with (I believe every race starts with the Flames spell for gameplay purposes). Naturally the only teachers are the masters of magic and most of them are within the College of Winterhold.

You start the game with a few spells. Check your menu.
You equip them just like they are weapons.

Equiping and using spells works exactly like with weapons, so is a separate tutorial really needed?

Like they said. Healing and Flames are default spells. Healing especially will come in handy. You can equip said spell in either hand by pulling the trigger of the hand you want to use it in while on the spell.

To answer your question, there is no formal magic training in the tutorial. I don't think there ever has been. At least not since before Daggerfall.

All races start with the Healing and Flames spells. Dunmer get the Sparks spell in addition, while Altmer get Fury and Bretons get Conjure Familiar.

Good point, i don't believe there is a tutorial on magic at the beginning. But as has been said, it's pretty much the same as equipping weapons. It doesn't even tell you to read the spell book either when you pick one up in Helgen dungeon, that would had been nice to learn.

Thank you all for your answers. I may have been a bit ambiguous, but what I wanted to know was if I was given any clue about spells in the beginning. I do know how to equip them (and I saw in the manual as well as in Help), but it doesn't just seem fair to me if I do it before being told "formally" how to..

No, there is no formal tutorial as has been stated.

Don't worry too much about what's fair, use anything and everything at your disposal to get through your 1st play through would be my advice.

Thank you all once again! Maybe this "fair" thing is just something in my head.. probably it shouldn't preoccupy me that much in the context of the game.

Mr. craig1405, I'll try to do that, thank you! I understand that I should experiment a bit in my first playthrough and maybe in future ones I should try to find other ways of completing the game. Am I right with that?

I can finally answer a question! WOOHOOO!!! (Yes, I am new to the game.)

Like you, I am very new to the game. I am a spellsword, and for me, magic was very much trial and error. Here is what I have learned, and I hope this will help.

- Spells are just like weapons. They have to be equippped to be used. I am on a PC, so if you are on a console, I do not know the corrosponding numbers.

- For Spells, make sure to make them your favorite. (Tab, magic, look to right for the various spells)

- After out of that screen to make favorite, press Q.

- Right/left click as appropiate OR, assign the spell a number, by pressing 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8 next to the spell (works for weapons too)

- Escape out

- Press F (changes from 3rd to 1st person)

- Press R (activates ready for combat)

- If equipped with a weapon, that will be visible. If equipped with spell, that will be visible too.

- Press a number you associated with a spell to ensure it changed

- Press the numbers you want to move foward with to ensure equipment and or spell is in the appropiate hands

- Press R to get out of combat mode

- Press F to go back to 3rd person

Hopefully I have these steps right and they will help you out.

*REMEMBER* look to the blue bar on the bottom of your screen when in combat. That is your magicka. No blue = no magic! Potions can help increase magicka, items can decrease its use without taking away the power/effect of the spell, and leveling up helps too. Magicak will also regenerate on its own.

Have fun!

There was some instruction about magic in Oblivion's tutorial:

"Now practice casting spells. Select the spell icon at the bottom of the journal to bring up the magic tab. Click on the spell icon at the bottom of the journal to bring up the magic tab.To cast your selected spell, &sUActnCast;. If you want to change spells, &sUActnMenumode; to bring up your journal again."

Whatever would you do if Skyrim didn't have any tutorials at all?

Your character is not a blank slate - he already has skills at level 15 or higher and as can be clearly seen in the magic menu, knows some spells. So if he knows them, why wouldn't he be able to use them? The tutorial is for you, the player, not for your character.

Morrowind also had a magic tutorial right after finding Fargoth's ring in a barrel.

I kind of remember that, but I have only done the Tutorial Dungeon twice in that game, and the last time as more than 5 years ago.

I'm not much of a mage myself but I do take advantage of a few schools of magic including Enchanting which is my favorite for improving weapons and armor as well as fortifying my smithing.

Yet Ralof/Hadvar tell you specifically to arm yourself and take a few swings, as does the the tutorial pop-ups. I did not realize I even had spells until much later than Helgen in my first playthrough. They briefly mention picking the cage lock and checking on the body inside, but really do not mention magic at all.

[EDIT]

PS: They also neglect to mention that when going through Helgen, the room with all of Imperials in it, the 2 archers are standing on oil. A nice little tip to go into your magic menu and equip flames (which everyone starts out with) to ignite said oil would have been nice

As far destruction magic goes, there is a mage robe to be found in one of the cages when you're still in Helgen and there are a few spell books to be found there as well. Flames and Sparks I think. Naturally when you're a Breton you get Conjure Familiar from the start. High Elves start with Fury and Dunmer with Sparks. High Elves are the only one who start the game with 50+ magicka. Which does not make them perfect mages in my book.

If you want to learn about magic:

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Magic

http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Magic

Welcome to the forums.

Another tip would be to use uesp rather than wiki. Not only does it have much more information, but wiki also has some false information as well as a lot of text that has just been copied over from uesp.

And indeed, welcome to the forums, http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130514235332/elderscrolls/images/4/4b/Fishy_stick.png.

I appreciate all the help you guys have provided me with. I have read the posts and to conclude, I understand that there is no tutorial indeed. However, I've learned and been reminded quite a bit about how to use spells and that's some valuable knowledge. I'm going to start over, play around with some physical weapons (throughout the claw quest) and then head straight to the College, from where onwards I'll become a mage.

@Powerup: Thank you for your instructions! Though it's probably a little off-topic, do you usually play in 3rd person? I actually prefer 1st .

Thank you FalloutFanatic04 and Chaka ZG (that picture!) for your warm welcomes! It's great to be here.

You can learn a bit about enchanting in Whiterun when you first meet the mage in Dragonsreach. Technically it's a mini tutorial about a magic school.

I don't even think you get told you have a healing spell, i think first game i went a couple of hours before working it out..

Some answers in this thread surprise me. The first thing I do after starting a new game is checking all menus and settings to see how it works and what options are available to me. How can you miss the entire magic menu?

No, and to burst your bubble, you won't learn about them in Winterhold, either. In fact, you're required to cast a spell to enter the college, and if you have no clue (or the spell), you're sort of screwed (though the girl will often sell the spell you need).

There is slight demo of the Warding spell, but that's about as useless a spell as Magelight (though I'm sure a few use it).

Anything you need to learn regarding magic has to be done by trial-and-error and practice.

As for the different types of schools there are to magick? Use Google to help you determine your path, because you sure won't get help from the game.