Does anyone know the details about a casting penalty while in armor? Is this in the game and if so what is the penalty? Would silent casting negate it? Thanks for your help.

There is a mana regen penalty for wearing armor... AS WELL as many robes giving you bonus mana regen.

In regards to silent casting... i don't know.

Silent casting is not still casting. Armor doesn't obstruct your mouth. It just makes it so you don't draw attention.

I have been wondering myself, and can't seem to get an answer. I thought I read that it will slow your magika regeneration.

I am still hoping that somebody knows if there is a penalty to magic while wearing armor and if so what it is.

You could try reading the first reply... There is a penalty to magicka regen rate whilst wearing armour.

Theres NO effectiveness penalty like in Oblivion.

Just the mana regen penalty.

Thanks for the effectiveness response. That was what I wanted to know.

Yeah that helps much .. no source and no quantification .. is it 50% ... 5% ?

I think that the penalty to regen is better than the hinderance.

Since the Hindrance doesn't go away. Robes remain a valid choice for the spell spamming mage. Before just training in armor meant heavy armor mage = robe mage.

i remember seeing that illusion has a perk that makes all cast spells "silent"

Seems to me that armor could be an excellent option for a mage. Even if magicka is slowed, there's still such thing as Restore Magicka Potions. And absorb spell. It would essentially be almost playing the Atronach style, but even better since you actually regain your magicka. But, the point is as soon as you are low, pop a potion. Now, there are also birthsign stones in the game....I'm assuming there is an Atronach one which will give a bonus to your magicka, but stunt your regeneration. If you are an armored mage, you have an advantage over a non-armored one, since you can neither be able to regen magicka, but you'll be more heavily armored.

As for magicka-boosting robes...couldn't you enchant some armor with +50 magicka or something, like you could with sigil stones in OB?

Personally, I'm going the unarmored high-regen mage route, but I can see heavily armored battlemages kicking serious ass in this game.

If we had more information then we would share it, but since the game has yet to be released all we can do is speculate about the bits and pieces that are leaked into the community. At the moment we have no idea how sever the magicka regen penalty will be, but considering Bethesda's approach of not wanting to restrict players who want to do everything I don't imagine the penalty will be all that bad.

But how do we know there is a penalty? I mean where is the screenshot or the video or the official statement that proofs it? As far as I know we know nothing at all.

Something that has come from the leaks, if you chose not to believe it then that is your prerogative. Maybe the info is wrong, but until we have the game ourselves we wont know for sure.

Geez, if you're fishing for official statements and wont take anything else as proof wait a week and ask again.

A substantial fraction of the people here have played by now or are playing, but you won't get too many 'official statements' out of them. Its a take-it-or-leave-it situation for most of the new info, but that doesn't mean it's not accurate.

It seems much more advantageous to just wear armor and carry potions. If given the choice would you really rather have 0 armor and have to wait for mana to regen as opposed to being able to take hits?

Think I would prefer wearing robes if I'm honest, especially in light of the Mage Armour perk, but to each their own.

Well I'll have shield spells, and wards so that kind of makes armor seems kind of frivolous, and unnecessary to me. Besides; the robes look better imo anyway. Also I've never really liked the idea of running around in a tin can; makes me itchy just thinking about it.

As a mage I would have enough tools to NOT let them touch me :
1) Protective spells
Mage Armor line of spells - that gives you armor increase ( just like if you would wear some armor ) and there is perk that will highly increase magnitude of those spells ( if not wearing armor )
Circles of Protection - so meele enemies ( at least undead ) cannot come close
Alteration shield spell ( don't know how it works but can guess well enough )
2) Summoning spells
3) Status effect spells ( paralyze, fear, frenzy etc... )
4) Most offensive spells are ranged

yeah you have shield spells, which you could also use while wearing armor. And you haven't played the game so don't say you'll never get hit LOL. Just different play styles, we don't know how it'll be until we try it

That's news to me Valamyr! I wonder if the magicka regen penalty will be "pro-rated" based on the number of slots using armor, or if it's one piece of armor = full penalty.

Yeah I can use the spells while wearing armor but it would cost more to do so, and slow down my Magicka regen. Also I didn't say I wouldn't get hit; just that I'd have wards, and summons to do that for me.

Unless you weren't talking to me in which case ignore this post.

i think the only penalty to wearing armor is magicka regen... someone correct me if I'm wrong. That's why I'm saying it seems more advantageous to just wear armor, and have potions.

have enough magicka potions