Illusion is great (once you level it) Fear and calm spells work to thin the heard. I can never get Frenzy spells to work.

Really, they work for me most of the time, but not always. NPCs under frenzy just attack whoever is closest, so you have to have some distance between yourself and the frenzied NPC for it to work well. It works best when you sneak up to a room full of bandits unnoticed. Target one of the tougher ones whose got a two-handed weapon, and from outside the room hit him with a frenzy spell, then watch from the doorway as the fun ensues.

With enchanting, you can cast any spell from any school of magic with only 100 magicka, so it is a viable choice for spell casting as well. Illusion is the only school that you really need to take the perks in order to use the spells because with illusion, you will eventually get to a high enough level that even your best spells will only affect trivial monsters without taking the perks.

Restoration.

Heal spells for health.

Respite perk for stamina regen (moar power attacks!)

Ward for the othewise difficult approach to the http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SquishyWizard range.

I suppose i could make a guide if there is both enough interest and alot of people who are having trouble doing it. For you- you have spread yourself too thin, even for a spellsword. All three crafting trees? Also there are alot of perks in the branches that are skippable to help with the earlier level spread problem.

Close to my current character, a heavily armored 2h warrior specializing in atronachs with a bit of restoration, NOT proficient with bows. Basically, I swapped your bow perks for the bashing-block perks. Also, I'm using the atronach stone instead of the steed stone, so at level 70 HA I'll grab conditioning. I'm not using bound weapons, dual-casting resto, or the master conjuration perk to get it (no permanent thrall unless I decide to use 0% enchanting). Since I won't have conditioning for awhile, I'm relying on improved wolf armor and skyforge steel, which means I can perk smithing last.

Yeah, I am not perking all three of the crafting trees, but I enjoy crafting things so I am using them. I don't mind getting my butt kicked every once in a while. It adds fun and challenge to the game, and I'm pretty tough against bandits and mages. Its animals (bears, sabrecats) I have the most trouble with. I only use bound weapons. But there is no bound shield spell so I use a real shield, when I am not casting spells. I also use destruction on occassion which does not help with the spreading issue.

Here is my perk plan up to about level 52 (I am currently around level 20). I'd welcome thoughts, suggestions.

Archery 8
Overdraw (5)
Eagle Eye
Steady Hand (1)
Power Shot

One Handed 5
Armsman (5)

Alchemy 8
Alchemist (5)
Physician
Benefactor
Poisoner

Illusion 9
Novice
Hypnotic Gaze, Aspect of Terror, Rage, Master of the Mind
Animage, Kindred Mage, Quiet Casting
Dual Casting

Conjuration 7
Novice, Mystic Binding, Soul Stealer, Oblivion Binding
Necromancy, Dark Souls and Twin Souls

Restoration 6
Novice, Regeneration Necromage
Respite
Apprentice
Ward Absorb

Enchanting 8
Enchanter (5)
Insightful Enchanter
Corpus Enchanter
Extra Effect

Oh yeah suggestions. First- loose all the archery perks except for the 5 damage perks. The rest are fluff and sneak hits with ebony bows and the damage perks do it just fine. there is -3 perks.

One handed- SpellSWORD. You need the perk to reduce power attack costs (which lets you have fewer levels spent with stamina) and you need the +25% damage power attack with chance to decap. These will make your main form of damage much more effective. that is +2 perks.

A big part of your problem is probably because you are using bound weapons, and those will not really scale with your characters power throughout the whole game. I highly suggest getting ahold of a nice sharp blade and constantly improving it with smithing. A spellsword cannot use destruction to hurt things really and 1 hand is our only option so it needs to be maximized, and buffed with fortify-one-handed.

Ward absorb? Really do you use wards? I think I used one once when I had to block a fireball at the mage hall. Other than that they are pretty poopy, they really limit your mobility when you have them active as well.

Restoration I suggest dropping apprentice casting. Novice casting opens up the whole tree. Necromage is super-powerful if you go vampire- which I suggest since you will be using alot of spells as a spellsword.

Drop alchemy or tone it down so you can at least get 2 perks for arcane smith.

Soul stealer on conjuration- that might be ok if you are trying to RP with it, but really it is redundant considering the easiness of trapping souls.

I took light armor instead- stamina buff and quick sneaking competence are too great to ignore.
I took alteration instead of conjuration, I don't use followers or summons. Mage armor extended and amplified for the vampire is great and allows you to take fewer light armor buffs to reach the cap, not to mention paralyze? what a great spell to team up in your offhand! and of course the excellent magic resists, and detect life and detect dead. With both the detects running I don't think I have been suprized from an enemy in ages.

I took rune master for fun- it costs 3 perks BTW. since I like slapping runes at choke points or in front of me when I set up an archer position with my bow. with quiet casting you are free to use all the runes and spells you like with no hindrance to stealth.

Anyways- I will start working on a guide. Please respond with a bit more detail about your ideas and maybe we can pool our thoughts.

Below is my build- breezing through master. I don't have atronach from alteration yet, deft movement, or avoid death, I have 2 perks extra waiting for the skill increase.

I also didn't take assassin's blade because I already have invisibility and if I took that I would just go around one-shotting everything in the game again.

http://skyrimcalculator.com/#82522

Udey: Gotta disagree with you on one thing. Bound swords. I'm dual wielding bound swords and I am a force with which to be reckoned! I have not had any trouble killing anything. Plus it looks awesome.

[Edit: I'm level 43, FWIW]

I suppose that depends on what difficulty you are playing on and what level you are. Fact is they do not scale, so depending on your answers to those things- yeah they could be great, or yeah just wait till you get a little higher level. I use a bound sword as an offhand spell when I do want to dual wield with this build, but I have no illusions that the real power is in the steel sword, and that the bound sword is mostly for RP goodness/coolness.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Bound_Weapon#Bound_Sword

As edited, I'm level 43, playing on Adept. All of the dual wield+1-handed perks work with bound swords, plus mystic binding perk. It's fun and still provides a challenge. I haven't faced an enemy that's been very difficult, one-shots notwithstanding...and I'm saying this as someone who wears only hide armor and heavy gauntlets/boots as well.

Granted- yeah they function just like swords. It is certainly doable- if not optimal- but hey its a single player game and having fun is the goal. I think this would be a good part of the guide for the spellsword that wants to dabble in conjuration since that requires going into that tree. The one I proposed ignores it.
Both are valid.

LOL....

Restoration.

2H warriors can get a bit of a hammering...nothing says 'bite me' more than constantly regenerating health. As a hint, I would suggest that taking Block would also help as a 2H character, in which case you can equip with a shield and resto spell, and hotkey your 2H weapon...you fight with the 2hander, then hit the hotkey for it and you'll then be equipped with shield and spell, giving you some protection while you heal, then hit the hotkey again and you are back to bashing your opponents into submission.

That's not a bad idea, switching out the extra bow perks for the sword perks and still having one extra perk.


I know, I know the bound weapons are just a roleplaying thing, although the soultrap is convenient and the banish is somewhat useful. I figure at high levels when the bound sword does not put out enough damage I can either poison it or switch to a real weapon at that point and smith it to a decent level with conjuration and alchemy without needing any smithing perks.

I also read on the UESP that the bound bow spell is equivalent to a smithed Exquisite Daedric with the mystic perk.


I almost never use wards with any of my characers so I thought I might be able to use one with this character in lieu of a shield on occassion just for variety. I may rethink that since I have not yet taken that perk


I took the apprentice for the Fast Healing so I could quickly heal if needed, even if I wa slow on magicka and restore stamina with respite. The novice healing spell is pretty slow.


Do I need arcane smithing if I max out enchant? I can just smith first, then enchant.


Agreed, I am just doing it for RP purposes and for convenience, and to see how it works becaust this is the only character that I will be putting perks into that branch of the conjuration tree


Only reason I took heavy is that I think it looks better on my Dunmer, plus I got the steed stone for sneaking.


I may have to think about that. I don't generally use summons that much either except to draw attention away from me every once and a while. I was thinking that I could still use all the alteration spells even without perks with enchantment, but I may give some second thought to some of those alteration perks because two summons are not really necessary for a sneak oriented character, and I could still summon anything I wanted to with enchanting.


Are runes that useful at higher levels?

For a 2handed warrior?

Restoration, Alteration, and Conjuration are the only valid schools IMO.

If you want ranged damage, Archery >> Destro... simple fact.

Alteration isn't really needed since you can EASILY hit armor cap w/o it... BUT it might be a fun mechanic, and there are some magic resistance perks to add real value. Kinda expensive in perks though.

Resotration is great... Probably my first choice (and what my 2hand nord took) I have my greatsword and bow mapped to my 2 quickslots (I'm console). If I have my greatsword out and hit it's quickslot button, I sheathe it and auto-equip my last 2 single hands... which I always leave with my best healing spell in both hands. This lets me easily, and quickly (2x fast heal heals me 150 HP & Stamina... when I grab Adept Perk I'll be 2x casting Close Wounds for an almost instant 300pt heal!). Same thing if bow is out and I hit the bow's quick equip button.

Conjuration also works and adds an extra body to the fight to distract enemies, and add their own DPS to the fight.

With Conjuration and Alteration, your spells have duration allowing you to fight while spell is in effect, and Resto can be quickly equipped by setting yourself up as I just mentioned. (Alternatively, you could have your right hand heal and left hand summon/flesh so you can sheathe your weapon to quick heal or resummon as needed mid fight without pausing to pull up the favorites list)

I would say for a 2 hand warrior...
Restoration > Conjuration > Alteration

OH, Conjuration also gives you bound weapons... you might like the bound battleaxe for a while, and it can be dbl nice against disarming enemies or when you're stuck without your gear for whatever reason and the bound bow could be great for your ranged damage. (in this case, I would probably have bound bow mapped to left hand and heal or summon to right)

I can tell you that Bound Swords, with perk, have nowhere NEAR the damage potential of legendary smithed Ebony weapons.... let alone Daedric.

That said...... Legendary can be considered OP, and I can fight just fine with my bound swords, so it may be for the better... but this is on normal... I don't think my bound swords would maintain usefulness on harder difficulties looking at the damage difference. (FWIW: Perked bound sword would do ~50 damage, Legendary Ebony Sword ~90... I'd have to go reload my character to get exact figures... and this is with 4/5 1hand dmg perk, no +1hand fortify enchants)

I like your build. It is very similar to mine with the changes you mentioned.

My thoughts are that the your mind controlling illusion spells are not going to work at higher levels without Hypnotic Gaze, Aspect of Terror, Rage and Dual Casting. Not sure if you want to be able to use frenzy and calm at higher levels, and I suppose they would still work on weaker minions, which would turn and attack the boss, so it may be okay as it. Just something to think about.

I agree with your choices on sneak. Having one character with assassins blade and shadow warrior, that combo is way overpowered. I did not realize just how OP that would be until after I had taken shadow warrior. I might take that one for a pure archer someday but not a spellsword.

On restoration, have you used the Avoid Death before? From what I read on the UESP, its usefulness is rather limited. It sounds good when you first read it, but according to the UESP, it does not trigger unless the hit that takes you below 10% does not actually kill you. There is a pretty narrow range between 10% health and death, so most of the hits that will take you below 10% are going to kill you and the Avoid Death perk won’t kick in. That is what I read, anyway, so I have been avoiding Avoid Death. And since magicka regenerates so quickly outside of combat and so slowly during combat, I have been avoiding the recovery perks.

You say you don’t use summons much so this is probably not a big deal, but I might avoid the Atronach perk until they fix the summoning bug where your summons are absorbed as if they were hostile magic. I’m not sure if the 1.4 patch fixes that or not.

either do alteration, illusion or conjuration

conjuration for temperarory and permanant followers

alteration for armor boosts (ironhide and dragonhide are the best two IMO)

illusion is the 'utility' class of magicka, packs claravoyance, candlelight, magelight, invisibility and telekenesis, as well as fear, courage, and calm type spells

AFAIK dual-casting only increases duration of illusion spells, not affected targets level.

Please correct me if wrong, cause I'll totally take the perk then... as is I've always passed up dual-cast on EVERY school of magic except Destro (and sometimes Alteration because extra duration there can mean the difference between finishing a fight, or getting one shot 90% through it when you get hit by a 2hand the moment the spell expires)

I have experienced situations where I single cast a calm spell and it did not work, so I did a quick dual cast and that worked.

According to the UESP:

"Dual casting an Illusion spell overcharges the effects into an even more powerful version. This slightly more than doubles the maximum level of any level-based Illusion spell. Level adjustments from Animage or Kindred Mage or Hypnotic Gaze or Aspect of Terror or Rage are applied before the doubling effect (220% spell power for 280% magicka cost)."

For my illusion perk tree. All those perks are for casting invisibility, and invisibility alone. That spell and stealth alone can get you through any situation, and out of any situation. Heck I would pay 10 perks for it. I do not utilize calm/fear/frenzy despite being a vampire- but yes 4 more perks and it would be real easy to be great in that tree as well.

Avoid death- another RP perference. I HATE dying.
For recovery perks- they help the vampire problem. The regeneration perks help the magica stunt during daytime, and the stamina boost from the light armor perk fixes the stamina. The only thing left is health.

Im not sure about the summons. I like fighting alone though so I am not concerned- but I am aware- of the atronach alteration and its bugginess.

You are playing a Two Handed Warrior, then Alteration is your primary magic school, with a little Restoration so you can sell the potions that you find instead of using them.
If you are playing a Mage Warrior Hybrid then Conjuration is a must have primary.
I like my character doing most of the killing in a dungeon, and Conjuration and Illusion remove the warm fuzzy feeling I get when my character has defeated a Boss by themselves.

I used illusion on my thief build, was prob the most fun I've had so far, watching enemies fight each other, then slit the survivors throats, Restoration was a possibility, just thought the wards were a little clunky.

I'm ripping through most enemies right now...I can't imagine how much of a cakewalk the game would be with lengendary enchanted daedric weapons. It bottles the mind.

Regardless, dual-wielding bound sword, for the look and RP'ing is the shiznit.