Kind of a vague question maybe. It seems to me the the TES games are really geared towards stealth and thievery/assassination.

I just don't picture a mage knowing much about traps or lockpicking. Also, I don't picture a mage stealthing around much. Just walk into a room, size it up and start casting.

How realistic is it (as I've always played a thief type toon in TES game and never played a mage) to play a mage? Is survivability very good? Put all points into Magicka and Health instead of Health and Stam?

Just looking for some insight from those with experience in the magic classes.

Thanks.

See my sig for my mage playstyle. Same goes for Fallout hehe.

Just don't bother with destruction and you'll be fine.

Why wouldn't a mage use stealth? They have no armor....

I picture a mage knowing about locks. You never heard of the rogue wizard archetype?

Practically every thieves guild in Faerun has a few wizards in it.

Not sure why they removed the open lock spells, but yeah a Mage is viable (the word your looking for). Destruction scaling, or lack there of, will be gimped compared to other styles of combat, but individually, its not so bad. Still needs a fix though. So yeah, totally viable. and a pure mage only uses magic, and maybe enchant, that's it. No need for any other skills.

Tamriel mages have always had invisibility and chameleon spells so stealthy (aka discreet) behavior isn't alien to them. My mage would prefer an unlock spell to picks, but does what she needs to to open doors and chests. As for traps, I'd say the ideal for a mage is to set them off from range.

IMO:

Mages are students. They read books, study geology, history and science. If they walk into a Dwemer ruin, I would expect that they've studied writings on Dwemer ruins (similar to a geology student having read text books on geological formations, etc...). They'd be somewhat aware of the various dangers presented by such ruins (common traps, etc...). Lockpicking is likely not their forte, but in past games we had spells to handle that (missing in Skyrim).

I think it's simple enough to RP, especially if you're a hybrid of some kind (spellsword, battlemage, nightblade, etc...) as your magical skills will be augmented with either combat or stealth. A pure mage might have a bit more work to do, but that's part of the fun. Figure out your casting order before each engagement (shield, summon, damage, heal, etc...).

The only thing I do outside of magic is lock picking (because we can longer magic the chest open anymore) and one-handed, which I only use to deal the last 1 or 2 blows because it soul traps on hit. I use alchemy and enchant but I've always considered those mage-like since I cant really picture Skyrim's best assassins out picking flowers or the nordic version of Conan out chasing butterflies...

Mage/Rogue hybrid characters are quite commonplace in most RPGs including the TES series. There're classes like Bards, Nightblades, Arcane Archers, Arcane Tricksters etc.

How can any mage be realistic? They don't exist in the real world..

Your question whether the mages in this game are realistic? Why don't we compare them to mages in real life

^^ speak for yourself

Yep. I got quite the laugh from the question.

Casting question...

for melee you have power attacks, using both the R and L attacks on the mouse at the same time.

For casting I see I can put two separate spells. Does casting "twin" fire blasts for example help out of is just casting one handed for Flames and then using the L for shield or soul trap or a summoning spell just as good (or better)?

I don't know about realistic...but because of the squishy nature of mages, you are going to be running around at top speed dodging melee attacks, arrows and spells while at the same time lobbing your fireballs at enemies trying to kill them before they close in on you. It's very invigorating compared to my Warrior character who just stands there with the shield up waiting for the enemy to attack so I can block and counter. <.<

I do use stealth on my Mage toons when possible although I haven't perked it or anything...simply because it's a lot easier to just stand in a corner of the room and lob fireballs at people that one-shots everyone. Once you get detected and there's 3 zombies running at you, drop your summon, start running backwards and try to kill them before they kill you. Definitely not boring.

Did you just ask if playing as someone who uses magic realistic?

LOL! What I wanted to say.

Stop making pointless comments, we know what he really means.

I regret not making a mage. They fit the story perfectly in my opinion. A companion would really help when being a mage I presume. That leads to my question if anyone can answer; I am a level 19 archer and havent really put many perks in except for smithing, which I am level 75. Would it be a good option to change to mage if I want to? Or it is to risky and may prevent my character from being fully fleshed out. Thanks!

Level 54 Destro mage on Master.

Depends on your definition of mage, ie: Robe wearing, staff wielding, fire flinging, vortex of death and destruction? Or Heavy plate wearing, fist using, Vortex of Paralysis and Confusion?

Its a lot of fun on Adept. We get a lot more variability to our play than warriors or assassins do. Mana is a huge problem in Skyrim but fixable through enchantment and alchemy. The only gripe is the destruction tree is underwhelming at high levels.

Master level will try your patience unless you know how to exploit the system to your advantage. Destruction spells are a lot more useless and we are seriously out damaged by our summons and companions at late levels.