(by 'mage' i mean 'destruction user'. Same as battlemade or spellsword, but with a bow instead of a sword. I'm primarily a rogue though with lots of stealth skills so i cant branch out fully into other magic schools.)

Obviously having 2 ranged damage dealing skills is redundant, but I've been able to experiment a bit with my mage and spells like runes and fireball etc maintain their enjoyability when coupled with archery. Thing is, archery is going to be doing more damage, so I'm worried I'll end up not using destruction.

Which is important because destruction requires a big magicka skillpoint investment. So if I end up not using it, i'd have wasted a lot of skill points in magicka.
I find magic fun in this game, but am I erroneously trying to couple it with something redundant and better?

The question isnt if having 2 ranged attacks is a bad idea, its whether having 2 damage dealing skills a bad idea (when one of them is clearly better than the other).


(for example I can set a rune trap before stealth attacking with archery. but the damage from an arrow will be so much more than the rune trap, that I may as well not even cast the rune trap in the first place.)

No, do whatever you want. Nothing is bad, just more practical, or powerful. Namely other weapon skills over destruction at higher levels. So pick whatever you want to use or role play with. Not what is good or not. Plus if you only want to use runes, lets say, then you can just focus on that in destruction. Although it can be a grind just using a few spells from the school every once and a while. You could also be a mage that uses conjured Bows. Or use other magic schools other than destruction. Like Conjuration, or Illusion.

by 'mage' i mean 'destruction user'. Same as battlemade or spellsword, but with a bow instead of a sword. I'm primarily a rogue though with lots of stealth skills so i cant branch out fully into other magic schools.

so stick with runes, cloaks for defense, and wall spells at higher levels to make kill zones with runes. That way you play in a purely 'sneaky ranged' role with destruction. Allowing you to take full advantage of destruction later with another build that's more magic based. the only problem is people will hear your spells. Take the Illusion quite casting perk if you want to be even more stealth. Which has a requirement of 50 in Illusion, if that's not too much of a skill investment. Otherwise keep a good distance when casting wall and runes, or forgo stealth when casting.

Well you won't be able to cast spells at the same time as you have a bow, but it sure works. (I'm using this tactic)

i think what is really viable - wanna try that myself is a conjurer/archer combination...works on a lot of levels..you can conjure your bow and help

Since bows dont use magicka, i would say it is viable since you have an otherwise untapped source of damage. As said, runes can create zones of extra damage. or you can use some conjure up some beasts to aid you.

Dont kill me for this, but you can think of it as the skills for hunters in WoW. Since being a hunter isnt all about the bow, they use traps as well. I think it can go hand-in-hand... so to speak.

The only issue I see with it is that it might be difficult to manage a class that requires both magicka and stamina, as that will leave you with few hit points. I like the concept and I'm sure you'd have fun playing it. In this game, I don't think it would leave you too weak. You could use archery for enemies at a distance and switch to destruction when they get close, or pair with runes and walls.

This would be viable. The way I would approach this if you wanted to dabble in magic and stealth/archery I would consider at least getting the silent casting perk.

For myself, I would just use the conjure bow spell for the main weapon for the first shot, and lay out traps as mentioned above.

Now I know you cant get any special effects on the bow itself, but you can double up the damage from the Mystic Binding perk in Conjuration along with the archery perks for increased overall bow damage (Which would be 150% more damage if you used Mystic Binding and maxed out Overdraw, big boost). And have unlimited ammo.

Plus its weightless. And then when they get close, switch out to your destruction spells. And if you wanted, you could also stretch out to the Soul Stealer perk for your summoned weapon to instant trap souls for soul gems, if you want to do enchanting for the short fall of a basic weapon.

So many choices. But that would be my approach.

Go Assassin Mage!

Been doing Conjuration + Archery, and it's a blast.

I was going to level enchanting, but everyone is saying it makes the game trivial.

Instead, I'm going up the left side of the smithing tree, since glass weapons/armor aren't quite as strong as the right side (trying to stay balanced).

The point is, Destruction was too underpowered. Enchanting + smithing + weapon is apparently too overpowered. Smithing + weapon + a little magic seems to be a good balance, and it's the most fun I've had so far. Been playing on Master, and it's challenging so far (level 25), but not impossible so far.

Details: Going archery, conjuration, light armor, smithing. Restoration is sorta leveling itself when I scream like a girl and mash healing at 10% life.

yeah not going smithing, seems like the most boring stats-only thing to do in the game.