It just seems like Light Armor is a much better option for a mage than trying to level up the ward spells. And pretty much anything that can be enchanted into robes can also be enchanted into armor (unless I'm missing something). Other than roleplaying reasons, I can't find any mechanical game reasons to support not wearing armor as a mage.

Robes are more comfortable.

I wear robes. But I do wear at least bracers/gauntlets + boots consisting of Light Armour. Helmet is optional but I usually use a Circlet with a Magicka boost instead. There are no negative consequences for casting magic with armour on.

Battlemage, wear armor, pure mage, rock the robes or clothes.

lol, indeed. But my character hates being comfortable. Because he roleplays as an idiot.

My mage wears fur amor. Very comfortable, but also protective.

Depends, just wearing shoes and a hat sounds pretty idiotic and uncomfortable, how far you playing this idiot role?

You can find robes which are having two really powerful enchantments in them. That makes them really useful until you max your enchanting skill.

That's just standard issue uniform for couriers.

Magicka regen is the only benefit but it's so slow in combat that it ends up pointless.

My whole lif-... Uhm, my whole character's life. Till he rots in jail for waving his privates at passing trade carivans after multiple warnings and arrests.

And better good looking... ^^

If magicka is regenating 150% faster it is useful in combat.

Armor slows down. And for leveleing armor you have to get hit while with alteration its enough to enter a battle zone.
And you dont have to level smithing and wasting perks to have a protection as good as the best armor you find/smith(Dragonhide spell). Combine this with the nice bonuses alteration offers like magic resistence and atronarch and there isnt any good reason to wear armor at all other then maybee for the looks.

No, there's no reason really.
Unarmored w/out alteration perks < Light or Heavy Armor w/out perks
Unarmored w/alteration perks < Light or Heavy Armor w/perks

Armor costs no magicka, doesn't have a temporary duration, no cast time, and if you perk it or wear light even w/out the perk, no loss of mobility. In fact, with light armor perked, it's better mobility than unarmored.

And sneaking penalty is basically a non-factor if you pick up muffled movement, which is necessary to move through the sneak tree anyway. There are light armors with muffle effects as well.


Only reason to go unarmored would be aesthetic or role play.

If Dragonhide wasn't such an expensive spell with a short duration and long cast time, alteration would be alright, but unfortunately it is basically throwing magicka away when you can have the same protection with light or heavy armor up all of the time for no cost.

My spell sword wears a mix of robes and heavy-armour, he looks really badass.

More agile with a robe, idk?

Cheers

Hah, I posted just this exact same question in the Steam forums around the time of release.

As for any class of weapons or armor, there are probably special robes in the game that confer unique benefits which you couldn't exactly get through Enchanting. Those unique benefits may or may not be better than what you can either get out of Enchanting or find on Light Armor pieces.

Also, there's the Alteration perk that doubles armor-increasing spells' effects if you aren't wearing any armor. I'm sure at some point this perk loses luster completely.

Aside from that, nah there's no reason to restrict yourself to robes.

Wear BOTH!!! Robes over your armor!

Oh yeah, I forgot, Bethesda forgot that people can actually wear multiple layers. I guess we should thank them, though... if it wasn't for their foresight, we would forget to wear underwear! I mean, just look at all of the poor naked people in Daggefall. They must be FREEZING! I'm sure glad they glued them onto our characters in Skyrim!

At least it makes it easier to not overdue it. I find my Nord in Daggerfall can't get enough clothing. She's walking around with full armor, a hooded robe, and two hooded cloaks over it all. There's no wonder why she's always overencumbered!

To be forced to waste perks in smithing is a cost. The passive bonuses of alteration are also better then anything the armor perks could offer. And there isnt a problem with Dragon Hide if the player just cast it before entering a room with enemies.(who later game shouldnt even get a chance to get close to a mage anyway)
And by the way,light armor slow down to.

I wear the Arch-Mage robe, fancy boots which I will enchant with Muffle. I have the Mage Armor perk which I use with Stoneflesh I and wear the Mage's circlet and the former Arch-Mage's amulet along with an enchanted ring. Why would I want to wear armor?

:tes:

The passive bonuses of alteration are redundant when it's easy to cap magic resist without them.

And casting dragonhide before every encounter is extremely tedious.

This is why you play as a sneak mage ha.

Alteration is quite good I think... I just can't walk without those perks of the robes. And I have no plans to update Enchanting until the later levels...
Of course, this required a few mods to balance the alteration spells (Higher cost but longer duration and better perks)

Not as useful as zero cost spells.