I mean... it's pretty pointless. If you get attacked you pretty much have NO protection. I have to know if anyone actually uses normal clothing while playing. (such as blacksmith clothes, fancy clothes etc)

I often do, but then again I often roleplay. It's been a while since I played Skyrim though. Not much use in the wilderness though. However with a well armed companion what is the point of doing all the dirty work yourself eh?

Those wussy College Robes are good for sleeping in on cold nights. When it's not cold I sleep in - oh, nevermind...

I have a pure thief...no combat, no magic, no potions, no killing.
She wears the original garb from the start of the game and she generally runs away from stuff she can't sneak past. All her level points have been put in Stamina.

So yeh....no armor.

Unarmored is tricky to play in this game as there is no Skill or Perk Tree for it. However, as you say, there is no protection, so it makes for a challenging build.

One thing you can do is Enchant those clothes with spells that can help your lack of protection.

My mage mostly uses robes now, but I've got a stockpile of clothing saved up for when my Enchant gets high enough to put some really good enchantments on them. There's no law that says that mages (or anyone else, for that matter) must wear robes.

I roleplay and I normally tend to ramble about town in normal clothes before donning gear when adventuring. My mage character stayed in robes but my current Nord hunter/Warrior type skips between Barbarian Armour in the field and a belted dress in town.

That all depends if are an expert at Alteration as it gives bonus defence to no armor.

My Breton Mage uses robes (actually it is the long green dress with the hood but looks kinda like robes) and has alteration no armor bonus. She specialises in conjuration and will conjur a familiar then uses a conjured battle axe with alteration magic instead of armor. That or she uses a conjured bow for distance. She is a magicka based character.


My Redguards is a combat melee fighter who also specialises in clothes and uses the alteration no armor bonus. She wears Hammerfell Garb and uses a scimitar sword with the Dwarven Spellbreaker shield. That and she uses archery with a Dwarven bow or a Dwarven crossbow.
She will uses dual alteration spell casting instead of armor, then has block and blade. She is lightweight so can dodge well if needed.

The added bonus of no armor is the next to no weight. It also means you walk / run with no restriction to speed.

So here is an example of a Mage build with clothes but also a warrior build with clothes. The Redguard actually works very well.

I try to play like this. While my character wears light armor, if I go to an inn i'll through on normal cloths for the morning when I head to stores before leaving the town.

I imagine it could be viable if you had enchanted cloths to benefit you as well as used armor spells for defense.

I use it quite often because I enchant normal clothing for smithing and alchemy. Both fortifies can be placed on hands, rings, and amulets, while smithing can be placed on armor and alchemy can be placed on head pieces. Typically for RP purposes, I use a circlet and the hammerfell garb, a pair of gloves, and a silver ring/amulet for smithing, gold ring/amulet for alchemy.

Also if you don't want to wear armor and want to create a custom mage's outfit, with a high enchanting skill and perks, coupled with a fortify enchanting potion (snowberries, spriggan sap, hagraven claws, and blue butterfly wings), then using regular clothing in the way to go.


As some have said, being unarmored with the alteration perk helps. However I used to have a destruction/restoration mage and I would not wear chest piece armor, but I would wear boots, gauntlets, and a mask. So you can wear regular clothes, but wear the little things on the outside and you'll receive some armor benefits. This is why quite a bit of the magic in this game in my opinion is overpowered, because the best magical benefits are given through clothes that have no armor.

There's a fine balance, but once you get the hang of it, wearing regular clothes is awesome. As a mage, you can run around a lot faster so you really don't have to worry about armor.



EDIT: If you're still having trouble running around with no armor on, get a tank companion who wears heavy armor and rushes into battle with a two-handed weapon. Lydia is useful for this. Just be careful when using AoE spells.

I do when i'm just around the house not doing anything.

It depends on the character. With my less adventurous characters, they wear clothes when they stay in a town or a city for more than a night. But out in the wilderness? Nah. There's monsters up in there.

Well, my assasin always wears clothing in a city, because dark brotherhood armor is screaming for: ''I am an assasin, arrest me.''
My barbarian never wears clothes, he thinks they are overrated.
My dual wield warrior wears clothing sometimes, depends.

One of my playthroughs began as a so-called 'nonadventure', so for the first few levels my character wore regular, unenchanted clothing. The lure of excitement became too strong, though, and when my plan to play as an NPC completely derailed I slapped on some armour and called it a day. Still, it was fun for a while.

Normal clothing is good for the mage armor bonuses, for RP purposes, or for carrying around and putting on a "full set" of lightweight smithing and/or alchemy enchanted gear.

If you are a thief type you are better off with light armor for protection like Dragon Scale > Glass > Elven > Leather > Hide > Fur.

I once wore them as a challenge, believing my character was strong enough to not need any armour.

My characters use it when at home or just around town shopping and crafting. Also one of my characters is the designated "clothes horse", who tries to get at least one of every piece of clothing in the game.

Yeah, I should have mentioned that I'm taking all the Mage Armor perks in Alteration. That way, not only are you rewarded for not wearing armor, you're penalized for wearing it (to a degree: the mage armor perks don't apply if you wear any armor).

My mage wears fine clothes of restoration (27%) and magicka regen (75%)

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