I've recently made a Redguard warrior who specialises in melee combat with sword (scimitar) & shield (dwarven).

As Redguards get a bonus in Alteration and also we see the natives of Hammerfell wear clothes (Hammerfell garb), I've gone down the route of alteration and levelled her so that she gets the "no armor" bonus. I've find it to work really well as she is a warrior who is very nimble on her feet (light -> quick paced)

Question 1. Because she uses a shield, will it effect her alteration no armor bonus?

Question 2. Because she uses a heavy armor shield (Dwarven), does this make any difference to defence, armor rating etc?

Question 3. I haven't levelled her in heavy armor at all. Does this make any difference to her blocking with a heavy armor shield?

Thanks for any help in advance

1. Since it adds to Armor Rating, I'd assume Yes. Magic users are encouraged to use Wards

2. Shield efficiency is factored by the Block skill. Only Armor Rating plays into Heavy/Light armor sills.

3. See #2

Shield = armor so yes.
Dont understand question 2, any armor is better then no armor how ever if your going for your bonus then no armor is better.
question 3, as tod said in the making of, if your a mage and you switch to a warrior then you will svck at first, bust as you use these new weapons and abilities you will get better

Shields do not affect the "Mage Armor" perk. In fact, the shield armor rating stacks with the armor spell.

excellent news, thanks . Is this an absolute definite?


so am I right in understand you that a shield will be a bonus to the alteration spells like stoneflesh that I'll be casting?

This is an absolute definite. Confirming what skooma_fiend said. So many confident and seemingly reasonable wrong answers to your easy question. Don't trust majority opinion!

Yes having a shield will be a bonus to the alteration spell.

ok many thanks.

Also many thanks to skooma_fiend.

It seems a Redguard build with sword, shield and alteration magic is an excellent build. It also is a bonus as they are lightweight and therefore move around and can dodge quickly.

I'm guessing that the dev's actually planned it this way for a Redguard hence the +5 alteration bonus and the fact that all the Redguards we see from Hammerfell only wear clothes and not armor.

Alteration can be an interesting way to get good protection.

With Ebony Flesh and Mage Armor 3x perks, you get 300 Armor rating. But it's equivalent to getting 200 Armor Rating if you are wearing real armor, because if you wear real armor, there is a hidden +25 AR. So it's quite terrible, frankly, if you are planning a melee type character. But if you are good at blocking, you should not have problems.

What's good about alteration is the Dragonskin spell you get after you reach level 90 in Alteration. It gives you 80% protection. But it's very magicka expensive, and short (30 seconds by default) You can boost it up to 100 seconds with dual casting and stability perk. But that makes it even more expensive. I hope you are planning to have 100% cost reduction enchantments.

So it's going to be challenging getting there, but interesting and different at same time. Tell us how it turns out after you do this.

Orcs get +5 Alteration Bonus? Very interesting. I guess it's their Mer Blood. Never thought of them as magical.

OK. Thanks.

I'm hoping to level mostly in stamina and health rather than magicka. Alteration protection is the only magic I am planning to use so I need only enough magicka to caste the spell. After that I'm hoping to swap to sword and shield and rely on melee combat so dual casting may be beneficial for that extra time given.

Orcs don't get a bonus to Alteration, Dragonskin doesn't get any benefit from Dual-Casting, and 100% cost reduction echantments are cheap and perk-intensive.