Hi all,

I am an veteran Oblivion player making its first Skyrim character (a mage). I have a few questions and would appreciate your help. Feel free to answer any question, you don’t have to answer them all (even though that would be so great!)

1) Since there is no more Open Lock spells, I guess I need to invest in the Lockpicking skill. If I increase that skill without investing in Lockpicking perks, will I be unable to open some chests in dungeons or similar “can’t do” restrictions ?

2) About the stat distribution: the game guide suggests 80% magicka 20% health for a pure mage like me, while some people suggest 100% magicka until lvl 30, then some health. If I do not invest in stamina as a mage, will I have major drawbacks ? Can I still carry a decent amount of loot? Is 80% magicka investment too low, normal or too high (not enough health) ?

3) I have read that if you reach lvl 100 Enchanting and get the Extra Effect perk, you can get double -25% cost (like -25% destruction and -25% conjuration) and use that to get 2 schools of spells to cast for free. Is it possible to get both destruction and conjuration to cast for free with only one set of gear? My guess is that it could done by having 4 pieces of equipment (Ring, Necklace, Chest, Helm) each having Fortify 25 destruction and Fortify 25 Conjuration ? (that fortify effect works as a -% magicka cost ?). That would allow me to save a lot of Destruction and Conjuration perks. Am I right or did I miss something here ?

4) Can we still create spells, as we could in Oblivion ?

5) Is the Recovery perk still bugged if you already have 100% magicka regeneration without those perks? Reference: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim_talk:Restoration#Recovery_Perk

6) Considering that I will be taking Benefactor (which means I only have to invest 1 point in experimenter to get purity) is the Purity perk worth it? I’ve found a list of Purity-only potions and poisons to balance it out, but I’m not sure: (go at the very bottom of the following page): http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Useful_Potions

7) Any general starting tip will be appreciated.

Well you can pick any level lock from the get go as long as you have the patience, and enough lockpicks. No need to invest anything in lockpicking, usually works to do it systematically and test the 9 major radii points and you should be close enough on one of them to adjust and open the lock from there.

1 - No need to perk it up. You will get plenty of practice at the mini game and be fine with it.

2 - Personal pereference there. I split magicka and health myself but I didn't play a "pure mage"

3 - Yep, 100 enchanting perk allows for 2 perks, which allows for 2 schools to be mana free. Just don't expect to grind it and be able to kill anything

4 - Nope

5 - Not sure

6 - Not sure

1) Don't waste perks in lockpicking, it is a minigame that is easy once you have practice. The only thing you lose if you fail are lockpicks which are dirt cheap and EVERYWHERE. You will be able to open any chest as long as you have a bunch of lockpicks.

2) I do 50/50 split with health and magicka, but I play on master. People who say 100% magicka until level 30 rely on destruction for damage, which I don't on most characters. That being said, destruction is really fun, but getting one shot by archers because you have 100 health is not.

As for stamina, I haven't put any points in stamina and haven't had a problem. You can get a follower right in the beginning and have them haul your loot.

Another thing you can do that most people don't know about is getting a staff of zombies or similiar. A staff allows you to create a zombie, but when it dies it doesn't turn to ash, allowing you to resurect it again. Just slay some low level bandit and bring them to your dungeon of choice, clear the dungeon and stash all the loot in a chest. Your zombie mule will probably die somewhere in the dungeon, raise them and have them follow you to the stash. Kill the zombie put all the loot in the corpse then raise them again and bring them to the nearest town, kill the zombie at the shopkeeper and sell your loot. An added bonus is if you are travelling outdoors, bears and sabre cats are really strong but are considered low level.

3) Yes you can get 100% magic cost reduction in two schools, but I don't recommend it.

Destruction is the only school that requires constant magicka use, the rest of the schools only require casting every now and then.

If you are a pure mage, you should have a decent magicka pool for conjuration even without perking the half magicka cost, you only have to cast your summons once or twice and necromancy spells have really low magicka cost if you prefer that route. You are better off getting 100% reduction for destruction and magicka, resists, health or whatever for the second enchant.

4) Nope

5) You don't really need that perk if you use robes with magicka regen on them. A lot of people say magicka regen is worthless because in combat your regen is so small that it is pointless. These people either don't have illusion, or realize that you can cast calm and pacify spells that allow you to get out of combat as long as you can calm all hostile enemies. This allows you to regen back to full in seconds if you have good magicka regen gear. This method won't work with undead or dwemer automatons until you get the master of minds perk however.

6) Purity perk is not worth it once you learn good combos. The game will actually save all the combos for you at the alchemy table and list the stuff you learned how to create and list them if you have the ingredients in your inventory. The purity perk is actually bad if you want to sell potions for profit. The value of a potion is determined by the effects of that potion. It doesn't matter at all if they are good or bad effects. That being said, if you have 100 skill, your potions will probably be worth more than the amount of money any shopkeeper has available anyway. Yet before level 100, you want to try to make as valuable a potion as possible since the more valuable the potion, the more skill increase you get.

7) Illusion school is really powerful but you have to invest a lot of perk points into it. It is also incredibly fun! Cast frenzy on a bunny in one of the outdoor cities >:3 Invisibility + muffle is a get out of jail free card.

Conjuration is the most powerful school in terms of damage for spell casters. The Necromancy spell, "Dead Thrall" can be the most powerful spell in the game but requires a decent amount of effort in terms of corpse hunting and because of game bugs check out this topic for more info http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/615803-the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/61115903. In general, necromancy is weaker than atronaches until you get to skill 100, but you can max out the best spell with only 4 perk points by going up the necromancy branch.

Destruction has ridiculous magicka cost and the damage doesn't scale as much as it should. The best damaging non-master spell, incinerate, which does 100 damage per cast with the damage perks and costs a ton of magicka. Any of the wall spells such as fire, frost, or storm all do a set amount of damage unchanged by any perks, which is 50 damage a second and don't cost a lot. The key is to get an enemy to stand in it, which is easy if they are fighting your summons, each other, or are paralyzed.

Alteration and restoration are supplemental schools.

2) Go 100% into health if at all possible and go with the fortify school route. It is the optimal choice but isnt the most rpg-ish style of play. stamina is mostly worthless but serves some utility (longer spirnting, carry weight).

3) my current build is 100% fortify destruction and 58% fortify destruction. the reason is 1)guardian circle gives me infinite magicka regen when combined with magic absorption 2) grand healing is absolutely amazing and will heal 330 to you and your party with the relevant perk and a certain special ability from a quest. in retrospect i should have brought restoration to 87%.

as for spell schools you can ignore atleration illusion and conjuration as they require a huge investment in perks/magicka stat for very little combat gains. but again they have a lot of worthy rpg elements.

5) i didnt know about this, luckily i only have 10% magicka regeneration.

Pray, do tell how a mage is suppose to get through the game to the point where he can max enchant his gear if he will have no magicka?

And Illusion is for crowd control and escape, Conjuration is the highest damage school for a mage while Alteration makes up for lack of armour. To say they have very little combat value is just plain ignorant.

Since Berserkerstein already did a good job answering the OP I'll only add a few random ideas:

1. Get a good tanking follower early in the game to avoid frustration. You'll be squishy, especially on master level.
2. A good reason why you should invest some points in health is to increase your health regeneration rate. Both magicka and health regen rates are calculated on the size of the pool. It's your choice though.
3. Your follower can open most locked containers in the game without lockpicks. Use him if you'd rather not bother with locks. Some locks however will be above their limit.
4. Do not sell silver ore, gold ore or gems. They can be smithed into crowns, necklaces and rings that you can enchant and sell for big profit.
5. The only use I can see for Alchemy as a mage is better skill boosting potions. It's up to you to decide if it's really worth all the perk points to achieve this.
6. Some bosses can turn your summoned creatures against you. So far I've only found one but there might be more. Don't be surprised if it happens in other words.
7. Altmer is the best pure mage race in the game in my opinion. Bretons are perhaps more suited for Conjuration. Just take note that the magic resistance for Bretons is 25% and not 50% as it says ingame.

Do try not to get eaten by an Ice Troll or something...

I'll add one more thing. Base your decisions off what you want to play like there is no penalty for wearing armor being a mage if that's what you want to do , you can enchant heavy armor the same as a robe , it's all up to your preferrences. I'm liking the sort of "vigilant of stendarr" look right now.Got a nice robe and plate helmet , gloves , boots. I was a little disappointed that it's a little complicated trying to use keybound spells to mainhand while retaining a shield in the offhand. Was gonna be my version of a sort of holy paladin. But I'll settle for my current appearance , kinda looks like I'm wearing a tabbard over some lighter armor. Dunno why , I just like the look.

1) Since there is no more Open Lock spells, I guess I need to invest in the Lockpicking skill. If I increase that skill without investing in Lockpicking perks, will I be unable to open some chests in dungeons or similar “can’t do” restrictions ?

I disagree with another poster. The lockpicking tree is worth it. I do not bother putting points into the "Wax Key or the Master perk." I do suggest getting the "Treasure Hunter" and "More Gold in Chests." My husband does not have it and went into a few dungeons and the loot was, well poor. I went into the same dungeons with these perks and got better loot. The crazy thing is, he is higher level then I am. But you can open chests with or without the perk(s), takes practice and a lot of lockpicks.

2) About the stat distribution: the game guide suggests 80% magicka 20% health for a pure mage like me, while some people suggest 100% magicka until lvl 30, then some health. If I do not invest in stamina as a mage, will I have major drawbacks ? Can I still carry a decent amount of loot? Is 80% magicka investment too low, normal or too high (not enough health) ?

Depends. If you choose to ignore stamina and up your Health and Magicka instead, you will not be able to carry more loot but you can compensate by enchanting or buying a pair of boots with extra weight capacity. You can also buy or make potions that do the same and stack. Good idea to toss in a few points in Stamina and Health. The guide book can be helpful but remember this is there testing on what is best for them, not necessarily the player.

3) I have read that if you reach lvl 100 Enchanting and get the Extra Effect perk, you can get double -25% cost (like -25% destruction and -25% conjuration) and use that to get 2 schools of spells to cast for free. Is it possible to get both destruction and conjuration to cast for free with only one set of gear? My guess is that it could done by having 4 pieces of equipment (Ring, Necklace, Chest, Helm) each having Fortify 25 destruction and Fortify 25 Conjuration ? (that fortify effect works as a -% magicka cost ?). That would allow me to save a lot of Destruction and Conjuration perks. Am I right or did I miss something here ?

But that is when you hit 100 and get what you need. What happens before then? You can also purchase/make fortify potions too. So if you invest in these and invest in the trees, they stack. Try it out what you are thinking for a couple of levels and see if it fits with what you want to do.

4) Can we still create spells, as we could in Oblivion ?

No you cannot it and it has upset a lot of players (raises hand and raises husband hand too).

5) Is the Recovery perk still bugged if you already have 100% magicka regeneration without those perks? Reference: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim_talk:Restoration#Recovery_Perk

Skippable not bugged. Drink a potion to increase your Magic Regen rate if your in a heavy fight. These can be found easily in stores.

6) Considering that I will be taking Benefactor (which means I only have to invest 1 point in experimenter to get purity) is the Purity perk worth it? I’ve found a list of Purity-only potions and poisons to balance it out, but I’m not sure: (go at the very bottom of the following page): http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Useful_Potions

Depends on the player and the person. Most people use Alchemy as a means of making gold easy and leveling up quickly. Some people will swear this perk is worth it, others despise it. IF you want it, get it.


7) Any general starting tip will be appreciated.

Try not to get killed by testing a fireball at a wall and getting a face full of non-burn goodness.

Lockpicking is not worth spending your perk points on. I have never been shut out of a locked door or chest because I ran out of lockpicks (which can happen in Oblivion). I have well over 200 of them and I have not even tried to hoard them. They are all over the place and you can buy them almost anywhere. (for example, if you get married, your general merchant spouse will carry them, and they are always available at the thieves guild fence.) You can open master locks with anywhere from two to ten picks even at low levels and there are enchanted items to enhance your lockpick skill. Money is also not a problem. As nice as it is to find a few hundred coins in a chest, coins in dungeons are not your main source of income anyway. You are better off leveling Smithing and Enchanting or Alchemy to make gold since merchants are plentiful and rich and you help yourself with better weapons, armor and potions at the same time. Ingredients are free if you carry a pickaxe and pick the flowers.

1) At Level 42, I have 100 Lockpicks and a skill of 60 with no perks taken. If you have any experience with Fallout3, you'll have enough skill to do Lockpicking in Skyrim. If you don't, it'll just take some practice. I had to leave a few doors very early on but that didn't last long.

2) For my Breton mage, I choose mostly Magicka but I do choose Health about every 3rd time and some Stamina too because I use Archery and for the carry weight. You can also acquire The Steed Stone power when you find it which will give you 100 pounds more carry weight too.

Wow ! I am impressed by the quality of your responses ! Thanks a lot ! Here’s a resume of what was said here (for future viewers of the tread):

If you raise your lockpicking skills and get used to the mini-game, you do not need to invest in lockpicking perks to be able to open locks. I guess you could also take some lockpicking potions?

@Bats: I’d love to take the Treasure Hunter perk, but I’m short on perks

Stat distribution: it seems 80% magicka 20% health is too extreme, many of you go for 50% / 50%, or 66% / 33%.

Ways to overcome the lack of stamina: You can enchant or buy boots to increase carrying capacity (and you can do the same with potions). You can acquire The Steed Stone power to get 100 pounds more carry weight too.

About having 2 schools casting for free: it seems that only destruction is required to go that way (since spells seem to become very expensive) and that I could get some resistance (or magicka or health) instead of a second free school. Conjuration seems very powerful according to Akanaro, I will definitely try that.

You cannot create spells in Skyrim

Magicka regen can be good if you use calm (illusion) in combat (otherwise slow magicka regen). Even there, it seems the Magicka Regen perks are not very useful according to a few of you.

Purity perk doesn’t seem to be worth it for me

I’ll get a good tanking followers (a melee guy with heavy armor ???). Your follower can open most locked containers in the game without lockpicks. Use him if you'd rather not bother with locks. Some locks however will be above their limit. However I heard that followers are fixed to the level you meant them at: is that true or do they level with you ?

Do not sell silver ore, gold ore or gems. They can be smithed into crowns, necklaces and rings that you can enchant and sell for big profit.

Some bosses can turn your summoned creatures against you. So far I've only found one but there might be more. Don't be surprised if it happens in other words.

@ pitdemon : ya, I plan to wear full double enchanted light armor (with the right perks in the Light Armor tree) in the end game.

@ Dowaco: yea, I intend to invest in Smithing, Enchanting and Alchemy

The others have been well covered so I'll stick with 7.

I'd suggest a Breton because, IMO, you will need Conjuration to survive, thrive and enjoy the game. Destruction is underpowered in SK just as it was over or at powered in OB. You just cannot wade in there and duke it out if you are pure or battle mage. You will be overwhelmed easily and often. The strategy is to send in your Conjured being while you sit outside the fray pot shotting and re-casting your conjured being as soon as it's gone or even sooner to refresh it.

I also suggest you minor (at least) in stealth and one handed. You will probably get into a melee even if you try not to. One hand so you have one to cast. Stealth so you can avoid some enemies. Also SK well rewards you making a hit while undetected.

Raise enchanting as soon as you can (I started at around level 10). Also, don't expect to use just destruction and be able to kill anything, because it doesn't scale. Choose at least conjuration or illusion, and alteration if you're using cloth. Conjuration in particular is very useful for distracting enemies with summoned creatures so you can kill them. Also, have a look at this thread:

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1273561-pure-mage-guide/page__fromsearch__1

In the long term Breton is better because of its innate defenses with its 25% Magic Resistance. The Guardian Stone of the Lord can add another 25% making it 50

However its easier to survive into the long term as the Alitmer with the +50 Magicka and the Highborn ability. A Ten Fold increase in magica regeneration is nothing to sneeze at. You'll completely recharge your magicka pool in combat in only a few seconds. They also have another hidden advantage height, because they are the tallest race they can run faster and jump higher then others.

The perk dual casting and Impact is important for destruction, if your say casting destruction for free or nearly free, repeated dual castings of say thunderbolt can keep an and enemy from fighting back. Things you don't want to touch you in melee like Giants or Ancient Dragons whose bite can really hurt. And in case your curious dual casting increases the effects 220% (x2.2) for 2.8 times the magicka. Which is most useful for destruction after you've reduced the cost to nearly zero.

For a follower I suggest http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Mjoll_the_Lioness most followers are somewhat essential if reduced to 0 hp they collapse but will get back up if not hurt to much again, in this state enemies tend to ignore them but they could be killed by you if you hit them on accident. Mjoll is truly essential and can not be killed. Thus she's a valuable meat shield.

Oh yes the Black Star is superior to Azula's Star in everyway. So when you do that quest, go for the Black Star and enjoy your reusable black soul gem.

Just don't marry Mjoll unless you plan on killing that love struck idiot Aerin. By the Nine, that guy sticks to her like [censored] on a hagraven.

Good point on Azura's star Lord Vudoklad. Contrary to what the mage tells you the Black Star can capture both white and black (humanoid) souls whereas the white star can only capture white souls. However, this might not be by design so it might change in future updates.

I'm a tes veteran myself.

1. All locks are possible to be opened from the start of the game, with the exception of key required locks.

2. All racial abilities are virtually arbitrary at higher levels as you can spend perks and stat points to make up for them, but you will only ever have a set amount of stat points so it is "best" to go with a race that starts out with a stat boost like high elf, its equivalent to getting 5 bonus levels spent on magicka. My lvl:81 spread is as follows.
M:550 (high elf) H:350 S:300. Although you would think as a mage you should ignore stamina, stamina increases your encumbrance, at S:300 i can carry 500 with no other buffs.


3. Yes you can choose 2 schools to make "free" to cast. although archmage robes grant 15% reduction to all schools, with saarthal amulet you get 18% reduction. with a pool of 550 i have little trouble making do. Highborn power also helps when i'm low. There is an exploit that allows you to wear both a falmer helmet and a circlet at once, this can be used to enchant a total of 10 enchantment "slots" over 5 armor pieces, you could get 100% reduction in any 1 school and 75% reduction in two others.

4. Sadly, but for good reason spellcrafting was not implemented in this game. It was to op for skyrim.

5. I don't know about effectiveness but i use it to get the avoid death perk, saved me more than a few times.

6. Purity actually reduces the value of crafted potions, as it is all effects that add to the overall value regardless of positivity or negativity. The amount of help you get from this perk is null compared to other perks such as Impact for destruction (works on dragons).

7.Find and finish faendal's misc quest in riverwood, he's a great starter follower/pack mule + "free" archery training to 50. Finish no stone unturned, its the new finding your roots quest (a lot easier imo) gives gold supply. Get the twin souls perk, it doubles your conjuration effectiveness, use the atronach branch to get it, but don't use atronaches, use dremora valkynaz, you in effect get 2 BAMF dremora that last 2 minutes that run up and melee everything to pieces.

I am playing a pute destruction/alteration mage with no armor, only robes, etc. Right now I am level 42 and have around 300 health and 400 magicka, and both are plenty. I think that investing in both equally is a good idea, eventually you will reduce the cost of spells so much that too much magicka will be useless, and you die very easily at lower levels. Right now I'm at the point where I almost never run out of magicka and it takes several hits to kill me. But I am not playing on master difficulty, I'm only playing at the default.

1) You don't "invest" in lockpicking, you just pick locks and it goes up just fine. Don't bother with any perks in it. For any class, least of all a mage. If you're on PC you might consider a mod that makes lockpicking easier.

2) Forget that game guide. Ideally, you will focus your gear on items that reduce spell casting cost, with an emphasis on Destruction (unless you're planning more of an Illusion-focused mage). Eventually (and Enchantment helps here but is actually not necessary) you'll reduce spell cost of 1 or 2 schools down to 0 or nearly zero. Now think about that. All those level ups where you invested into Magicka were a waste as you're casting at essentially zero cost. You would have been better off investing in Health all along. Stamina is useless to a mage, and arguably useless even to a melee fighter (thanks to food). I think you get +5 pounds carry weight for every 10 Stamina. Totally not worth it.

3) Yes, this is true. It's completely unnecessary, though. If you're playing on Master difficulty (or perhaps Expert) it is very helpful. On Adept (default) or lower difficulty, it's not even necessary. At level 40 you'll be finding gear in shops that is -25% casting cost. You don't need to get stuff to -100%, it's just cool, that's all.

5) Ignore magicka regen (or health or stamina). It's almost completely useless. If you're regenerating 1 Magicka per second, then is 2 or 3 per second helpful at all? No.

6) No. Stop at Benefactor. Everything else is not necessary.

7) I don't want to sound like Mr. Pro Gamer, cuz I'm not. Skyrim (like past TES games) just isn't that hard on the default setting. Beth designed it to be perfectly playable and beatable with any old average character meandering her way through the game, randomly picking whatever perk seemed cool at each level up, using whatever gear you thought looked cool, etc. On higher difficulties you might actually need to put some thought into character development, into gear choices, and even into equipping your follower properly. Mostly, don't worry too much and just play.

1) The minigame for lockpicking is based off of your skill more than your character's, so you should be able to open any lock in the game, regardless of skill level, as long as you have the patience and enough picks to see you through. There is no auto attempt, which is annoying.

2) If you find you are getting over-encumbered too often, you could put some points in stamina... or if that wouldn't work for your mage build, some enchanted equipment can ease disparities in your stats (the Gauldur Amulet is great for any build).

3) Probably, though I've not tried it, or played a pure mage yet.

4) Unfortunately, no. It's something we natives have been rather restless about. Pure mages tend to be nerfed later in the game, as your spells don't scale and you can't create one of an appropriate damage.

5) I won't be any help here, as I don't know.

6) Again, not much help, as I've not traveled the perk tree far enough.

7) Carry a weapon as back-up, or at least plenty of potions and scrolls. Also, I don't know about pure mage builds, but for me at level 52, the only thing I really fear are the hostile mages, because their spells continue to scale and will mess you up. You're going to want equipment that resists magic, more than likely.