So if you're playing as a Pure Mage would you pump any points into Health or Stamina at all?

Why? Why not?

Azrael
The Nord with the Sword

I say no, put it all in Magicka. You should get hit rarely, but you are casting spells all the time. But I recommend Become Ethereal.

If you are planning to grind enchanting and wear lots of Magicka reduction gear, you can get around this. But to me that is boring.

If you die you needed more health.

For my Mage. I'll usually put 2 points in Health every 10 levels. 1 or 2 points into Stamina. And then use Enchanting and what not to fill in anything I feel like I'm missing.

lol

It probably depends on your difficulty level and what skills you plan on using as a pure mage. If you used conjuration you wouldn't need to take any health at all and most fights will be easy. If you were just a destruction mage and used all support skills you might need a little health. I had full health, 100, and a dragon ate me on master so I figure at least 200 health would be smart. I have never taken stamina as a mage ever.

I say, it's up to the person playing the game.

Are you dying every time the wind blows your way? Increase health.

Can you use more inventory space? Increase stamina.

A pure mage doesn't have to be a glass cannon with boat-loads of unused magicka.

The ideal build for a mage in Skyrim is all points into health. Everything else is pointless, since you can get almost all spells you use to 0 mana cost and stamina is useless for magic.

If you wanna impose those stupid "self-restrictions" on your mage then idk, whatever floats your boat will do, just avoid stamina as it's useless for mages.

100 health.

How do you get through levels 1-20/25 on any difficulty? I've seen these comments before but can you really get 100% magic(school) reduction on like level 5?

Stamina does affect how much you can carry.

Also, how would you get spells to 0 magic cost if you never get your spell ability high enough to cast higher-level spells to begin with?

Just enough to not die. At higher levels, the size of your mana pool tends to matter less.

His spells cost 0, why would he need magicka?

Unless he gimps his character and plays as a mage who doesn't search for infinite power that comes with -100% spell cost. I'd say a 3 / 1 ratio on magicka and health would be quite good.

I'm no expert but if you play on expert or master difficulty it might be a good idea to put points into health. I am!

On expert my mage is now level 38 and Im putting all points into health now.

It seems intimidating at first, but pool all your available points/perks in to mana/your favorite magic schools.

Idealy, with 300 mana by say, level 14-15, your health will be meaningless because of your prowress as a mage.

300 should be more than enough to last even against an Ancient Dragon's bite.

You could for example grind enchanting + smithing to 100 ( by making and selling enchanted iron daggers ) then make armor of your choice and enchant it with 25 % reduction on 4 pieces

You can easily get magic damage resistance up to 97%, you have illusion and conjuration so you never get aggro, why do you need health? Theoretically you never need to even level up, if you power game it.

Like I said, if you think grinding enchanting up fast and putting on a full set of gear that you make is a good idea, you don't need magicka. However, then you are stuck with that gear or you are useless. But not everyone wants to put full perks into enchanting and go around hunting mudcrabs to fill soul gems. If you are playing in a more "normal" way, magicka is more valuable than health because it gives you more options in a fight, and so long as you have some magicka left you can usually avoid taking damage.

Don't forget fortify health enchanted gear. All that running around mountains and carrying armour and weapons to sell would make the weediest Altmer academic fitter and tougher, but fortify just seems the proper way for a mage to get a good health pool.

You can get 100% reduction without touching enchanting yourself. But only for one specific magic school. *shrug* Basically, a full mage doesn't theoretically need anything at all of the stats. However, you cannot be 100% sure at every single step in the game that you won't get his by something, thus there's a little HP you'll need.

I played with 150 points of health on my mage on expert, but got tired of geting 1 shot by forsworn and draugr even with Dragonhide and my best attempts of evading. So my next goal is getting 200ish.. As much as I enjoy the challenge I just hate getting randomly 1 shot >.<
I don't know though, it probably mostly depends on difficulty setting.

Also, I don't enjoy playing 0 magicka cost setup, so I went more of a magicka and magicka regen way with only some cost reduction

50 50 Mana Health


You need it when fighting other ranged unless you intend to exploit the AI.

100% health for me.

Either you're a warrior dressed up as a Mage, or you're an Enchanting exploiter :>

Personally, I prefer a 4:1:0 ratio of Magica:Health:Stamina for a pure mage build.

The ratios I use for other builds are:

0:4:3 - Pure Warrior
0:3:5 - Thief
1:2:2 - Assassin
2:3:2 - Magic Knight