Well heres a suggestion that will make the magic tree interesting and more viable.

Mixing different spells

First of all the idea is based on mixing different spells in order to form a new and more powerful spell, in order to form this new spell you would have to dual cast two different types of spell . We can introduce this as a ability that you gain from a quest ( maybe from the College Of Winterhold, since it's quest line seems a bit lacking, the reason i dont want to add this as a perk is because it involves every tree.) and from then on you can use this ability in conjunction with every spell talent tree like Conjuration,Destruction etc...

The aim of this would be creating many new spells that would make the game more fun and Magic more interesting.


Some examples of possible spell mixes

Flames + Raise Dead = Raise Fiery Corpse

Flames + Frostbite+ Sparks = Elemental Beam

Conjure Bound Sword + Flames/Sparks/Frostbite = Conjure Bound Fiery/Charged/Frostbitten Sword

Guardian Circle + Flames/Sparks/Frostbite = Circle Of The Flaming/Charged/Frostbitten Guardian

Telekinesis + Muffle = You can put a item into someones pocket and charge them of crime or make someone fight them.

Ironflesh + Fire = Melt Armor , will damage your enemy and lower the enemy armor over time till the point that it gets destroyed.

These are just some examples that came from the top of my mind, there are tons and tons more that can be put in the game.

If you have any ideas feel free to post.

Bump.

Nice idea. Been mentioned before. Not going to happen unfortunately. Too many variables.

I wish they would have done a better job on perks though. It seems they based magic around -% costs and artificially raised the magicka cost of spells so they could throw in perks in each tree to reduce the cost. And between Impact and -% cost gear they based late game magic around that so they could have powerful spells (or slightly less powerful but AOE) with outrageous magicka costs because they figured you would have the -% cost gear anyway. Making early spells useless (Flamethower spells and runes).

some spell combos with interesting effects would certainly help the issue of magic being horrible. that really is one of the main issues; the appeal of magic is doing crazy, you know, magical stuff like hitting someone with frost+paralyze or an explosive soul trap that leaves the whole room ripe for harvesting. its also about control, being able to directly inflict various effect and feel like you have phenomenal cosmic power.

this idea would help, but for all the effort required to implement it you could just give us what they took away then add some more effects.

I think even the existing dual-casting system (simply raising the values) is weak.

What I'd do is instead have dual-casting produce different effects. Dual-cast Calm to get Command, for instance. Dual-cast Fireball to give it a force effect that jostles people around. Dual-cast Ice Spike to slow a foe down some more. Dual-cast Frenzy to give the target extra damage output.

Replace Impact with something else (dual-cast effects can cover some of Impact's functionality, and the perk is broken anyway). Have damage scale with skill rather than being provided by dual-casting.

@Kosh Vader

Thats exactly what i am proposing , tons of different combinations with spells would add more functionality and make the magic tree more viable because of the extra effects.

Edit:@ mes2370:

I can see how there will be ALOT of variables, they can cut that down by making certain spells not react with each other , i used to play WC3 and there was a custom game that you combined spells / items to create new ones , i think it will add a twist to the game and if the variables are cut down to lets say 100 then it would work.