So Ive just created an Altmer, who i initially thought would be a skirmisher type character. But then, for the first time ever, I equipped the flames spell. Now Im in love with magic, and want to try a mage instead. Problem is, I have no idea what Im doing, and dont want to make any crucial mistakes early on. My plan is to simply explore, and maybe do bounty quests, Im trying to avoid factions and the main quest altogether.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on what I should or shouldnt be doing as a mage virgin. Be as general or specific as you like with your advice, I need it all!

Don't use swords




But no. Get the dual-casting destruction ASAP, along with the perk that comes after it (the one that causes staggering with a dual-casted spell). That's really all the advice I have to give, the rest depends on how you want to play

I'm using a dark elf and building a more magic oriented character this time around (first time ever really in the Elder Scrolls, been playing since Morrowind). I'm basically a battle mage @ this point, and find myself using destruction magic exclusively over my one handed weapons.

My advice, ALWAYS bring a follower, collect/buy any ingredients to make restore magicka potions and always have tons of them on you when dungeon diving/bandit hunting. Take some time to improve you're conjuration as well, having a follower + a conjured creature is a must if you're planning on trying to get by using just magic. I also train my block/one handed on the side vs animals and the like because sometimes there's just to many enemies and not enough magicka.

I've been using a spell combo lately, fireball (50 pts of damage in a 15ft radius) + Chain Lightning on large groups of enemies, and it works wonders and looks sweet as well. caution dont fire into crowds with you're follower ;x

another tip, use/make paralyze potions, makes battling tough enemies a breeze in some cases.

couple of specifics-

i should obviously be investing points into magicka, and maybe health, but what about stamina?
should i wear armour or robes, what is better?
and is it advisable to join the CoW, or will i find new spells as loot?

1) Perhaps. If you're going to be doing bounty quests, then it helps if you can run away for a bit whilst you magicka recharges.
2) I play a necromancer in light armour, and it can offer a bit more protection early on. But if/when you get the mage armour perk in alteration, robes would be the better choice
3) Absolutely. There's a trainer for each school of magic who will also sell you relevant spells, and finding the higher level spells as loot is hard.

Other than that, don't forget about enchanting, it will save your life. and either alchemy or speech to get more access to potions, particularly magicka/regeneration potions. But it also depends on your preference. As I said, i wear light armour, and combining that with spells like ironflesh grants you a similar armour rating to heavy. But those kinds of spells use a lot of magicka to cast, and you may run out more.

Just remember to pick a path; whether you concentrate on destruction & alteration, conjuration, or even illusion, don't spread you perks too freely, but also don't stick to a single school.

Use duel casting or magic and staffs, magic and a sword, axe or mace, or unique dagger if you have to.
Also you can use a shield and magic. The shield of Perydrite, Spellbreaker is good for mages, it deflects magic. Also good is Ysgrammers Shield.
I always carried a shield and at least one sword.
You can also have the option to use sword and shield then. It does happen if a enemy requires 'mage punching' tactics.
Mage punching is when you have a mage who is strong and magic can't get close to, but is lightly armoured. Then the best thing to do is charge in with your strongest melee weapons, or weapon and shield and bash them to death.
You can also use shield and staff.


Put most of your points into magicka. But not all. You need some in health and stamina.

Pick 1 main school and a secondery school.
You can do them all, but you have to focus on one main and one secondery.
My mage was destruction main and conjoring secondery.
You should have destruction spells whatever you do, because they are very useful. And a lot of fun.

Definately join the CoW. You can become archmage and get some awesome robes.
Always buy spells, never rely on loot, only the basic stuff is in loot.

You can use robes, light armour or heavy armour.
Mine wore robes or heavy armour for hard fights. Robes mostly.
I would say robes and light armour is best.
But keep some enchanted heavy stuff about for hard fights.

You don't even need armour sometimes. I enchanted fine clothes, boots and gloves.
I changed to thalmer gloves and boots for combat and formal.
I constructed a outfit made up of the archmages robes, thalmer gloves and boots and the mages circlet.
The Armour Of The Old Gods set is awesome too.
Enchant you boots with stamina enchantments, it helps when running away from fights or till your magicka recharges.

Personally, I think mages look the best most of the time, because the outfits are mostly good looking and flattering.

Be careful with followers, because some walk straight into your attacks.
Lydia is the worst.

It is easier to not bother with followers at all, because sometimes you kill them by accident, a lot.
I did'nt bother with followers most of the time, apart from Vorstag.
He is the only one who works properly all the time as far as I can tell.

If you have to fight with people, use focused spells and a sword or staff more. If it get's really bad use all weapons.
If it gets really bad, and they die or go down a lot, use healing hands and a staff or melee weapon.

Wow, great advice, thanks heaps

Oh hey, I completely forgot.

Vampirism + Necromage perk = Better magical effects on yourself as well as on undead.

What does this mean?

Well, after the perk was applied while I was a vampire, my 25% Destruction Reduction enchantment was boosted to 31% reduction.

Know what else it affects? Conjuration, Restoration, and Alteration. That's right: Your healing spells will heal more health, and your conjuration/alteration spells will last I think it was 50% longer.

I use light armor, but once I get the arch mage robes, and the mage armor perk Ill probably switch. But that wont be until the late 50's or 60's. I also use stoneflesh/oakflesh when Im entering a particularly long/large dungeon with lots of enemies.

If you want to maximize your magic abilities, don't spend too much on stamina, buy/steal/make strength potions to help you carry lots of loot, but don't completely forget about it!

My magic is at about 290, healths at 240, stamina's at 210 i think right now.

I use a little bit of everything.I use a bow first then if someone gets too close I hit them with some fireballs and when my magic gets low I switch to a onehanded weapon and a staff.Needless to say I'm having a ball.

I just did a pure mage. No armor, no weapons at all.
I put no points at all into stamina and about 4:1 magic to health. early then all magicka late.
Put perk points into destruction, alteration, conjuration get double casting in all three.

Standard procedure when facing an enemy - stoneflesh (or equiv) -conjure atronach -back up and wait while magic regenerates, -spam best fire spell. -Potions for regenerate magicka. -repeat. Sometimes to change things up you can use bound swords

I tend to use potions more than restoration and I tend to use dual casting destruction rather than a ward spell and one handed destruction. So restoration does not get leveled quickly for me.
Use a follower early on, then when your destruction starts to have more splash damage, drop the follower and switch to conjured help.

Find a robe you like that gives at least 100% magicka regeneration, then enchant shoes and gloves with fortify magicka or reduce destruction cost, whatever you can find that you can disenchant. You get a circlet and an amulet from the mages college quests. Wear them too to boost magicka..

At higher levels pure mage is as powerful as any character I have played.
Another way to go is with fear and courage spells and necromancy (raising dead, etc.) I have not explored that yet.

For the very first time in an TES game, I became a pure mage. It's great fun.
Unfortunatly I can't give much advise because I'm very new to the magic schools (I'll be watching this thread for tips). The only bit of advise I can offer is the "Quiet Casting Perk". It's surprisingly strong. I can be right behind an enemy and continuely cast invisabilty with out them even knowing.

Been playing my new mage for about three hours now, am level 7. Im having a surprisingly good time, I seem to have found a lot of the spark for Skyrim that I had lost after multiple warrior type characters. To be honest I've never been brave enough to try a mage before, as in previous ES games I've played, I have found them to be the easiest enemy to defeat. Made me a bit loathe to try it out, but I'm glad I did. I havent got a follower yet, would an archer or a sword'n'board be better?

Also, does anyone know why the Novice Robes of Destruction are woth so much more than the Minor Robes of Destruction, when they do the exact same thing?

If you going for a full mage then use Conjuration a lot as back-up. If you ever run out of Magicka, you'll have a summon or zombie there to defend ya!

Use Restoration for healing, that is a big time helpful one. Get the perk that makes healing spells work on Stamina, Help when running away from enemies.

As for Destruction. Well.. Use each spells accordingly to the enemy. Use Frost Spells on Melee Enemies, Shock on Magic Enemies, and so on. Also, use the spells according to their weaknesses.

The #1 thing I recommon is at least entering the College. Don't bother the questline, just enter it. The majority of the good spells are in there.

I prefer board and sword followers, for the simple reason they rush ahead and run interferance, while I sit back and conjure atronarchs, heal and throw fire balls etc,. It also gives you time for your magika to regenerate. Just be careful of "area of effect" spells (I learnt that the hard way).

Can only tell you my approach. I don't put any points in stamina unless I'm rolling a battle mage who can switch to melee weapons. Put everything into magicka and health for a pure mage. But you should consider rolling a battle mage, too- it's very viable with the enchanting skill, since you can make heavy armor that has good magicka enchants.

Don't rely only on Destruction. It doesn't scale, so you'll need some backup in combat. Conjuration and Illusion are both powerful. Build conjuration by using bound weapons and casting soul trap (it can even be cast on corpses to train). Illusion you can train using Muffle which can be cast outside combat.

Do the mage college quest line asap. It gives powerful rewards.

Alongside your potions, Elsweyr fondue is a good fortifier. Eidar cheese wheels are kind of scarce, so start looking for them to buy/ steal.

Enchanting and alchemy are both very helpful for survivability as well as making gold. Spell books are expensive so I was short of gold early on until I started transmuting. Northeast of Whiterun there is a bandit camp called Halted Stream Camp with a Transmute spell book that will turn iron ore into silver and gold. My mage financed her education by transmuting ores, smithing jewelry and enchanting it with low-level soul gems.

If you're on PC, I recommend Balanced Magic and Midas Magic mods. The latter adds a lot of fun and useful spells.

I found that Belrand was a good follower. He's a spellsword so he can give melee support, but he wields staves very well also. Usually he would start off with a staff and switch to melee later. This would give both of us time to do some damage before he got in the way of my spells, which is a problem with pure melee followers.

My mage is at a very low lvl right now, and I've only done battlemages/spellswords before.

I don't have alot of tip's but I know that the bound sword I have has been a lifesaver more than a few times.

The difference in Robe prices is because of the affiliations of the Mages who wear them, No law abiding citizen wants to pay for clothing worn by people who can be legally killed on site by everyone else in the game.
On being a solo mage, carry one Destruction staff, and a Staff of Familiar. The Destruction staff is a backup for running out of Mana, and the Conjuration staff is useful for setting off traps, and creating diversions.

The Minor Robes reduce your magicka cost, while the Novice Robes reduce the cost plus regenerate your magicka faster.

I'm also playing a mage character, and she is a lot of fun. One suggestion I'd make - pick up the Conjure Flame Atronach spell as soon as possible. It's available early and it's a real lifesaver, especially against mobs of enemies.

As far as followers go, I tend to use followers who fill in my character's weaknesses. So for a mage, I tend to favor a melee type character, while for a warrior I tend to use ranged types. One thing to keep in mind though, is that melee followers can often get caught up in and killed by the area of effect spells, so be careful.

I'd definately go for a sword and board companion if you're a mage, you don't want 2 ranged people, you'll get rushes more than you should be with an archer. but if you use runes, and like to fight from a distance and plan/trap your enemies then it wouldnt be such a bad idea I guess. Much harder path to take though.

I also just found a spell called Ebony Flesh, improves armor rating 100 for 60 seconds. Definately a must have for later levels. I never knew this spell existed an ive put in almost 250 hrs already lol

Don't ignore all the factions. You really need to do the College of Winterhold quests to get access to their spells and training.

Also wear armor. The robes in this game svck when it comes to combat. Oh and invest heavily in enchanting. You'll need it for destruction casting. And conjuration too. Since your playing a mage your going to be a lil squishy so it's best to have backup. Don't pick any of the Necromancer perks.... just don't

There was a thread in the General Discussion a few weeks ago about this. I was surprised at how many people said they didn't put any points into Magicka. These folks seemed to think that Health was a better choice, in the long run. I think the reasoning was that Magicka gear and perks made putting points into Magicka superfuous.

Yeah, with high Enchanting you can create gear so that you don't use any Magicka, right? ...like 4 pieces at 25% reduction from Fortify [School] enchants?

I've always played a Mage--typically Breton. Getting the basic spells like Flame and Spark were first on the list, followed by learning Alchemy. Almost all perks have gone into Magicka (which I have at about 600 right now). I've never used one for Stamina, and only 3 perks on Health. Stamina is great for swinging a blade, etc. but of little use when flaming a Falmer. Becoming Archmage is cool, as is the Archmages Robe--for awhile anyway.

All I wear now, is Daedric, enchanted with Health gains, Magicka gains, Alchemy gains--you get the idea--I even got 3 different wedding bands enchanted with various improvements depending on the environment. One with a 25% increase in Alchemy while making potions, while another has a 62% Magicka increase for those times when casting spells is key to survival.

It is really tough to decide which Mage skills to master first, such as Destruction, Alchemy or Restoration--a good balance between those three will go along ways--but the choice of which ones to master first, are yours alone to make.

Nothing wrong with using Heal in one hand, and Fireball in the other. Mastering your Alchemy skills can make big bucks, and make loads of Health and Magicka potions. Some potions I made yesterday were close to $1500 in value.

Being able to Conjure up a pal to give you some breathing space in a rumble is invaluable too, so time spent Conjuring is time well invested.

Why do I prefer being a Mage?...

I was in this large underground cavern with Lydia. There was a bandit standing idle on a rope bridge that was up pretty high. She plugged him with an arrow, which just got him irritated.

I cast a Fireball spell that blew him completely off the bridge--never did find the body.

Yeah, there's something about being a Mage.....

Yeah, but remember that Stamina also determines how much you can carry and how long/far you can sprint - those things may be important to her.