Could anyone tell me if there's any diference in spellcasting while wearing armor like in Oblivion?

Not AFAIK - of course, I don't play mages so I'm always in armor.... but I use destruction magic off-hand - seems to work "normally" (whatever that may be....)

This is one reason that, in my opinion, Skyrim is better than Oblivion. There is no penalty to spell-casting when wearing armor! One can use spells regardless of armor rating. I always use magic no matter what kind of character I am role playing at the moment.

Armour, or type of armour only effects your stamina and not magika. Something about the best weapon being your mind when referring to magic.

So this pretty much makes clothes/robes/hoods useless?

Not really. They weight nearly nothing, they're quieter while sneaking, and they're required for the Mage Armor perk.

But you don't need Mage Armor when you're wearing actual armor, weight can be reduced to 0 with either a perk or the Steed stone, and a mage in heavy armor really has no reason to sneak other than personal preference.


It's one thing that Oblivion had better, in my opinion

That goes both ways. You don't need to lug around real armor when you have Mage armor; there's better uses for perks and standing stones than improving carry weight, and a hidden mage has no need for heavy armor. It all comes down to play style.

So, I'll add another point. There's no armored version of the Wench outfit.

^^This.

I don't like the argument that armor is always trumping robes. You do wind up with perks saved (by just snagging mage armor in alteration tree). People always say "just get more perks (to get actual armor)" but if that involves grinding non-character playstyle skills, then its a poor solution and a bore.

Some people like to roleplay as a straight up mage, and only use robes. I havent been casting as many spells as I thought I would be, because the magic system is less than stellar, so I wear heavy armor.

I agree. I play a monk-type mage and making him wear armor would be completely out of character. But it doesn't change the fact that you can play an armored mage and suffer no penalty whatsoever - or alternatively, play a robed mage and have no significant advantage over the previous build. Basically, it doesn't matter if you wear armor or robes, which goes against everything I ever learned about mages in RPGs. I guess it's easier to make a battlemage now, though...

imo a mage or wizard doesn't look right in full battle armor...it's just like my barbarian wears ragged trousers to look like the badass he is. Clothes make the man

There is not enough benefits to use only robes instead light/heavy armor with mages. People have to rely on their imagination to deal with it which just tells how poorly some things are designed in this game. The game itself is pretty huge and it requires quite a bit to rebalance those things with mods.

You do move more quickly in no armor than in even just light.
If only you could have the "psychic backward running radar" that NPC mages get, then you wouldn't have to worry about being hit by a lumbering armored brute.

Unless you invest heavily into enchanting perks the best mage gear available will be robes. True, gear you craft yourself will be better but thats at least 8 perks into enchanting plus some into smithing to beat the gear you got for doing a few quests.

Armor should give a penalty to spell casting.
The way it is now, it's much superior to having no armor.
You waste less perks on armor to have no weight and that it doesn't slow you down than on Mage's Armor perk in order to make unarmed style as good as armored.
On top of that, mages need to cast their armor constantly while armor users simply put armor on and don't have to worry about anything ever again.

Tsk tsk. Bethesda made a great game.... but not has great as Morrowind or Oblivion. I guess mods/dlcs/exp packs will fix skyrim unbalanced system. I stopped playing as a Mage due to lack of spells, spellmaking, needz moar dragonz, etc etc...

Anyhow, Skyrim is great and i'm having so much fun with it. But i'll have to go on Stealth on this one. Also, what's up with the arrows? They're so rare and i can't smith some? I can make silver rings and iron daggers but no arrows? Damn, this game has a few up and downs. But still a great game.