What is shouting but a school of magic, basically?
Hence why I vote magic: it doesn't limit itself to a single school. Magic has already shown the ability to levitate, to reflect attacks, to silence enemies, to dodge incoming attacks with lightning speed and cat-like reflexes, to disintegrate items, to detect life and move objects with the mind, to let one breathe underwater or walk upon it, etc etc etc. All those possibilities you mentioned are equally possible with magic, except magic definitely seems to be the more thoroughly researched of the two.

Fight the grey beards...you lost didn't you. I'm pretty sure the voice being used as a weapon is only a dragonborn thing, A master could use intent to focus the words into a shout where the dragonborn can only learn old shouts.

Gameplay wise? The mage.

Lorewise? They'd be largely equal.

You high? The master of the Th'um could wreck havoc with only his voice. There is a reason the Greybeards remain isolated. Everyone is afraid of them, and for good reason. Its said that the world could be destroyed if the rights words were spoken from the Th'um. A mage would have to consort with a Deadra to do that himself.

Where is that said?

Edit: Though we've seen more abilities from thu'um, such as temporarily making an et'ada (i.e, a dragon) mortal. So on second thought I may consider it more powerful. Though I'm probably forgetting something one the mages' side.

I'd rather be the Master of Magic.

So... Why not be both?

become ethereal shout

ice form shout


Match over.


Lore-wise though. I think the mage would win. See to the war of the tongues against the tribunal.

Then again if the opponent mage wasn't a living god, it might be more equal. No idea really.

It would be great if thu'um have their own skill perks. So I can playing without use weapon nor magic, but shouts! Just like Greybeards, they are really cool. And don't have cooldown time.

Mage: Casts 100% Chameleon
Dragonborn: Uses Etheral.


Problem?

The master of the voice and the master mage greet each other kindly, they then take there places to see what is stronger, the thu'um or the arcane arts...
The master of the voice starts with a Fus-Ro-Dah which is blocked by the mages ward. The mage then summons two dremora lords to fight for him, the master of the thu'um counters this by calling down Od-Ah-Viing who engages the Dremora lords. The mage orders the dremora to attack the master of the voice insead but the dremora are too focused in battle.

The mage tries using his master destruction spell lighting storm but just before it is launched the master of the voice uses Feim-Zii-Gron and the strike passes right through him, the greybeard then uses Zun-Haal-Vik and the ring from the mage goes flying from his hand, the greybeard smiles and uses Strun-Ba-Qo and he is smited with the power of Nirn. Voice wins.

Ehm... The master of Thu′um should win. But in Skyrim it would svck.

The Voice would shatter him but honestly if we compare master vs master it's more like getting the first shot in than anything else.

i think the master of the voice would win. magic can be limitless but no one fully understands it yet there is still a lot to be learned before it can be truly mastered.

the voice being an ability that can alter physics with just a few words would be the more powerful the dragonborn can learn the shout right away due to a blood born ability it doesn't need to be studied like magic and it would always have the intended effect where as magic would be trial and error.

Divath Fyr vs Arngeir that's a match i would liked to have seen.

lol, new signature

Why Chameleon?
100% Reflect damage and spells is possible.

On PC there are a couple of console commands that let you disable cooldown periods and even unlock all the shouts used by dragons. Playing with that ability is like being in god mode. Sure, a mage could try to silence a Th'um master but only if he's quick enough to land the first strike. Otherwise, there's no contest.

Well, a mage could become invisible, shoot a few calm spells, summon daedra and prepare some uber nuke to nuke his enemy to oblivion.

Thought the shouting guy could use detect life and fus ro dah the mage somewhere

I think it all boils down on how fast the mage can cast his calm spell, and how fast the thuum contender can shout his fus ro dah.

well, the calm spell has to take a few seconds to charge. the fus ro dah is almost instant, just yell it as soon as the mage's palms begin to glow

You can't go around creating new words. Mages just imagine something, put a heck of power behind it (the limitless power of the ring) and it happens.

To take examples already given: The thu'um master calls forth lightning storms and doesn't have to do anything to defeat the master wizard, but just let the lightning kill him. The wizard simply takes controle over the storm and actually uses it against the thu'um master.

you don't need thu'um to kill a dragon. Magic is more than enough. Imagination beats language without a doubt. You can combine existing words to create new shouts, but you can imagine something completly new and make it exist through magic. A master wizard with a limitless supply of magicka is, imo, equal to a god.

edit: and everything about magic taking time to charge up and shouts just being shouted instantly are just gameplay. Magic is used at the same speed you can think and it takes less time to actually think something than making your mouth move and say something. You don't need to use your hands to cast magic. That is a gameplay mechanic as well.

Sure you can: the dragonrend was created by mortals, remember?

'Shouting' isn't simply saying a few words. But if you've the willpower to make it happen, you can translate words and concepts into reality.

Woah there, tiger. Everyone has a reading comprehension fail now and again.

Just through lore, I'd say the Tongues would have it. Read Children of the Sky. I don't recall any mages being so powerful they needed to be sequestered or gagged.

That said, it just makes me that much more disappointed that shouts aren't viable to use in combat by themselves. You know, with the game mechanics.

But the words they used to create shout already existed before the making of the shout. I know youc an create new shouts, but you can't just go around making new words. So you can't make your immagination become reality with shouts like you can with magic. Or atleast that's how I see it.

An interesting question.
The Voice is definitely powerful but I wouldnt cast magic totally aside. A master of magic would be pretty even maybe even more powerful.
If you look at people like the Psijic Order who made there entire Island disappear for 500 years and have some kind of omnipotence like freezing time and knowing where you are which even other masters of magic like Tolfdir and Savos Aren cant seem to master/understand. Than we have Mages like Divayth Fyr or Mannimarco who are over thousand years old with Divayth Fyr even being over 4000 years old. So im pretty sure a true Master of Magic would be a mighty opponent for a Master of the Voice.