My brother just got skyrim on his PC and wanted to roll a mage. I play a archer and have 0 clue about mages. He doesn't want to do restoration or conjuration, like healing and stuff and summoning creatures are not his thing. I have a few questions i need help with on mages:

- Now i have no idea what alteration or illusion is or does. Can someone explain to me what they both do? What type of skills are in each tree?
- Do mages use light armor or robes at higher levels?? Do robes count as light armor?? Should i put points in smithing as a mage??
- Do mages use any weapons that are crafted from smithing?
- Do mages need enchanting??
- Can you have a mage with points in sneak? Left tier only obviously so it is harder to detect you and can it work? Is it effective in combat?

mages do not wear armor of any kind. only robes
mages do not use physical weapons.
Mages should enchant boots and gloves becasue robes are usually already enchanted.
You can use sneak if you want. be a stealthy mage if thats your brother's thing.

Of course your brother can be any type of mage he wants. He can wear heavy or light armor and cast magic.

so no point getting smithing ok. About enchanting.... are the best robes in the game pre-enchanted ones you find or ones you enchant? In my play through i have arch mages robes as i finished college of winterhold. Can you say buy a normal robe with no enchants and enchant it into something better then that? Like whats the best robe in the game?

so far the build looks like this: http://www.ign.com/builds/the-elder-scrolls-5-skyrim?d=00000000000000000010000000001110000000000000001111111111100010000000020000000000005000111000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000510001000000000511111

I have a few things i don't understand.
- In alteration how useful are mage armor and magic resistance. For mage armor it says if you are wearing no armor, do robes count as armor?
- What does atronach in alteration exactly do? Every spell that hits you, you gain 30% magicka??

- In the destruction tree it says rune master. What exactly are runes??
- And should you take dual casting in destruction tree?

- In restoration tree should you max it? How far should you go in this tree?
- How useful is avoid death??

magic resistance is rather useful.
robes give no defense so i recommend wearing a robe but having light/heavy armor guantlets and boots on.
Heavy armor slows your magicka regeneration speed.
dual casting makes your magic attacks more powerful when dual weilding so I do recommend it.
avoid death seems useful I have never had the chance to pick that perk though.
Runes are basically magical land mines that you can shoot onto the ground.
restoration is rather useful if you are a mage because you wil not have alot of armor.
I do highly recommend keeping health potion on hand though.
Also your brother should be a high elf because they get +50 magicka at the start of the game and a racial power to regenerat magicka faster for 60 seconds.
Or a Breton....or a Dark elf....or anything he wants but I highly recommend a high elf for a mage character.

Alteration offers a lot of different stuff, but its primary function is defense. Illusion and Conjuration are both crowd control. Take one or the other, but not both.

Your brother needs to focus on a single form of (1) combat; (2) defense; and (3) crowd control. If he's set on playing a Mage, he should perk Destruction to the exclusion of any of the Combat perk trees; that will be his primary mode of combat. Along the same lines, a Mage is likely to take Alteration perks + cloth over Smithing + Light/ Heavy armor perks. And if he doesn't like Conjuration, he'll need Illusion to deal with groups of enemies.


He can choose to wear Light/ Heavy armor (OK), smith his own Light/ Heavy armor (better), or wear cloth and heavily perk the Alternation tree (best).


Your brother could try, but it would make the game harder. He'd have to spend perks in Smithing, the relevant weapon perk tree, and in Destruction (if he wants to be Magey of course). Skip the Smithing and weapon perks in favor of Destruction.


Yes. He'll want at least 8 perk points in Enchanting so he can enchant his own clothing with Fortify Destruction and Fortify in order to bring casting cost for those spells down to zero. Probably Illusion for the 2nd school if he's not into Conjuration.

Can you have a mage with points in sneak? Left tier only obviously so it is harder to detect you and can it work? Is it effective in combat?

Sneak and Alchemy are two of the few perk trees outside of standard Mage perks that can be useful to a pure Mage.

Try something like http://skyrimcalculator.com/#18999.

Mages can use whatever armour they want. Generally, if you're going the smithing/enchanting route you can make heavy armour which is better than any robes you can find (you can enchant the same magicka regen etc abilities onto armour as robes). If not, then the mage robes you find will help you more than the armour you find (probably).

Robes: Get mage oriented unique ones, lighter (negated by armour perk).

Armour: Get more armour (240 with ironflesh + perks, compared to max of 5xx which isn't too hard with heavy armour).

Don't forget that if going the robes route, that means you can't (effectively) use any armour, not even dragon masks.


The 'best' robes depend on what you need and what level your enchanting and smithing are at. Maxed out smithing and enchanting with appropriate perks let you craft better gear than anything in-game.

I said that they do not wear armor because I was writing tips for pure mages.

If the item says "light armour" or "heavy armour" then it counts as armour (helms, gauntlets, dragon masks, etc), otherwise it's clothing (generally anything that gives 0 armour). Robes are clothing.
If you're going the robe route you really want mage armour, since the only armour you'll have will come from those spells.

Runes are like traps. You cast them on the ground, then when an enemy comes near they explode (http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Frost_Rune#Frost_Rune).

If you want to stagger enemies take dual casting (and the next perk). Otherwise, in terms of damage per magicka it's a horrible trade off.

Eh, to my mind pure mage == pure spellcaster, i.e. they can wear armour and still be a pure mage, rather than arbitrarily deciding that a pure spellcaster who wears armour is excluded, and they count as a spellsword or something.

So under the alteration tree mage armor will not work if you have boots / gloves on?
Does this seem like a solid mage build? Is crowd control really necessary as a mage? wouldn't putting points in sneak counter putting points in illusion?

http://www.ign.com/builds/the-elder-scrolls-5-skyrim?d=00000000000000000010000000001110000000000000001212121111111110000000020010101100035000111000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000510001000000000511111

If the boots/gloves are clothing boot/gloves it will still work. If they're armour boots/gloves it won't.

Whether anything is necessary depends on playstyle and difficulty. On master difficulty you'll probably want good summons and illusion spells to keep enemies from attacking you. On lower difficulties where you can take more hits (or if you put more points in health/have higher armour) they become less important.

Now i have no idea what alteration or illusion is or does. Can someone explain to me what they both do? What type of skills are in each tree?
- Do mages use light armor or robes at higher levels?? Do robes count as light armor?? Should i put points in smithing as a mage??
- Do mages use any weapons that are crafted from smithing?
- Do mages need enchanting??
- Can you have a mage with points in sneak? Left tier only obviously so it is harder to detect you and can it work? Is it effective in combat?


mages can choose to wear robes or armor. a list of spells and the schools of spells is on UESP.net. learning to use UESP will make your life better.


mages can use weapons. I just started my first mage, and so far I have made zero kills with weapons. I do plan on getting a weapon soon.

enchanting is your friend. you have head, necklace, bodyarmor, ring, boots as slots you can fill with deliciously enchanted stuff. magicka regen and more damage from spells are your friends.

being not in armor makes it easier to sneak. you can level sneak or not.


there are many ways to play a successful mage in skyrim.. some people eschew armor, others go battlemage with armor.

It's the Mage Armor perk in Alteration that doesn't work if you're wearing any armor. That's why it's kind of all or nothing. Properly perked, the spell Ebonyflesh will grant you 300 Armor for ~3 minutes, which provides about 50% physical damage mitigation. The cap is ~567 (80%), which can be easily obtained with 3-5 perk points between Smithing and Light or Heavy Armor, but it's been my experience that a pure Mage won't often need the extra mitigation. Plus there are a ton of useful Alteration spells, so heavily perking the tree has lots of other benefits too.

If you fill out the Alteration tree, you'll also be able to use Dragonhide before boss fights, which will cap your physical mitigation at 80% for a minute or two.

• Enchanting looks good.
  
• Alchemy is good too, but not really necessary for a pure Mage.
  
• I wouldn't put more than 1 point in Stealth; the first point provides a 20% boost to Sneak, but every point thereafter grants just a further 5%.
  
• Muffled Movement is good since it frees up a boot enchant slot, but your brother won't need anything else in Sneak if he's taking Illusion. He'll have an Invisibility spell that's much more effective.
  
• You need more points in Illusion if you're not taking Conjuration; crowd control is crucial for Mages.
  
• Too many points in Destruction. You'll want to take as few of the mana reduction perks as possible since you'll eventually get to cast Destruction spells for free (same with Illusion).
  
• Runes are wonky and sometimes hard to use. I don't recommend Rune Master.
  
• Mana Regen is a very weak stat; it's really only useful in combat, but your mana only regens at 30% of the normal rate in combat, and not at all while you're casting. I don't recommend Recovery.
  
• Regeneration and Necromage are very useful. Pick those up.
  
• Fill out the Alteration tree. Arguably the most important spell school.

Check out the build I linked above.

Its normal difficulty and his playstyle he wants to be a pure mage none of the armored mage or anything. pure mage who throws fireballs and lightning and he likes sneak because i am an archer with sneak. So he likes the idea of killing people with magic and using sneak so its harder for people to find him.

then he should:
Not use armor of any kind.
Not use physical weapons of any kind.
Put perks into destruction along with any other magic that interests him.
Put perks into sneak.
Be a high elf because high elves make the best pure mages.

- I took alchemy for the enchanting potions so you can upgrade your robes even more.
- So illusion is kind of like sneak? He would love something like invisibility i told him that you cannot use it in the game only enemies can... didn't know you could also. So in illusion you can go invisible and be harder to detect and can kill people in a stealthy manner?
- How do you get dectruction and Illusion spells for free?

So basically destruction = combat tree used to blow stuff up
alteration = defensive tree to buff you up and make you more resistant
conjuration / illusion = crowd control. One summons minnions the other uses spells to cc
Restoration = defensive but it heals you instead of giving you more buffs.

Destruction- Kills things
Alteration- helps with resistances
conjuration- summons creatures and weapons
restoration- heals/magic wards
illusion- turn yourself invisible, make people fear you, and calm people.

Alchemy is necessary to maximize the quality of crafted Armor and Weapons, but a Mage who's just enchanting his own cloth really doesn't need it. Simply getting Enchanting to 100 with the proper 8 perks will give you the ability to enchant Fortify Destruction (-25%). Put that on your Head, Neck, Chest, and Ring, and you're casting your Destruction spells for free. You can get that up to -29% with Alchemy, but you obviously can't reduce the casting cost of spells beyond 100%. You could get two schools down to -87%, and a third down to -58%, but that's kinda overkill. Just shoot for free Destruction and Illusion casting, and completely fill out the Alteration tree.


Once you've got the Invisibility spell, you can only be detected by sound. A Muffled enchant on your boots on the Muffled Movement perk in Sneak takes care of that.


100 Enchanting skill, 5/5 Enchanter, 1/1 Insightful Enchanter, 1/1 Corpus Enchanter, Grand Soul gems filled with Grand Souls, and Fortify Destruction and Fortify Illusion effects already learned. Enchant those effects on a hood, robe, necklace, and ring. Voila.


That's basically right. Alteration does a lot of stuff (Paralyze, Detect Life, Light spells, etc.) as well as defense. Illusion is crowd control and Invisibility. In Resto you're only taking Novice Restoration, Regeneration (+50% to heals) and Necromage (a nice damage boost against undead). He will need to heal himself occasionally.

i play a mage, i wear a robe, i do use some light armor, boots, bracers or gauntlets, helmet, all enchanted, i also wear a ring and amulet thats enchanted, usually with more magic enhancements,health or stamina, the lord stone is good to activate as a mage since it gives you more armor protection and magic resistance, also pick a breton for a mage and you'll get 25% bonus to magic resistance...alteration is good cause you can use magic armor which comes in handy when you're only wearing a robe, illusion has some good spells like a spell for being invisible. so those are a few tips.

I would also recommend a Breton. I saw TacticalScout1 earlier recommended Altmer, and they're certainly a good choice, but Bretons can reach 70% Magic Resistance without any enchants (25% racial passive + 30% Alteration perks + 15% Mara quest). That's important because the Fortify and Resist Magicka enchants require the same slots, so you won't be able to enchant for Resist Magicka if you zero out two casting schools.

Getting to 70% Magicka Resistance without enchants allows a Breton to combine the Atronach standing stone with the Atronach perk in Alteration for 80% Magicka Absorption. Normally, a pure Mage might be wary of Magicka Absorption because it can cause Conjuration spells to fail, but if your brother is taking Illusion over Conjuration, he has nothing to worry about. 70% Magicka Resistance + 80% Magicka Absorption provides unparalleled defense against both magic attacks and a whole host of things like Dragon Shouts, poisons, weapon enchants, etc. that can't be achieved any other way.

Whisk3yjack, I do highly recommend a Breton as well. I have made a Breton mage alongside Altmer. I do think the altmer is a better choice for a PURE mage though because of the racial bonuses. A breton is a very good choice however.
Since we are on the topic of magicka resistance a Breton would make an excellent warrior if they had the spellbreaker shield from Peryite's daedric quest and all of those perks and bonuses that you were discussing.

I have not found any robes that are better than the arch-mages robes so I am assuming that they are the best. The enchantments on them are great.

RE my signature--

once you get dual enchanting you chant resist fire/lighting/frost magic on boots and ring-- cuts magic damage down almost 50% -- and light armour takes care of melee damage reduction.. (if you ever get hit

Grab any unenchanted robes and throw 25/25 cost reduction on them. The Archmage robes are probably one of the biggest noob traps in the game.

I play as a Breton who uses Conjuration spells and the Magicka Absorption bug is really annoying if you have the Atronach stone. Therefore, if you want to use conjuration spells, the Lord stone is a very good alternative for a Breton. You can reach the 85% Magic Resistance cap without any enchants, you save two alteration perks and still have 50% Magicka Absorption once per day. Besides, with the Lord stone a properly perked Ebonyflesh will give you 350 Damage Resistance which is more than enough for a mage. On the other hand, the extra 50 Magicka points of the Atronach is not that useful considering that you will probably enchant your gear so that you can cast spells from one or two schools for free.