I'm playing a Nord sword & shield melee character and am using only Ancient Nord Armor & Weapons. I'm only level 16 and haven't used any magic except the original healing spell after battles and was looking to possibly pick up some other schools if they would work well with melee.

Not sure if they are needed, but thought they might come in handy as I get into higher levels since I will only be using the nord armor and weapons I make and upgrade.

Right now my perks are going into 1h blade, heavy armor, block, and archery. I put 1 perk into restoration so the healing spell wouldn't use much magicka. And I just now went to the Jarl of Winterhold so I don't have any shouts yet either.

So what magic works well with melee? For damage output I most likely will stick with my trusty Nord Hero Sword and Bow.

Thanks.

By the way, are there no Ancient Nord Shields you can make?

You should go with enchanting rather than trying to cast spells

I agree , i'd say pick enchanting too , or keep pushing the restoration a bit which can help you against undead , resplenish health and stamina for you and your companions ( although you can use potions instead ) and max your main warrior skills .

But i think you'll get more benefits from enchanting , since with your sword and shield character , you won't use wards , you don't want to invest in magicka at the expense of stamina (shield bashing eats a lot ) and health (you often take damage in melee as a warrior ) , and the benefit of having double enchants on all your armour parts and shield/swords is really great whereas some perks in your main skills are not necessary

Conjuration would be possible as well , if you have more than 6 spare points to invest and intend to raise your magicka , as summoning a dremora for meat shield can be useful with a warrior too , but you would need to invest in mana at the expense of health and stamina unless you plan to free cast (which would require enchanting anyway) , so yeah , i'd pick enchanting personally

weapon damage scales much better than magical destruction based damage. i started off as a pure mage but quickly learned things were much easier with sword and shield. now im a spellsword of sorts but i find shield and sword vastly superior to destruction in terms of power and consistency.

all of the above suggestions are good ones.

you just need to figure out what suits your character and the way that you play.

i suggest....a sword in one hand and a destruction spell in the other.

you go up in destruction and singlehanded at the same time.

Thanks for the suggestions.

I was looking into Enchanting anyway as I figured with the Nord armor I'm keeping will only provide so much at higher levels. Don't know if I can reach the cap with it.

I might put a perk or two in Restoration too. Was thinking that the perk that heals stamina as well as health might be good, but I don't know if it would help much mid battle. After the battle my stamina regens fast enough.

Are there any enchants to regen stamina or reduce stamina cost from bashing with shield and power attacks?

there are potions that incease stamina etc

you can also find armor and jewerly that can help with that.

Get a bunch of potions and use them.

Cheers