It seems with the ability to enchant your gear to fortify a magic school to the point that weapons/staffs have infinite charges, a staff and shield character could be fun. With that in mind, I had a few questions. First and foremost, can you use a staff and shield combination? Can you add an extra effect to a staff using the master enchanting perk? Finally, anyone had any fun experiences with this style of play?

My experience with a staff is that it is a ranged weapon vs shield being melee. So the two would probably get along together about as well as oil and water. I suppose one could shoot some ranged attack then haul butt in there and do some shield bashing. I just don't see the two complimenting one another though.

Perhaps the OP is thinking of shield as mostly defensive rather than using it to bash....

Aonaran, I haven't seen any unenchanted staves so far. You can't add an enchantment to an already enchanted weapon or piece of armor. You can only enchant using the "extra perk" on a "bare" item.

Hmm. I've seen on the wiki where there are some unenchanted staves, but I'm unsure as to whether or not you can actually enchant them or if they are always empty.

Well, if you run across one that's "bare", give it a shot! If you're on pc, you could console one in to try it....

No console unfortunately, I'm on Xbox. I'd if you could enchant your own as that seems to be a major component missing from that skill tree. For anyone on PC, the ones listed as unenchanted as well as their IDs are as follows:

Alteration Staff (0007e646)
Broken Staff (0001cb30)
Conjuration Staff (0007e647)
Destruction Staff (000be11f)
Illusion Staff (0007a91b)
Necromantic Staff (000284f5)
Restoration Staff (00051b0c)

Are there any specialized staff vendors like the fletcher in Solitude?

No specialized vendors for staves, no.

Of course, on PC there are a couple of crafting mods that allow smithing of staves...

I'm a sword shield and spell caster.

When I cast spells I keep my shield its actually a perfect combo. When they get close you use your stamina to shield bash keep blasting them with mana. You have more stamina to shield bash this way. It's one of the most OP Combos you can find. Especially with Shield Elemental Defense and the right spells and enchantments.

A dragon could not touch you their fire would not do anything against your shield. And you can cast magic at a distance. Making mages nothing to you. Especially if you are a Breton, have maxed out shield perks.

I like the block perk to let you block spells + a magic absorb and resist shield

If only you could double up on staff enchantments, A nice Absorb Health/Stamina staff would allow me to shield charge an enemy to the ground, then deal enough damage to matter and sap enough stamina to shield charge again with a minimal investment in stamina. I'll have to try the bash combo, and hadn't even considered the magic resist perk for dragon battles.

Anyone located any of the unenchanted staves and tested to see if they can be enchanted? i'm sure you can't, but I'd love confirmation before proceeding with this character build.

This staff you describe? Basically the Staff of Magnus. Finish the College of Winterhold questline.

Only problem is the staff of magnus isn't affected by the infinite charge loophole you get by fortifying Destruction to 100%, otherwise i'd snatch it up in a heartbeat.

You CAN. But given that staves are a ranged weapon, you're better off using 2 staves simultaneously most of the time. never hurts to have a shield to fend off enemies if they get to close range, but you won't be using it much.

I'd love to see custom staves in a DLC, but can see why it might have been excluded. Dual wielding dual enchanted staves would be a bit extreme, still, four spell effects simultaneously would be pretty slick. Still take it no one has tried to enchant one of the unenchanted staves with the item ids I provided? That is definitely a drawback of playing on 360, I can't test these things myself.

Yep it's cool!
Staffs are easy to find and you can even make them!.... Oh wait... you can't

Of course. Staves are simply unselectable - be sweet if they WERE enchantable it'd offset the fact staves don't really compare to a pure destruction mage spamming impact

Yeah, as you've pointed out in other threads, there really isn't any benefit to using a staff short of aesthetics.

None of those staves can be enchanted without a mod to make them enhanceable. Even if you could enchant them, I doubt you'd be able to do anything with them. Regular enchantable weapon enchantments are after effects, in which you need to be able to attack in the first place. These staves without enchantments don't do anything at all when you press the attack button.

Personally I find staves in Skyrim disappointing, I've hardly used them at all because they get in the way of other things (two-handed weapons, dual weapons, shields, dual spell casting). Honestly I'd like to see some new staves in which you can channel your regular spells through like the staves from Lord of the Rings (increasing the power of your spells), rather than pre-enchanted same spell all the time rocket sticks which disappear when holstered...

Just to confirm: if you have a perk like Augmented Frost, it will increase staff spell damage? Also perks like Deep Freeze would add the paralysis effect, etc?