Hi all,

I am a mage playing on PC and I have a few questions:

1) When I reach lvl 100 enchanting, I’ll take the Extra Effect perk and I’ll make Destruction spells cast for free, but what’s the second best effect to add there? Make free summon spells ? Get another magic school for free ? Get more resistances ?

2) When I sleep in the Archmage’s bed, I am “Rested” instead of “Well rested” even though I am the Archmage. How do I correct that on the console without affecting the rest of the game? (I presume that has to do with the ownership of the bed?)

3) In Oblivion doing “take all” in some dungeon chests could make them avoid re-spawning (if I remember well) and that is bad for dungeon runs. Does the same problem exist in Skyrim ?

4) As a mage, do you always aim for 50% magicka/50% health or do you stop at a certain point (like lvl 50, for example) to invest in magicka ? What's your base magicka target if you take into account the free destruction spells ?

5) Do merchant give better prices if the town likes you ?

6) Does the lvl of a magic skill affect the price of the spell books for that spell school? (like in Oblivion ?)

7) Once fully perked and lvl 100, are alchemy potions (especially restore magicka potions and restore health potions) more powerful than the ones available with merchants?

Big thanks to everybody who wants to help me !

how does extra effect=free destruction?

this is my setup
master robe of destruction - 22% destruction fortification
helmet - 25% destruction and Illusion fortification
ring - 25% destruction and conjuring fortification
amulet - 25% destruction and alteration fortification
boots - muffle and stamina boost
bracers - bow damage and more magic

I didn't do 50/50 on Magicka/Health. I started off by choosing only Magicka. Now I'm at 340/240/180 for M/H/S. No enhancements in those numbers but I do have enhancements. I felt I could take the numbers the way I did because I conjure and that allows me to fight less or from further away. taking less damage.

Well it's not the extra effect that does the free destruction. If I understood well from other people explanining it, it's the single first effect that can make you get +100 fortify destruction (4 equipment slots @ +25 each) that gets you free destruction spells. Extra effect allows you to get another effect on the top of that: it is that effect that I wonder about.

I'd love to be helpful here and I'm really unclear on the free destruction part of your inquiry.

1. extra effect means that instead of enchanting an item with 1 effect you can choose 2 of them, both different.
2. rested vs. well rested vs. married sleep - a bed not shared with a spouse or in your own house is always only rested. you are the arch mage but do not own the school or bed and so you get only rested. you also cannot move a spouse to the school for the same reason.
3. I've not had any problems looting all and coming back later to find more goodies in the chests.
4. I shoot for a balance that lets me carry what I want without potions and that lets me have a magicka pool that feels bottomless, so I actually stack magicka and stamina after I get to about 130 health and then give myself lots of regen magicka.
5. merchant prices are based on your speach skill level and any perks you've taken in the tree
6. prices of spell books seem static based on what I've seen. availability of certain spells is based on your level in that school of magic.
7. I've never had the patience to get my alchemy that high and so I have to hope someone else knows the answer to this and can tell us both. I made the mistake of learning a real lot of potions with worse negative effects than the beneficial ones, so they sell well because they have multiple effects and they svck because I can't use them.

as to the free destruction thing... are you talking about % of reduced cost for a school of magic? it's still not really "free" and I can see how that would be an awesome goal. I never bothered trying to stack all the way to 100% in any school because I added magicka regen to everything I could as a second enchant and cast whatever school I needed without being worried about the cost or spending perks up unnecessary trees.

1) Use conjuration 25% to all 4 pieces , or 4 schools 25% if you are only using mage's skills.

2) Sorry I don't know anything about it.

3) I took all items from "boss" chest, after a long while the chest got re-stocked. Don't know about other chests.

4) If you use conjuration with twin soul and a follower, you don't need much health points.

5) It seems to be not affecting the prices.

6) No I think.

7) Your own potions is way better than shop's potions, somewhere about 140% vs 50% for some skill boosts, for restore magicka potions and restore health potions, there is a full recovery potion for them, but don't know if any shop sells them.

I've had good luck with health only based on getting 100% cost reduction. I have Atronach sign for an extra 50 magicka and that's been enough. My main problem is physical damage and high health really helps.