Hi everyone,
Ever since Morrowind I've always played characters who use physical weapons like daggers, one-handed swords, and bows. The only bits of magic I used were light spells or spells given that are required for a questt or something.

But I want to start a mage character because I feel like that's a totally new area of the game for me and could be challenging.

So, any advice would be greatly appreciated! I was thinking of starting off as one of the elf classes because of their magic bonuses, but is it really so simple as just reading spel tomes to get spells and then casting? I know there are magic staffs in the game, how do they fit into combat? Do spells "level up" with your character? Like, if I have a fireball spell at Level 1, will it be a different damage/attack than when I am at Level 15, or will it only do a few damage points?

I'm also comfortable with installing mods so if there are any essential magic mods please let me know.

Sorry for any typos; I'm stuck at home with the flu today and need a distraction!

I would look into all the schools of magic and decide how you want to play. That's the first step. Typically most people focus on two schools that would compliment each other. For example, a pure destruction mage is nice if you never get hit by anything but you're screwed if someone gets in close.

Combo's that I like to use are Restoration/Desctruction, Destruction/Alteration, Illusion/Conjuration, and Conjuration/Restoration.

Staffs fit into combat that you have a powerful source of a certain spell to cast at any time, and you don't need to know that spell to use it. However, iirc having experience in the school it's associated with (fireball - destruction, summon flame atro - conjuration) helps in giving that staff's spell a bonus (someone check on this please?)

This game is nice for it's dual wielding, same can be done with spells. On top of that, two hands can equip the same spell and with a perk you can multiply the affect of the spell to be even more powerful if you were casting each hand seperately (like the spell flames, both hands can shoot a ray of flames by themselves, or together shoot a more powerful ray that is more powerful than the individual ones combined)

Spells don't level up as you level up, instead their effectiveness goes up the higher your rating is in that school (example, 50 destruction is more powerful than 25 destruction). As you get higher in levels though, your magika pool will increase so you can tap into those more demanding spells, plus there are perks that reduce the spell cost of novice, ameteur, adept, expert, and master level spells.

First thing is first, pick a style of play by reading up on the schools of magik and learn their spells and imagine how you would use them.



Also, just because you're a magic user doesn't mean you can't use weapons. Throw a couple perks into the first star on the one-handed tree and use some enchanted daggers too. Oh, that's the other thing. Learn how to enchant gear. Read up on soul trapping, soul gems, and enchanting. Sort of essential for magik users.


Good luck.

Thank you so much, you gave me a lot of good points to start off of! I can't wait to get started; it really does feel like a brand new game now that I'm going in with a fresh perspective!

When you level up put your bonuses into magic and health (maybe 2:1). No stamina at all. Stamina is for wielding weapons and carrying heavy armor and weapons which you will not need.

You need a fallback weapon like a bow or a dagger until you can conjure your own weapons. using them will also level your sneak, archery or handed skills.

Put perks into alteration so you can use the protective mage armor spells and into conjuration to give you bound weapons as well as cannon fodder. As you get more powerful spells, a single dremora lord can take care of most enemies by itself.

This is a good style to use if you don't plan to use any armor. Remember though, all the Dragon Masks in the game are considered a type of light or heavy armor, and there are a couple REALLY good ones out there that do give you great bonuses. So if you have that mage armor perk, any dragon mask nullifies it.

This is also a good style to use with the bound weapons, because now you can still play with some of the old melee aspects you enjoy. Again, it really depends on what you want to do.

However, when it comes to mage classes, you rarely want to invest into stamina like the guy said. A bit is ok to increase your carry weight max, but you don't really need it since you won't be wearing, or carrying, much armor or really have a need for ingots, pelts, etc.