I'm just curious if anyone else has played around with some destruction spells coupled with the silent casting perk from the Illusion tree? I did so a month or so ago and found it pretty awesome and strange at the same time. The fact that I could just * Pew Pew Pew* Lightning Bolts I think it was, fr stealth and not be detected was great. I never really thought of a stealthy-like destruction using character plausible. Anyone else experimented with these two thing with long term (longer than me anyway, all I did was test on some bandits and skeletons lurking about) play?

Supposedly, silent casting only makes the "casting" silent the part where your spell comes out of your hands.

The spell hitting anything is never silent; so its pretty useless in most cases.

Only good for things like re-casting invisibility when you're sneaking around enemies.

example : casting a rune with silent casting will alert everyone to your presence anyway.

I did this, but as you progress you're defnitely going to want to invest a little into alchemy. You're gonna need fortify-desto pots and such because your damage won't necessarily scale. You'll be retreating a bunch, but if you don't mind putting perks into sneak this won't be a problem.

The plus side is, you drop desto-runes and if you are slick with the way you plan your attack... its a very valid class. I would recommend using Aura Whisper/Throw Voice to support the build, and the always good Slow Time/Become Ethereal/Ice Form.

*Edit*

Yes, of course spells make noise when they explode.

Hmm, well even with the noise caused from explosion I don't recall the enemies ever finding me. The eye would open slightly but that's about it. I could be wrong though.

Yes, it functions similarly to Archery if you don't spam your spells.

Though there is no damage bonus for being hidden, if you have enough points in Sneak or properly enchanted equipment... you shouldn't have much trouble if you can manage to stay in the dark and at a distance.

Finding you and alerting to your presence is quite different
But normally casting things that don't explode like heals and shields well make every enemy start looking for you.
But since anything that has to hit something makes a sound anyway; silent casting won't make a stealthy mage.

I might decide to give this play style a try. Maybe also throw in some Conjuration for some added muscle when things get sticky (might as well get it over with ... "that's what she said" lol). Plus, you can never go wrong with Conjuration! ;D