It's outrageous.

I'm a magician. I shouldn't have to depend on my body to do what I please. What if my hands got chopped off? What if I got frost bite? Or a nasty sort of rash? Then where would that leave me?!

Spells should appear in front of you, behind you, or on either side of you. Then they should be used to wreak havoc upon your enemies.

Thoughts?

i could not agree more. also the need to equip a spell in a hand is dumb. you know it, you cast it, end of story.

Shouts are also spells, just with the voice.

uh well traditionally you need some form of action to control magic yea? I mean just imagine a wizard's duel with 2 mages standing there utterly still and magical fireballs flying toward each other.

They have been cast with our hands in every TES game so far. I don't understand what you'd gain by doing a "look, no hands!"-fireball. It's most likely possible in TES lore, but for a game it's just not needed.

Seriously, where else would you cast spells from? I just read the quoted post and imagined a two mage pee-pee spell casting duel...

That would be pretty sweet.

But some spells don't really need hands to cast. Like water breathing or night eye.

I guess he's imagining some kind of omnidirectional AOE action..

Which is why I mentioned shouts. Some of them at least.

I can imaginr the complaints now " My wand isnt big enuff broken game is broken."

on my part, what i meant is, you can very well cast something whilst holding something (like a dagger or a bound sword or the arrow you just pulled out of your knee). The need for having the spells equipped is lazy mechanics development. I want to be able to press a key to cast a spell and not loose the equipped weapon i had before casting.

Obvious troll post.



Sometimes mages need to use a wand, sometimes a staff, sometimes their hands, sometimes their voice, etc.
There are a lot of different appearences of magic in fantasy games/films/books. In TES mages use their hands to cast spells ... dunno what's so hard to understand about it.

This.
http://www.imperial-library.info/sites/default/files/imagecache/node-gallery-display/gallery_files/origin_cyrus_page_17.jpg

What if your hand gets chopped off or you get frostbite as a warrior or thief? That's right, you're screwed.

Just like a wizard

I shoot magic from my [censored] IRL - why can't I use that in Skyrim?

I agree. In OB you could have a bow out and cast spells WHILE still having it out. Now you must switch the bow out to cast spells which kind of turned me off from ever using a bow.

I don't see the point in not using your hands...

Why can't the action come from you blinking your eyes? It's cliched that all spells in games are a form of a "Hadouken"

It's the same as Morrowind except for dual casting. It's the same as many fantasy stories in other media.

OP, there are rules to magic use just as there are rules to technology use. As Farengar points out, magic is a form of energy that can be controlled by those with the will and ability to do so. Part of the rules for Tamriel is that weaving the hands in certain ways allows the caster to control the flow of energy in order to cast a spell.

Likewise, the shouts require the use of the voice. You'll notice that Ulfric is muffled while he is a prisoner at the beginning of the game. You'll notice that your character's hands are bound and you cannot do anything, including casting spells or opening doors, picking up objects, etc.

In other stories, magic may require drawing symbols on the surface of something (e.g., Star Ocean).

These types of rules for magic use are based on real life stories, legends, etc from various cultures throughout the world. If you don't care for the rules for Tamriel, you may not want to play a mage in that world.

For myself, I am annoyed by the lack of wands. I just have to accept it if I want to play. I still don't like it, though.

There are plenty of settings where the worst thing you can do to a wizard is to break his hands, because not only do they need their hands but also have to make intricate finger motions.

I think it would look like a bug, if your character just stands there in idle pose and everywhere around him he casts fireballs without doing anything....

But you know the lesson "http://www.myfacewhen.net/uploads/1203-if-you-disable-his-hand.jpg"

At least we don't need wands like in Harry Potter.

I agree to a point. Some spells shouldn't need your hands, while other concentrated ones that need direction like Flame should. Also I agree it wouldn't look as good. Plus only the most masterful wizard could cast powerful spells without so much as moving anything at all. He should normally be focusing, gritting his teeth and tensing his body. Some kind of animations is needed, and from a gameplay perspective the hands worked best, so that what they did.

Ability to shoot fireballs from our eyes and bolts of lighting from our [censored]... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcoVxbutl8g... Maybe in next game.

I agree with you. Using magic requires a lot of concentration so new magic users are taught to focus their mana into a central point such as your hands in most lore or a wand as in harry potter. It becomes a crutch that only the best wizards can overcome

i see the hands as a focus point perhaps magic in nirn requires focus on a specific object or location and the hand are a rather ideal focus point.