I wonder why 'paralyze' and 'mass paralysis' should have been changed from 'illusion' to 'alteration'?!! it simply doesn't make any sense!

Isn't paralysis a mental state instead of an alteration in the physical world?!

Besides these two spells seem to be more match with thieves/assassins often need to escape the crime scene or eliminate targets as silently as possible. An alteration mage, on the other hand, improves her/his own abilities by altering and manipulating the physical elements such as light, flesh, water, metals and other objects.

Why? When you're paralyzed it's not an illusion, it's an altered physical state (normal being, not paralyzed).

Paralysis -> mental state??

Well, there could be two forms of paralysis then in that sense. One being an illusion to the person(s) being targeted, the other effecting their physical muscles.

Maybe it makes more sense to simply have it effect the physical stance other than the mental stance of the target?

Better question is why was it illusion all along...

The targets are being paralyzed, it isn't a trick or illusion.

This, makes tons more sense as an alteration spell in my opinion.

Well alteration doesn't do harm, if you think about paralyzing someone isn't exactly hurting them.


Oh and paralysis isn't a mental state, your whole body becomes locked up, it's in your muscles.

The paralysis in illusion is a fairly simple spell that tricks the target into believing it can't move. As such, anyone with a high willpower can resist it and "realize" they aren't actually paralyzed. The paralysis in Alteration, however, is more complex but more effective. This spell physically ensnares the limb muscles in the targets body, making it near impossible to break. By 4E201, it seems that the Alteration variant has taken over the illusion variant.

Sounds like what the Aspiring Mage keeps trying to do to that wolf. "LIVE!" "GET UP!!" "I'VE DONE IT BEFORE!!" Hmmm.. maybe that's his problem.. he's trying to put reanimation into illusion.

This, plus, illusion is a powerful enough school as it is.

Fantastic expanation.

The thing that still gets me though is that 2/3 of the spells described in the Illusion skill book "Incident at Necrom" are Illusion spells that have been budged over to Alteration.

I kind of beg to differ. In Skyrim Illusion feels extremely stripped down. Granted, this may just be because I'm not much of an Illusionist...

The change in spell school distribution really hurt Illusion. It's probably my favorite school of magic in Elder Scrolls, and it's no doubt still very powerful in Skyrim. It just happens to be very dull and lacks variety when you get so few spell types and the perks only centered around them.

Which school in skyrim isn't stripped down? They are all absurdly barebones. To say skyrim needs double or triple the number of spells would be a pretty modest statement.

Illusion magic-magic that fools the mind or makes it believe something false. IE fenzy-friend is not friend but is an enemy.
Alteration magic-magic that effects the physical world. IE paralysis-make that person faceplant it into the ground while being stiff as a frigging board. huh. odd side note but i didnt know that frigging was actually a word, least according to this spellchecker....

Imo, there should be some kind of "Biological Magic" school. Spells like healing, blindness, paralysis, and other things that directly change the target's nerves, muscles, mind, etc. Plus there could be offensive spells like, pain, hysteria, maybe somthing that induces bleeding? All the other schools would change, too. Schools like "Necromancy", "Elemental", "Movement", etc. seem like they'd be more fun than the current school, because having a good mix of offensive, defensive, practical, and just fun spells in each category would encourage a wider variety of builds. Because, y'know, say you want to be a pure "X" mage. Well, you pretty much HAVE to include destruction in there somewhere. Because alteration, healing, and illusion have so few offensive abilities. In my experience, at least. :/

It could be justified to be either, illusion or alteration. Alteration would physically paralyse you whilst illusion would make you believe you're paralysed.

The real question is why are muffle and invisibility classed as illusion? If you cast the spell and it affected nearby enemies, then I could justify it being illusion...

But you cast the spell on yourself, and enemies far away from after the spell effect cant see/hear you. It's not like you have some aura around you that affects every enemy, you have physically made yourself invisible, therefore IMO it should be alteration.

exactly. i wondered this on my stealth playthrough.

Alteration spells have to do with altering physics, manipulating kinetic energy. Illusion is about changing perception. (fear, courage, frenzy) These are all conditions brought on by a mental state. It makes perfect sense.

I think OP means like paralyzed with fear which can happen , happened to me so I know it's not bull but yeah maybe you make them see their worst fear like a glance into the quagmire ? It fits in both schools I suppose but I also agree with bobjim , invisibilty should have been alteration but I think it was an illusion spell to make being an illusionist viable , also maybe we aren't invisible , it is just a marker for the player to know they are like your shout cooldown meter

Paralysis isn't a mental state. It's the loss of muscle function.

You guys realize this is fantasy, and that can perfectly be either of both things, right?

One good example is a quest (general section, so no direct spoilers) where you see an NPC cast paralysis on another NPC. You can see the "glow" of the spell surrounding the whole body, not just the mind, so at least in TES, a "paralysis" spell seems more like "frozen in carbonite" than "cannot move muscles due to blocking motor functions".

IMO, it made no sense as an illusion magic.