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Playin a Mage, heavy armor or robes?
- Thread starter Diisk
- Start date
maybe heavy after, robes due to the arch mage robes which are too good to miss, and light everything else 
ShadowGambit
Active Member
There are 2 ways to play a Mage.
Either you play a purist one, and you go Alteration and clothes. Dragon hide spell is as good as any armor you can find in game: it reduces the physical damage by 80%, exactly like an armor that would reach the armor cap of 567. The "Pure" mage will be casting destruction at long range mostly. No weapon whatsoever, just Staves.
On a pure mage I also like to use Conjuration, so the melee and aggro is taking care of buy you Atronach or you Dremora Lord. Also use Illusion as Crowd Control with Frenzy and Pacify spells.
A little variant is the Battlemage, who wears Heavy Armor and drops the Alteration tree. I personaly don't like it for roleplay reason. It is not the case in TES, but in most other game Heavy armor, or armor in general, hinder your casting ability and your spells have chances to fail. It is all about roleplay here, so a Battlemage is a valuable way to go for Skyrim
Or you play an "hybrid Mage"
2 Subcategory here:
SpellSword: Mage/Tank wearing heavy armor and using 1h weapon. Destruction for Long range damage and increase the damage of your weapon enchanted with destruction spells. Heavy Armor to be able to sustain melee damage for a long period of time
Nightblade: Mage/Thief/Assassin. magic is use mostly as a defensive purpose. Illusion and Alteration are the main schools used. Damage is done by sneak multiplier, either with bow for long range or with dagger for up-close. Stealth is the key here.
Most of all, it depends on your style of play and how you want to roleplay it.
In Skyrim, if you want to get to the latest level, level 81, you WILL HAVE to level ALL your skills to 100. But it doesn't mean that you have to use them all in your playstyle.
Either you play a purist one, and you go Alteration and clothes. Dragon hide spell is as good as any armor you can find in game: it reduces the physical damage by 80%, exactly like an armor that would reach the armor cap of 567. The "Pure" mage will be casting destruction at long range mostly. No weapon whatsoever, just Staves.
On a pure mage I also like to use Conjuration, so the melee and aggro is taking care of buy you Atronach or you Dremora Lord. Also use Illusion as Crowd Control with Frenzy and Pacify spells.
A little variant is the Battlemage, who wears Heavy Armor and drops the Alteration tree. I personaly don't like it for roleplay reason. It is not the case in TES, but in most other game Heavy armor, or armor in general, hinder your casting ability and your spells have chances to fail. It is all about roleplay here, so a Battlemage is a valuable way to go for Skyrim
Or you play an "hybrid Mage"
2 Subcategory here:
SpellSword: Mage/Tank wearing heavy armor and using 1h weapon. Destruction for Long range damage and increase the damage of your weapon enchanted with destruction spells. Heavy Armor to be able to sustain melee damage for a long period of time
Nightblade: Mage/Thief/Assassin. magic is use mostly as a defensive purpose. Illusion and Alteration are the main schools used. Damage is done by sneak multiplier, either with bow for long range or with dagger for up-close. Stealth is the key here.
Most of all, it depends on your style of play and how you want to roleplay it.
In Skyrim, if you want to get to the latest level, level 81, you WILL HAVE to level ALL your skills to 100. But it doesn't mean that you have to use them all in your playstyle.
Jigsaw
New Member
This is good. One thing to note though, if you are wearing armor as a mage, remember it willl be fairly easy. Still fun, but much less of a challenge. Wearing robes is fun simply because of how hard it can be.
Kalin of High Rock
Faal Lun Vahdin
You are a mage, good sir. Not some ghastly, iron-clad, knuckle-dragging troll. You are a person of refinement. Of privilege and higher learning. You have attended the finest schools in all of the Empire, given lectures to rapt audiences on the very nature of existence. The gates of Oblivion itself open and close at your behest!
A person of your obvious class and elevated social standing demands comfort in their garb. Fine silks, warm cotton and furs.
A person of your obvious class and elevated social standing demands comfort in their garb. Fine silks, warm cotton and furs.
KritikalPT
Active Member
If it's a pure mage I would advice not getting any armor and then levelling up Alteration.
Kalin of High Rock
Faal Lun Vahdin
Think of the Alteration school as a replacement for light or heavy armor. Any skill points you would invest in armor perks, instead sink into the "flesh" line of spells (Oak, Stone, Steel, Ebony and so on).
Don't focus -only- on destruction. A mage needs tools from every school of magic in order to survive.
Dagmar
Defender of the Bunnies of Skyrim
There's nothing wrong with playing a Battlemage, which is what you'll be doing if you opt to wear armor. If you choose to go this route I don't recommend doing it halfway though. I would recommend you do invest in some Juggernaut perks to get your armor rating up faster. You can do this by delaying investment in Conjuration perks you might otherwise choose if you wore robes because reliance on a conjured minion to divert damage from you is less important if you're wearing armor.
If you decide to use robes then Conjuration will be more important. While Alteration is an important skill, the protection the flesh spells offer is pretty weak until you get the Dragonskin spell and that spell is a bit problematic because of its long casting time and short duration. Your flesh spells will save you from getting killed in one or two hits in situations where your conjured minions don't manage to draw an attack before you've managed to end an encounter but you're going to be far more reliant on your conjured minions tanking for you than on Alteration spells for protection.
If you decide to use robes then Conjuration will be more important. While Alteration is an important skill, the protection the flesh spells offer is pretty weak until you get the Dragonskin spell and that spell is a bit problematic because of its long casting time and short duration. Your flesh spells will save you from getting killed in one or two hits in situations where your conjured minions don't manage to draw an attack before you've managed to end an encounter but you're going to be far more reliant on your conjured minions tanking for you than on Alteration spells for protection.
LotusEater
I brake for blue butterflies
When I built a pure mage I went with robes. I also restricted my weaponry to staves and daggers. Of course I was a total noob at the time and got completely annihilated, rage quit and built a warrior, but that's how I'll do it next time I build a pure mage.
LotusEater
I brake for blue butterflies
This is actually how I prefer my mage to be portrayed. Not a battle mage but a WAR mage. Not a spell in one hand and a sword in the other. Spells from hell sizzling between two heavily clad hands with a giant mace on my back for close encounters. To me that's more of a mage. Like I said above, I tried the robe route and may again if I ever feel like prancing around in robes and slippers to do some role-playing.
ShangTsung
Active Member
depends on the mood.. some of my characters are robe only wearers, but there are a few times when i've changed it up and sported heavy armor on a mage just cause some of it looks cool, i'm always a mage with every character i play mainly cause thats the build i'm most skilled at winning with, my newest character i just started last week has full heavy armor falmer gear with the only exception being a dawnguard face mask "which is also heavy armor" but my main character is still decked out in hooded necromancer robes with enchanted gloves and vampire boots being the only armor i have.