New question about Spellmaking

[Earnest]

I was hoping to use the spellmaking service to make my casting more efficient, because I want to get through the game with as little melee as possible, and my mana pool (lvl 4 breton, born under sign of mage) is challenged every encounter above nix hounds.

So i find that i can combine effects, and i notice that by using the duration slider i can get some 'value' for my mana. However, it is disappointing to see that spellmaking for destruction school appears to be seriously nerfed. Here's my example:

I have been using a spell called Frostbite, which does 15 to 30 points on Touch, and costs me 6 mana to cast. When I design an exact copy of this spell the new spell uses 11 mana. Now I understand the need to restrict the possibilities for damage spells, to maintain game balance and integrity, but this is almost a 50% decrease in efficiency. Whats the point?

-and my second question: does this penalty ever change, or can it be modified by stats, skills, etc?

XBox GotY

[galraen]

Skill in the relevant school (destruction for example) and increasing Willpower reduce the cost of spells, but will not alter the discrepency you mention. The Frost and Fire bite spells have a set cost, whereas any spell you create has it's cost defined by a set formula. Annoying I know, but I guess the beginners spells were set at a low level to help novices.

[Earnest]

Thanks for the reply. It's good news to hear what you say about Willpower and Destruction skills affecting the magicka cost of casting spells, as that connection is not mentioned anywhere in my Xbox literature.

Another issue has arisen from my experiments at the spellmaker, and I hope someone can offer guidance here. I notice that the basic frost/fire/shock effects have descriptions indicating a single burst of damage upon impact. On the other hand, the 'damage health' effect has a description which cites a spell duration, indicating to me the idea of damage over time (poison effect also falls into this category).

BUT when i begin to make a spell, selecting fire damage as an effect, I am allowed to set a duration here too. My example is this

Fire damage 7 (to 7) points over 4 seconds on Touch = 8 magicka
(incidentally, I am happy enough with this ratio 28 damage guaranteed for 8mana)

compared with

Damage health 7 (to 7) points over 4 seconds on Touch = 14 magicka

Poison 7 (to 7) points over 4 seconds on Touch = 15 magicka

I considered myself an expert on my other RPG games (bg2 and everquest1), and so I am familiar with the idea of different resistances affecting spell selection, but there is a problem here: if a target is resistant to fire, why would I cast Damage Health (28dmg 14mana) when I could cast Frost Damage (28dmg 8mana)? I am baffled here because up to now, the only spell I have had resisted is Paralyse - all my elemental spells have landed ok.

Therefore I wonder is a) Damage Health a defunct and worthless line or maybe b) am I exploiting a bug/oversight by assigning a duration to my elemental damage spells?

[fable]

I considered myself an expert on my other RPG games (bg2 and everquest1), and so I am familiar with the idea of different resistances affecting spell selection, but there is a problem here: if a target is resistant to fire, why would I cast Damage Health (28dmg 14mana) when I could cast Frost Damage (28dmg 8mana)? I am baffled here because up to now, the only spell I have had resisted is Paralyse - all my elemental spells have landed ok.

The elemental damage spells all have resistances. (Try casting Fire Damage at a Fire Elemental to see what I mean.) There is no effective resistance to Damage Health. It bypasses everything.

[Earnest]

If it bypasses everything thats fine - I assumed it would check for Magicka Resistance, and as 'magic' is the only attack i have had resisted, I was seriously confused. Now I know its irresistable I am happy, thanks.

Of course, if a creature is resistant to one element, I would not use that as a line of attack! On the many loading screens I am told that Nords resist cold, so against them I would use fire.... And if a creature is resistant to all elements, I now know what to use

[fable]

Of course, if a creature is resistant to one element, I would not use that as a line of attack! On the many loading screens I am told that Nords resist cold, so against them I would use fire.... And if a creature is resistant to all elements, I now know what to use

I've never tried Damage Health on a Hunger, so I don't know if the spell can be repelled. Presumably it could, and that would end up quite nasty.

[galraen]

Damage health can be reflected back at the caster by many Daedra, but not by Hungers, they are immune to shock, fire, frost and poison though, so a natural target for damage, or (even better) absorb health.