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I'm just wondering how to make an effective mage. I started out as a pure breton mage with only magic stats, and before I even left the sewers I trained as to lvl up to lvl 16. I know this may be a bad idea, but I really don't like power lvling. My plan was once I got to trancedecant (spelling?) sigil stones, I would use the reloading thing until I got one with 25 shield. Then I would enchant my robes with it, so as to get armor. However, I got killed constantly by the high level monsters such as Xivilai. So how should I go about making a good mage?

Well, to avoid the strong creatures you just cast hide on yourself. You keep collecting stones until you have the armor that you want and then you strike back. Very important with the mage is to use every skill! Use the shieldspell, the conjuration spells to summon creatures and armor,... After a while you'll get the hand of it and you'll really enjoy to play the class. There is almost nothing the enemy can do against a well prepared mage, hell that's almost a standard for all rpg's.

Breton is a good choice for Mage if you've not played one before. For one thing, you don't need to take a Magica-enhancing birthsign, because you already have a decent amount of Magica. Plus, Bretons have 50% resistance to Magica.

You can use a birthsign like The Thief to get boosts in SPE, AGI and Luck; or The Warrior to add to STR and END.

It's also NOT a good idea to have all Magic skills in Major Skills. I know it's good role-playing, but some of those magic schools you probably won't use much, so it's a waste to put 'em in Major, imo.
Blade is good, imo, even if you only plan to use a dagger. And I like to take Armourer so that I can repair magical items sooner. And I like Acrobatics, because there are times when I find it really useful. But you will have your own ideas!

And don't level up on magic when you are still in the first sewers! BAD idea. Leave the sewers still at lvl 1, or, at most, lvl 2.

Skills like Alchemy are also best not placed in Major skills. If you use it a lot - as I do - you will be facing high-level enemies when you are brainy as a genius, but weak as a kitten!
I never use Conjuration, but it can be very useful for a physically weak mage; it can keep you out of trouble long enough to survive.

Oh - and it's better not to use a robe. Use pants and shirt and shoes and a hood. You may also want to use gauntlets, though they will need repairing. If you use a robe, you only have 4, items that you can enchant with Shield spells (to a max of 85 effective protection) but with pants and shirt you have 5, so you can enchant some of 'em with other stuff - like waterwalking, Night Eye, or Chameleon.

I had planned ot use the wrist irons you get at the start of the game for the gauntlets as they don't lower your magic efficientcy.

Also, what is acrobatics really used for? the highest I ever got it was level 50 with a level 49 redguard warrior after compleating the main quest, Knights of Nine, and Shivering Isles. By that time I could Kill anything I wanted, but I tried dodging every attack from a troll, but couldn't get the hang of it. Does armor make a difference? I was equipped with custom enchanted Deadric with a bit of other heavy armor pieces.

I also had problems making good destruction spells. I couldn't find or make any that seemed to be effective. Can you recommend some? (regardless of the level needed to cast them)

So far my new major skills are conjuration, alteration, restoration, destruction, mysticism, Illusion, and blade. My main atributes are Intellegence and Endurance. Race breton. Is this a bad setup?

Yeah, the wrist irons are good abd they don't weigh anything either, but I don't like the look of 'em.

I wouldn't have Illusion in that set-up, myself. You use it a lot untill you get something enchanted with Night-Eye, so it puts up your level much too fast.

I just happen to like Acrobatics. I like jumping over hot lava.

Heavy armour is very cumbersome for a lot of the game until you get high enough in the skill to drastically reduce it's weight. Only used it once. After that, I stick with Light or enchanted clothing, whatever class I play. Heavy makes you lumber along like an ape with arthritis, and totally negates any agility you may have.

Make yourself a triple action destruction spell - fire, frost and shock. It damages pretty well everything. Start with one you can cast early - say 5 damage to each type; and make it Ranged. Later you can make another, with greater power, then another... You can also include a nice Damage Health into it as well. Make sure that whatever spell you make, you have enough magica to cast it more than once with your level of magica.

I'd rather have the wrist irons than not. I think the trade off is fine, but it is kinda ironic to be clothed in the most elegant shirt and green silk linens and have some rusty jail cell irons on.

With illusion, what about things like invisibility and paralyze? I wouldn't only use it for night eye. I also would use a torch or light (stupid, I know), I just can't see with the blue tint.

With my redguard, I think I ended with an agility of 60-something. I was more concerned with bashing my way through enemies than dodging attacks. Does heavy armor actually lower your movement speed like drawing your weapon does?

What about weakness to magic? I read somewhere about putting weakness first and soul trap second or something. Should I have a blade enchanted with weakness to magic, fire, and shock (not cold because pretty much everything is resistant to cold and you get a sucky visual)?

In Morrowind argonians and kajjits couldn't wear close-faced helmets, is this true in Oblivion?

SevLives wrote: I'd rather have the wrist irons than not. I think the trade off is fine, but it is kinda ironic to be clothed in the most elegant shirt and green silk linens and have some rusty jail cell irons on.

Each to his own!

SevLives wrote:With illusion, what about things like invisibility and paralyze? I wouldn't only use it for night eye. I also would use a torch or light (stupid, I know), I just can't see with the blue tint.

Yes, but as a Breton, and if you have chosen Magic as your class, any magic schools not in Major will go up fast anyway. Plus, you can practice them anytime without worrying about putting up your level too fast. I ALWAYS use Chameleon and Invisibilty spells, whether for Magic class or any other. Just practice Starlight - a nice cheap spell, both cashwise and magica-wise - to bump up the skill fast, so you can buy and use practically any Illusion spell you need. You'd be surprised how fast Illusion goes up. I don't like the blue of Night Eye, either, but it can be VERY, VERY useful. Especially for spotting enemies in dark places in caves, etc, so you can pick 'em off with a poisoned arrow before they see you.

SevLives wrote:With my redguard, I think I ended with an agility of 60-something. I was more concerned with bashing my way through enemies than dodging attacks. Does heavy armor actually lower your movement speed like drawing your weapon does?

Yes. Try running with heavy armour, and then without, when you have a STR of 30 or 35! The more your char is burdened, the slower he will be, early in the game. It changes as your char gets more profficient with both athletics and armour skill, so it becomes barely or not at all noticable; but early on it makes a very big difference to speed and agiliy.

SevLives wrote:What about weakness to magic? I read somewhere about putting weakness first and soul trap second or something. Should I have a blade enchanted with weakness to magic, fire, and shock (not cold because pretty much everything is resistant to cold and you get a sucky visual)?

Yes, weakness to magica is good. But not everything is resistant to cold! Daedra aren't for starters! And neither are fire atronachs. Besides, having too many spells cast on your weapon means less times it can be used before it runs out, besides costing more to enchant.

SevLives wrote:In Morrowind argonians and kajjits couldn't wear close-faced helmets, is this true in Oblivion?

Um. D'you know, I've never tried! I was so much in the habit of using open-face in Morrowind I've never tried it in Oblivion! But it makes sense, with their faces, that they shouldn't, at all events! :laugh:

I love playing as a pure mage, but in the beginning I always found that the skills increase far too quickly. I quickly found a mod on nexus that slows down the level of skills. 5 times slower. Now I can play at a nice pace. With vanilla Oblivion, I would reach level 15 after cleaning out only about three or four ruins. Now it takes much longer.

I'm almost always an altmer, with only magic skills. But I choose strength and endurance as favoured attributes, and the mage or the apprentice birthsign. Choosing the apprentice birthsign makes life that much more intense and short :laugh:

lifeishell91 wrote:I love playing as a pure mage, but in the beginning I always found that the skills increase far too quickly. I quickly found a mod on nexus that slows down the level of skills. 5 times slower. Now I can play at a nice pace. With vanilla Oblivion, I would reach level 15 after cleaning out only about three or four ruins. Now it takes much longer.

I'm almost always an altmer, with only magic skills. But I choose strength and endurance as favoured attributes, and the mage or the apprentice birthsign. Choosing the apprentice birthsign makes life that much more intense and short :laugh:

Doesn't it just! :laugh: I like playing Altmer mages with Apprentice when I feel like a bit of a challenge. But it's only a challenge early on, 'cos they are so overpowered magically they only have to stay out of range to win everything hands-down. But I don't give 'em just magic skills, 'cos I never use Conjuration, so have Security or Acrobatics instead; and I don't see the point of having Alchemy in Major; Sneak is a much better skill for such a vulnerable char to have, imo; and Illusion just whams up your level too fast, so I have Blade instead, (which will add to STR) though only to use a dagger.

I recently played a pure mage for the first time, Breton, and despite some advice to the contrary, the Atronach birthsign. (I usually play stealthy types and occasionally fighters, with restoration for healing and a limited assortment of other magic to augment my other skills). Atronach didn't turn out to be as big an adjustment as I had feared because prior to that I had gotten Morrowind GOTY and played it for a few hundred hours, so I wasn't that freaked out by my magicka not regenerating. Long story short, I got my butt kicked a bit at first and I had to adopt some new tactics but I finally ended up with a character who could actually cast Fingers of the Mountain, which was a first for me...

Atronach didn't turn out to be as big an adjustment as I had feared because prior to that I had gotten Morrowind GOTY and played it for a few hundred hours, so I wasn't that freaked out by my magicka not regenerating.

I almost always play Atronach in both ESIII and IV.
Personally I view it as far more of a bonus than as crippling, especially in Morrowind where you can easily get topped up by temples and all of those free magicka potions the Mage's Guild gives you.
Even in Oblivion, though, the Atronach sign has far more advantages than disadvantages, especially if you brew your own restore magicka potions.
Honestly, I can't remember the last time I tried playing under a different sign, even as a pure mage.

Hm. I only tried The Atronach once in Oblivion and found it very annoying. P'raps I might give it another go. The Apprentice IS very crippling, especially if used with an Altmer! And The Mage is just too puny to bother with.

Fljotsdale wrote:Hm. I only tried The Atronach once in Oblivion and found it very annoying. P'raps I might give it another go. The Apprentice IS very crippling, especially if used with an Altmer! And The Mage is just too puny to bother with.

As long as you use alchemy you are fine. I can't remember the names of the particular magicka restore ingredients right now but they are actually quite plentiful.
As Belthan says, initially it is a bit more of a challenge, but after that you end up with a very powerful character. I'd avoid creating a Breton born under the Atronach, though, that's seriously overpowered.

But it's easier to create an attractive face on a Breton than on an Altmer!

Though I have just made me an Altmer with The Atronach, and I managed quite a decent face. I reckon she would look ugly to another Altmer, but she looks pretty ok to me. It just took a lot of fiddling about.

I'll see how she runs with The Atronach. But I won't do the Main Quest with her just yet!

Oh, and I always use Alchemy - just not as a Major skill. Very useful, alchemy. ;D

I never use alchemy (call me stupid). I once tried a character compleatly based on alchemy (poisoned weps, restore health, cash, etc.) and hated it. The wandering around looking for plants was SO boring. With the fighters stronghold addonn the maid can give you infenite ingredients, but not good ones for decent potions. Am I missing sokmething about alchemy?

If you're playingon a PC then Auto harvesting takes the pain out of it. If you have the Frostcrag Spire plugin then that helps, as of course does gainig access to the Arcan Uni.

Poisoning your weapon certainly makes combat easier, I woln't use a bow without it myself. And your own mana and health regenerating potions are far better than anything you can buy. Like Fljotsdale, I always have alchemy as a minor skill, it's far too important to have as a major.

galraen wrote:Like Fljotsdale, I always have alchemy as a minor skill, it's far too important to have as a major.

This is why I downloaded the mod that slowed down the leveling. I mean, doesn't this bother you when you're playing?

lifeishell91 wrote:This is why I downloaded the mod that slowed down the leveling. I mean, doesn't this bother you when you're playing?

What, the irrationality of a mage not having alchemy as a major? It should do, but I've got so used to it that it doesn't impact any more, it was the same in Morrowind, so it's something I've been doing atomatically for something like eight years now.

Hello, Forumers!

#00: Call you "stupid"? Heh! When I saw that, I wondered how "Moby Dick" might have been had it not begun with, "Call me, 'Ishmael'." but with, "Call me, 'Stupid'."

#01: Okay, now I'm confused about something. Don't you have to sleep in order to level up? So how can you, without a mod, sleep in the Tutorial Quest Dungeon to level up before you get to the exit? Have I been missing out on a bedroll somewhere?!

#02: Pretty Bretons indeed! The modder that made the "Sarah Michelle Gellar/Buffy Ann Summers" savegame mod, made her using the Breton template! (But I use the face exchange program to make her an Imperial Girl.) Until I can play a perfect game as an Imperial without glitching beyond repair, I don't want to try another race! (Faux custom aside though.)

#03: Dragon Wench, your avatar looks so familiar to me, but I can't figure out why, for now!

#04: Auto harvesting! Somebody beat me to it!

#05: Drat! Somebody asked a question that I knew the answer to, but now I can't think of it. So I guess I'll leave the forum for now and do what my stomach has been growling at me to do for an hour or so.