GameBanshee Forums

Background:
I want a character mainly focused in magic with some normal survival abilities thrown in like armor, block, blades - sort of a combat mage (if you think there are other things I should really check out or might have missed the point of feel free to fill me in on those as well).

The following section is an outline of my two previous attemps and some of the problems I find with those builds. If you just wanna skip ahead to my plans for the next char it's down at towards the end.

Previous attempts
-------------------------------------------------------------------
First char at level 14:
high elf, +50 magicka, Magic
major skills: alteration, conjuration, destruction, restoration, athletics, block, light armor
current magicka: 320
int: 85, wp: 62
Problems:
Very low stat bonuses on level up due to the insane levelling speed of the conjuration school and to some extent alteration as well. As all the willpower based schools are among the major skills I can't even get decent willpower gains if I stick to levelling purely by continously casting minor heal.
Most non magic skills take forever to increase. For example, if I summon skeletons to improve block and blades I just end up levelling conjuration...

Second char at level 7:
high elf, The thief, Stealth
major skills: destruction, restoration, ahtletics, alchemy, blades, block, light armor
int:75, wp: 63
current magicka: 250
Note that the goal for this char is esentially the same as the first one: dealing primarly with magic. However to be able to get decent int/wp gains I opted to keep the easy to level conjuration (int), alteration (wp) among the minor skills. So before I hit a new level I make sure to go up enough in those two schools enough for +5 gains.
Yet it feels a bit silly to keep stuff I like among minor skills as well as keeping their improvement rate down so as not to gimp int/wp. But if I don't I expect I'll be a mediochre mage as early as level 20 due to low magicka and magicka regeneration rate. On the other hand, as I can't boost my magic schools as much as I'd like since that would just postpone the gimped int/wp gains later on I end up with magic schools staying rather low in skill...

----------------------------------------------------------------------


While browsing this forum I read something about that you should go with Magic to get the highest possible magicka. Is that true? If not I'd rather stick to non-magic (i.e. combat/stealth) for my char to level those things quicker.


Now I'm planning a third character and thinking a bit along these lines:
Race/Sign: High elf/The thief (for luck and magicka)
or Breton/Atronach (for spell res/absorption and magicka)
Specialization: Combat (for faster fighting skill ups) or Magic (if it does
indeed improve magicka)
Major skills: Alchemy, Athletics, Hand to hand, Marksman, Destruction, Restoration, Illusion
I feel this build is likely to enable decent stat gains in int, wp, str and end. Downside is that I may have to work actively in gaining levels as some skills governing those attributes will probably increase a lot faster than my major skills.

The skills I would like to be my major skills (if it wasn't for the stat gain problem): Alteration or Atheltics, Conjuration, Destruction, Restoration, Blades, Block, Light Armor

Is it really be necessary to have to actively work to keep stat gains up like this or are there better ways to go when creating a class?
How high magicka will I need to be an efficient spellcaster? My previous two classes seemed to run out of it way too fast...
Any other hints and suggestions are welcome.

thanks
/qizatch

My recommendation for birthsign/race would be either
High Elf / Atronach - the Altmer are very vulnerable to Magicka, which will be a big problem later on, but with the Atronach, you can ignore hot/cold/shock resistances and simply go for 100% spell absorption.
or
Breton / The Thief - for a more conventional Mage character.


A pure mage can ignore certain attributes: Str, Ag, Sp, Per. Thus allowing him to focus on and excel at, Int, Wi, Lu.

Definately drop Marksman. One who majors in Destruction does not need it.

I recommend Alteration instead of H2H. Simply use long-duration Feather spells to haul loot, instead of being strong.

My L20 mage (whose charachter sheet was not carefully built, and who is now mothballed) has 100 Int, 100 Wi, and 250 Magicka. He can kill one monster on a single tank of Magicka, but he generally has to cast Invisibility 30s to recharge his batteries, or slug a stack of mana potions, in order to kill the next monster. Before I created my latest character, my Mage began wearing Daedric Armour and using Longsword and Shield. So yes, you can elect to pick up those skills late in the game.

If you choose a mix of combat and magical skills as major skills, however, you will level up akwardly. When you're facing L20 monsters, you'll be as capable as a L10 mage *or* a L10 warrior. That's no good.

[QUOTE=qizatch]Background:
I want a character mainly focused in magic with some normal survival abilities thrown in ...
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Problems:
Very low stat bonuses on level up due to the insane levelling speed of the conjuration school and to some extent alteration as well. ----------------------------------------------------------------------

Is it really be necessary to have to actively work to keep stat gains up like this or are there better ways to go when creating a class?
How high magicka will I need to be an efficient spellcaster? My previous two classes seemed to run out of it way too fast...
Any other hints and suggestions are welcome.
/qizatch[/QUOTE]

It may sound counter-intuitive to role playing, but your major skills shouldn't include the ones you will use the most. As I'm sure you know, the max points you can get per level up is 15 (5 each on 3 different attributes except luck). To achieve this you need to improve at least three skills by 10 points in the related attribute you want to increase. The only way to do this is to improve your "MINOR" skills the most. I would suggest putting the hard to achieve skills into the Majors and the easy ones into the Minors. In my current game I am playing a Breton/birthsign Mage, custom class. Her Majors are Athletics, Block, Blunt, Destruction, Illusion, Restoration, and Marksmanship. None of these is associated with Intelligence because its the one attribute I wanted to max out every time. I then used Alchemy, Mysticism and Conjuration skills to ensure I got these skill levels improved by 10 without causing my charater to level up. I also managed to increase two other skill/attribute sets by 10 so that I got my 15 bonus points every round. My majors increased by 10 quickly enough and pretty much without much planning but slow enough so that I had my minor skill improvements locked in before the majors triggered the level up. I knew from previous games that Destruction and Restoration leveled fairly slowly so I made both of these Willpower related skills majors and that seems to have worked out nicely because I could use Alteration (a minor skill) to make up the 10 skill points I needed. Doing it this way I quickly increased my Intelligence and Willpower until they were maxed out. I have a max base of 300 Magicka which is sufficient for my needs. I can boost my magicka with spells and enchantments if need be and I can regenerate magicka with welkynd stones and potions (especially homemade restore magicka potions that regenerate magicka continuously rather than one fell swoop). At level 30most of my minors that I rely on are in the 80 - 100 range and my all but speed and luck are maxed out. I fight mostly with my fists, conjured creatures and destruction spells and only occassionally with sword, mace or a bow (for killing necromancers with a single *silence+frost* damage poisoned arrow and a bow with a Weakness to Poison enchantment on it).

Spells used most: Custom fireball/weakness to fire spell, conjured clanfears, daedroth and fire atronach (for undead), Major improve attribute spells like Strength/Agility/Willpower/etc. to buff, paralyze on touch for HTH fighting, ranged silence and ranged soul trap.