Best overall magic character for a newby

[wbme]

I have just purchased GOTY and started playing it this week. While I think I will really enjoy it, I know that I won't have near the time to play that I would like. I am just about to exit the dungeon and I have a chance to edit my Race, Birthsign, and Class and keeping my limited playing time in mind I would like to solicit opinions from all the experienced gamers out there on the best combination of these traits for a character who could become adept at using magic. Skill with weapons and armor is secondary, but I do like the idea of fighting versus being something like a thief.

 

Your opinions, help, and thoughts are appreciated!

[DavidWhitefang]

Hello wbme,

 

This is my advice to you... from where you are now, in your game, make a 'save' and don't overwrite it!

 

From whatever you choose for your character to become, whether of your own choice, or from advice, make that a seperate save. Then if you start realizing that you may have made a mistake, and want to change it, you can at least just reload the save that I'm encouraging you to make, and recustomize your charater from there, instead of starting over completely. (This way, You avoid going through the tutorial from the beginning again).

 

Also with this method, you can experiment for yourself, until you find the combonation that pleases you.

 

Have fun,

 

David

[endgamecutter]

depends on what you want out of your spells, healing and stat buffs are restoration, but defensive buffs are alteration, and reflecting buffs are under mysticism. alchemy is a special magic, because it has the potential to use almost any spell effect, although if your concoction has any possitive effects, it becomes a potion, which can be annoying if your ingredients add a negative effect to the result. it also depends on your race, however according to powergamers, breton is the best race, due to 50% resistance to magic, as well as an additional 50 mana, whereas 200 is the max without buffs. i recommend heavy armor personally, but thats because i'm obsessed with smacking everthing at close range, even my mages turn to that because the weapon attribute that i added "as a precaution incase enemies had spell reflect" becomes so much easier. all in all, for starting out, i recommend a fighter over a mage as your first char, but for mages, i recommend any kind of armor, blunt weapon skill (for the mace of molag bal, i think it has mana absorb effect) and for magic types, destruction, alchemy, restoration, conjuration and illusion.

[UnholyShadow]

You should probably know that magic is not very good in vanilla Oblivion. Get a mod like Supreme Magicka or Mighty Magick to balance it out.

[Iapetus]

As Cutter said, Breton is a good race for a mage of any sort. No real drawbacks, and plenty of magicka to play around with! Alchemy is a must-have, as it allows you to go without an armor specialty, because shield potions are pretty easy to make. Destruction and Alteration make a potent combo, and use a weapon of some sort. Try blunt. Also, look into picking up a summon weapon spell, it can make all the difference if you are in a tight spot. Thus, you should have conjuration as a major also. I also reccomend Supreme Magicka. With it, you get a whole lot of new spells to use, and MAGICAL SNEAK ATTACKS! Those really come in handy.

Good luck!

[pedantic]

I have just purchased GOTY and started playing it this week. While I think I will really enjoy it, I know that I won't have near the time to play that I would like. I am just about to exit the dungeon and I have a chance to edit my Race, Birthsign, and Class and keeping my limited playing time in mind I would like to solicit opinions from all the experienced gamers out there on the best combination of these traits for a character who could become adept at using magic. Skill with weapons and armor is secondary, but I do like the idea of fighting versus being something like a thief.

 

Your opinions, help, and thoughts are appreciated!

 

I agree with first time Mage character being Breton, the mana boost helps tremendously when starting out. Also, making a save at the exit to the sewers saves a bunch of time later. Personally, I played through the tutorial a few times to get a 'good' feel for the controls. There isn't time to look at the keyboard during combat :biggrin:

 

What I'd like to add to the general concensus is, when you pick those Major skills, try not to pick too many Mage skills. If you do you'll level up too quickly and get trounced far too easily. When playing as any style character I always choose Destruction and Restoration as major skills. They're both useful and take a while to level up. I pick either Blade, Blunt, or H2H (usually Blade) so at least I am semi profficient at close combat from the start. You'll be surprised how quickly some of your enemies will close on you. For this reason, I also pick Block as a major skill, I don't use it much but it sure comes in handy when the 'poop' hits the fan. As to the remaining three Major skills, I vary them depending on what type of Mage I want to be. I've tried often to be an 'in your face' mage but it seldom works .. LOL, I usualy end up being a sneak. Fire and run, that's me - I hope you have hours of fun, I know I do. Happy Oblivion to you.

[RandomJF]

Supreme Magicka + any 6 of the 7 magic schools and a weapon skill will probably do it for you. :P I'd reccomend Destruction and Alteration as mandatory, Restoration and Illusion as useful, whereas the other three only start becoming really useful at Journeyman and above (you can use invisibility at Apprentice, max duration 15s). Supreme Magicka really does make pure magic a completely viable option, if you really want to go there (you don't need armour, Alteration is your defense).

[SavageArtistry]

I really like playing a sorcerer, personally. I don't currently use spell mods, however.

[pedantic]

I really like playing a sorcerer, personally. I don't currently use spell mods, however.

 

 

I agree, besides, the question wasn't ... I've just started playing, what's the best way for me to make it easy and unchallenging. :thumbsup:

[GenghisKhanIT]

I too would advise a Breton, the 50% resistance to any magic thrown to you is great.

 

I would advise not to install any mod so early, just play a bit, notice what you do find boring, and look for some small mod to correct it, you will find it for sure and enjoy mods much more.

 

As for skills I would personally advise Destruction (of course), Restoration, Alchemy, one weapon (I would suggest Blade), one armor (I love Heavy). For the remaining skill it's up to you, but I would avoid Conuration, Alteration and Illusion, they rank up so fast that you will power-level without even noticing. And power-leveling is not good for your health in vanilla Oblivion, not at all.

 

Choose Endurance as a favorite attribute, health is very important.

 

As for sign, the Mage is the safest bet, better ignore the Atronach and the Apprentice, they have too many drawbacks. You could also consider the Fighter if you want to mix in some combat.

 

BTW, I find it difficult to play as a pure armorless mage in vanilla game, think about mixing some "real" combat in, combat is funny and it improves your Endurance when you use Block skill. That's also why I prefer Heavy Armor to Light, because it helps your Endurance.

 

 

But the most important thing is HAVE FUN!