This is kind of bizarre, but I’ve found that guards are the single most convenient source of soul gems for when I want to go enchanting. Black Soul gems woohoo.
Use ice storm more! Usually you’ll fight enemies of a single type. For instance, if you go into a crypt you’re really only going to fight Draugs, who are weak to fire and resist frost. Hit them with more fire! Use a fire atronach!
If you hit a bandit camp, you’re really only going to be fighting humanoids, most of whom it isn’t worth the effort to sort out damage types for. Drop a snowman and blast em with frosties, problem solved.
Yet it’s impossible to get any sneak bonuses. Honestly magic should get the same as bows or maybe more. I can play a heavy armor character and get sneak shots off with my bow just because it’s so far away no one hears me regardless of the noise I’m making.
I consider paralyze a sneak bonus. But yes these would be nifty!
Yeah happened to me a lot too, almost never happens with melee or bow. All these little details make mages that much harder and complex to micromanage. Mages really should have kill moves, I can’t tell you how many times I get those using melee vs a decently tough enemy that kills them in one hit.
Actually mages do have kill moves for their Destruction stuff if they take the perk. Ice will freeze something, basically paralysis. Lightning will just instakill when 20% hp is left. Fire doesn’t, but fire constantly burns people so v0v.
I’m now level 21 with full Orcish epic heavy armor using swords and bows. Smithing is really powerful and easy to raise fast. I’ve died 2 times total (default difficulty) vs probably 30 on the mage to level 14. Magic seems to level a hell of a lot slower than melee or archery. After playing both I really think magic got short changed, hope some mods bring it back up to par (stealth bonuses, kill moves, more damage, etc).
I have 90% cost reduction for destruction and alteration (slightly broke my house rule) meaning that all my skills are basically free. And if a fight gets rough, I pop a philter of destruction, which gives me +40% domage. Even at high levels on master, this is enough to kill things with a single dualfist blast.
It’s not quite the same as the melee types, but I don’t think other people are playing the mage the way I am based on the number that are unhappy with it. Seriously you have to dual fist every mage attack, it gives you a knockback and a damage boost.
Chain aoe stunning stuff with dualfist fireballs or icestorms might require juice, but the sheer number of status effects and stuns you can cause on a group is frankly absurd.
I’d like it if they boosted the damage or gave me the ability to enchant damage increase mods (so that I could have a dual enchant destruction cost reducer/damage increaser) but there are potions that do almost exactly that. And paralyze solves most of my problems.
You can always toss on some armor if you’re unhappy with the cloth armor playstyle, as far as I can tell there are no real disadvantages. You can even enchant armor with the various bonuses.
I have a full set of glass armor I’m thinking about enchanting into casting gear just for the halibut.
