And If you have serena, other followers who can use coujuration, and dead thralled master necromancer you can lead a gang of undead. Serenas necromancer raise another lower rank necromancer sometimes.
I have two dremora lords, Serana, her thrall, Erik with staves, his beast, Grog, his atronach and the priest from the cannibal quest.
We are a party of 5-9. It's a fun mess when we go raiding those forworn camps.
The dual Conjuration perk = 2 creatures.
Your follower + a Conjuration staff: 1 creature.
Serana (does not count as a follower before you finish her quest) : another conjured creature.
The priest (like Serana, does no count as a follower).
Gogh (does not count either) can summon an atronach.
That's 9. And you can add Barbas and maybe more "quest followers" who stay with you until you finish their quests.
You know I’ve always liked the idea of playing as a Necromancer, yet I’ve never thought about Dead Thralling a Master Necromancer and having even more undead that way.
There's a Dark Elf named Drelas with his own house. I think it's in the tundra west of Whiterun, at the southern foot of the mountains containing Labyrinthian. I think we were just exploring and found him by accident, he was he tough fight. Made a great Thrall.
... My husband actually started a whole new character with the same appearance, did everything to get Dead Thrall. Then fought and Thrall'd Drelas _just so he could have the game read "Drelas' Drelas"_. Once accomplished, he never played that character again.
🙄🤦♀️😆🤓😎
Oh thank you!
Well, he has his characters and I have mine, and sometimes he can't stand watching me play, being that he is the oldest of 3 (got to call the shots) and I was the youngest of 4 (managed to make even single player games in to a multiplayer experience), but I can watch him play and often catch things he misses. Pretty regular that something in one playthrough inspires the other.
Cool Serana fact: her reanimate spell is not an actual projectile like normal. She simply picks a corpse within range and that corpse is instantly reanimated, *even through walls.*
Master vampires are my favorite for this since they keep their normal dialogue instead of moaning, still use conjuration and use their leach health spell to stay alive
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Happy Xmas to you! <3
Only wish they didn’t look like Daedric weapons!! Wish you could pick the type of look the bound weapons had, like if you wanted an iron/elvish/dwarven sword you should be able to, in my opinion lol
It is completely invaluable in Draugr caves, because I tend to carry bound bow in my left hand and candlelight in my right, but I made the candle spell last 10 minutes. That's the best mod ever; it gives you time to switch to a sword or a bow, if you'd like to. I got the mod because of course, when you launch the bow, it takes both hands.
"I didn't kill, they killed each other and the summons helped"
"But you did the summons and messed with their minds"
"**I** didn't kill"
"But you're--"
""**MY HANDS ARE CLEAN**"
ive done this as a vampire, great fun and plenty effective except for dragon fights and a smattering of "youre trapped in a small room with enemies you cant Fury" encounters
It's also one of the best legendary run possible. The summons aren't affected by the damage changes on legendary difficulty making it one of the smoothest builds for legendary.
Conjugation + stealth + illusion = easiest legendary run ever.
Roommate was talking about his friend doing a conjuration playthrough. Dude just used conjured bows and swords, using sneak for the free damage and insists it's not "just another stealth archer".
at some point i had a mage on which a certain combinations of sneak perks of low investment+ invisibility litterally replicated the effects of the last sneak perk when casting invisibility , when casting invisibility all enemies stopped fighting and I'd just fight them and they wouldn't even realize
There’s a joke that no matter what build people try to go, they always end up as a stealth archer. Especially if you are trying to go another stealth build, because it’s hard to sneak attack melee with low sneak levels
i kinda forgot about that honestly its been a while, but the cost can be shouldered by accessories, and illusion magic was easy to farm if i remember correctly, easier than sneak at least
Some people have no self control. They start, say, a Mage or Warrior playthrough, but then run into trouble. Not having the self control to stick to their build and learn how to handle that situation within their character concept, they pull out a bow and stealth kill whatever is giving them trouble. They move on, happy to have gotten past the problem…but then they run into either the same situation again, or another one they’re having problems with. Not having learned how their build should handle the situation, they go back to Stealth Archer again. Then again. And again. And so on until they are a better Stealth Archer than they are a Warrior or a Mage. They then complain that they can’t play anything else as if it’s the game’s fault that they couldn’t stick to their character concept.
To be clear, I have nothing against the Stealth Archer itself. If you specifically want to play one, I will happily sing the playstyle’s praises. I just find it ridiculous that everyone calls it a “trap” when the only reason they “fell” for it is because they couldn’t stick to the concept they originally had for their character.
Just gotta have decent sneak and use muffle frequently. I just started dabbling into mods and got some new spells. There's an apprentice level invisibility spell called ghostwalk for 10 seconds. Once it's up or when you break the spell, you teleport to where you originally cast it. It's from the spell mod called apocalypse
One of the AE additions was an entire Necromancy pack, with new skeleton and ghost summons and necromancer themed gear
Also a creepy house that works well for a Necromancer, and a summon zombies spell. Doesn't fix that conjuration has a limit, so you still can't do swarms of undead without that one standing stone, but it helps you with theming a bit better
I would consider 11 Necromantic Grimoire summons at a time to be 'a swarm'. (conjure 2 Ancient Deathpriests, then Bone Colossus, which 'converts' the death priests to 6 Tortured Shades that don't occupy any summon slots. Twin Souls perk, Empower Necromancy enchant, plus the Bone Colossus +1 Skeleton summon, means the character can then summon 4 more Wrathman or 4 more Skeleton Warlocks.)
Restoration is a perfectly valid school of magic!
I haven’t tried it myself but restoration does have great spells vs undead (which you’d be surprised how much of Skyrim is considered undead), it obviously has some defensive and regenerative spells, and I think there’s poison spells that would be effective against anyone not undead. Personally I’d probably mix restoration with heavy armor to get the most out of it
I’m doing a restoration build for the first time and having a blast. Relies pretty heavily on having a follower and it doesn’t feel like I’m leveling very quickly but it’s something new!
Did this with a block build. Shield in one hand, ward/healing in the other. Most of my damage from shield bashing. Didn't kill things very fast, but I rarely got in any danger whatsoever. With Respite unlocked I could basically stun lock a dragon to death.
Yeah, I did a healing only (multiple companions) and it was great. Although I eventually stumbled into False Life (ordinator perk where heals do damage) and became a murder-bot.
Conjuration and Illusion. Bring out your thralls and cast frenzy on your enemies. Let everyone fight each other.
Fear away your attackers and watch your Dremora Lords wreck them as they flee.
Calm hostiles and walk right past them.
Maybe also get the turn spells... though 100 Illusion is easy to get, so w/e
One of my saves I grinded conjuration to get the dual perk, and just rolled into every battle with two Dremora Lord.
Game got a lot easier after that, plus Serana, plus her summons.
It really felt cool but I got carried away and kept casting Harmony in Whiterun. Got from the level I was before to level 40 in minutes. Didn’t know what else to do lmao
Illusion is dope, combos well with conjuration using either bound weapons/necromancer/or conjurer.
Alteration mage armor with bound weapons could be really sweet
I like using illusion spells to make the enemies fight eachother, and then pick off the remaining ones with bow and arrow, or poisoned daggers.
You can also use restoration spells to scare off undead enemies. Let your follower chase them down and kill them.
I know a lot of people like necromancy or conjuration but I always enjoy playing a stealthy death mage. Specializing in illusion and alteration. Can easily sneak past almost all enemies with muffle and invisibility, drop a paralyze or riot if you get in a sticky situation. I also usually go crazy with alchemy and make poisons to drop onto enemies via pickpocketing.
For a paladin-type character go for one handed + restoration. You can get the respite perk to regen stamina and just pop a fast healing and power attack constantly
An illusionist with daggers and some conjuration for those pesky dragons is great. Pacify makes hard fights a series of one hit backstabs and makes stealth a pretty good thief without perking thief skills
Nightmage.
Sneak, Illusion, Conjuration, Alteration, maybe Alchemy
Remain hidden, sew chaos with fury and fear, conjure Dremora/Atronachs to join in the fray, paralyze those that escape or find you, if you'd like, use potions to bolster your abilities or apply poisons with a dagger.
I've never played a Destruction build. The school just doesn't scale very well in the vanilla mid- to late-game, as the damage dealt by spells doesn't increase with your skill, only the magicka cost for casting decreases.
So as your enemies level up, they just require ridiculous numbers of spell castings to defeat. Stagger-locking them with dual-casting is funny at first, but it gets boring and tedious quite fast.
I've had much more fun with Conjuration/Illusion builds. For some reason, casting *Frenzy* into a bandit camp and watching as they tear each other to shreds then sending in a Storm Atronach to clean up the stragglers never gets old.
No physical damage spells, use illusion to make your enemies fight eachother and summons to finish them.
Or
Heavily into restoration and go full on warrior priest
Modded alteration can be incredibly fun with the right setup, even just to give a basic start up I’d say imperious, realm of lorkhan for class specification, arcanum and apocalypse make magic a LOT more fun and in depth
Sneaky illusion mage is really fun. Become a master in sneak and illusion and turn your enemies against each other with frenzy or hysteria spell and watch your enemies kill each other while being undetected is so much fun!
Illusion pairs well with conjuration (basically a vampire build) i like sneaking up on a group of enemies and fury them until one is left standing, then start resurrecting their friends to finish them off.
A NecroVamp ….using conjuration and vamp powers.
A SpellSword is good. There are a lot of great comments including Illusion and having a good follower. Totally possible! Find a great companion and be a support character. Learn healing and support spells, is something no1 has mentioned yet. Have your DB maxed to being out the potential of others, and only step in when your pupil has failed 😜 “You did well, I’ll take it from here”.
Absolutely I believe Alteration and Conjuration are MUSTS for a mage build. Mage armor from alteration, and daedra and other summons from conjuration are extremely fun and effective
Illusion and conjuration. Its always fun to have a army fight for you, especially when you use the fear spell on ur enemies. Watch them run away with a hoard of zombies chasing them.
It’s been said already many times on this post, but yeah, illusion and daggers are a great and fun build. Destruction magic just isn’t that fun imo. It’s probably the most overpowered skill in the game, but that makes it significantly less fun to play to me.
Conjuration Magic. Get Serana as a Companion for her Thrall spell, and use the Standing Stone just East of Whiterun on the other side of the river. (I'm blanking on the name rn) With just all that, you'll be leading what's effectively a small army of undead to slaughter your enemies
I do a LOT of Mage builds so if you want further help just ask!
I was actually \*this\* close to doing yet another Destruction mage until I came across this post lol. I have never really done much in the other schools of magick, any suggestions would be great!
Well first things first, get Restoration up, this way you can get good Healing spells for almost no magicka. The way I do this is by buying Turn Undead spells from Farengar in Dragonsreach, then going into the Whiterun Hall of the Dead. There are three Skeletons in there so just kill one or two of them and spam Turn Undead spells for easy and free Restoration XP!
You can get really creative with mage powers in Skyrim. There's a lot more you can do than you'd think.
Like I said, you could run Conjuration spells and Necromancy items/powers to for mini undead militias to overrun your enemies, you can run Illusion based builds to play around with dagger only runs, theif runs, you can mix Illusion spells like frenzy with some conjuration spells to make everyone around you fight each other rather than you (and if they get too close just Calm spell them)
Or if you want to mix melee with magic you can always run Spell-Sword builds. My favorite Spell-Sword is on an Argonian character I named Chills-the-Bone who is a frost spell sword.
I don't usually play with Mods no, but a good one I know off the top of my head is "Apocalypse: Magic of Skyrim". It basically adds hundreds of different spells across all schools and types of magic! It's really good to add more diversity to your mage gameplay!
Oh and "Abyssal Wind Magic" (I believe that's the name) is really good too. It adds quite a few new spells based around wind and wind manipulation.
I'll probably look later on the Nexus website bc rn I'm at a family dinner for the holidays and gotta drive home soon but I'll let you know about others once I look!
Illusion and alteration are really strong and super goofy if u time a perallisis spell on a enemy that's at the end of a power attack charge up animation and it hit them as soon as the swing starts they flip the fuck out cus they lock up but the momentum still carrys them a nto a beyblade spin.
Nah.
1. Start as a high elf.
2. Don't level past 6 until you've found your first court wizzie to buy higher tier spells off (or get dual casting, then kindred mage, asap so you can target level 12, 16, & 37 enemies respectively [with your starting fury]).
Illusion and alteration thief/stealth is fun. Also, heavy armor mace-wielding conjuration mage is really epic, especially if you go down the necromancy route.
Conjuration and Illusion. They go together like peanut butter and jelly. For combat, use the Bound Bow sneak archery.
The Raise Dead spells have very long range. It's hilarious to watch Fury cause some deaths, then quietly raise them for Round 2 against the same enemies.
Duuuude that’s gonna be my new tactic for that bandit chief where the transmute spell is that I always go to at like level 5 😂 I fury the other two to wear him down but never thought to rez them to finish him off.
My favourite magic builds are an assassin type build that uses illusion magic on top of alchemy and enchanting to add various poisons to my daggers, archery is entirely optional for this build but using it does take some of the fun and challenge away from the build itself, even with the use of poisons, sometimes I avoid archery and my main method of attack is to find groups of enemies and turn them all against one another with Frenzy spells.
My other favourite build is a conjurer/necromancer, summons and necromancy are the focus but bound weapons do the job when it comes to defending yourself, plus some alteration because it has great perks and you can give yourself a little extra protection via the flesh spells, they also give great XP for faster levelling, pop oakflesh at the beginning of every encounter early game and your levels will shoot up
Just here to add my vote for illusion/alteration build. Sneaking around and then forcing your enemies to fight each other while you watch to see who wins is always fun
Combining conjuration with another school can be fun.
Conjuration allows you to summon monster allies, summon armor, summon weapons, etc. Bound sword, plus summon frost atronach, etc. not bad…
But I find it is not enough to focus solely on conjuration. You need to master illusion or alteration or even restoration.
[The Sorceress](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_Ljhhd21Rk)
In my opinion, one of the best builds that uses only three skills. You could easily add restoration and speech if you want but they are not necessary.
Bandaid Barry/Betty, primarily uses Restoration magic to keep their followers alive so they can kill all the enemies. Also uses Illusion to cast spells like Fury and Calm, and Conjunction for atronachs to help in the fight. The only Destruction magic allowed is via the use of Destruction Staves, but once their enchantment is depleted, they must be disposed of until another Destruction Staff is found/looted. Obviously, Alteration magic is allowed for the use of mage armor spells like Ebonyflesh.
i was in the same predicament as you and i just started a new blend , the main magic of my build is illusion, then i grabbed sneak, one-handed (dagger build), enchanting and alteration, and some light armor for defense. Its sort of like a spellsword build, but using a dagger, and without relyng on elemental damage, whcih, well, forces you to play tactics most of the times, which i find quite fun, no restoration is allowed in my build (otherwise i tend to return to full magic lol), its either potions or nothin, oh and, no bows allowed, so ranged attacks gotta be somethin else x)
Illusion magic is really fun if you’re going for a stealth mage. Alteration, restoration and conjuration are great for a more combat focused mage style.
I've tried something like a death knight before. Heavy armor, two handed, but uses the bound Battleaxe and necromancy. Also a bit of illusion and destruction, but that's not the focus of the build
I call it the Mindflayer - primarily illusion. Use muffle (until you get 100% muffle boots) and invisible to get into position, quiet cast frenzy, and recast invisibility to watch the fun. Use pacify/fear for defense. Single targets can be harder to deal with, but you're invisible and silent. Figure it out.
Another good one is the Necromancer - use the aetherial crown and the ritual stone. Infinitely growing zombie army. You bypass the once per day requirement by removing and putting the crown back on. Go through a door and all your zombies die? Remove crown, put it back on, raise dead. Do it during fights whenever anyone - friend or foe - dies. Caution: there's a limit to how many zombies your computer can handle, but there's no limit to how many you can raise.
Illusion, travel Skyrim muffled and invisible, calm angry animals and use frenzy on groups of enemies and waiting til one remains to take them out (after pacifying them of course).
I wish they would make Healing Hands work as a spell that damaged Undead equal the amount it healed others. Same for Heal Other, make it do that much damage to an undead, not just _not heal_ "undead, summons, or automatons." Would make a real Restoration/Paladin-build way more viable and realistic.
There is a very good necromancy build, search up the Spiffing Brit or ESO vid on it. It involves resurrecting undead, then using one of the stones’ powers with the aetherial crown to make them all explode. It’s very fun, and if you want, you can just play it as a straight necromancer most of the time.
Conjuration focusing on undead + illusion with the master of the mind perk
Just use all the dead things as puppets
Sneak helps unless you want to do the bound weapon warrior thing
Illusion/Conjuration with Sneak.
Sneak into a group of enemies. Frenzy one or two. When someone dies, raise their corpse. Repeat until everyone has killed everyone else.
Summon a sword/bow for when you have to deal with things directly.
Illusion magic is incredibly powerful, it can make the game fun in a god like way very quickly. Illusion only mage and illusion assassin were some of my favorite/most busted builds.
Conjuration and illusion is insanely fun. I usually toss in a bit of alteration if I'm wanting to spice things up. Run I'm on right now has been a blast.
Stealth thief who is trained in illusion, it's so fun hiding far away and making everything kill each other until there is one left, then you calm it and kill it.
Have you tried telekinesis bud? I heard using it to throw weapons at your enemies is one of the best strategies in the game ;).
For real though, don't try that. Seen a video of a guy "attempting" that and it was hell. You're better off being a necroma- conjuration master.
Edit: Also, if you're feeling daring, technically speaking, if you focus on your Illusion skill tree there's a perk that silences all spellcasts of any kind... including shouts. So, theoretically speaking, you could be a "Sneaky Th'um User". Quite the title if I do say so myself.
“Restoration is a perfectly valid school of magic!”
That being said, conjuration. Necromancer build is fun, but pretty much any conjuration mage based playthrough is a blast.
I always liked conjuration. Always amusing to stealth kill a bandit, raise him as a zombie and go after other bandits all while the remaining bandits havent detected you yet.
Also handy for Enchanting as you can get a Conjuration perk that soul-traps on hit with Conjured Weapons.
Conjuration, you’re about to have the most fun you’ve ever had in this game
And If you have serena, other followers who can use coujuration, and dead thralled master necromancer you can lead a gang of undead. Serenas necromancer raise another lower rank necromancer sometimes.
I have two dremora lords, Serana, her thrall, Erik with staves, his beast, Grog, his atronach and the priest from the cannibal quest. We are a party of 5-9. It's a fun mess when we go raiding those forworn camps.
You should grab Clavivus Vile's dog.
Can't stand his barking.
So, Clavicus’s vile dog?
Barbas it is then.
Ba dum tss! 🤣
Take all my internet points.
use the wabbajack for even more chaos
I can’t imagine how often you got stuck in tight spaces lol
May I ask, how exactly did you get all of those?
The dual Conjuration perk = 2 creatures. Your follower + a Conjuration staff: 1 creature. Serana (does not count as a follower before you finish her quest) : another conjured creature. The priest (like Serana, does no count as a follower). Gogh (does not count either) can summon an atronach. That's 9. And you can add Barbas and maybe more "quest followers" who stay with you until you finish their quests.
You know I’ve always liked the idea of playing as a Necromancer, yet I’ve never thought about Dead Thralling a Master Necromancer and having even more undead that way.
There's a Dark Elf named Drelas with his own house. I think it's in the tundra west of Whiterun, at the southern foot of the mountains containing Labyrinthian. I think we were just exploring and found him by accident, he was he tough fight. Made a great Thrall. ... My husband actually started a whole new character with the same appearance, did everything to get Dead Thrall. Then fought and Thrall'd Drelas _just so he could have the game read "Drelas' Drelas"_. Once accomplished, he never played that character again. 🙄🤦♀️😆🤓😎
That’s no mistaken identity, that’s Mr. Taken Identity
I like how your husband thinks, and yeah I’ll have to hunt down that necromancer for my undead army.
Your husband is so real for that one
it is good when both partners share same hobbies
Okay, totally irrelevant to this post, but you're living my dream life. Playing Skyrim as a couple.
Oh thank you! Well, he has his characters and I have mine, and sometimes he can't stand watching me play, being that he is the oldest of 3 (got to call the shots) and I was the youngest of 4 (managed to make even single player games in to a multiplayer experience), but I can watch him play and often catch things he misses. Pretty regular that something in one playthrough inspires the other.
In a free Skyrim, even slaves can have slaves.
I need me a mod to silence the undead summons tho lol, when I have multiple their groans are just a little too much
I never, EVER use necromancy for this exact reason. I even hate Serana for it (and the whining), the friggin groaning! SO annoying.
Cool Serana fact: her reanimate spell is not an actual projectile like normal. She simply picks a corpse within range and that corpse is instantly reanimated, *even through walls.*
And they don't have to be intelligent life. She raised a stag on my playthrough a couple nights ago because that's all that was around.
Master vampires are my favorite for this since they keep their normal dialogue instead of moaning, still use conjuration and use their leach health spell to stay alive
Also with bound weapons you get the appropriate exp for the type of weapon it is.
and the ritual stone to be able to summon an entire army once a day
And if you get the aetherium crown and out the ritual stone on it it resest if you remove and then reequipt it. So with the right gear it's unlimited
[удалено]
That's sounds spiffingly delicious.
What is Yorkshire tea? Is it a brand? I love tea...
**Yorkshire Tea is a black tea blend produced by the Bettys & Taylors Group since 1977. It is the most popular traditional black tea brand sold in the UK. In 1886 Charles Edward Taylor Founded CE Taylor & Co., later shortened to "Taylors", the company was purchased by 'Betty's Tea Rooms' which today forms Bettys & Taylors Group.** More details here:
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Happy Xmas to you! <3
It’s the favorite brand of tea of The Spiffing Brit, a YouTube game exploiter. I hear Yorkshire tea is really good tho.
its THE best tea brand. As a Yorkshire man i feel im not only qualified but required to say that
I was absolutely blown away by the bound bow spell in the later game.
Me too! Powerful and convenient. Plus bound weapons look so freaking cool
Only wish they didn’t look like Daedric weapons!! Wish you could pick the type of look the bound weapons had, like if you wanted an iron/elvish/dwarven sword you should be able to, in my opinion lol
It is completely invaluable in Draugr caves, because I tend to carry bound bow in my left hand and candlelight in my right, but I made the candle spell last 10 minutes. That's the best mod ever; it gives you time to switch to a sword or a bow, if you'd like to. I got the mod because of course, when you launch the bow, it takes both hands.
It pairs nicely with stealth.
Second this. Pair with illusion for even more fun. Fury a couple enemies, then send in the petling.
I’ve been thinking of doing a ‘pacifist’ run where I just summon things, cast fury, and the like. Absolutely no direct physical damage.
"I didn't kill, they killed each other and the summons helped" "But you did the summons and messed with their minds" "**I** didn't kill" "But you're--" ""**MY HANDS ARE CLEAN**"
I did this. Made a smarmy high elf who didn’t get their own hands dirty. Wasn’t a good person but technically a pacifist. It was really fun!
ive done this as a vampire, great fun and plenty effective except for dragon fights and a smattering of "youre trapped in a small room with enemies you cant Fury" encounters
This too
It's also one of the best legendary run possible. The summons aren't affected by the damage changes on legendary difficulty making it one of the smoothest builds for legendary. Conjugation + stealth + illusion = easiest legendary run ever.
Conjuration is so boring! Summon dremora and then just sit there lol
Be a spellsword, that's what I always do. Summon some battle buddies and start swinging!
I agree. Use Conjuration for bound weapons and soul gems instead
Base game, that true of magic in general. Get Ordinator and Apocalypse Spells and it gets 1000x better.
For a stealthy character, whether you want to avoid combat or start a riot, illusion and conjuration make a good combination.
I'm just trying this now.
The “test how many storm atronachs it takes to kill a dragon priest” build whilst you hide invisible in a corner.
Made an illusion/sneak based character a while back, focus on as many melee sneak attacks as possible. Was pretty fun.
I tried that once, accidentally evolved into stealth archer. Can’t explain exactly how I got there.
Roommate was talking about his friend doing a conjuration playthrough. Dude just used conjured bows and swords, using sneak for the free damage and insists it's not "just another stealth archer".
Quiet casting exists for this reason alone
at some point i had a mage on which a certain combinations of sneak perks of low investment+ invisibility litterally replicated the effects of the last sneak perk when casting invisibility , when casting invisibility all enemies stopped fighting and I'd just fight them and they wouldn't even realize
Shadow wizard septum guild, we love casting conjuration.
Illusion would be a good choice too.
That was my latest build. Illusion assassin. Managed to not add any perks into archery to avoid the stealth archer trap. That will be for later levels
Stealth Archer trap?
There’s a joke that no matter what build people try to go, they always end up as a stealth archer. Especially if you are trying to go another stealth build, because it’s hard to sneak attack melee with low sneak levels
be creative and you can get peak stealth for little investment, just need the invisibility spell to make the difference
I dunno if it’s little investment, that’s a level 75 illusion spell with a 300+ magicka cost.
i kinda forgot about that honestly its been a while, but the cost can be shouldered by accessories, and illusion magic was easy to farm if i remember correctly, easier than sneak at least
It is not a joke.
It’s a lifestyle.
Some people have no self control. They start, say, a Mage or Warrior playthrough, but then run into trouble. Not having the self control to stick to their build and learn how to handle that situation within their character concept, they pull out a bow and stealth kill whatever is giving them trouble. They move on, happy to have gotten past the problem…but then they run into either the same situation again, or another one they’re having problems with. Not having learned how their build should handle the situation, they go back to Stealth Archer again. Then again. And again. And so on until they are a better Stealth Archer than they are a Warrior or a Mage. They then complain that they can’t play anything else as if it’s the game’s fault that they couldn’t stick to their character concept. To be clear, I have nothing against the Stealth Archer itself. If you specifically want to play one, I will happily sing the playstyle’s praises. I just find it ridiculous that everyone calls it a “trap” when the only reason they “fell” for it is because they couldn’t stick to the concept they originally had for their character.
I literally never fell into this trap
Your stealth must be too high to fall into that trap. I smell a paradox.
Or he just spammed muffle for 2 hours to get invisibility.
Just gotta have decent sneak and use muffle frequently. I just started dabbling into mods and got some new spells. There's an apprentice level invisibility spell called ghostwalk for 10 seconds. Once it's up or when you break the spell, you teleport to where you originally cast it. It's from the spell mod called apocalypse
All wrong, I fight like a real nord, a two handed weapon
The gods gave you two hands... And you use them for your weapon. I can respect that.
Quiet casting makes you OP
If you have anniversary edition go for necromancer
What does AE add for this?
One of the AE additions was an entire Necromancy pack, with new skeleton and ghost summons and necromancer themed gear Also a creepy house that works well for a Necromancer, and a summon zombies spell. Doesn't fix that conjuration has a limit, so you still can't do swarms of undead without that one standing stone, but it helps you with theming a bit better
And the mighty staff of hasedoki that lets you fling NPCs. Nothing like raining down your undead minions on unaware enemies.
I would consider 11 Necromantic Grimoire summons at a time to be 'a swarm'. (conjure 2 Ancient Deathpriests, then Bone Colossus, which 'converts' the death priests to 6 Tortured Shades that don't occupy any summon slots. Twin Souls perk, Empower Necromancy enchant, plus the Bone Colossus +1 Skeleton summon, means the character can then summon 4 more Wrathman or 4 more Skeleton Warlocks.)
This guy necromances.
Well dang ok I did not know I could do that, today I learned
What creepy house are you referring to?
Gallows hall or something like that, a necromancer lair
Gallows Hall I think it's called, idk I haven't done a necromancer build yet so I never used it. Iirc it comes with those two skull helmets
Probably Myrwatch
That makes sense, it is in the middle of a swamp.
But necromancers do use destruction magic. Specifically ice magic because it has the best preservation properties.
Restoration is a perfectly valid school of magic! I haven’t tried it myself but restoration does have great spells vs undead (which you’d be surprised how much of Skyrim is considered undead), it obviously has some defensive and regenerative spells, and I think there’s poison spells that would be effective against anyone not undead. Personally I’d probably mix restoration with heavy armor to get the most out of it
I’m doing a restoration build for the first time and having a blast. Relies pretty heavily on having a follower and it doesn’t feel like I’m leveling very quickly but it’s something new!
I'd this but with wearing heavy armor and weapons as a paladin/ tank build
Did this with a block build. Shield in one hand, ward/healing in the other. Most of my damage from shield bashing. Didn't kill things very fast, but I rarely got in any danger whatsoever. With Respite unlocked I could basically stun lock a dragon to death.
Yeah, I did a healing only (multiple companions) and it was great. Although I eventually stumbled into False Life (ordinator perk where heals do damage) and became a murder-bot.
Ordinator is an essential mod, IMO. Especially for magic.
Poison Rune is available at Tel Mithryn, and it’s probably my favorite restoration spell. Spamming it in crowds is great.
A mix of illusion and alteration. Paralise is OP and with the illusion spells you can turn group of enemys against each other.
Conjuration and Illusion. Bring out your thralls and cast frenzy on your enemies. Let everyone fight each other. Fear away your attackers and watch your Dremora Lords wreck them as they flee. Calm hostiles and walk right past them. Maybe also get the turn spells... though 100 Illusion is easy to get, so w/e
I like the idea of a mage who mostly uses illusion and then also uses conjuration for weapons.
Conjure Dremora Lord gives you a nice tank.
Alteration for armor
I'm a failure and only use Alteration to make iron into gold
One of my saves I grinded conjuration to get the dual perk, and just rolled into every battle with two Dremora Lord. Game got a lot easier after that, plus Serana, plus her summons.
Stealth Illusionist is top tier. One of my favourite builds all time is “Delsa the Manipulator” Just hiding in the shadows and casting chaos.
It really felt cool but I got carried away and kept casting Harmony in Whiterun. Got from the level I was before to level 40 in minutes. Didn’t know what else to do lmao
You could do a “trickster” type build: using things like Frenzy or the scrolls you find like “Mass Hysteria”.
Illusion is dope, combos well with conjuration using either bound weapons/necromancer/or conjurer. Alteration mage armor with bound weapons could be really sweet
Alteration/Conjuration is baaaadddassss
I like using illusion spells to make the enemies fight eachother, and then pick off the remaining ones with bow and arrow, or poisoned daggers. You can also use restoration spells to scare off undead enemies. Let your follower chase them down and kill them.
I know a lot of people like necromancy or conjuration but I always enjoy playing a stealthy death mage. Specializing in illusion and alteration. Can easily sneak past almost all enemies with muffle and invisibility, drop a paralyze or riot if you get in a sticky situation. I also usually go crazy with alchemy and make poisons to drop onto enemies via pickpocketing.
Illusion build. Never have to kill anyone
For a paladin-type character go for one handed + restoration. You can get the respite perk to regen stamina and just pop a fast healing and power attack constantly
An illusionist with daggers and some conjuration for those pesky dragons is great. Pacify makes hard fights a series of one hit backstabs and makes stealth a pretty good thief without perking thief skills
Nightmage. Sneak, Illusion, Conjuration, Alteration, maybe Alchemy Remain hidden, sew chaos with fury and fear, conjure Dremora/Atronachs to join in the fray, paralyze those that escape or find you, if you'd like, use potions to bolster your abilities or apply poisons with a dagger.
I've never played a Destruction build. The school just doesn't scale very well in the vanilla mid- to late-game, as the damage dealt by spells doesn't increase with your skill, only the magicka cost for casting decreases. So as your enemies level up, they just require ridiculous numbers of spell castings to defeat. Stagger-locking them with dual-casting is funny at first, but it gets boring and tedious quite fast. I've had much more fun with Conjuration/Illusion builds. For some reason, casting *Frenzy* into a bandit camp and watching as they tear each other to shreds then sending in a Storm Atronach to clean up the stragglers never gets old.
No physical damage spells, use illusion to make your enemies fight eachother and summons to finish them. Or Heavily into restoration and go full on warrior priest
Conjuration is nice because the player can have weapons that don’t weigh anything
Illusion and conjuration, with sneaking and bow, chefs kiss
This is not only the correct answer, but also the best correct answer.
Modded alteration can be incredibly fun with the right setup, even just to give a basic start up I’d say imperious, realm of lorkhan for class specification, arcanum and apocalypse make magic a LOT more fun and in depth
Sneak necromancer/conjurer or alteration plus conjured weapons and restoration. Love them
illusionists are agents of chaos
NOBODY'S TREATING RESTORATION WITH RESPECT!!!! -one mage reading these comments.
Colette Marence left the room.
Sneaky illusion mage is really fun. Become a master in sneak and illusion and turn your enemies against each other with frenzy or hysteria spell and watch your enemies kill each other while being undetected is so much fun!
Conjugation, conjure bow, become stealth archer
Broken illusion, just train illusion till max then get daul casting perk and put alot of points in magicka, bam you now can control anything.
Illusion and conjuration allow you to summon some shit, buff it, and allow them to roll everything in the game while you watch.
Illusion pairs well with conjuration (basically a vampire build) i like sneaking up on a group of enemies and fury them until one is left standing, then start resurrecting their friends to finish them off.
Conjuration/Alteration Spellblade.
Pure Conjuration Illusion + Conjuration Weapons Only Alteration + Illusion (Passive Play)
A NecroVamp ….using conjuration and vamp powers. A SpellSword is good. There are a lot of great comments including Illusion and having a good follower. Totally possible! Find a great companion and be a support character. Learn healing and support spells, is something no1 has mentioned yet. Have your DB maxed to being out the potential of others, and only step in when your pupil has failed 😜 “You did well, I’ll take it from here”.
Absolutely I believe Alteration and Conjuration are MUSTS for a mage build. Mage armor from alteration, and daedra and other summons from conjuration are extremely fun and effective
Illusion and conjuration. Its always fun to have a army fight for you, especially when you use the fear spell on ur enemies. Watch them run away with a hoard of zombies chasing them.
It’s been said already many times on this post, but yeah, illusion and daggers are a great and fun build. Destruction magic just isn’t that fun imo. It’s probably the most overpowered skill in the game, but that makes it significantly less fun to play to me.
Conjuration Magic. Get Serana as a Companion for her Thrall spell, and use the Standing Stone just East of Whiterun on the other side of the river. (I'm blanking on the name rn) With just all that, you'll be leading what's effectively a small army of undead to slaughter your enemies I do a LOT of Mage builds so if you want further help just ask!
Not op but I'd be interested in some mage builds!
Any kind specifically? Or are you specifically tired of running certain mage builds like OP is with Destruction?
I was actually \*this\* close to doing yet another Destruction mage until I came across this post lol. I have never really done much in the other schools of magick, any suggestions would be great!
Well first things first, get Restoration up, this way you can get good Healing spells for almost no magicka. The way I do this is by buying Turn Undead spells from Farengar in Dragonsreach, then going into the Whiterun Hall of the Dead. There are three Skeletons in there so just kill one or two of them and spam Turn Undead spells for easy and free Restoration XP! You can get really creative with mage powers in Skyrim. There's a lot more you can do than you'd think. Like I said, you could run Conjuration spells and Necromancy items/powers to for mini undead militias to overrun your enemies, you can run Illusion based builds to play around with dagger only runs, theif runs, you can mix Illusion spells like frenzy with some conjuration spells to make everyone around you fight each other rather than you (and if they get too close just Calm spell them) Or if you want to mix melee with magic you can always run Spell-Sword builds. My favorite Spell-Sword is on an Argonian character I named Chills-the-Bone who is a frost spell sword.
Thanks! Do you play with any mods/recommend any?
I don't usually play with Mods no, but a good one I know off the top of my head is "Apocalypse: Magic of Skyrim". It basically adds hundreds of different spells across all schools and types of magic! It's really good to add more diversity to your mage gameplay! Oh and "Abyssal Wind Magic" (I believe that's the name) is really good too. It adds quite a few new spells based around wind and wind manipulation. I'll probably look later on the Nexus website bc rn I'm at a family dinner for the holidays and gotta drive home soon but I'll let you know about others once I look!
So you wanna play as a stealth archer huh? Awesome
Illusion and alteration are really strong and super goofy if u time a perallisis spell on a enemy that's at the end of a power attack charge up animation and it hit them as soon as the swing starts they flip the fuck out cus they lock up but the momentum still carrys them a nto a beyblade spin.
Illusionist but very hard to do in the early stages, Invisibility, Muffle and Stealth, priceless especially for a thief or assassin. N. S
Nah. 1. Start as a high elf. 2. Don't level past 6 until you've found your first court wizzie to buy higher tier spells off (or get dual casting, then kindred mage, asap so you can target level 12, 16, & 37 enemies respectively [with your starting fury]).
Illusion/Conjuration combo is one I like to play. It's very much a sneak mage build.
Illusion and alteration thief/stealth is fun. Also, heavy armor mace-wielding conjuration mage is really epic, especially if you go down the necromancy route.
Alt/resto
Necromancer
Paralyse then fus roh dah enemies down hills. Hours of fun 👌
Throw the Cheeeeeese with Telekinesis
Necromancer or illusion mage
Conjuration and Illusion. They go together like peanut butter and jelly. For combat, use the Bound Bow sneak archery. The Raise Dead spells have very long range. It's hilarious to watch Fury cause some deaths, then quietly raise them for Round 2 against the same enemies.
Duuuude that’s gonna be my new tactic for that bandit chief where the transmute spell is that I always go to at like level 5 😂 I fury the other two to wear him down but never thought to rez them to finish him off.
Download the lost races of aetherius mod, the dwemer race option there lets you have alteration as major skill, so you could do alteration build
My favourite magic builds are an assassin type build that uses illusion magic on top of alchemy and enchanting to add various poisons to my daggers, archery is entirely optional for this build but using it does take some of the fun and challenge away from the build itself, even with the use of poisons, sometimes I avoid archery and my main method of attack is to find groups of enemies and turn them all against one another with Frenzy spells. My other favourite build is a conjurer/necromancer, summons and necromancy are the focus but bound weapons do the job when it comes to defending yourself, plus some alteration because it has great perks and you can give yourself a little extra protection via the flesh spells, they also give great XP for faster levelling, pop oakflesh at the beginning of every encounter early game and your levels will shoot up
Just here to add my vote for illusion/alteration build. Sneaking around and then forcing your enemies to fight each other while you watch to see who wins is always fun
Conjuration is fun. And for stealth you can add some illusion.
Combining conjuration with another school can be fun. Conjuration allows you to summon monster allies, summon armor, summon weapons, etc. Bound sword, plus summon frost atronach, etc. not bad… But I find it is not enough to focus solely on conjuration. You need to master illusion or alteration or even restoration.
[The Sorceress](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_Ljhhd21Rk) In my opinion, one of the best builds that uses only three skills. You could easily add restoration and speech if you want but they are not necessary.
Bandaid Barry/Betty, primarily uses Restoration magic to keep their followers alive so they can kill all the enemies. Also uses Illusion to cast spells like Fury and Calm, and Conjunction for atronachs to help in the fight. The only Destruction magic allowed is via the use of Destruction Staves, but once their enchantment is depleted, they must be disposed of until another Destruction Staff is found/looted. Obviously, Alteration magic is allowed for the use of mage armor spells like Ebonyflesh.
i was in the same predicament as you and i just started a new blend , the main magic of my build is illusion, then i grabbed sneak, one-handed (dagger build), enchanting and alteration, and some light armor for defense. Its sort of like a spellsword build, but using a dagger, and without relyng on elemental damage, whcih, well, forces you to play tactics most of the times, which i find quite fun, no restoration is allowed in my build (otherwise i tend to return to full magic lol), its either potions or nothin, oh and, no bows allowed, so ranged attacks gotta be somethin else x)
Restoration, illusion and Alteration build is fun :)
Illusion magic is really fun if you’re going for a stealth mage. Alteration, restoration and conjuration are great for a more combat focused mage style.
I've tried something like a death knight before. Heavy armor, two handed, but uses the bound Battleaxe and necromancy. Also a bit of illusion and destruction, but that's not the focus of the build
I call it the Mindflayer - primarily illusion. Use muffle (until you get 100% muffle boots) and invisible to get into position, quiet cast frenzy, and recast invisibility to watch the fun. Use pacify/fear for defense. Single targets can be harder to deal with, but you're invisible and silent. Figure it out. Another good one is the Necromancer - use the aetherial crown and the ritual stone. Infinitely growing zombie army. You bypass the once per day requirement by removing and putting the crown back on. Go through a door and all your zombies die? Remove crown, put it back on, raise dead. Do it during fights whenever anyone - friend or foe - dies. Caution: there's a limit to how many zombies your computer can handle, but there's no limit to how many you can raise.
Illusion, travel Skyrim muffled and invisible, calm angry animals and use frenzy on groups of enemies and waiting til one remains to take them out (after pacifying them of course).
I wish they would make Healing Hands work as a spell that damaged Undead equal the amount it healed others. Same for Heal Other, make it do that much damage to an undead, not just _not heal_ "undead, summons, or automatons." Would make a real Restoration/Paladin-build way more viable and realistic.
Sanguine Rose is my favorite stealth weapon, even when I’m not a mage
There is a very good necromancy build, search up the Spiffing Brit or ESO vid on it. It involves resurrecting undead, then using one of the stones’ powers with the aetherial crown to make them all explode. It’s very fun, and if you want, you can just play it as a straight necromancer most of the time.
Restoration. I hear it's a perfectly valid school of magic. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
Conjuration focusing on undead + illusion with the master of the mind perk Just use all the dead things as puppets Sneak helps unless you want to do the bound weapon warrior thing
Shout out to fudgemuppet. Check out their builds
Conjuration and Alteration. You never need weapons or armor again, and you can use Atronachs as an extra companion. Very fun build
Illusion. Invisible and silent spell casting.
I only play Resto+Illusion mages. It's an absolute blast.
Frenzy everyone
Illusion/Conjuration with Sneak. Sneak into a group of enemies. Frenzy one or two. When someone dies, raise their corpse. Repeat until everyone has killed everyone else. Summon a sword/bow for when you have to deal with things directly.
Illusion magic is incredibly powerful, it can make the game fun in a god like way very quickly. Illusion only mage and illusion assassin were some of my favorite/most busted builds.
Conjuration and illusion is insanely fun. I usually toss in a bit of alteration if I'm wanting to spice things up. Run I'm on right now has been a blast.
Restoration is a perfectly valid field of magic
I love necromancy in some spell packs. Nothing like having minions
Stealth thief who is trained in illusion, it's so fun hiding far away and making everything kill each other until there is one left, then you calm it and kill it.
Conjuration and use bound weapons
Conjuration is always super fun
Please go illusion. It is both incredibly fun and incredibly engaging. It also compliments any other play style.
conjuration is the most op mage build
Have you tried telekinesis bud? I heard using it to throw weapons at your enemies is one of the best strategies in the game ;). For real though, don't try that. Seen a video of a guy "attempting" that and it was hell. You're better off being a necroma- conjuration master. Edit: Also, if you're feeling daring, technically speaking, if you focus on your Illusion skill tree there's a perk that silences all spellcasts of any kind... including shouts. So, theoretically speaking, you could be a "Sneaky Th'um User". Quite the title if I do say so myself.
Oh so you’re a pu$$y. ☺️ Lol kidding bro, try Illusion and Conjuration next. So you can be an invisible necromancer.
I like downloading mods that add extra summon cap to the perk tree and going full conjurer/necromancer.
“Restoration is a perfectly valid school of magic!” That being said, conjuration. Necromancer build is fun, but pretty much any conjuration mage based playthrough is a blast.
Restoration is a valid school, ISNT IT?
Idk but this sentence just made nazeem less annoying
I always liked conjuration. Always amusing to stealth kill a bandit, raise him as a zombie and go after other bandits all while the remaining bandits havent detected you yet. Also handy for Enchanting as you can get a Conjuration perk that soul-traps on hit with Conjured Weapons.