Help please with a Battle Mage

[Krull]

I've started and finished the game about 7-8 times and now realise that I want a Battle Mage.

I first thought of all six magic schools, a weapon skill and an armour (proboably light armour for the saviour curaiss or whatever it's called) and two other skills, (probably Alchemy).

My dilemma is if I take all six magic schools Willpower will be no problem but I'm leaving myself short with other attributes and getting them increased.

Some questions...

1. What race? Bretons for magic, Redguard for combat, who could handle a mixture of both. Dark Elf perhaps?

2. What birhsign? I haven't gone with an Atronach yet, usually go wth the Mage with magic users as there's no drawbacks. But are these suitable for a Battle Mage?

3. Finally, do I need all six magic schools? Could I get away with 3 or 4? If so, what skills would be good for a Battle Mage.

I assume quite a few people have already run Battle Mages so would like to hear your experiences of them.

All advice gratefully received. Thanks.

[Sever]

1. Dark Elves are arguably the most generalised race in the game. They are perfectly suited for all types of combat which makes them ideal as battlemages. Bear in mind, however, that the race bonuses are only really helpful for the beginning stages of the game. Any race can excell in any class with a little time and effort.

2. IMO, the Atronach's inability to regen magicka is not worth that little bit extra it lets you store. It can be useful for casting bigger spells and avoiding some nasty spell effects but these are nothing that the ample potions/spells/scrolls of fortify magicka and spell absorption cannot provide. Stick with the Mage.

3. You most certainly do not need all six. Just think how much time and magicka (or money) you're gonna have to spend on casting spells to increase all those magic skills just to level-up. You're better off having a bit of a mix of magic/combat/general so that you don't have to constantly work on raising skills. There's not much more annoying than casting a spell that you don't normally use, over and over, just to raise a skill.

Obviously Destruction is the most important. You should choose the rest of the schools by estimating how often you're likely to use them. Alteration is a good one to pick as you'll be using those spells just about every where you go.
Illusion is also quite handy but i find that having a high destruction can make most illusion spells redundant. You'll still need them to help with your thieving forays, though. Restoration is useful for all classes, but if you're a kick ass battlemage, you won't need it that often. Conjuration spells are generally useless if you've got high Destruction. Lastly, Mysticism is a handy school with a wide range of useful spells and is a wise choice for any class.

To summarise: Destruction, Alteration, Mysticism, Illusion. It doesn't really matter what order. The other two schools, Restoration and Conjuration are likely to be redundant skills for a battlemage and therefore a poor choice for major/minor skill selection.

My experiences with a battle mage? Yawn. Hands down, it's the easiest and most boring of all the classes that you can choose from. I totally lost interest in Morrowind for about six weeks after playing as a battlemage. But that's just me. Let us know how it goes. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[TheCrimsomBlade]

S-P-O-I-L-E-R for Character creation How to become a BATTLEMAGE
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So far I beat the main Quest with three different characters.
1st time Mage/thief, Wood Elf
2nd time Fighter, Breton
3rd time Battle Mage, Redguard this was the best character I've played because you become very powerful with magic and still use Armor and some very power swords and other weapons.
to become a Battlemage you have to answer the ten Questions like below
Answer Questions 1-10 as follows;

A-1 Do not interfere in the natural evolution of events,but rather take the opportunity to learn more about a strange animal that you have never seen before?

A-2 work in the forge with him casting iron for a new plow?

A-3 Beat up your cousin, then tell him that if he ever calls you that nickname again, you will bloody him worse than this time.

A-4 this is A terrible practice. A person's thoughts are his own and no one, not even a king, has the right to make such an invasion into another humans mind.

A-5 Decide to put the extra money to good use and purchase items that would help your family.

A-6 Leave the bag there, knowing that it is better not to get involved.

A-7 ask him to help you, knowing that two people can do the job faster than one,and agree to help him with one task of his choosing in the future.

A-8 Grab the hot pipe and try to push it away.

A-9 Give him the sweetroll now without argument, knowing that later this aftrenoon you will have all your friends with you you and can come and take whatever he owes you.

A-10 stand aside and allow the man and mob to pass, realizing that it is probably best not to get involved.

as far as birth signs take the "Tower" it gives you a +50 to open locks.

I really liked using the Redguard for A number of reasons #1 is he has a strenght of 50 to start #2 the redguard are accepted by everyone as the Nerevarine and when I played the Brenton I had alot of trouble at times and #3 he is a great fighter and can be a very powerful Mage. Join the Mage Guild first and the fighters guild second and you'll have one hell of a Battlemage.
I'll let you find out the other Benifits for yourself.

I stated all this once before

[Firestormalpha]

FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE!!! How many times do I have to say this? If you know what class you want, the 10 questions are irrelevant. Just tell Socucious which class you want from the list option!!

CrimsonBlade your reasons for liking redguard for race are all too redundant and lack any kind of depth.

[ 05-13-2003, 08:36 PM: Message edited by: Firestormalpha ]

[HammerHead]

I think I'm having a deja vu. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

C

[Sever]

Originally posted by HammerHead: I think I'm having a deja vu. [img]tongue.gif[/img] C

[img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img] Do tell. Where have you experienced this before?

[Kakero]

boys, boys. let a master explain this okay? * cough cough * yeah right. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

1. choose breton because of the obvious boost stat they give to your magic skill. it will save you lots of headache. besides, female breton is beautiful to look at you know?

2. go for atronach. it will give you 2.5 x magicka. don't worry about stunted magicka. just take alchemy as major skill and keep on producing restore magicka potion ( which can be produce a lot in the game ). new idea no?

3. Alchemy, destruction, restoration, illusion, alteration, Mysticism are good choices. that will leave you 4 more skill to choose for your combat ( weapon skills etc etc ). I assume you don't choose any thief skill.

also, remember to patch up your game. you can thus gain multiplier from misc skill as well.

my experience as battlemage? okay, it sounds very exciting at first. but later in the game you'll notice you will use your weapon most instaed of your magic. which give you this thought, " why the heck did I play this character? "

[Krull]

Thanks everyone for the input.

Kakero, I have the Tribunal expansion and the latest patch. When you said misc skills now help in levelling, I assume that not so fast as major and minor skilld? Otherwise, why have three dsitinct sets of skills? If I trained a misc skill 10 times would it act as an x5 multiplier when I next levelled up?

Anyway, talking about pretty Bretons, has jogged my memory. There is one face in particular very well done as opposed to the others. I've just re-installed Morrowind after a few months with no computer and I think there was a mod where you could download alternative, better drawn faces. I've done a search on a couple of sites with no luck. Could someone please point me to where I could find this mod (assuming it is still available)?

[Kakero]

misc skill works as fast as major/minor skill. the difference is misc skill don't have a boost like major/minor skill and they don't give you level up. in the patch they now give you multipliers. train a misc skill by 10 and it will give you x5 multiplier.

here's the link to Rhedd's website. link

[Krull]

Kakero

Thanks for the explanation and especially the link.