That's a good question! I love all of them but if I could only have one... I'd go with Alteration. You can do so much with it. Walk on water, breath under water, open locks, feather, create shields for everything, and even levitation in Morrowind.

Illusion was the most useful IMO

I miss my mystic character... :sadvaultboy:
At least most of the spells will still be there, just scattered...

Except that it in Lore alchemy IS a magic school. :banghead:


"There are seven arcane disciplines in the Mages Guild:"
one of them being Alchemy-
"Alchemy
The Alchemy discipline is the processing and refinement of ingredients and materials through arcane processes to elicit and preserve their subtle, hidden magical effects in alchemical potions.
The center of Alchemy discipline is the Lustratorium in the Arcane University, under the administration of Julienne Fanis (Breton, Wizard)."

BGS do retcon some things on occasion.To date it hasn't been retconed in the actual lore But Alchemy, in every reference and game, is either a mage doing it, or is specifically and clearly labelled as a school of magic. the study of alchemy is in the mages guild, not thief. All the alchemists I know of are mages, none are a thief class. Even in the game mechanic it was governed by the attribute intelligence. The properties of the ingredients are always called "magickal properties" or "magickal effects".

Restoration. I've always been a fan of healing magic, both for me and anybody who needs it.

Hey chief all the ladies just love a necromancer, it's how the grave mold highlights their cheekbones.

Of the schools in TeS, mysticism was actually very good if tweaked slightly with mods.
However due to having less effects that the AD&D equivalent schools of divination / abjuration and being high in cost for better more useful spells.
It was very bad as a general one in a vanilla Oblivion at least.

I think Illusion is my favourite tbh.
As it blends Illusion and charm spells.
If it had more varied effects and took more Charm school effects. I'd love it more

Illusion is my favourite school.

Restoration is Helena's primary school, being as she's a Healer. She also enjoys Illusion, Conjuration and Alchemy (in no particular order) over the rest of the schools. That's not to say she shuns Alteration, Mysticism (sadface that it's gone) and Destruction, it's just that she can make do with just Restoration, Illusion, Conjuration and Alchemy.

I honestly miss mysticism. Even though the spells weren't all great I really liked it. Restoration and Destruction are just simply heal and damage and Alteration just doesn't have this 'feeling' for me that Mysticism and Illusion have. So I'm sad one of my two favourite magic schools has been gone, though we luckily still have Illusion (and maybe we can eventually mod in new skills and spells).

Alteration. I wanna fly.

Alteration for me *looks at avatar* yeah, it's a shocker. It's got the useful utility spells, like shield, water breathing, and open lock, and the just plain fun spells like levitation and jump (man, I hope those return this time). Plus it's the likely recipient of the lion's share of the Mysticism spells, which is also nice.

Arcane discipline != school of magic.

Schools of magic are actually the different schools that are found in the Mages Guild, of which there are currently 7 in the Lore. Alchemy being 1.

There is no other authority on what constitutes a school of magic, that term is a construct of the Mages guild. This is why Necromancy is not a school, because the Mages guild don't teach it.

LOL it's as if no one has played the game itself let alone read the lore.

Alchemy is not a school of magic.

http://www.imperial-library.info/content/oblivion-mages-guild-charter

Note the distinct lack of Alchemy.


It seems it is you who needs to read.

Edit2: Alchemy, while it is an arcane discipline, is not a school of magic. It is a practical application of it, so the distinction really is moot, but it is NOT a school of magic.

In addition to the above:



Looks to me like the Mages Guild makes a clear distinction between what they consider magic schools and alchemy.



Indeed.

ah ok. fair play.

But is not still a magickal discipline, primarily practised by Mages?

I still see not relation to it being a thief skill.

i like stealth characters , but destruction makes the true difference

Poison

And poison is a thief based magickial effect, What makes poison thief specifc? Any references or lore that links poison to Thief skills?

How can Mages not make and use poison? In the school of destruction there is a weakness to poison effect. In Restoration there is a cure poison effect.

I read the name of this thread as "Battle of the magic school girls" :T

Making poison with plants has nothing to do with magic. Ofcourse restoration has a heal poison spell, it's a heal school. The destruction spell is semantics. Your being a bit defensive.

I know your sensitive about the subject, so I concede.

In Lore poison is a magical effect. The nature of Alchemy in lore is about distilling magical effects from ingredients.

You're thinking in terms that are much too black and white. Rather than thinking of alchemy as being a magic skill, or a stealth skill, think of it as more of a mundane skill. It's the form of magic application that is the most readily available to the common man and woman. So it makes sense to be somewhere between magic and non-magic.

If it helps, try to visualize combat, magic, and stealth skills as a gradient:

Two-handed
Destruction
Restoration
Alchemy
Sneak

Not sure about the gradient thing, interesting though. I don't think it works out and is balanced, for example there just isn't enough skills under warrior that relate back to mage. I don't see any at all.
If the spectrum had a good bleed and the skills did blend from category to category evenly, then would be quite a nice way to do it imo. I'd welcome something like that.

When I first heard that this was happening, after some thought my personal compromise for what appears to be the current system is to remove alchemy, enchanting and smithing from those classifications altogether. Works for smithing, which is not really a combat skill or art in itself, it is in reality a craftsman's trade (but at least I see a clear connection to combat, so it works that way too) And could work for Alchemy. That way Mages types(yeah I know there are no classes, but there still has to be warrior and mage types.) can still be the primary practitioners like always.
Enchanting though is a bit sticky, that sure takes wielding magickal forces to imbue souls into an object. I don't think that is a complete reason to scrap the idea, because we all know how beth can juggle or dance about this sort of thing between games.

However it still doesn't change that Alchemy is being classed under a thief based skill tree. And there is not any precedent for that. My problem is how are BSG going to retcon the existing wording of what alchemy is, and what it is related to, and shoehorn that to stealth category of skills. :confused:

I only play Dunmer, so Destruction and Mysticism hold a special place in my heart (even those Mysticism svcked ass).

I don't think that I have ever rolled a character that didn't have Alteration as either a major or minor skill. It has too many practical applications, especially to a hybrid combat/magic class. Destruction and restoration also are favorites.