I havent used any magic yet in this game and was considering starting a "Battlemage" save. How have a lot of you other Battlemages decided to build, and play your character? Light or heavy armor? Axe, mace, or sword? Where did you focus most of your perk/skill points?

Basically I am just trying to get a feel for how a typical Battlemage is played. Like I said I haven't tried magic in this game yet and thought a Battlemage would be a good choice so that i can use both a weapon I am familiar with, and then toss in some magic in the mix as well.

Heavy armor, with Bound Sword in one hand. Start a battle by summoning some sort of creature, and then switching to Firebolt or another destruction spell in the off-hand.

Light armor, atronarch in one hand, bound sword in the other. Will take illusion as 2nd magic school. (not for invisibility or something lame like that just to be able to cause total chaos with frenzy spells).

I dont even know what you are saying. What is "atronarch", and magic school?

I also am not quite sure what you guys mean by "bound sword". Is that a type of sword or something?

EDIT: Also, what race would make the best battle mage? Bretons?

Could someone please tell me how to get "Bound Sword". I made a Dunmer battlemage and plan to use Heavy Armor, Destruction, Alchemy, and not sure what else yet. Conjuration maybe?

Bound Sword/Axe/Bow are Conjuration spells. They summon a weapon whose power goes up with Conjuration skill + relevant perk, and remains way strong throughout the game.

Ah alright. So would Heavy Armor, One Handed, Destruction, and Conjuration be the 4 trees I should work on?

Atronarchs are conjuration spells that summon elemental creatures (fire, ice or lighnting) to help you out.

And yes, i play a breton. The magic resistance is pretty good.

I decided on Dark Elf over Breton but mainly for cosmetic purposes I suppose. But again, would Heavy Armor, One Handed, Destruction, and Conjuration be the 4 trees i should work on maxing for a battle mage?

They're creatures you can summon to fight for you. you'll need the Summon Spell for them, though. You'll need to find a vendor selling that particular spell in book form.

Likewise Bound axe/sword/whatever. You'll need to find those in book form too, to learn them.

But when you do, it can be a pretty awesome combination.

You can play whatever you want ^^ I chose light armor over heavy armor because i like the look more. You have 2 dmg magic schools there maybe you want to have a supporting school like Alteration, Restoration or Illusion instead but you will have enough perks to take 3 schools (conjuration doesn't need much perks to be good).

Depends on what does battlemage mean to you. For me battlemage is spellsword. Uses sword(s), destruction, restoration, alteration, light/heavy armor, illusion.

I briefly tried on battlemage at the start, but settled on spelltheif. Using destruction magic in one hand and a weapon in the other just didn't feel good.

Spell and sword feels a bit off for me as well, that's why I dual wield swords when playing battle mage and I am switching between spells and swords.

Hmmm I guess it can be played quite a few different ways. I am not really sure what I would prefer, heh. Both dual wielding and then switching to spells if I need it sounds but, But then having a sword in one hand and a spell in the other and at the ready also sounds fun.

For me a battlemage is a imperial/high elf. They wear heavy armour and use a shield, can either use a staff or magic in the right hand. They are proficient in all magic trees and take some skills from warriors such as smithing, heavy armour and block. A battlemage often carries a 1H for back-up.

I never thought about that. So you use shield in left hand and ur spells in the right? So what happens when the fight gets in close, as it most often times will? just switch out to a 1-hand and shield setup? Seems like this would be more of a warrior with a tiny bit of magic back up build instead of a battlemage.

I am currently playing what I like to call "Storm Sorcerer". So far it works very well. I am level 32, and haven't found a situation that I wasn't able to overcome. This is more of a roleplaying build than a min/max; but even so I think I have done a good job of balancing it. Here it is as a copy/paste from my personal notes...



Nordic Storm-Sorcerer ( Magicka 500 / Health 300 / Stamina 300 )

Race: Nord

Name: Haakon Drakesbane

Perk Total: [50-80]

"Nordic Storm-Sorcerers are a rare class of warrior. These masters of lightning magic are also adept users
of Thu'um. As reclusive as they are, going unnoticed, even in the midst of their enemies, they develop
skills in stealth very easily. Because of this, most of their enemies will never see them until a magically
bound blade or arrow is in their flesh. Even if they survive this initial attack, they must face the wrath
of lightning and well-honed martial skills. The most advanced Storm-Sorcerers will summon storm atronachs
while creating intense electrical storms with their synergy of magicka and Thu'um."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Major Skills:

1) One-Handed (15 Perks focusing on "Armsman"/"Bladesman"/"Dual-Savagery"/"C.Charge"/"S.Stike"/"P.Strike")
2) Archery (6 Perks focusing on "Overdraw"/"Critical Shot")
3) Sneak (8 perks focusing on "Stealth"/"Muffled Movement"/"Deadly Aim")
4) Destruction (10 perks focusing on "Incinerate"/"Impact"/"Master")
5) Conjuration (7 Perks focusing on "Mystic Binding"/"Atromancy"/"E.Potency"/"Twin Souls"/"Dual-Cast")
6) Restoration (4 Perks on "Recovery"/"Avoid Death")

Minor Skills:

7) Heavy Armor (0-10 Perks focusing on "Juggernaut"/"Fists of Steel"/"Conditioning"/"Tower of Strength")
8) Block (0-5 Perks on "Shield Wall")
9) Enchanting (0-8 Perks focusing on "Enchanter"/"Extra Effect")
10) Smithing (0-7 Perks focusing on "Dragon Armor"/"Arcane Blacksmithing")


Miscellaneous Skills: [No Perks]

~Alchemy
~Alteration
~Illusion
~Speechcraft
~Lockpicking



--------
STRATEGY
--------


Early Game: Level 1-11
~Sneak attack with Bound Sword and Bound Bow (If you know where to get it...).
~Focus perks in "Mystic Binding", "Armsman", "Overdraw", and "Impact". Level the attribute Magicka.

Mid Game: Level 11-51
~Sneak attack, and then Summon Storm Atronach as a shield.
~Finish Perks for Major Skills. Balance attributes as needed.

Late Game: Level 51+
~Summon two Storm Atronachs, shout Storm Call, and cast Lightning Storm with Cost Reduction gear and perks.
~Finish Perks for Minor Skills

You could just conjure a sword instead of using a real one, as not to raise your one hand skill (unless it would do that anyway).

I'm not sure what the "official" definition of a battlemage is. You could see what it was in Oblivion and base it off that, but really, just play how you want. The only thing I would try to avoid is having redundant skills leveled up as that will make your opponents harder while not really making you better. For example, destruction, one hand, two hand and archery are all primary offensive skills, but leveling all of them up will not make you stronger, only you opponents.

So for you battlemage, decide what you want to use magic for(offense or defense) and what you want to use armor/weapons for(offense or defense). It is slightly more complex than just offense or defense, but you get my point.

The most powerful and diverse magic school is illusion. Its also a school that has complete effectiveness with as little as one spell cast, that is, you can pacify an entire crowd of enemies with one spell-cast at higher levels, as apposed to chain healing yourself or shooting something with firebolts.
Illusion can kill an entire group of enemies with a single spell cast, or call them so you can run away, or make you silent and invisible so you can sneak up and murder someone. Its really the most fun and useful skill tree in the game imo.

Yeah I understand what you mean, and I also understand the concept of "play how you want". I am just trying to get other peoples ideas as to how they play a battle mage so that I don't end up gimping my self later by finding out my combo of skills doesnt compliment each other. My initial idea was Heavy Armor, Destruction, Conjuration, and 1-handed. Though I am not sure exactly how many points is necessary to put in each skill tree to make the most sense for this type of character.

This also sounds like a viable option. So many choices to choose from! After reading this I thought about the possibility of using illusion to hide my self like you said then moving in with daggers to get a 15 x damage multiplier kill.

I can't decide on a style after hearing all these interesting ideas.

Not gimping yourself was what I was trying to get at with the whole offense defense thing. Like for your initial idea, destruction and 1-handed are both primary offense skills, and leveling them both will probably help your enemies more than you, since the enemies scale.

I haven't gotten to deep into magic, but from what I'v read, conjuration and illusion are the most powerful. Illusion basically lets you turn the enemies against each other, and conjuration lets you summon a creature to take all the attention. Destruction doesn't do a lot of damage in the later game, so I don't know if you would want that as your primary offense.

I don't wear armor, I wear robes and make use of Alteration Protection spells and have maxed the "Mage Armor" perk and use Bound Swords (also perked, of course.) Using mage armor is probably the hardest and stupidest way to make a battlemage but I didn't want to deal with armor and it has left me highly maneuverable if nothing else. Gotta really make sure you keep updated on your shield spells though or you get squashed.