I bought Oblivion during the Steam summer sails. I have a main character where I am doing every quest I can, including the main one. I also want a second character I can just do what I want with, don't follow any quests and just straight up adventure for the sack of adventuring. My main character is a warrior with a few minor spells, I want my secondary to be a Mage.

I was thinking about Battlemage, spellsword or a pure mage. But I have a few questions:

1. What is the best armor for Battlemage and Spell Swords? Also Light or heavy armor?
2. Being a pure mage is there a certain Robe that I should enchant or will any robes do? Also what should I enchant it with to keep my character safe in battle
3. I will be a Breton, is there a mod to give Breton beards? I have a mod to give Nord beards but could not find a Breton one.

Thank you.

My first character was a Breton Spellsword with the Mage birthsign and he was very effective. The main trick is focusing on developing a handful of your major skills much faster than yo udevelop the others. So for example ym Spellsword became a master in Destruction, Restoration, and Heavy Armor by the time his other skills were still only journeyman rank.

Hmmm. If i do a battle mage, here's how it will look:

Major Skills:
Alteration
Restoration
Conjuration
Blade/Blunt
Illusion
your Choice
Your Choice

So basically, alteration for shield spells, conjuration to summon daedra/undead and weapons, illusion for crowd control, and restoration to heal/fortify blade/blunt to 100.

So create a spell like this:

Fortify Blade/Blunt 75 pts for x secs on self
Bound Sword/Mace for x secs

A Spellsword would wear heavy armor. They are a mix of warrior and mage. A Battlemage is in effect, just a mage thats skilled with melee weapons, so armor is not essential, although they'd most likely wear heavy as well.
With a robe for a pure mage ,enchant it with a shield effect, that will compensate for lack of armor. Better yet, wear a shirt and pants, so you can enchant two slots.

I'd suggest light armor (for speed) or wear enchanted clothing (for speed and 100% spell effectiveness).

As a more practical than lore-friendly suggestion:

1. Light armor if you're going to wear it, simply because it's lighter, and mage types usually aren't endowed with great strength. I like my mages to travel light; the more encumbrance, the harder it is to move quickly and jump around. An ideal mage is quick and elusive, avoiding being hit rather than absorbing damage.

2. There are several zero-weight items of clothing in the game. I particularly like the combination of Dark Shirt and Black Wide Pants for a mage. There is a zero-weight black robe available fairly early in the Main Quest, but I think it's better to wear two enchantable items rather than one. Some people save zero-weight items to enchant and reverse-pickpocket onto NPCs for various reasons; I don't, but it's certainly another reason to grab those items when one has the chance.

3. I've never seen a beard mod for Oblivion that I like. They all seem to look like somebody glued a bird's nest to their chin, as far as I'm concerned. :wink_smile:

You can search the forums for my suggestions on being a pure mage. They differ considerably from what others have offered here. Basically, I strongly advise against putting skills that you will normally use as majors, and instead defining majors as "skills that require special courses, practice sessions, etc." This allows you the freedom to use skills as you wish without worrying too much about leveling with them.

My build:

Blunt (never used except if she trains it)
Heavy Armor (never used except if she trains it)
Alteration
Mysticism
Light Armor (never used except if she trains it)
Security
Speechcraft

Never wear armor as there is no need to do so, and it breaks my role playing.

Learn spell chaining and spell stacking techniques to properly make and use custom spells and items. The ingame magic spells and items are pretty poor.

You will need to determine a build that matches your play style, of course. No one can really do that for you.

Agreed, and very much so. As a pure mage, you can easily cast 3 spells on yourself prior to battle. Your armor rating has a cap of 85 anyway. So, a fire, frost and shock shld, at 30%, will max out your armor rating. Plus you get the resistance of each at the same time. Enchant your clothes and jewelry w/ fort magicka. A giant magicka pool will alow you overcome any situation. That is, with a strategy placed in effect as well.