So, I believe that there should be a point to wearing robes and such as a mage. I know in oblivion you would lose spell efficiency but lets face it, it obviously didn't out weigh the bonus from having armor. Also I know you could enchant your robes, but if you wore armor you'd have an extra slot, with the grieves/pants, since the robes took the place of the chest slot and leg spot. However, I don't know how they could make not wearing armor useful for mages. Any ideas?

The only way they could make it useful is if they brought back Unarmored and let you layer clothes again (see: more enchantments).

MW you could wear armor underneath your robe, but I hope they totally revamp Unarmored and make it a viable option

enchant several pieces of clothing with shield/ elemental shields. You now have deadric quality armor level. Toss in some jewerly with magic absorb and you're good to go.

Maybe a perk or two that makes magic more effective while wearing a robe? Its a little vague but it could be useful. Plus enchanting is a skill now so enchanting your robes will help with that skill.

Overall point of being unarmored in Oblivion was none existant, there should either be bigger penalties for having armor on, or light armor could be different, so it wouldn't have an impact on your magic effectiveness. But if that is not an option, make robes able to be enchanted with double up effect.

Perhaps robes could naturally protect you against magic in the same way armor protects against non-magical damage?

yeah thats not a bad idea, with better enchantmentability, obviously not a word, and a few perks to increase spell efficiency and with spell efficiency reduced with armor i think that would balance well.

I think you should be able to wear a robe over your armor. You could do this in Morrowind so I see no reason that you can't do it know.

Point? Only real men kill while naked, and sometimes higher than a kite (i.e. berserkers)

No offence to anyone... but is wearing robes instead of light armor supposed to be useful at all? :whistling:

in oblivion the highest level illusion spells wouldn't work on enemies at high levels unless you were unarmored, although maybe something more drastic like slowing down casting speed or something would make you want to fight in silk robes

Lighter, increased mobility, more magey...

I forsee unarmored perks.

Are you a mage or what?The Alteration school will help you,use shield spell.

But that doesn′t matter when you only lose a tiny bit of spell efficiency by wearing heavy armor, it′s such a small difference that you actually gain mana by not having to throw a whole shield spell on yourself before each battle.

That is why the whole game needs to be revamped. In my opinion we are all throwing around these wildly complex solutions trying to make up for something that is fundamentally broken.

What does it mean to be a mage in TES?
- Why be a mage over something else if warriors and thieves can use magic as well?
- With zero checks and balances for using magic...what is the point of magic?
- Should mages even have anything beyond simplistic warrior or thief skills?
- Should mages be allowed to wear any armor or quiet clothing?

For a high level illusion magic user in Oblvion armor was useless as mind control did not work on high level enemies.

Morrowind layered armor made is stupid to not wear armor as a mage as you lost half of the enchantments slots.
In Oblivion you could have the same enchantments with clothes.

Unarmored was one of my favorite skills in Morrowind. I would like to see it in Skyrim.

1. simply the fact that some people like playing as a mage

2. What is the point of crafting? Most likely spellmaking has been removed and replaced by a system diluting down mages further and In all likelihood "breaking" balance moreso than spellmaking ever did

3. Hell yes. magi are masters of elements. I know Beth game engines can't handle truly flashy and intuitive magic systems but if folks who play pure mages play for sheer versatility

4. Depends on how effective alteration and enchanting are in this game.

This is not a team based RPG where you have specialized classes, this work well in a team but fails totally in a single character game.

You become a mage by using magic skills a lot, same for all skills.
To explain this start Oblivion or Morrowind with a high level character who are a novice in destruction magic. Enter a dungeon and use only destruction magic, how many second do you last

Yes you can make very powerful characters with combining skills, get good in destruction magic and blade, this give you the option to do ranged spell attack and cast weakness to boost damage from your magic sword, this is called spellsword.
Mages in heavy armor who uses destruction magic is part of lore, they are called batlemages.

In short a mage is someone who are skilled in magic, they can also be skilled in other things.
Quite possible smithing and enchantment are a very good skill combination in Skyrim.

On my last Oblivion play, I played as a pure mage.

By pure, I mean wearing no armour, carrying no weapon. All I wore was robes, all I used to survive was magic.

And, I have to say, whilst it was very hard at first, it was a real blast. The challenge of survival in the early game was tough, but once I started to get powerful it became a lot of fun. And by the time I was really powerful, I was a demigod. Walking around wearing only a robe, and totally dominating powerful enemies with nothing in my hands was a total blast

So, to answer the questioner

1. For the challenge

2. For reasons of role playing

You probably (hopefully) haven't played it, but that's kind of what it was like in Runescape. There was a 'combat triangle'. Magic was effective against Melee. Melee against Archery. Archery against Magic.


What you could have is;

Heavy armour - resistance against archery, weakness to magic
Light armour - resistance against magic , weakness to melee
Robes - resistance to magic, weakness to archery

light and heavy armor will probably give you spell penalties like in Oblivion, but more noticable.

Armor underneath your robe. It would be cool if you could see part of the armor underneath the robe. maybe around the neck and collar bone area?? i dunno. its an idea!

I'd just say that spell effectiveness should be reduced more in heavier armor. Possibly even to the point that some of the more powerful spells just can't be cast at all in heavy armor. There could probably be perks to offset this, but you should probably be barred from getting the best of both worlds.