My main character in Skyrim is a Nord with a sword and shield, and I have never used any magic before. So right now I am making a new one that will focus on Magicka a lot, but I don't know what race is the best for it. What race will do as the best Mage? Thanks.

It says that High Elves are the most strongly gifted in the arcane arts of all races. Is arcane the same as magician/mace?

I play bretens or drumner for my mage characters. I dont really care for high elves for some reason. Right now I'm playing a breten battlemage

:D

Both High Elves and Bretons make the best mages.

It all depends. High Elves have the most base magicka, and have a once-a-day power to increase their magicka regeneration. Bretons, on the other hand, have a resistance to magicka, and can absorb it to increase their magicka regen by a massive amount once-a-day. Dark elves make good mages as well.

But, it doesn't really matter. Many people prefer Argonians or Khajiit for mages. Others like Nord and Imperial mages. Personally, I've been wanting to make an Orc warlock. It's all a matter of opinion, and the races usually even out with their proficiency at a certain class at about level 8.

So, it's all about aesthetics. The skills and other values will even out later.

With enchanting it does not really matter if you are willing to work enchanting. Once you make everything 0 magicka and can have a your resistances capped does it really matter what race you are?

Breton, altmer, and nord are the best mages. Really, they're the best races for any purpose, but orcs are good too for non-magic builds.

Bretons naturally resist magic and their power gives them the rare spell absorption effect, which can really turn the tides in a tough mage boss battle.
Altmer get a power that's easily replaced by potions, but they also get a very large boost to magicka. If you branch into anything else, their increased height also provides +8% speed and weapon damage.
Nords get +3% speed and weapon damage and they heavily resist what is by far the most common element you'll get hit with. Their Battlecry power is amazing. It has a short stagger with an AoE fear that works on targets up to level 99 in 60 feet around them. Like I said, amazing.

I personally like the Altmer as mages.

The +50 magicka helps a lot.

I'd go with Dunmer or Bretons.

Magic resist/Fire resist is wonderful..

Breton is my favorite because of the magic resist and absorbe and the +10 to conjuration because I LOVE :wub: my deadra and undead lol

High elf or breton. High elf though IMO.

I prefer Bretons as mage characters, but Altmer can be good.

argonian because they can look just awsomely colorful and spiky
or
nord because there is another nord mage in the college and he is lonely

I play with a Breton due to the magic resist, but any race can make a powerful mage in the end.

I have a Altmer mage on hold(Due to the 0% magic resistance bug.) but he has been great fun to play so far, and i will certainly continue with him onces that 0% magic resistance bug has been solved. The +50 magicka and the 10 fold magicka regeneration once a day are very usefull.

there is no best race. There are best starting races...i mean you get bonuses but it doesn't matter. it balances out when you start leveling/increasing skills. just play the race you want to play

Altmer or Bretons definitely make the best choice for a mage

Dunmer & Argonians I think are on a similar level after that.

It's probably easier to play an Altmer mage at low levels but it's definitely better to play a Breton mage at high levels.

Play the race you wanna play they are all pretty much equal. If you really are into min maxing though altmer and orc are the ones that stand out imo. Altmers 50 bonus magicka is a 50% bonus at low level which is significant, it basically means you can pick health the first 5 levels and switch it into a 50 health bonus instead. Orc will let you deal double damage with spells or melee for a short time and can thereby be good for boss killing since mana can be an isssue at mid levels if you don't like drinking potions.

But yeah play the race you like is my advice, you will have a lot of fun with mage regardless. You don't need any of the racials to be effective. The enjoyment you get out of playing a character you like is much more important then the odd time the racials will turn a fight.

High Elfs have the best magicka (+50) and the ability to regenerate magicka* at a faster speed but they're the most vulnerable race in the entire game. Bretons don't really have an advantages (in skyrim) for casting spells but they're much better at taking them and can in bad situations convert half the power of incoming spells into magicka*.

*once per day

High elves for easiest leveling... despite all the people rightly pointing out that magicka becomes obsolete with max enchanting, believe it or not, you do have to play the game until you get to that point, and high elf racial is very good during that time.

Breton/dark elf/nord for min-maxing because of resist racial.

Not sure if orc racial works with magic...

Anyone can become a talented magister!
Don't let anyone in this thread tell you otherwise!
>____<;;;

I'm a bosmer and I'd like to think I'm a very talented mage =]

I'm doing a Bosmer mage right now. Not the best for a mage, but since elemental resistance isn't working the poison resistance will be good.

Poison resist isn't working either.

Every single resist mechanic is broken atm.

Killing flame Atrontch (sp) with fire spells is funny .

Right now Altmer and Breton are the best choices for mage due to their racials (and ignoring brokenness of certain features). Altmer are better at low levels and Breton at high levels, they stood out even in more in Oblivion then they do in skyrim (just wearing Mundane ring in oblivion as a Breton made one literally immune to magic).