I was just wondering, since Bretons have a natural 50% resistance to magic, if the negative 100% weakness to magic of the Apprentice birthsign would be halved by the 50% resistance? Since the resistance cuts all magic in half, the 100% weakness could possibly be halved to 50%, which then would reduce the Bretons' resistance to 0%, though I'm not sure if this is the case. It could also just be reduced to -50%.

If anyone could shed some light on the subject, I would really appreciate it.
- TBD

Halves.

A Fireball does 40 damage to you normally (example).
If you only have Apprentice, you will suffer 80.
If you only have Breton , you will suffer 20.
If you only have both, you will suffer 40.

If you find the Mundane Ring, you get altogether 100% Imunity to magic. Spells won't touch you ever (UNLESS I think the enemy has Spell Reflection, which I think should not harm you but still does).

Thanks very much! It seems to me that a Breton Apprentice would be a solid choice for a mage.

Again, thanks.
- TBD

Hold - By chance, it is one of my favourite combinations, but all this does in terms of resistances is make you a regular character unitl you get that Ring, which will not happen till after lvl 20! Often ppl choose the safe road, which is Breton Mage, no setbbacks... You get 100 pts to Magicka and the 50% resist. If this is your first try, I'd recommend this.

The most fun and challenging however, is Apprentice High Elf, but requires a great deal of strategy not to get toast....

Yeah my second highest level character is an apprentice high elf, its a lot of fun having heaps of magicka. Fun casting high level buffs and spells like shield 100pts 20 secs that makes you able to tank better then most heavy armour wearers. I like to wear the mundane ring and I have self enchanted robes with sigil stone + magicka but sometimes I wear the spellturn cloak.

Well, this is about my 10th character, so I know what I'm doing. Besides, I can always just make a Resist Magic spell if it gets too rough.

No that's not correct.

If your character is a Breton Apprentice a 40 point fireball will do 60 damage, not 40.

A Breton Apprentice with the Mundane Ring equipped in the unmoded game will will take normal damage. That is for a Breton/Apprentice/Mundane Ring a 40 point fire ball will do 40 points of damage.


EDIT: by the way, from a purely stats perspective a Breton/Apprentice makes no sense. An Altmer/Mage has just as much magicka and fewer weaknesses.

I'm a bit confused here. So you're saying that the Bretons' natural 50% resistance to magic has no effect on The Apprentice's 100% weakness to magic? The way I see it is like this: 50-100*0.5=0. The natural 50% resistance halves the negative effect to 50%, which then reduces the resistance to 0%.

Or am I wrong?

Actually, it's one of the "worst" combinations to choose, as it takes away the Breton's main advantage (magicka resistance).

However, it's one of my favourite combinations. Helena Aurelie was born on the 10th of Sun's Height, which is the month of The Apprentice.

I love The Apprentice. It makes playing a Mage MUCH more fun in my opinion. You get quite a bit of magicka so you can do massive amounts of damage, but you can't take many hits at all.
That's how I play and I love it.

Sorry you're wrong.

The effects of weakness and resistance are additive not calculated separately. The Breton's resistance does affect the apprentice weakness, but does so by adding to it. so 50 - 100 = -50. or a 50% weakness to magic. Meaning a 40 point fireball will do 60 points damage. And with the Mundane ring you get 50 - 100 + 50 = 0 or no weakness or resistance. So a 40 point fire ball will do 40 points of damage. I'm sure of this.

The calculations would be different if the weakness was applied then then resistance separately. But it definitely does not work that way. And since the Apprentice weakness is not a spell it is not affected by resistance as you say above.

However, elemental resistance is calculated separately from magic resistance. So in that case, let's say you have 100% magic resistance and 50% weakness to fire. In that case a 40 point fireball will do no damage.

Savlian is right. The Breton’s 50% resistance cuts the Apprentice’s 100% weakness in half, but you still retain a 50% weakness to magic. Therefore a fireball that does 40pts of damage normally does 60pts of damage to a Breton Apprentice.

Taking the Apprentice ruins the one advantage that Breton's have- magic resist. You only gain 50 magicka by taking this over the mage birthsign.
I feel that it is much better to take Mage birthsign, keep the magic resist and simply enchant items to get the 50 that you have lost.

Apprentice is cool to use with warriors. The boost to magicka is sweet and you have the health already to allow you to overcome the magic weakness.