Let's leave aside Dragonhide for obvious reasons.

But the other flesh spells (Oakflesh, Stoneflesh, Ironflesh, Ebonyflesh) - how do they work without the boost given by Mage Armor perks?

Say I want to make a character who wears Light Armor and uses Alteration. Are those spells going to give me a significant boost? Or are they just costing me Magicka that could be better spent on other things?

Ebony's 100 armor rating will give you about a 12% damage reduction. Won't hurt, but unless you're fighting one handed and not using a shield you might find it tedious switching to the spell. But in a tough spot with a tough enemy, every little bit helps!

Best thing about using those mage armor spells is it raises Alteration, but they do help some, just not that much.

Even with the perks, the damage reduction from mage armor is marginal, since they do not include the 100 hidden AR you get with real armor.

But if you are using them without the perks and with a suit of real armor, then you do get the hidden 100 AR. So, a suit of light armor that gives you 100 AR, plus 100 AR from Ebonyflesh gives you a displayed value of 200 AR, which is exactly equal in terms of damage reduction to the 300 displayed AR you get from a fully perked mage armor ebony flesh and no physical armor.

So, yeah, the mage armor spells are useful even without the perks, especially if you are wearing a suit of armor.

Huh, interesting!

The hidden AR requires a full set, right? Cuirass, Boots, Gauntlets, and Helm?

Now I'm thinking about how much effort it will take to get to 100 AR with a mismatched light armor set...

The things we do for looks in these games!


My whole reasoning behind even contemplating this is that I'm planning a spellswordy Nord. I want him to look suitably savage and barbaric, so college robes are out. And the clothing sets in game give off more of a "medieval peasant" vibe as opposed to "wild barbarian".

So that pretty much forces me into light armor. I reckon some variant of fur armor plus the Stormcloak Officer's Helmet might be a decent look for this fellow. Which of course would disable Mage Armor.

I sincerely hope they ditch this convoluted and confusing armor value system in the next TES game, and hopefully don't use it in FO4. Jeez...

Each piece gives you a certain amount of hidden AR, but I cannot remember how much you get for each piece. I don't think it is an equal 25 for each piece. I think the cuirass gives you more than 25 and the other pieces give less, but I cannot remember for sure. All I know is all four pieces add up to 100. You don't a full set to take advantage of the hidden AR, but you will get less than 100 additional AR if using a partial set. Also, you don't need a matched set for the hidden AR though, you can mix and match.

25% per piece. All four pieces add up to 100%.

I tried a light armor warrior once, and with lord stone and flesh spells it works really well

If you're going to use armor and a weapon, then smithing the armor up to the cap is probably faster than putting enough perk points into Alteration to get defense that way. The Smithing route benefits your offence, by improving your weapon, as well as your defense. You also get a lot of smithing experience with Hearthfires that might as well go into weapon and armor upgrades.

I found that wearing armor or using the various flesh spells (with or without perks) buys you a lot of protection ... until it doesn't. I can't remember if it was boss fights or leveled Draugur with Ebony bows and high-damage arrows, but something will eventually one-shots you. One way or another, I had to use caution, detect dead/life, sneak, conjure a familiar or an atronach etc. etc. Once you start down this path, you might as well ditch the armor, get really good at sneaking and learn how to hit from a distance (hard).