Now, before someones says that there's a MOD for that, I want to point out that my favorite character completed that quest line before I knew of this MOD, not to mention that I like my savegames to be free of MODs interfering with vanilla quests and scripts for fear that they might break something sooner or later.

So, here I was, promoted to archmage even if I really didn't deserve it. I wanted to make Tolfdir the new head of the college of Winterhold but the game gave me no choice! Good thing that, as PC user, I get access to the console. Who needs the Creation Kit?!?

I went searching for Tolfdir: I found him at the dormitory, with his students. Good old pal, always taking care of the future generations!

I approached him...

prid 1c1a1

...and gave him a wonderful set of robes, fit for an archmage:

removeallitems
equipitem 7c932
equipitem 7c92e

I told him I didn't want the archmage title, I was content of being a scholar of the college, an adventurer and collector of rare and ancient artifacts. He could take my place in the tower, as I already have a home in every major Skyrim town:

player.removefromfaction 103372
player.addtofaction 1F259 4

Then I told him that he was the one deserving to be named archmage. He reluctantly accepted:

addtofaction 1F259 6

Then, I wished him good fortune and left Winterhold seeking new adventures.

I would have done the same.
I became the Arch-Mage in about 3-5 in-game days, he's probably been there all his life. Who desurves it more?

I have the game on the 360, so, sadly, I could not give him that honour, but I've left the arch-mage robes on his bed, and I bade him farewell.

I respect Tolfdir a lot but IMO hes not Archmage material because he deliberately failed at blocking Ancano's incoming spell thus paralyzing him. Speaking of paralyzing how come Tolfdir didn't paralyze Anacano when he had the chance? All he did was shoot out fire balls like an idiot. I find it ironic how the first time you meet him he is teaching you how to use the ward spell yet he couldn't use it during an emergency situation where Ancano was about to blow up the college.

If he couldn't use magic to even defend himself how is he going to be a good Archmage?

He was caught off guard. Plus Ancano was powered up by the eye of magnus, his defence would have been useless.

I would think an option in the Mages would be the way to go. One to help Tolfdir, or someone else, become Arch Mage, one where you become one yourself. It could remove a lot of the negative feelings folks have about having to join the Mages to do some of the other faction's quests. This way, one could join the college as a helper or mercenary or contractor. They could do the work, but not be a Mage. Which makes sense as non of the Mages quests really require any magic. Then, for the rest of the game, they could be a friend of the mages, but not a member of the college.

That's not a good enough excuse. This was an emergency situation. He should've been on guard to block any incoming spells that Ancano would cast. I didn't even see him try to cast the ward spell. He just stood there.

It's bad enough that it took a mere new student to take care of a situation that should've been dealt with more experienced wizards.

Ancano's paralysis spell is aimed at the player and fills the entire room. Pretty sure you can't ward that.

Honestly, I found it substantially easier to do the quest line if I wasn't a mage, especially the last quest. I mean, as a warrior or assassin, why do I care if the dungeon drains my magicka right before every fight?

This would be great for consol players.

Not to mention all the other guilds too. I would only take guild master after years of being in the guild.

It's really silly how there are all these people who have been in the guild for ages, yet some newcomer joins and gets to rise through the ranks in a weeks time.

Plus the eye of Magnus is very powerful lore wise. (and so is the staff, but the game doesn't exactly put it in a good light.)

Well, Toldfir may not be the most powerful mage but being the college an institution of knowledge, it should reward experience and teaching skills above anything else. He's also a (very) senior member of the college.

Being my character a spellsowrd adventurer type who focuses only on a handful of destruction spells, being admitted into the college was only a way to get into Sarthaal and Labyrinthian to get some anciente artifacts she was looking for. I don't see her as a mage just because she's proficient with a couple of spells of one school only, hence a creative way to reconcile my character with the game without messing with MODs.

At least, now people don't call me arch-mage anymore when they greet me.

It's interesting to note that the only guild that requires some dedication to become the leader is the TG: 20 Radiant quests plus 4 special missions. I really felt my character finally deserved it.

You may want to make that

equipitem 7c932 1
equipitem 7c92e 1

to stop him removing the robes later and either reverting to his default outfit or walking around in his underwear. The extra '1' means 'prevent unequipping'.

I agree that there may be others who deserve to be a leader of a certain faction more than the Dovahkiin.

But it's just how the game works; leadership of the faction is a reward for completing it's questline, even if it doesn't make sense sometimes.

Thanks, I forgot that

Since he's also a trader, his inventory resets every 24 hrs, so no risk of seeing him in underwear. But, he will try to sell you his set of archmage robes!

It doesn't work, he will reset his inventory even with the "1" added at the end of the command. At least now he won't try to sell his archmage robes back!

Yea that is a nice option but logically i probably wouldnt hand over the archmage title to any of those worthless mongrels.

Honestly. A college full of people who practice magic, (presumably a good bit smarter than ordinary people; cue heavy dusty tomes) never took any precautions against an obvious enemy? And they just left the eye of magnus sitting there for ancano to use it? Its like they don't even give a damn about that thing, just "oh there's a nice ancient artifact here, i;ll just carry on with my usual life and ignore this obvious thalmor spy here who might try to use it"