Without Restoration, wouldn't you drop dead far too often? And without 3/3 Magic Resistance in the Alteration tree, how could you survive encounters with insane enemy mages? Seems to be two things you can't get away from unless you're a masochist?

And what if you take Two Handed weapons, but not Archery? How would you fight dragons, then? The idiots stay in the air about 90% of the time.

And if you don't take Sneak or Pickpocket, how could you do the Thief and Assassin quest-lines? Would you have to skip them?

Ur in the wrong section mate.

But in regards to our question, just spam potions to restore health, and use Destruction or Dragonrend against Dragons (yay alliteration). When a dragon gets to about 1/5 to 1/3 health remaining, they pretty much fight exclusively on ground, so whack them to death. And of course, if you have enough arrows, you could take out a dragon without any perks in archery.

For Sneak and Pickpocket, use enchanted equipment, buff potions, and Invisibility spells/potions. Aura whisper is good too, and remember the pot-on-the-head trick.

Versus mages, spam magic resist potions, magic resist armor, get Lord stone buff, be a Breton, and heal like crazy (again, with potions). I believe there's a block perk for elemental resist as well.

Alchemy is a good way to sub restoration... make hp pots and hotkey them... also you can buy potions...

Dodging, and enchanting your armor with magic resist is a good way to fight mages when you dont have alteration.

I assume you meant to post this in Skyrim forums since you want info on dragons... You can beat them by shouting them to low enough so they land...

You can still level Sneak and Pickpocket even if you dont take them, it just wont count to you leveling up... Also assassin quest-lines dont require any sneak or pickpocket, so you don't really have to worry about that at all...

It sounds as though you want the Skyrim Forums given the mention of "Two Handed" and "Pickpocketing" skills. I will notify a mod to move.

But for your original question, Restoration can be replaced with healing potions, so alchemy is a viable alternative. Also maybe speech incase you want to just buy healing potions. Alteration can be replaced by alchemy as well with resist magic or elemental resists, and in other ways (ie maybe ward spells).

I use strictly health potions that I find or purchase, I do not make any potions through alchemy. Also Food is a great way to sustain health, I make all the food I can.

When the dragon lands - whirlwind sprint in his face. Whirlwind sprint to wizard face. Heads roll! My two-handed, light armor nord fracks ca-ca up! All his points into health and stamina 75-25. Light armor stamina regen. Stamina regen jewelry. Scale armor, that companion steel great sword.

One of the easiest play through. Not like my present mystic warrior (bound weapons) with Mage armor 3 and MR of 85.

I don't use Restoration or Potions at all...other than poisons.
I use care, caution, and planning when exploring and making a kill.

It's possible, it just takes patience.

Odd question for me really. I honestly have never even used either of these skill types since my first few hours of playing. I play on expert, roll with light armor and usually dual wield swords. I never need to use health potions either unless I'm in a unique enemy fight or severely outnumbered. To me, that stupid healing spell healed me so slowly, that I would keep taking hits the whole while and only end dying slowly. Potions are a much better decision if you truly need them, but any armor, heavy or light will be plenty to keep you alive, especially after just a few upgrades. If you play on master difficulty, I would almost say that a shield is a must until you are at a solid level. As for alteration, I don't see why that would ever be NECESSARY. I certainly haven't had a problem without it. Hope this helps.

Q: Without Restoration, wouldn't you drop dead far too often? And without 3/3 Magic Resistance in the Alteration tree, how could you survive encounters with insane enemy mages? Seems to be two things you can't get away from unless you're a masochist?

A: don't get hit, use stealth, use a sheild, high armour rating, enchanting, kill them before they kill you.

Q: And what if you take Two Handed weapons, but not Archery? How would you fight dragons, then? The idiots stay in the air about 90% of the time.

A: get the dragonrend shout, or just wait for them to land, it's really your own fault for not planning for longer range encounters

Q: And if you don't take Sneak or Pickpocket, how could you do the Thief and Assassin quest-lines? Would you have to skip them?

A: as an assassin you can just use blunt force, a lot of assassins do because it's much faster, hell, some of the DB assassins do it, and part of being a theif is taking things without getting caught, so if you didn't have stealth you wouldn't be a thief, just a [censored] grabbing things.

long story short, the only time these things become issues is if you purposly design you're character build for an entirely different play-style than you are using, but that't just f**ing [censored].

Actually, those are my two favourite magic schools of all time. Especially Alteration. And especially with mods

Being able to shrink down enemies (then kill them) is just hilarious.

You may want to edit that dragon fighting section as a spoiler before anyone else sees, otherwise this is gonna be a rage thread. Other than that, this is as solid as an answer can get. BRING A BOW.

I use potions and when I level up I put most of my points into increasing my health.

Nope. You heal health over time, plus you can just wait an hour. There are items that give magical resistance other than Alteration. Dragons do land, but if you want them to land constantly, do the main quest.(it will be obvious to you then) You don't need sneak or pickpocket, you could somewhat replace it with enchanting/alchemy. Although if you aren't a thief I don't know why you'd want to do jobs that involve thievery.

To do all the content I can, I suppose. But I was finding magic to be completely boring. My only attack was dual-casted lightning bolts, and honestly I didn't need anything else, such as conjuration or illusion. I was running around in glass armor enchanted down to 0% magicka cost, bombing everything to oblivion. There was no strategy at all. I kept wanting to chop someone's head off, or slit their throat. So I picked up stealth, but I couldn't make it work for me. Dragons were attacking farms and killing named NPCs, which I find annoying for many reasons. The bow was slow and clunky, and I couldn't aim right. This time through, I have taken the combat stone and used the bow almost exclusively with sneak and light armor. I occasionally use a melee weapon, but I want to get all the perks for archery. And I'm amazed that one perk into stealth has made me so much more difficult to detect, it's hilarious. No Restoration used yet, or magic, period, but I'm only level 6. I fear that when I run into sabre cats and cave bears, I will have to run like the wind.

Make a Breton for magic resistance if your really worried about that kind of thing and/or wear jewelry with magic resistance. And Alchemy will give you all the healing power and resistances you could ever need very easily. Or failing that just splurge level up buffs in to health and smith your armor to max and just be a damage sponge.

Now, every character I've ever made in TES has used Restoration, so I can't comment there (although, being an Alchemist and making plenty of restore potions would work), but....


I never even realized that was in the Alteration tree. Haven't used the skill. What I did do (on three characters so far), was carry Resist potions, and find/buy/craft armor with Resist on it. My first character, a ranger-type Stealth/Combat sword&board type, wore several mix-and-match pieces of resist gear. Found & bought, since that character didn't perk out Enchanting. 50% Resist Fire boots, 50% Resist Frost shield, and the Elemental Resist blocking perk. And before that, resist potions. Plus dragon shouts and shield slams to keep the mages from casting too much.

Ive never seriously used restoration, ive always relied on potions to get me out of a fix. The whole magica cost per heal rate is a bit of a put off for me as its easier, faster and simpler to just chug a potion of healing. Its especially true now in skyrim with the fact there is no limit to the number you can cram down your gullet. And as someone who has relied heavily on Alchemy in both Oblivion and Skyrim I can say from experience, its extremely effective.

Potions > restoration. Never used alteration on any of my 4 characters. My last two were Breton and if you take the Lord's Stone that's even more magic resistance. My first character, an Imperial mage, struggled against other mages but that was what made it fun and challenging. Even then there are resistance potions most of which I found for free.

I always have a ranged attack of some sort for Dragons. Not sure why anyone would balk at that. It's not a game breaker. If nothing else just ignore the damn things. I've done that before.

Thief and sneak go together in my mind so I can't imagine joining the Thieve's Guild without being able to sneak. If you do that's your problem not mine. Figure it out yourself.

Block, Torches, Enchanting, and Food (specifically stews and soups!). No need for healing spells or potions at all. Just imagine the food is a bit ah, condensed!

I played an assassin using no magic whatsoever and did not struggle at all. Pretty much all enemies except dragons died without ever seeing me anyway.

You don't need restoration if you make your own health potions from alchemy. There are plentiful ingredients for health potions outdoors, and the ones sold by merchants don't cost much. By selling the more expensive potions, you'll easily have money to make health potions.

Equipment can go a long way towards making your character magic resistant. The +30% magic resistance from alteration is nice, but it's hardly a requirement to survive enemy mages. Stay mobile, use shouts that stun mages or help you close in, and bash the mages with your weapon or shield to keep them from using spells.

You don't need to spend perks in archery to use bows. Just upgrade your bow and arrows as improvements become available and you'll be fine. Only spend perks in archery if you want to specialize in ranged combat.

I have used restoration only with one character and alteration never. Hit and run is my way to fight against several enemies and you have no time to die if you use two-handed weapon and shouts in battle. Mages can be killed with one hit so avoid their spells and run on their skin. With other enemies hit, block, shout, avoid and run off to hide for a moment if needed is the best battle technique.
About dragons I have to say I have bow in inventory with every character but perks only with a few. But how to fight with them is easy to answer: fight with them only on good locations where you can avoid their attacks from air and wait until they land or if you have played main quest you can force them to land.
And about the thief and assassin quests I do them only with assassins and thieves. Never with gallant warriors, heroes or mighty sages. Every character needs different game play so the impressiveness and interest in the game remains. (I have several characters. I have played them on lvl 25-50 and have now my eleventh character in play).

Well, my mage character (a Breton, but I have never played another race yet, and I have yet to finish any guild story lines, or the main story line)... 3/3 Alteration, Impact from Destruction and 2/2 in Augmented Shock, Enchanter 5/5, Insightful, Corpus, Extra Effect, 5/5 Alchemist, Physician and Benefactor, Quiet Casting perk from Illusion, with a little Restoration (Regeneration and 2/2 Recovery)... I enchanted 2 pieces of jewelry with +20% Magic Resistance, so I had a total of 95% (over the cap, I know), and +100% Fortify Destruction. Just walk around nuking everything, mages couldn't touch me with their magic. I wore leather armor that I made, and took Arcane Blacksmith, enchanted 4 pieces of glass armor I found, and improved them. I was walking around just blasting everything to death. But having one spell to attack with got boring. Thunderbolt, thunderbolt, dead. Thunderbolt, thunderbolt, dead. Ancient Dragons took about 5 or 6 Thunderbolts to kill. Blah, blah, blah. No excitement, no strategy, nothing. Now imagine, though, if I utilized all forms of magic. I maxed out all of my magic skills to 100, except for Conjuration (that got to around 75). There's not even enough hot-keys on the PC for that! I did appreciate Paralyze from Alteration, but the armor spells are crap... the reason why this is: 1) The duration, 2) 300 is the best you can get for a reasonable amount of time... and lastly 3) if you wear actual armor, you get a hidden +100 armor rating that you don't see. Wearing light armor with 40 AR is actually 140 AR. No wonder my mage from long ago in cloth was dying so badly! It's pointless not to wear armor in this game, and 3/3 Mage Armor is crap! Just a head's up...


I think I was always wanting to play stealth/archery/one handed, assassin-type character. But not walking around with that extra 30% magic resistance from Alteration is painful, and it takes a while to get Enchanting up to 100. For all of you saying that enemy mages haven't killed you, you obviously haven't ran into the same enemy mages that I have, at higher levels. At level 20ish +, I have ran into Master Conjurers, who use lightning. One casting of this on my Breton, who already had 25% Magic Resistance, killed him. And he had 350 health at the time. So... yeah. I guess I got some really bad luck, or something. And to get good potions, I must level up Alchemy, which will in turn level ME up, and sooner or later I will run into a Master Conjurer, and I will die in one hit. Trust me, it svcks.

This time, I have my perks planned out. Archery will be almost maxed (I'm not going to bother putting more than 1/3 into Critical Shot). One handed will have enough to max dual-wielding, with -25% stamina cost, and the standing power attack that decapitates. I don't think I have the leet skillz to use a power attack while sprinting (wtf? anyone use this? how do you do this on the PC?).

Oops, I forgot the rest... Sneaking will be maxed, Light Armor, Enchanting (can't live without it), Alchemy, Smithing (going the "heavy" route for the best weapons, then Dragon Smithing for the Dragon Scale light armor)... and there's even room for Pickpocketing, but I don't know if that's very helpful in the grand scheme of things. Stealing people's armor and weapons? May be unnecessary... but still fun?

unless a potion cooldown is added choosing Restoration over Alchemy for keeping health and magicka up is more of an RP or style choice