My level 8 mage has gained access to au and spellmaking.

My alt, conj and alchemy are 50, illusion mid40....but dest only 38.

How do I improve it? The others I can just train quickly?
Do I have to kill stuff to get skilled in it, or does just casting it work?

I want it above 50 to make cool spells.

also, restoration is really slow to level in. only 2% increase when cast. :/

Also, where can I find a drain magicka spell? My char cant make the spell, he dosnt know it.
Need it for vahtecan puzzke.

Thanks in advance.

Let me address just the destruction training spell. Make a spell that effects your character with a relatively harmless low powered destruction effect. I think I generally use drain fatigue 3 points x 1 second on self - it costs one magicka to cast. If you are blocking while you are casting it will almost double the casting rate. Yes, destruction and restoration are slower per cast to level than other schools of magic.

In some sort of order.....

In order to gain experience for a magic skill, you have to cast the spell on a valid target. The easiest target is yourself, which works with all the other magic schools easily, but is a hassle with Destruction. However, the Weakness to _____ spells can be cast-on-self, so go to the praxographical center and make a custom Weakness to ______ spell, minimum power for minimum time (I believe it's 3% for 1 second). You can train casting that on yourself just like you can with any other magic school.

And yes-- Restoration takes forever. Again, make a custom training spell-- the cheapest is Restore Fatigue, again at the minimum amount of the minimum time, but you're still going to have to cast it a whole lot of times.

All of the spells that you need for the Vahtacen puzzle are available on scrolls in a chest in Vahtacen. Just look around.

If you want a drain magicka spell anyway, Sulinus Vassinus in Skingrad sells the most basic version of the spell. http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:List_of_Spells_by_Effect#Drain_Magicka

Cast it on yourself. A small weakness to [whatever] on self for 1 second will level destruction quickly

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:List_of_Spells_by_Effect#Drain_Magicka can be bought from a few vendors.
For that quest a scroll can be found in the chest near Denel. It is damage not drain that you need.

I usually prefer Disintegrate Armor effects. You can make them have no effect by simply not equipping armor, or you can use it to also train up in Armorer by damaging your armor that way and then repairing it - the reduction of effectiveness for wearing the armor will not affect the speed at which you skillup Destruction.

Good advice from the other posters on working on the skill, but no answer to the Vahtecan puzzle question.

There is a scroll in the crate under the table near the pillar that has a drain magicka effect. If memory serves, there are scrolls with three of the four required spell effects in that crate. The missing effect is pretty common.

Also, Sulinus in the Skingrad Mages guildhall is the only merchant who sells it.

Re: training schools -- make the training spell, walk everywhere, and cast it constantly. Destruction will level a bit faster that way, but Resto will still be painfully slow. Might hit Expert by the time a new emperor is found....

As soon as my char got into the Arcane University, she crafted a training spell for each school of magic.

Every night before bed, she usually spends 10 or 15 minutes just practicing her magic - normally with the training spell for whichever school is the lowest. She is level 20 and every school is between 90- 100. Sure enough, destruction and resto are the lowest two.

http://i668.photobucket.com/albums/vv43/Acadian6/ScreenShot557.jpg

Thanks everyone!

I always thought Destruction was just Fire/Ice/Shock, never thought about weakness spells. :facepalm:

Thanks again!

Skingrad?

For destruction and restoration skills I was able to level them from normal use. At the levels you are at a "100 pt drain health for 1 second, on touch" spell will be a dominating spell untill level 15 and will train destruction magic enough to get into weakness stacking where the real damage is at higher levels.

Don't make custom training spells. They just end up aggravating Oblivion's "Clutter Problem" with spells. Once you make a spell you are stuck with it unless on PC. Use cheap spells purchased that you need the effect for custom spells. When you have 100+ spells in any single tab anything that can be done to lower that number helps. ES5 better have a favorites tab.

Alteration - "Open Very Easy lock" cast at any container or door. Locked or unlocked it still counts.
Conjuration - "Bound Dagger" till 75 and "Flame Atronach till" 100. I skip nearly all the wimpy summons.
Destruction - Normal use will work as detailed. "Minor Wound" cast at your horse works as well.
Illusion - "Starlight" till 50, normal use after that.
Mysticism - "Minor Life Detection" works. Most don't bother haveing a high skill here. I disagree as stacking several 100ft spells works better than burning up enchantment slots on the effect.
Restoration - Go get beatup and use "Heal Minor Wounds", or just skip the "beat up" part alltogether.

Heh. This was Leyawiin. Enter the guild and take the first door on your left. Skingrad was a good guess though, because there is a bedroom with a green bed just inside the main door to the left also - and it also has wooden floors.

I know what you mean. I name all my training spells with a Z at the beginning of their name. That way all six of them sit comfortably at the bottom of my spell book. In fact I use special characters and alphabetization to place all my custom spells where I want them in my spell book.

I didn't even pay much attention to the decor-- I just figured that Skingrad was the most likely place that Buffy would end up telling a guildmate to "back off."

Ol' Vigge gets around.....

If you mess up in Vahtacen, those scrolls will re-stock every three days.

For Destruction... Disintegrate Armor on everything after killing enemies will level it ludicrously fast. Note that you'll want to remove pieces from corpses as they are destroyed if you wish to also train Armorer and avoid repeatedly effecting pieces that have no health left. By the same token, you can keep casting it even after all armor health is gone and it will still be trained.

For Restoration... Absorb, Absorb, Absorb... it skyrockets when you create proper custom Absorb spells. Illusion's Calm is perfect coupling with Absorb, but Turn Undead and Demoralize and also work, albeit not as cleanly, so to speak. Paralyze, too, but honestly, by the time you get Paralyze, Restoration will probably be very high (depending on your build, of course).

Another thing... remember that spells only need a valid target, but it doesn't matter what the condition of the target actually is for the spell to level. In other words, you do not have to be hurt to level using Restore Health on yourself. Casting it at 100% health will still level the skill. Same with Destruction and Disintegrate Armor, as already noted.

Thanks everyone. My mage doesn't have any Light Armour or heavy armour major skills. If I wear light armour (he's getting whupped at the moment), will that affect my ability to cast spells?

If you have not been useing the stuff at all so far? It'll be crippleing untill the skill is in the 40s, at 50 skill the penility will be 5%. Could be abit late in the game to start fooling around with those.

At the point you are at it sounds like Alteration sheild spells are a better option. Even better, start knocking over oblivion gates at levels 9-12 looking for 25% sheild sigil stones for frost and shock damage. Four of those applied to your normal duds will give you 85DR and some elemetal resistances. Still leaves open 5 slots for other enchanted gear. Life will greatly improve at this point dispite the risk involved in getting those sigil stones. My Breton Mages get slaped around all over the place untill I have those four 25% sheild sigil stones.

Hmm, thanks. My Light Armour is at 5 and Heavy at 1.

I use a 30% (i think) shield, giving me an armour total of......8. Have an amulet I made that gives me extra 5%. Still not much.

No wonder I'm getting kicked by Necros. My health is only about 90 as well, as all my stat increases are about +4/5 to Intelli, +2 willpower and +1/2 to Personality.
Nothing to Enduro. Does HP increase every level?

Yes, at 10% of your endurance stat per level. Spending the first 10-15 levels pumping it up will pay off with 400+ HPs around level 30. Hitpoints are just there to buy enough time to pop time based restore health potions that you brew yourself. These homebrew potions really don't start getting good untill 50 alchemy skill and useing a full journyman set.

Any armor at all will cut into your spell effectiveness. You can see this on the spell menu screen. Generally, casters avoid armor of any kind to have max spell effectiveness.

I'd suggest reading some of the advice on UESPWiki for mages and magic usage. Elder Scrolls is designed for magic to be used strategically rather than basic effect spells. For example, you need to understand how to make different spells in a school or different spells from different schools work together. Most spells may seem quite weak until you understand how to synergize their effects.