I really wonder how the mages will battle it out in Skyrim. I mean, I love playing spellcasters, but I always got a bit bored of them in past games, as it felt more like "throw, dodge, throw, dodge" than an actual powerful mage fight

Now I heard that with the new system the spells will look quite better and be really adaptable to how you want them. I wonder how exactly the new mage fights will look/play.

I just want to discuss it. No poll, no "this svcks" or "this rocks". just suggestions and guesses


As for my guess, I think we're really going to have to rely on a defensive spell in one hand, and an offensive on in the other. So we'll have to time our casts and make sure the enemy's dead before we run out of magicka

Well it's confirmed that you'll have these ward spells that'll absorb different kinds of spells, kind of like your shield against magic. So you won't have to dodge all the time

I kinda wonder if there's a possible counter related to that... just imagine it, you just grab the fireball and toss it back lol

Yes a less move, throw system would be great. I've seen and played in many games where they try to add that level of complexity and the best strategy is still just shoot a lot and move around a lot. The only time this wasn't true is in games where movement had no or very little effect on you being hit or not. It will be awesome if they manage it though.

LOL that'd be hilarious.

I'd like schools of magic other that destruction to become more useful for mage duels - lots of conjuration, maybe some interesting, powerful illusion spells to confuse the enemy. Something that you'd actually use in battle, because in Morrowind and Oblivion it had been my experience that some of those possibilities were there, but everybody resorted to the good old fireballs in battle situations, since it was just more effective than anything else.

That reminded me of one of my favourite http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USZYEBmeTnw in "Casino Royale" where James Bond catches the gun the other guy throws at him... That would be hilarious indeed if done with fireballs! :celebration:

Yeah, it'd be good if the spells were interesting and effective enough so that you wanted to use your Alteration or Illusion magic in a duel, rather than spamming those destruction spells. And with what will hopefully be more variety in the different destruction spells you can cast (flamethrower, runes, fireball, flame floor, etc.) it could be far more interesting.
However, then Bethesda need to make sure that the NPCs you're versing are worth all this trouble, and aren't piss-weak folk who just spam the fireballs at you. If they are smart and powerful, then it could make for some epic magefights. :blush:

I kind of feel like the defensive spells will be a bit useless. The system will be simplistic enough that using offensive spells in both hands will tear through the enemy pretty handily. Enemy mages will probably fall in 1 hit if you charge up the spell in both hands, so it's not really going to be an issue to block them. Or, they'll make spells do low damage and it'll be dodgeball again because using 1 hand only when your damage is already nerfed is just tedious.

What would be nice is if they added counters. Like, if the enemy mage used spell protection from Destruction, I would have to use another school of magic to damage her or to remove her protection. I think that that might go over some players heads, though, so it probably wont happen. Maybe a simplistic "protection from fire so don't use fire" thing will, but that's a bit meh. Not as cool as piercing through all their magical defenses and landing the final blow.

Agreed with OP.

I would like to see a more inmersive magic system, where willpower, inteligence and all your magic skills determine the fights.

I hated how slow the bolts flew in Oblivion. It was damned near impossible to hit anything at any sort of distance in Morrowind and Oblivion both, they travelled so slow. You literally just sidestep and you avoid all damage. That's stupid.
Make them go at least twice that fast IMO.

with the introduction of spell traps I imagine you will be able to rig a spot behind you so that enemies like conjerors or necromancers can't just run past you in a tunnel like they did in OB.

btw, don't tell people who don't like the idea to not leave any posts that state why they don't like the idea, they are going to do so any ways and adressing or responding to them just starts a conversation about it and thats what I assume you were looking to avoid.



I kinda don't trust that since the ability to asorb spells has already existed, it was called spell asorbstion but it asorbed all spells, its not what your probably thinking (I imagine a shimmering wall of light infront of you that blocks spells) but bgs usually says these kind of things but it turns out to not be something completely inovative but a remade version of something that already exists.



You can use other schools of spells in a fight against a wizard, I use the invisable spell against necromancers and conjorors (because they usually run away every time they fire a spell and it makes it hard to hit them) which is an illusion spell as well as I some times use a paralysis spell but thats expesive if you are using a ranged version. I also use alteration spells in a mage fight against necromancers, spells like shield, to protect me from skeletons or zombies the necros summon.

so there already has been an existing use of magic schools other than destruction in a mage battle.

I wonder if there is any rule against using weapons. My main character uses bound weapons heavily. He also doesn't use restoration or destruction spell very often, I wonder if that excludes him from random duels (hope not).

Exactly right. I never played a pure mage for very long in Oblivion, but I noticed how ridiculously pathetic it was that I could shoot a ball of fire from my hand that would slowly fly past someone, and hit a pillar with a weak 'piff' sound. The magic in Skyrim is already going to be boosted with variety, but I say I would love to see actual splash damage from all magic effects in AT LEAST the school of Destruction. And I mean do this seriously, without special "spellmaking" required by anyone.

Also, of course make all spells faster and easier to implement in combat situations.

For instance, say you're spamming huge lightning bolts at an enemy mage in a Dwemer ruin filled with columns and pipes (like in the trailer), and the enemy smartly ducks behind a large piece of crumbled rock near some pillars to hide. You're both low on magicka from blasting at each other, but you happen to have learned to specialize in different schools using spells that require less magicka. You see that you can't kill your target while he's hiding and healing repeatedly, so you switch to a weak fireball on your right hand and a conjuration spell for a skeleton warrior on your left. Using up almost all of your magicka, you launch the fireball at an exposed pillar behind the mage's hiding spot. This explodes and coats everything nearby in flames, including the mage, who runs out from behind cover screaming and burning. And now, since your magicka is so low, you use the last bit to call up the angry skeleton to rush out into the middle of the room to slash the now burning mage to death while you step back and watch in a dark corner, drinking potions and healing with a smile on your face.

THAT is how a mage duel should go down in the most typical, basic, dungeon fighting fashion.

this. if fire spells made the area they touched burn for a few seconds that would have solved the whole enemy mages dancing around your spells problem, they would walk into your flames and catch on fire.

We know of the the target magnetism for melee... so it only stands to reason they'll do something like that for magic. Which will mean spells will be harder to dodge.

1. Thank you for your approval, mirglof. Also, just in case you weren't already aware, it has been confirmed that fire spells and fire damage effects (i.e. the dragon breath in the trailer) will catch the environment on fire for a brief period. How this will play out in the example I proposed looks to be promising :celebration:

2. The target magnetism described by Todd Howard sounds almost identical to the Magnetism programming code created for the original Halo and used in that series as part of the auto-aim function. It seems that Bethesda has finally realized that auto-aim of some find WILL make TES games better as well. :gun:

I will be cool for a mage to have a magic shield spell that can be perked with a reflection ability to bounce magic back.
Also you could use different spells like that trap spell on the ground so they dodge right into that.

i wonder if the ward spell is a generic protection from magic and damage and then you'd have a perk that increases the damage reduction % the ward spell has and more perks to add reflect or absorption on to that. I have a feeling this replaces the various 'resist frost/shock/fire' spells there were in oblivion or MW.