As the title states, I need tips to develop the b est mage/wizard possible!

Here's what I have so far.

Race:

High Elf (Male)

Birthsign:

The Mage

Attributes:

Intelligence

Willpower

Skills:

Alchemy

Alteration

Conjuration

Destruction

Illusion

Mysticism

Restoration

I've gotten 3 mages guild recommendations so far but would like some tips on improving my character. Things such as good spells to create, where I could find good ingredients and also which quests would have a positive effect on my character by giving me enchanted items that help.

Thanks all!

I have pretty much this character right now.

After you do the recommendation quest in Cheydenhal, Falcar vanishes and you can use his bed to rest in and the drawers right next to the bed are safe to store items. If you are a better swimmer than Vidkun, then his body in the well behind the guildhall is a permacorpse where you can store even more items.

I always enchant my worn items to "Fortify Magicka 24 points" each, for a total boost of +192 points (an amulet, 2 rings and 5 items of clothes). I have a dagger enchanted to cause "100% Weakness to magic for 10 seconds". A couple of hits and then you can blast them with your favorite spell for a very big bonus effect. The normal spells Shadow form (invisibility for 120 seconds) or ghostwalk (the same for 60 seconds) are great for walking from one guildhall to the next. Command spells set to effect 25th level humanoid/creatures will work on any level if you have 100% effectiveness. This way, multiple opponents can be set to fight each other. "Summon Dremora Lord for 60 seconds" gives you a great assistant to do the dirty work. Or you can enchant an amulet, 2 rings and a set of armor with shield to "Fortify endurance 10 points" each, which gives you an extra 180 points of health without the danger of the fortify health spell, and fight your own battles. A spell to cause "100% weakness to poison/100% weakness to magic for 10 seconds" stacks nicely and a good poison can do eight hundred points worth of damage in less than a minute.

Alchemy, Conjuration and Illusion are the skills I max first. These give you access to the best poisons/potions, summoned creatures and invisibility/chameleon spells. You can buy cheap ingredients or pick ones for free in the Merchant District in the Imperial City to make dozens of potions. When you walk invisibly on the roads in Cyrodiil, you will find lots of thieves that you can dispatch for easy cash from their loot. Or you can pick all the ingredients that you want with a short 100% Chameleon spell and then Shadow form again to continue your trek. Good luck!

Going Altmer to willingly suffer weakness to magic 25% for 100 magicka. Could be worse. You will need to dodge all spells or else your offense will be stopped because you have to heal and spend more of your magicka, which could have been used to hurl destruction. I think you are spread out too much, and it depends on if you will power level to get +5s every level. Pick two magicka schools, preferably from the same skill so that you will likely get +5 to whichever skill. Huge reasons to be a mage is to get access to spellmaking alter and enchanting alter. Since you're Altmer you already own weakness to magicka ready for spellmaking, unfortunately you have to do those gd recommendations... unless you have the Frostspire ( spelling? ) DLC. If so then you need only cough up a few thousand pesos for those mage tallow candles for your alters.

You went the solid way with the Mage birthsign +30 magicka. Or you could alternately choose Atronach for 50% resist magicka and fill up your magicka with mod methods if you're on the PC:

*Runeskulls mod will give you a chance to find skulls with +1 magicka per second. Allowing you to regain all your magicka with just an hour fast time rest or waiting.

*There is another mod that will silence you for 7 seconds while your magicka replenishes much faster.

*You can replenish all your magicka at once with welkyndstones, but you will need the Varla and Welkyndstones Glow and Respawn mod, or you will eventually use up all welkyndstones in Cyrodiil.

Here is what I think of the magicka schools, just my opinion:

Alchemy - very strong once you can identify 3 ingredient traits. But you must be fine with that horrible interface. You won't be using poisons unless you use a weapon. But there is the shield potion.

Alteration - boring, much like daggerfall. But you can have it be a third wheel with destruction and restoration.

Conjuration - meat shields to draw their fire and hide behind! First it is a simple headless zombie. Then the clannfear. Good if you won't be using a companion mod. Good to pair with alchemy.

Destruction - who doesn't want to make their foe suffer immediately? You need to get to that spellmaking alter asap for the best use of destruction and weakness to magicka. Google Oblivion magicka stacking.

Illusion - I dont' use it because it seems like the "I win" button. And it raises your personality, so it mixes with mercantile and speechcraft. No thanks.

Mysticism - Only good for Soul Trap for enchanting.

Restoration - it heals you and it raises the same attribute as destruction. At first it heals little. Then you will be healing massive wounds with a gesture.

If you are on the PC then you can use Oblivion XP mod so that you can play however you want.

I think knowing if you are on PC or Console would help us to help you more. If on Console, I agree with the above poster that you may be spread too thin. A lot of those skills will level very fast and others painfully slow making you a bit out of balance which could cause issue with enemy scaling. If in PC where you can use mods to adjust those things then you are probably fine.

I think your schools of magic should cater to your characters tastes IMHO. Above poster suggestion Alteration is boring. However I have a character who loves it. Especially for the "burden" spell. Nothing like stopping someone in their tracks and then stabbing them with a slow working poison while they are aware of what's happening and can't do a thing about it

Illusion can be a very overpowered school. I agree with that. There's nothing wrong with being an illusionist but I watch what I do with it. That's just IMO.

Mysticism is another school I thoroughly enjoy. You can grab things from afar, avoid traps, etc by using it.

So I think it very much depends on how you/your character wants to play it. All schools have advantages depending on your type of character.

Nenina has given us a fair mix of advice and opinion.

Some of the opinions I don't agree with.

Alteration allows a lot of non-combat mage-style behavior, like water-walking and water-breathing, and it gives you the means to carry huge amounts of weight cheaply (Feather.) It's your primary defensive skill (Shield, particularly Elemental Shields, which will offset your Altmer's weakness to magic.) And it's how your mage gets into all of those locked chests.

Mysticism has some of the most useful and important spell effects in the game, including Soul Trap, Detect Life, Reflect Damage, Reflect Spell, and Spell Absorption. You can create a godlike mage by building this skill, since at high levels, anything that attacks you only hurts itself.

One thing to remember about destruction spells: Once you get to the point where you can make your own spells, crate your own destruction spells doing damage over time. 35 damage in one second costs more magicka than 7 points of damage for 5 seconds. I also find putting all three elements into one offensive spell useful, that way I've got a good general purpose offensive spell that will hit anything. And you can always make more specialised spells for exploiting the elelmental weaknesses some enemies have.

Alteration's a great school of magic, very versatiel. Feather lets you move faster, even moreso if you combine it into a spell with fortify speed and athletics, water walking lets you get from the Imperial city to Leyawiin without needing to fight, just walk down the river. The elemental shield spells are also worth noting, definitely worth using, especially as an Altmer.

As for ingredients, the road from Skingrad to Kvatch is literally lined with flax plants. You can easily pick up dozens of flax seeds along that road, which can be used to make restore magicka potions.

Thanks to all who have given me tips about this so far. I am currently playing on console (Xbox 360) so mods are out of the question. (Even though I don't tend to use mods when playing pc)

If I am spread too thin I'm hoping there's a way to help me with this? As I'm only 4 hours into the game so far, the possibility of restarting IS in question, so If somebody could give me a good Mage/Wizard build I would be thankful. (Keep in mind I am going to be a High Elf)