Think about it. Levitatiin spell to move fallen tree blocking roadway. Or remove a drowning npc from lake(lol yeah I know). Cmon y'all get the idea. Real uses formagic outside of combat. Plus in combat ice can freeze enemies and set aflame with im burning animations and screams. Imagine you setting someone on fire and another npc makes it rain distinguishing the flames. Maan I love assassin stealth characters but only wished I could set arrow tips on fire and set whoever it hit on fire also same with ice arrows. How about freezing someone solid then setting the frozen one on fire which melts them. Just a few crazy ideas. Any others or better scenarios. Better dungeon traps too....

Look at how Dark Messiah handled magic in combat, a enemy on fire would run around clutching its throat and fall to its knees and die, and you could freeze them. You could also pick them up with a spell and slam them into a wall a couple of times.

Maybe, but magic in ES is already over powered as it can be used in place of pretty much any skill.

It was meant to be that way, so a powerful wizard would have everything he needed right at his finger tips.

I don't agree. It seems like magic was just another weapon in the game and to be able to use it outside of combat just opens up a whole nother level of gameplay.!!

I could cope with easy and logical puzzels but if Skyrim will be a game with "turn-this-thing-to-get-that-thing-working-miles-away" I will not ceratinly buy this game. Complex puzzels are not right atmosphere for Elder Scrolls IMO.

No that's something I can agree on. I just want to be able to watch other npc's and myself work magic instead of just shoot magic..if you can understand that. I want to feel magical instead of just having magic attacks. Open up the gameplay please....

It would be cool. If you're like a really powerful magician. Like you need to level 50. With high illusion skill etc. High magicika. You could control somebody's mind and like tell them to attack a random person. Or do something for you steal something. Dunno. Be creative lol.

Exactly and not just magic..A very strong character being able to lift objects in the way of something or a stealthy character being able to hid like in assassins creed. Different exclusive perks sort of for that specific type of character you are playing.

It would be interesting to have magic interact more with the environment (freezing water to cross or kill submerged enemies for example), but I think it would be tough to balance.



If you mean like what was done in Myst, I agree. Gothic and Arx Fatalis really tested my patience as well.

Great thinking and I just hope more ideas come along from everyone. This would make the world that much more special and creative. It would be so coolto find a hidden area by using your head and magic to reach it or hidden treasures. And yes make it hard to find and very rewarding.

Well there were magic puzzles in Oblivion. But what you're saying about affecting the actual environment, that is a good idea which would be (could be) incredibly fun.

Yes, but there weren't always alternatives. With every magic skill, you would be able to do everything, but you'd need far more than 6 skills to achieve the same with no magic.

Magic completely removes the need for Speechcraft, security, sneak, all fighting skills, armour (shield) etc. And each magic skill could do a variety of things. You don't see security letting you do more than opening locks.

That's why magic is separated into different categories. This way a character cannot simply up his "magic" skill and become good at everything.

Destruction is an alternative to blade, blunt, or marksman
Illusion is an alternative to stealth.

And so on.

Though it might be interesting to see magic as being more difficult to master than the skills it replaces.

Yeah, but illusion is an alternative to stealth, speechcraft, torches and a helping hand in fights (paralyse). See how they do a whole lot more than most other skills?

I agree. Bethesda needs to take a leaf out of Bioshock's book regarding the implementation of magic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6U-1PjZq_c&NR=1 of what can be done. You have to go to minute 5 for the demo.

This is magic being used to light torches, campfires, etc.

It doesn't have to be about puzzles, but restricting access to certain places with simple challenges would be nice. For example, a switch for opening a door could be really high up (too high for a normal character to reach). With alteration you'd be able to levitate up to the switch and press it. With telekinesis you'd be able to turn the switch from a distance, and maybe with really high acrobatics and speed skill you'd be able to reach it in a few jumps. Some puzzles would still be nice though.

Another example is having to press two pressure plates at the same time. You could do this by having a companion, summoning a creature, or using burden in some way.

I just didn't like the policy of having easy access to everything. Same goes for lockpicking. I wouldn't mind it if you'd need apprentice level lockpicking to open hard locks and journeyman level lockpicking to open very hard locks. Just make sure those locks are very uncommon in caves and forts, and a lot more common on jewelry boxes and rich man's houses.