lol, i laughed so hard!
but seriously i always hated chugging potions as well. i never had a easy times with any of my characters cause i always pushed the difficulty up so every combat encounter would be a challenge.

i would like some kinda system whereplayer couldnt really use their inventory during combat or it would be real-time. meaning that everything player wants to use during combat has to be equipped beforehand. lets say a shield on the back, sword and maybe an axe on either side and few potions on the belt. would be really wicked and add some nice startegic element to it as well.

well you can be glad to know that Beth. has thought the same thing hence why you now dedicate a free-hand to a spell rather than being able to put a sword and spell together.

I actually didn't find Mages overpowered, then again I never used exploits as I don't really know what exploits there truly are. I tried many times to get my Illusion up so I could use Invisibility but I ultimately found that it made more sense just to attack my opponent with destruction than waste my mana reserve on Chameleon to get by someone I'd most likely have to fight anyway on the way back.

however, I did the method one user did which was cast powerful spell, run away and let mana regen, then go back. Honestly though, I'm kinda hoping they work it so you can't do that which, given that you can't "run backwards" now it sounds lik they already have.

This strategy won't work in skyrim according to the combat info released -



There goes our fly like a butterfly sting like a bee approach

Mage characters will need to chug more potions in skyrim according to the latest info which was the point of the OP - like the OP I am a bit disappointed to hear that, I like to roleplay my characters and I start sensing a loss of immersion when I have to chug potions I start thinking how much liquid is in this potion, wouldn't I get the stitch, how big is my bladder and so on

Yes I know there are absorb magicka spells but I thought that was useless in Oblivion - I need a ranged spell for my unarmoured mage not an on touch one where I'm going to take damage and need to chug another health potion

I normally spend over 100 hours in a TES game at low levels due to being OCD about character builds - at low levels in Oblivion you can't even get a decent absorb magicka spell without going into the negative for casting it

I think I'm with the OP on this one - I don't like having to carry a sack of potions and it breaks immersion for me if I end up having to drink a dozen for each fight. And the way Skyrim combat is being described there isn't much option out of that for an unarmoured player

Where is this quote from?

Kind of defeats old school role playing which was more turn based and allowed you time to do your planning, and make it too action based where too much becomes player skill. Finding what you need you would do by instinct, not hindered by a lousy user interface - which can never become "good enough".

Time to draw your sword and drinking a potion makes sense. Spending critical time in menus does not, especially considering how menus are done in Oblivion and all other list based approaches where you have a tonne of items.

Magic somehow felt more powerful in Morrowind, and thus cooler to use, but the cost was no regeneration. In Oblivion with regeneration, it feels like everything is "toned down" in order to keep it balanced, and as such it became kind of a bore. So in a sense you're not feeling overpowered as a mage since you still have to manage potions in order to cast the more powerful spells. In Morrowind casting utility and exploration spells you had to ask yourself "do I *really* need to cast this spell"? Even grinding had this cost.

I tried as a hunter style character to do the Bruma aid quests at maximum difficulty (actually the whole main quest, but I was forced to reduce to about 75% when you absolutely *had* to fight). Think I was level 44 at the time. Boy was I blasted to kingdom come. So I grinded to get invisibility. Not a potion used. I then did each of the gates for all the cities. Keeping invisibility. Not a potion used. All gates closed without a single fight. I used "high powered" exploration magic like there was no tomorrow, and I wasn't even a good mage. Now this was just as a test, and I don't recommend doing it, but I felt like a cheater being *that* effective with magic and completely useless without using any magic. Like combat and stealth, magic should be a tool rather than the ultimate solution where you can achieve just about anything in the game casting spells.

Lemmie get this straight... you want to be a pure mage-class, but you don't want to use the spellcasting abilties to help you become an efficient blaster (i.e. cast "weakness to frost" and then a moderate frost spell on the target)? And THEN you complain that you're killing enemies too slowly and don't like using potions and want the system changed?

:facepalm: :slap:

Call mages powerful, but I hate potion quaffing. Spamming potions is about the lamest thing that goes on in RPGs.

Maybe you should just TGM then

I really don't understand your complaints TBH or your train of thought. You want to be a powerful mage but don't want to use magicka efficient spell combinations which increase damage and don't use as much magicka and complain about magicka usage and that you have to use potions.

Mages can nuke the hell out of enemies if played well, maybe you just aren't playing well and should learn to.

I just think you should learn about your enemies first and their weaknesses and prepare your quick inventory accordingly. If you didn't prepare, it was folly.
Doesn't make to much sense to search your backpack while an enemy is charging at you.

Besides its not turned based, its more action oriented and I think it should go along with that realtime feel since its going the action route(wether or not thats a good thing).

I like the regeneration but it could probably use a tone down on the rate at which it returns. Thus making spells a little more taxing but not having to worry about going to town to restock on M potions.

It's a multiple item hot key. This will fulfill the wishes of many people that wish to changes entire outfits, weapon sets, or drink multiple potions in one click.

Oh, then you're looking for someone to teach you how to hotkey items and make potions then- because the reason I didn't play a pure mage class much was because with a stack of alchemy-made magicka potions hotkeyed, the game became almost "stupid easy" as everything went down almost instantly and I blasted through anything and everything in my path like a combine harvester going through a wheat field at harvest time. Without having to constantly navigate any menu, and using maybe 2 potions per fight if multiple opponents were involved and things got drawn-out.



Oblivion's level-scaling was a "little" screw-up? :blink:

Cannot even begin to agree, sorry. That was the Mother of all screw-ups, and therefore yes- Bethesda makes some seriously massive screw-ups.

Honestly, what kind of powerful Mage needs potions to survive?

Like BioWare would say: "Powerful mages needing potions to survive? That is so not heroic!"

Just did...

I don't really see it as odd for a person to think that things are screwy when you need to use an exploit in order to kill monsters in a time efficient manner with magic, and then if you don't use the exploit you have to svck potions every damn fight. Potions should be useful, but they shouldn't be something you constantly use. Right now they are so damn good they get used all the time. The limit of 4 potions at once isn't much of a limit, especially since I can easily have 2 Health/magicka restore potions going leaving 2 spare drink spots open and basically be invulnerable and have a bottomless mana pool for the next 30 seconds,

How is a "Weakness to frost + Frost damage" spell an exploit? What do you expect a "Weakness to ..." spell effect to be used for?

There's a fine line between exploit and game mechanic.



And this quote shows where the Weakness to ____ + ____ Spell lies on that. An Exploit is the "enchant 5 bits of clothes to 20% chameleon." Or "Put a "Drain fatigue" enchantment on a weightless clothing item, give it a name of AAAAAA and backwards pickpocket it onto one of those immortal guards. Or, like in Morrowind, the creation of super-potions because of how they calculated alchemy.

An exploit is a game mechanic used in a unforseen way by the developers- because the developers never saw the game mechanic being used in that fasion, they never controlled against it. And I seriously doubt that the "weakness to ____ and ___ spell" combo was unforseen by the developers when the added the "weakness to" spells.

The exploit is the degree in which it happens, not it existing. Since you can weakness to magic your weakness to magic etc it becomes a exploit. I seriously doubt they intended that level of spell stacking. If they did intend it they really svck at game design, if they didn't it was just an oversight.

Yes, the Weakness to magicx5 then cast damage health 100 thing is an exploit, but not the weakness to frost (whatever)% + frost damage 20 pts. on target combo.

Like I said, exploits occur when the devs don't realize they've enabled something to occur without fixing it.

Because RPGs are complex and involves a certain degree of management of stats, equipments, etc. And you can't do that without having to go through menus to sort your stuff...

You are lazy and stupid if you play RPGs and whine about having to manage your character. Also, there is a drain spell, and you can hotkey the potion at any time. What you want is simplicity, and this is a bad word for an RPG.

Bethesda should add cover mechanics, regenarating health, guns and aliens too... Gosh.

If I end up having to consume five potions every single battle I can say right away I will either change my play direction or mod the magicka regeneration. What fun is playing a magician if you have to make potentially thousands of potions just to play the game? That doesn't sound fun to me. I could understand for tougher encounters but not for average fights.

Also to the above poster the moment you call someone "lazy" in regard to playing a game you've lost the point you're making. I'd fully agree if you have to maintain hundreds of potions just to play a magician something is deeply wrong with the game.

My take on this:

- I'd like Beth to remove the pause when the menu is open. It just kills any feeling of action you can just open your menu in a heavy fight and *scroll*,*scroll* down your inventory to see which potion or buff spell could help you, Other open-world games such as the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series don't pause like this and it works well. It makes you think twice before opening your menu in the middle of combat.

- Then they need to organize the game and interface around the fact that you can't stop to browse your inventory all the time.
-- Of course it would be possible to just put fast regenerating health/mana, but then what happens to alchemy and this game being an RPG? I don't think those asking for that have weighted all the consequences. The TES series has beens simplified enough as it is.
-- The real solution: There are many hotkey mods which solve the issue beautifully (even though some have a bit of a learning curve). Beth just has to take inspiration from those and streamline their approach a bit. The ultimate reference is definitely Enhanced hotkeys by TheNiceOne. For instance it allows you to choose whether a spell is autocast or just selected when you press the hotkey. You can also assign several spells to the same hotkey and set them all to autocast: this allows you to have one key to cast all your buffs before combat, and the rest is free for potions, healing/offensive spells, etc.

I don't think my Mage had to keep drinking magica potions, or at least not when I was a higher level with awesome spells.
As a low level, I evaded as much as I could, and struck from a distance.
It just takes some planning, and consideration of the type of encounter.

Well why don't you just mod OB and make your character have a high pool of magicka? Or just use the console and give yourself high magicka. That's what I did and I had no complaints.

Well one thing it depends on his how much magicka bretons and high elves have.... The ONLY advanatage a high elf has is magicka and they tend to have soo many downsides.. so id expect a fair amout of magicka on them in skyrim.

Weakness to elementals and magic is not an exploit, it's an function in the magic system who has been with us since Daggerfall, yes it's a powerful function but so is power and sneak attacks or fallout 3 location damage.
Now fortify intelligence potions in Morrowind was an exploit, adding a damaging effect to a potion in Oblivion to remove it from the active potion counter faster is a minor exploit.

Weakness is a way to make more depth to magic than simply casting fireball many times. In Oblivion the system is changes so weakness only affect later spells not the spell itself so a weakness to fire 100% + fire damage 50 would not work.
So you first need to cast weakness then cast damage, yes you can bundle them like fire damage 50+ weakness to fire 100% for 3 sec but here the first fire damage do standard damage, a separate weakness spell would cost less magic but require more timing.

Previous character was a woodelf pure mage, yes no racial magical bonuses. She only used restore magic potions then facing multiple enemies, preferred to use self made one as they was lighter and more efficient. Did not see potion use as a problem used so few I did not have them hot keyed in menu.