My biggest problem with spellcasting in Oblivion was how impractical it was to play as a pure mage. Your magicka pool was very small, magicka costs on spells were huge, and your magicka didn't replenish fast enough. Yes you could constantly consume magicka potions to maintain enough magicka, but that's just not fun having to constantly go to the menu or switch your active ability and use magicka potions. Hopefully you'll only need to use magicka potions as a pure mage for battles against many enemies or really tough boss-like enemies. I really want to make a pure mage in Skyrim, but if it's just as impractical as Oblivion, and I have to constantly consume magicka potions, then I'm not guna bother.

What your looking for is an action game.

You kidding? Full mages were hella overpowered compared to other characters. You can do everything as a mage. SLIGHTLY more difficult combat isone of the few disadvantages.

Couldn't you just hotkey the restore magicka potion? If you ran out of one type of them, just go to the menu and re-assign the hotkey.

Pure mage was easy in Oblivion! Just get a male Altmer born under the sign of the Wizard, tag some magic skills and prepare to vape everything that stands in your way!

No, I'm looking for a game that doesn't require repeatedly having to go to menues during combat. I don't understand the idea that an rpg requires unnecessary amounts of menu navigation.

This^

There is a quick-select menu that you can put the potions in you know. So all you'd have to do is press a button and you drink one.

Hotkeys much?

Also, are you creating your own spells or are you just buying them from merchants?

Believe it or not, it's usually better to create your own spells....

Counter-productive, if you are a pure mage, you need as many spells on the wheel as possible...
Also, I catch the op's drift. I started playing oblivion recently and my willpower is near 110 yet it have to wait a gruelingly long time to heal myself and wait for the bar to rise and rise and rise.
It's a pain.

That's what hotkeys are for.... I never went into the menu to use a health/mana potion because I keep them hotkeyed. Same for stimpacks in Fallout 3 and New Vegas. Bethesda says they are adding a "favorites" menu of sorts that to me, sounds almost like the quick menu in Dragon Age, or how you select weapons in Saint's Row. I'd advise you put some mana potions in that menu when Skyrim comes out.

Dude, it only takes 1-2 potions to take out any amount of enemies, well at least in Oblivion. If you were a master of alchemy you could make a great restore magicka 'x' points for 'y' seconds with a single batch of flax seeds, causing your magicka bar to shoot up very fast for a long period of time.

Edit: Also, remember to hotkey.

I think that if not exploited pure mages were difficult to play, as they should have been. That means not using full chamelon or invis constantly, among other things...
But one thing I don't know how you can deny is how much magicka a pure mage could spit out forever. I like the magicka regenerating, resting and potions gets old, but I was never reliant on either. I had plenty of magicka, I don't know how you didn't...

I kind of agree. I'd prefer combat be dictated by strategic use of spells balanced against your magicka regeneration rate.

I get what you mean man. You want to be able to feel like your having an epic magic duel without having to yell "STOP EVERYTHING! I need to drink a potion so i can keep fighting!"

I'm sure they'll handle it fine though, this is BGS, they don't make BIG screw ups ... just lots of little ones

I agree that this is a problem - a pure mage needs to use magic not just for utility/healing but also for damage, so their pool is strained twice as much as others.

My hope is that magic based perks will alleviate this, giving a character more dedicated to magic more regen and/or cheaper spells - and they'd have to pass on other, likely weapon based, perks to get them which balances it out.

It also kind of svcks that I die and have to reload a save when my health runs out, but, I don't complain about it on the forums.

Drain Magicka on Target

I actually kind of agree but for a different reason. Morrowind and oblivion could have been renamed better living through alchemy, you constantly chug potions, in order to chug some more potions, with some potion chugging happening after, during, and before that. I'd prefer to have some better limits on the number of potions you can consume in a time period, with maybe better mana regen or a bigger base pool or something.

Hehe, you thought Oblivion mages had it bad? You should have tried being a mage in Morrowind.

I don't get it.
so you want automatic mana gain?
drinking potions or absorbing mana is too much of a hassle?

just trying to understand what the alternative is that you want, that's all.

Well we're gonna need to be able to make restore magicka potions from the start or the'll need to put a lot of them in the world as loot. My problem with lots of potions in loot drops is it takes away the chance for something better being there.

I can only guess at these things and hope the game compensates for the disadvantages built into the combat systems. I wonder if there will be any alyid wells along the southern border with Cyradiil. those things were useful.

Yeah...I got a pure mage in OB, and all I really need to do is smack someone with a heavy weakness to cold/fire/lightening and smack it with a spell afterward, and it dies. I've been able to slaughter monsters a helluva lot quicker than any physical characters I've made.

From the way he is talking, sounds like magicka might go back to morrowind style......restores on rest rather then a constant restore.

I found i hardly ever needed a potion on my mages in oblivion....i cast a strong spell (and if that didnt kill them), ran away while magic replenished, then turned and finshed them off.....