Sorry for double post but I am wondering if this build would have enough magicka to use good skills. I have looked and some of the skills just cost an INSANE amount of magicka to cast

Don't forget that as your skill in the magic school of the spell in question goes up, the casting cost goes down dramatically.

My mystic archer is a Bosmer with mage birthsign and has plenty of magic. She could get items to boost her magicka, but doesn't find that necessary. And she casts some pretty impressive combination spells that may, for example, immobilize her target, weaken them to poison, and either silence them or inflict them with soul trap (depending on the target). The poisoned arrow that follows is usually fatal. Her pool of magic has never been a problem. If it occasionally was, she would chug a potion. If it routinely was, she would grab a boost magicka item.

Ah, I thought as much, when seeing a skill that costs 600 magicka I was like O_O

I know at higher lvls there are sigil stones with +50 Magicka and such, but what about the starting lvls? (or is it not as important that early?)

I also saw that paralyze is the most magicka costly spell in the illusion catigory, like how much so xD?

Im wondering if picking the theif birthsign instead of the mage would make my character not able to use certain spells.

And im still stuck between Mysticism, Restoration, and Acrobatics for my my last major skill D:

The 50 magicka from the mage birthsign is forever. By higher levels, all your important attributes should be at 100 with or without the thief birthsign. I would take mage.

Paralize for 2 seconds on touch is all you need. When someone gets in your face, drop them and open fire with your bow.

Can't help you on the majors. I'd pick something I never use (like speechcraft) to slow my leveling, but that's just me.

Yeah I have kinda thought about the birthsigns, and mage would help me alot. With a birthsign such as the theif you cant go over 100, it only makes you start with higher then normal? (of course unless you have fortify agility on a ring or something, you cant go over 100 right?) If it wont somehow make it over 100, I will most likely go with the mage sign then o.o

Theif adds luck also, and I really have no clue what that does (I hear it slightly improves all your other skills)

You have been very helpful, thanks

Yes, it only helps you start higher than normal attributes. With some attention to leveling, you max agility and speed two levels later without the thief. I always ignore luck anyway, so again, I would take mage.

If you do the MG guild quests, or get spellmaking somehow pretty early, you can make custom Command spells that are much more efficient than the ones in the game, and more useful really than paralyze. For instance the Command spell in my sig will only cost about 30-40 magicka if your Illusion is around 35-40, and can be used prior to Journeyman skill level. I don't often use Paralyze at all anymore unless playing a character that only uses stock spells for some reason. Even if you meet a single foe and don't want to fight it just let it chase you to the next area with some other enemies and cast that Command spell on one and they will fight each other, allowing you to just run off, or if you want to hang around and kill the last one for loot you can do that too.

I have had characters that used Illusion and Command without Mage birthsign or much magicka, because that spell in my sig is just so good. However, if you plan on doing much else with Magic I would pick Mage instead of Thief.

Thanks for the replys ^.^

Yes I have decided the mage sign would better benifit me throughout the game, seeing how the theif only saves me 2 levels of maxing agility and speed, and the 50 magicka is forever (and no bad side effects )

Also, is mysticism useful outside of life detect? I like life detect, but I hear there are many items you can get the have a perminant life detect? I know it has soul trap and stuff, but what about the other useful abilitys x.x? I have always kinda thrown out mysticism on my other characters, so I might actually try to use it a little on this character o.o

Besides "Soul Trap," I'd say that the real power of Mysticism is in the "Reflect" spells, along with "Dispel," which has more uses than you might think (such as getting rid of enemies' summoned creatures.)

I also hear about telekenesis, but I dont really see any ways that it would be useful (exept for fun of course :celebration: )

Basically, you are right. Here are a few of the things tk can do:

-Get welkynd stones from their out of reach perches. A flare spell or arrow can do the same.
-If you make a tk for 100 feet (the max range the altar will allow) , set it as your active spell and look at a foe in the dark, it will highlight who it is and say something like 'goblin skirmisher'. Handy for long range target id in the dark, but not a big deal.
-If you are an atronach with high spell absorption and mysticism skill, you can cast tk spells to actually refill your magicka. Extremely helpful if you are an atronach who is so inclined to use this.
-Move an item that is not yours (moving it by tk is not stealing) out of sight of a merchant so you can steal it.

That sounds funny XD

I will most likely take mysticism as my last major skill, seeing how I will only be using it on rare occasions, and you can control its leveling fairly easy. I was thinking about athletics or acrobatics, but those level so randomly and you cant really control them at all >.>

Of course unless I need restoration (which I dont think I do)

One thought on Mysticism. I usually leave it as a minor. You can buy Minor Detect Life right off in the IC which is serviceable and novice level. Once you get that you can use it to raise your level to Apprentice in just a few minutes, or raise it 10 pts per level the first level or two to get some easy +5 on intelligence, if necessary. Apprentice will allow you all the effects you typically need. The absorb/reflect spells require an outrageous amount of magicka/skill to use and won't be available until much later, and really aren't typically worth the magicka cost at that time so I have only used them on one character that was Altmer Tower, and I wanted to get his Reflect Damage up as high as possible. Just my thoughts on it.

Yeah I know u can do that >.>

But you can do that with just about every magic skill besides restoration, which is the hardest magic to raise up x_x

Im just trying to find a major that just isnt COMPLETELY worthless for this type of character, and isnt gonna lvl insanely fast.

Skills I find that level slowly to some degree ( I do not effecient level at all );

Marksman, block, speechcraft, mercantile when trading in bulk, acrobatics, restoration, melee skills in that order slow to fast..

Speech and mercentile can be used sporadicly and not powered gamed with, and if playing a good aligned pc their benefits drop due to reputation giving a generous boost to npc's reactions.
Restoration, only cast it to heal and use the most powerful to cost friendly ratio and it will level gently.
Acrobatics will level quite fast at first but around the 40 mark slows down considerably in my experience.
Melee skills take as many as you wish favour one or none in particular and its a gentel slope even though you're using them a fair bit.
Marksman, as your main weapon with slow rof and sneak critical - ing foes, its rate of increase is slower than all other weapons.
Block, try playing a H2h'er and starting it at 25, you will wish this raised quicker and as an archer you'll use it less often than normal.

Most other majors raise quickly on their own, or you boost up asap due to their better abilities later on.

Edit: Destruction also a very good slow skill to use.

Hmmmmmm.... Decisions decisions :shrug:

I think that we will all have different opinions, because we all play differently. Acrobatics levels at a snail's pace for me, until I hit 50. Then all of a sudden it shoots thru the roof. Marksman, while it does level slowly, if you use it as a primary means of killing, goes fairly quickly for me. I have a mage/marksman. I'm not a Mystic Archer like Acadian. I use a claymore and use massive amounts of custom Destruction Magic. Usually the first to level for me:

Sneak, followed by
Illusion
Destruction
Mysticism
Conjuration
Blade
Marksman

and so on. Pick skills you will have fun with. Remember, you're not married to a combat/exploration style.

Your acrobatics levels faster AFTER you hit 50 O.O? Thats kinda wierd x_x

Acadian (actually anyone who feels like, pls ),

how would you go by entering some Oblivion gate, seeing those Xivilai, Daedra Spiers, Clanfears, etc... use only a bow ?

I have a personal taste for using only bow and sneak, but utterly failed - even with a daedric bow and 90% chameleon.

I should also add that i ma very bad at having to use lots of keys, ican find my way thru the WASD, but dodging is already too coplicated, etc...and i am not playing above normal/medium level of difficulty!

Many thx - pdesbois

Hmmm, acadian will offer better advice but my tupence worth's this.
Don't engage outside where its too bright, if you don't have to, don't move after shooting let them just wander about untill the "eye" dims.
Find high spots ranged spells are easier to dodge at long distance imo.
Kill summoners first and or their summons, the summons in oblivion have an insta spot effect, that really screws gameplay up as a sneak.
Gates are annoying even if you pwn them as a player character, just sneak use invisibility and find short cuts to the sigil stone.
Plainly put avoid combat in them, its a waste of time, especially at later levels imo.

I'm not Acadian but as one of his longtime fans I think I can answer this one.

Buffy's bow includes a one second 'Drain-Speed-100%' enchantment which can cause the victim to forget what they were doing (attacking her.) She also uses long range Life-Detection and the Marksman perk that allows long range sniping (telescopic view.) She can cast a targeted weakness-to-poison spell and follow it with a poisoned arrow, following that with a dagger pull before the arrow strikes the target. This multiplies the damage many fold due to the weakness multiplier and the 'sneak' multiplier. When there is more than one, she can use illusion spells to get them fighting each other. If they get too close, she can cast a spell that summons a Clannfear while making herself invisible. She is a true glass cannon with alarming weaknesses and awesome skills.

The Drain Speed spell/enchantment is not available in the vanilla game and Absorb Speed is a touch only spell/enchantment that doesn't work at a distance (ie, a bow). Damage Speed doesn't work because of the limited effect even with a grand soul gem (it works on some but not all.) You need an add-on quest that bestows that bestows a Drain-Speed spell in order to make a Buffy enchanted bow. There may be mods also and a console command that could add the drain effect to your character or to your bow. I believe there is also some other enchantment(s) on her bow as well but I'm not sure.

The other solution to Drain-Speed is poisons. In that case, you can add a drain-speed or damage-speed effect to a basic damage-health poison and if it takes several shots, the cumulative effect is devastating.

thx Madocmayhem, in my experience, Invisibility is practically a MUST aat least for my kinds of characters (my wizard simply had to create spells where the 3rd component always was some 4 sec Invisibility).

I just thought that wearing NO armour at all, with sneak > 75 and 90% camouflage i should be able to remain hidden more efficiently (I dont mean just shoot an arrow and stay there, hoping to remain unseen, but relocate, etc...). And it did not work well for me.

I also have to ad that my character had a daedric daikatana, strength 80, blade 60... for close encounters, but I was thinking of starting from scratch and staying only on sneak / archery, with good use of alchemy....

i did not want to wear any armour, coz i dont like them at all (specially the way they look). The best look for me is that of a black robe and hoof.

What level is your character o.o? You could also enchant some of your robes with shield so they have armor like defences.
Also, im just wondering, if does lvling your major skills count towards the +5 upgrade after you level, or just your minors?

My goodness. Bobg did a wonderful job of discussing some of Buffy's capabilities and tactics and he knows her well. Let me add a little more:

Buffy is a no melee archer who supports her bowkilling with magic. I call this a mystic archer - note that she is an archer first, mage second. There may be some similiarities to what you are looking for. "Archer who uses magic" instead of "mage who carries a bow" is best illustrated by her killing stats: 90% bow, 6% illusion (usually crowd control), 3% restoration (usually just absorb health for underwater combat), 1% conjuration (just for grins).

Here are some of the capabilities (not major skills) that make her work smoothly:
-Detect life (lots of it) and a cautious, stalking play style to prevent surprises.
-Drain speed as one of the enchantments on her bow and a component to many of her spells.
-Poisons, based on her target (eg: include silence vs mages).
-Potions - homemade shield potions can take her armor rating from 0 to 85 instantly for longer than any fight will last on those rare occasions when she needs it.
-Sneak to remain undetected.
-Weakness to poison spells - these can double the poison damage or bust the immunity of those immune to poison.

Here are some of her tactics to survive:
Standard 1 vs 1: Long range poisoned sneak shot.
Dispersed crowds: Snipe them one by one starting with the farthest ones.
Tight crowds: Command/frenzy spell to reduce the size of the crowd.
Underwater: Block with bow and cast touch absorb health (or destruction if you prefer) spell.
If cornered: Block with her bow while casting a touch illusion spell to immobilize her enemy (paralyze, command, demoralize, etc). Then open fire with her bow.
Panic buttons: Invisibility (often a combo spell that includes a clannfear). Cobra's Dance (Serpent Stone greater power).

She is very much a glass cannon by design. Very fragile and very lethal.

I was wondering if raising Intelligence would be hard if I had both Conjuration and Mysticism as major skills?

Because so far I have:

Marksman: Agility
Conjuration: Intelligence
Destruction: Willpower
Illusion: Personality
Light Armor: Speed
Armorer: Endurance