Detect life, light, dispel, rage/calm; why was I the only guy ever to use these spells? It always struck me as absurd, as I sneaked towards the necromancer boss (I forget his name) that all of his minions, despite much speculation on the habits of rats and wind, never once thought to cast a detect life spell or illuminate that dark corner. When I cast rage upon one of them, the others never thought to try and dispel it.

So what I'm saying is, give enemy mages the tools to user/counter these spells. In Oblivion rage was so useful that it was broken. You just kept on casting it until you only had one weakened enemy left. Detect life would help them fight stealth, and could even be a counter for 100% chameleon; a mage casts detect life to find me, then casts a marking spell that lets everyone else see me too.

I concur. Battle Mages especially should use something else apart from destruction spells.

Did thieves and brotherhood members use any invisiblity/chameleon spells?

I see your point, tough how would you make rage effect on your self? Have a red blur fill your screen and every npc near you has the morrowind head of fargoth?

Allies or companions? It was rare, but there were occasions in Ob where you had company. I see what you mean, but my main point was that there was no way for enemies to counter it.

I guess the AI could have been developed a little further. it would be cool to see an npc cast calm or dispell on his/her buddy if hes raging aroun.

edit: well we didnt actually see any npc flame or calm their dogs eighter, what a shame.

Also i'd like to see guards hire mages to deal with rogue mages. (ala the PC on a "I'm bored let's kill stuff" rampage.)

I'm sorry if i'm using massive area effect spells (1 sec parazlyis in a 250ft range was my fav spell.) Regular guards ain't gonna cut it.

I agree, on higher levels there should be enemies using detect life quite often. Also if I cast a damaging spell for 10 seconds on a mage, maybe let him use dispel to get rid of it.

I think there were a few NPCs in Oblivion that would use Invisibility. And of course, the Scalons of Shivering Isles could all use it too.

The one thing that intrigued me, was that you could be invisible and use a light spell, and no one would be baffled by the mysterious moving light source.

It would be fun if using an invisible/light combo made npcs think you were a willow o wisp and react accordingly.

Everything could go a little blurry and it could make all npcs on the screen look like the enemy, could even cause you to "hallucinate?" them attacking you.

Basically make it impossible for the player to tell who is actually attacking them and who isn't so their option I guess... Kinda a hard spell to implement on the player lol.

Ooh! Wouldn't that be fun. :gun: :ahhh: :ahhh: :ahhh: :ahhh:

Yeah this would greatly enhance magic tactics. I always want magic combat to be based on intelegence and wisdom. For the player! Not the damn stats :rolleyes:

The stats are never going to be a substitute for actually engaging the players sense of intelligence and wisdom. Things like enemies intelligently using those kinds of supporting spells would be cool, and surprise you. Which is good. It makes the world more dynamic and perhaps unpredictable.

To say i've played so much i only noticed Lucien cloaking (which doesn't count in my eyes).

other enemies in OB did use chameleon and invisibility at times.

what would be the point of using Detect life? you wouldnt know they are using it and they could heat seek you out already...

Definitely. Mages, no matter how supposedly powerful they are, never seem to have anything more than a basic attack spell, summon spell, and healing spell. It's boring. They could even focus on some mages being mainly skilled in a specific school, with alterationists running around on the water casting shields on their allies and burden on you, or mystics dispelling and reflecting your spells.


Perhaps with an effect similar to holding your breath, where eventually the bar empties and you take damage, but instead of air you refill it by attacking things?

Both of these ideas are very good.

Dark Brotherhood Companions could.

Ive always wanted someone to use demoralize on me, so I go into 3rd person and run off in some random direction.

Great idea, but one issue. Then,people could just rage you and then paralyse you, forcing you to take damage automatically.... unless the bar didn't go down while you were paralysed?

I don't think it would be hard to have conditions like that. No effect if unable to move, or if there are no live targets in a certain range, etc.

Wait, the guards didn't have a detect life spell?

chuckle.

I don't really think that rage on the player should be implemented - after all, all rage does is make everyone your enemy, and in 90% of OB situations everyone was your enemy anyway. My point more was that mages should have a wider variety of spells, such as detect life/illuminate to cast when they think someone might be sneaking around, and they should actually be capable of countering spells such as rage with dispel.

Excellent idea! I recall from my time playing the old D&D crpg's (Baldurs Gate etc), Mages would cast Truesight when you attempted to stealth approach them with your rogue. As soon as an enemy mage in Skyrim begins to suspect your presence (as indicated through voice cues etc) he/she should definitely cast Detect Life. Giving you 2 options - flee the immediate area or silence the mage for good with a deadly arrow strike.

That reminds me, any time entering a cave or dungeon, the enemies just stand there and pace around. I would like to see enemy more varied enemy behavior in general. Maybe one of them sitting on a rock, eating, sleeping, reading a book, talking to other enemies, etc.

Mannimarco starts up a conversation with you whether you're invisible or not, by the way. It's not until you begin fighting him that your spells are of any use.

I think the idea of specialised enemies/creatures is a must really.

A poster mentioned it earlier, with regards to some mages specialising in Alteration, or Destruction etc. It would be great for quests as it would involve a sense of learning about the NPC's strengths and then trying to maximise your effectiveness against them with a certain type of counter-magic.

AI just isn't that smart I guess

Hopefully it will be improved upon but I doubt the "argh there he is run after him like mad men" AI is going to be improved