Is it possible to be a powerful mage and wear heavy armor? : V

» Sun Oct 09, 2011 9:18 am

Which class/race would I have to be to be a powerful mage and wear a heavy armor without a penalty to casting/spell effect/intensity. And is it possible to be equally skilled with sword, bow and magic?

» Sun Oct 09, 2011 12:39 am

Yes, classes have been removed so you can be both a master thief and a powerful mage, this should answer your question.

-Mr. Maric

» Sun Oct 09, 2011 9:31 am

yes

» Sun Oct 09, 2011 3:32 am

Equally skilled with sword, bow and magic. Sounds like an official description of a Dunmer.

All we know about the armour and magic is from OXM UK. Apparently, armour reduces your magicka regeneration. No real way around that, apart from Altmer increased regeneration, but that could well be a once a day power.

» Sun Oct 09, 2011 1:59 am

you could always use magic and heavy armor, just needed to cast spells and wear heavy armor.

» Sat Oct 08, 2011 6:04 pm

Cloth is best for mage but you can do whatever you want :thumbsup:

» Sun Oct 09, 2011 3:27 am

If it's the same as Oblivion, then it'll be a lot more difficult, due to your spells not being as effective when wearing heavy armour.

» Sun Oct 09, 2011 1:19 am

Want to be a mage but wear heavy armor? Become a skilled enchanter. Dissect whatever enchants are on the robes. Apply similar enchantments on your heavy Dragonscale armor. Become the wrath of gods personified. :chaos:

» Sun Oct 09, 2011 6:15 am

Equally skilled with sword, bow and magic. Sounds like an official description of a Dunmer.

All we know about the armour and magic is from OXM UK. Apparently, armour reduces your magicka regeneration. No real way around that, apart from Altmer increased regeneration, but that could well be a once a day power.

Yeah, I heard about the magic-regen adjustments depending on armor too, but do we know if there is still a spell effectiveness percentage attached as well, like in Oblivion? I always thought that was one of the best aspects of that game's character/class system; that the heavier your armor, the less powerful your spells are, so it gives real insentive for an all-out mage to wear what an all-out mage probably should wear: robes.

I hope they keep that. The magic-regen thing is a nice touch but there's easy ways around that (have lots of potions for one).

» Sat Oct 08, 2011 5:58 pm

Heavy armor will likely always reduce spell effectiveness. That's one RPG staple that is here to stay.

» Sat Oct 08, 2011 7:27 pm

I believe it is. My builds usually focus around a warrior+mage specialty such as warrior who is a skilled mage (Nordic battlemage) or a mage who knows his way around a sword (Altmer warrior wizard). Thus the removal of preset classes has me drooling at the possibilities;)

» Sat Oct 08, 2011 11:32 pm

Yeah, I heard about the magic-regen adjustments depending on armor too, but do we know if there is still a spell effectiveness percentage attached as well, like in Oblivion? I always thought that was one of the best aspects of that game's character/class system; that the heavier your armor, the less powerful your spells are, so it gives real insentive for an all-out mage to wear what an all-out mage probably should wear: robes.

I hope they keep that. The magic-regen thing is a nice touch but there's easy ways around that (have lots of potions for one).

They weren't enough, imho. 95 % effectiveness, only made a difference with certain spells, turn undead, frenzy, calm, all the stuff you could only make up to level 25 at the altar. Getting 19/20ths of destruction damage is no kind of deterrent to wearing armour. Hopefully there are enough disadvantages to battlemage/spellsword types to make pure mage worth it. At least the equipping to hands is heading in that direction.

» Sun Oct 09, 2011 3:23 am

it would not make sense for heavy armor to have no negative effects on magic because magic enables defensive spells.

Even if only because of the need to spread your limited 50 perk points, Armored mages will not be as effective as unarmored mages.
Hopefully, while you can be a heavily armored and use magic, doing both at the same time will make you less effective than a lightly or unarmored mage or heavily armored warrior.

» Sun Oct 09, 2011 8:56 am

Ever heard of a Battlemage? They've been a staple in the Elder Scrolls series and one of the most well known classes in all the previous games.

» Sun Oct 09, 2011 9:23 am

If you put all the perks for heavy armor and mage skills then yes.

» Sat Oct 08, 2011 8:14 pm

They weren't enough, imho. 95 % effectiveness, only made a difference with certain spells, turn undead, frenzy, calm, all the stuff you could only make up to level 25 at the altar. Getting 19/20ths of destruction damage is no kind of deterrent to wearing armour. Hopefully there are enough disadvantages to battlemage/spellsword types to make pure mage worth it. At least the equipping to hands is heading in that direction.

Yeah, I can kinda agree with that. I mean, I saw a difference, but then, only my first character (out of 3) wore heavy armor, so I probably missed things. Doesn't it start out at like 75% though?

So yeah, the gesture was solid, just not the execution. So let's hope the penatly is even greater in Skyrim, I'd prefer that. Though when I think about it, maybe they could even make it apply differently to different schools, like Resotration is still 80-90% as effective in heavy armor, but Destruction is only like 50% as effective. That way you can still use magic to augment/protect yourself in heavy armor, but you'll have to rely on your weapons for damage.

» Sat Oct 08, 2011 6:32 pm

Classes have nothing to do with this. For as long as magicka regeneration and probably spell effectiveness are affected by wearing armour, a magic oriented character had better not wear any armour.

» Sun Oct 09, 2011 3:28 am

You can be a powerful mage who wears heavy armor. You cannot however be a more powerful mage than someone who wears cloth. What you gain in terms of heavy protection they make up for with hightened magicka regeneration.

A magic oriented character can wear armor, they just have to interpret their magical talent a bit differently. It's highly doubtful that they will be as good at spamming fireballs as a cloth wearer, but they will be much better at bringing a bound weapon to bear, or casting the occasional point-blank AoE in the middle of a group of enemies.

» Sun Oct 09, 2011 8:56 am

If it's the same as Oblivion, then it'll be a lot more difficult, due to your spells not being as effective when wearing heavy armour.

Your magic was affected by how skilled you were with the type of armour you were wearing, regardless of how heavy it is.
e.g. you could be good at magic while wearing heavy, but svck when wearing light, depending on your skill levels in them.

» Sun Oct 09, 2011 12:33 am

Your magic was affected by how skilled you were with the type of armour you were wearing, regardless of how heavy it is.
e.g. you could be good at magic while wearing heavy, but svck when wearing light, depending on your skill levels in them.

I don't believe that is true. It was your skill level in the magic that determined it's effectiveness while wearing armor.

» Sun Oct 09, 2011 4:51 am

I believe it was recently revealed that mage-type clothing will give you a much faster magicka regeneration than heavy armor. You can partially get around this by enchanting your heavy armor with fortify magicka effects. The benefit here is that even though you won't have quite as much magicka/regen as when you're wearing cloth, you won't have to focus on defensive/restoration spells as much and can focus more on dishing out the damage.

» Sun Oct 09, 2011 8:49 am

No, it was your armor skill. One of the really big flaws of Oblivion was that armor lost all of its drawbacks at high skill levels, so there was really no incentive not to wear armor in the game.

I believe it was recently revealed that mage-type clothing will give you a much faster magicka regeneration than heavy armor. You can partially get around this by enchanting your heavy armor with fortify magicka effects.

Yea, but from what I understand the magicka regen bonus on mages robes is an inherent property that doesn't stop you from enchanting them even more.

» Sat Oct 08, 2011 7:50 pm

No, it was your armor skill. One of the really big flaws of Oblivion was that armor lost all of its drawbacks at high skill levels, so there was really no incentive not to wear armor in the game.

Yea, but from what I understand the magicka regen bonus on mages robes is an inherent property that doesn't stop you from enchanting them even more.

Yeah, and if you enchant them with shield or fortify health you might be able to even out the robes vs armor and it becomes mainly an aesthetics choice (which is cool by me). Unless you want to go to the extreme by enchanting robes with fortify magicka or enchanting armor with shield. I'm just glad they actually put a benefit of wearing robes rather than armor, which was completely missing in Oblivion after taking out the unarmored skill and having weightless armor skill perks.

» Sat Oct 08, 2011 10:09 pm

No, it was your armor skill.

Your right.

The Spell Effectiveness figure on the Magic screen indicates the actual percentage of how effective your spells are. The magnitude of a spell will be multiplied by this figure when you cast the spell; if the spell has no magnitude, then the duration will be affected instead (see Tips, below, for more detail). So if your Spell Effectiveness is 85%, an Ease Burden spell will only allow you to carry 42 more points, instead of the full 50 points. Your Spell Effectiveness will be reduced if you wear armor. There are two types of armor: light armor and heavy armor. It doesn't matter which one you actually use as far as your skill is concerned. Your overall Spell Effectiveness while in armor, either light or heavy, cannot exceed 95% regardless of your skill in that armor. The skill rating for the armor you wear must be at least Journeyman rank to maintain 95%; lower ratings than Journeyman results in lower effectiveness. 100% Spell Effectiveness can only be achieved if you are not wearing any armor (which is why most NPC spellcasters wear robes and no armor). Fatigue levels do not affect overall Spell Effectiveness.

I think It should be the other way round though.