Im catching up on Skyrim features right now, and I read about the fact using magic will require at least one free hand, and two to cast certain powered up spells. Whilst this is a great blow to the good old tank mage, I cant say Im all unhappy about that.

My next thought, of course, was about staves. They are the traditional mage weapon, but have only played the role of charged spell wand in Oblivion. Do we know if Staves are even in the game?

If they are, my suggestion is thus; wielding a magic staff should count as having both your hands free for the purposes of casting spells! That would actually make Mages use them, and give them a nominal weapon whilst letting them focus on magic. Ideally, any spell they cast when equipped so would fly off the staff itself.

Its prolly late for suggestions, but maybe it already works this way, and if not, perhaps thats a feature they can consider for the first expansion Thoughts?

You want a mage wielding a staff to also have both hands free for spells? Is that what you meant to say? I don't see how that would be fair at all, there would be no reason NOT to use a staff for ANY type of character class if it didn't take up a slot.

Staves are in the game though, and judging by the trailer, they appear to be one-handed, or else the animation is just very misleading.

I wonder if a Skill will effect staff damage this time. Maybe enchanting?

Staves are in and you can see one being used during the announcement trailer. They will probably keep with the tradition of having a stave be dedicated to a certain spell though and not act as an over sized wand. It would be interesting if they warped your idea a bit and made it to where if you're holding a fire enchanted staff then you can use your free hand to cast another fire type spell that the staff would absorb and use it to increase the damage of its own spell. So basically combining the effects of the staff and your spell.

Yes, there would be a reason; not owning a staff Do we consider a sword is unfair because its always better than bare hands? Edit: Oh, mind you, I didnt mean the staff wouldnt take a slot. Just that you could cast with it equipped AS IF your hands were free.

I guess my point of view is that magic cast with a proper instrument should always be better than which is not. A focus item, basically. Furthermore, it could be unfair if the best spells require both hands, depriving the mage of the bonuses of his staff, whilst warriors are at all time behind sword and board.

This being said, if they went with 1h staves, maybe thatll be fine. Just thought it would be nice to make staves have a unique mechanic to favor magic.

Staves are not wands though. It's not a conduit for magicka, it's something you can enchant to shoot specific magic spells. It's for the mage who is out of magicka.

Staves in Oblivion were basically magic bazookas.

That's true, and also, the trailer shows the staff being used to cast magic, so my guess is that staves act like in Oblivion except for casting spells, so a mage can choose to have a staff in one hand to cast the spell in it, and a spell in one hand to cast a spell using his own magicka. My guess is that it pretty much comes down to a choice between using your own magicka, or the staff's charge.

I want you to be able to use staves as melee weapons too. Anybody agree? I wanna make my gandalf character!