In Oblivion, I enjoyed playing a mage with a dagger as backup. I role play and it made sense to me that I could have a dagger tucked in my robes if I ran out of Magicka during a particularly tough battle. There was no shortage of good daggers. I always found a lot of enchanted ones right near the beginning.

In Skyrim, after about 58 hours of play, I've found exactly one enchanted dagger. 99% of the non-enchanged daggers I've found have been iron. I'm a level 12. Will I start finding more higher quality daggers soon? Because having an iron dagger up against a frost troll just isn't going to cut it...

Level dictates loot. I'm level 44 and the most commonly dropped dagger is Orcish, but there's a good spread of Ebony/Elven, with a hint of Glass. 12 levels in 58 hours is a tribute to you as a player - definitely playing for enjoyment rather than power-levelling - but it will restrict you from getting quality gear.

I just read a post on another thread that got locked about destruction magic falling off at higher levels that I wanted to reply to but I have to go so I am just going to hijack your thread with this random post real quick, that doesn't make sense because I copied and pasted it

I will try quickly answer your question though:: you should probably just dual wield magic if you want to play a pure mage, else specialize in a weapon plus armor and use different spells in your offhand as needed


A quick reply towards destruction - although I have not played a mage yet, I plan to eventually. I have heard about how destruction does not scale well past 40. During my first playthrough, I played a heavy armor warrior that picked locks, used conjuration to soul trap, alteration to buff for tough fights, archery, and dual wield. I was level 45 in no time. I made stacked gear, and everything was too easy. I restarted, and I am using only melee essential skills. After many hours in, I am still only level 20. I do not see how a Destruction and Conjuration mage could possibly reach level 40 if they only use their essential skills, unless they also max enchanting, alchemy, smithing, a weapon or block, and an armor skill. I know it is the opinion of many that we should not need to force limitations on ourselves while playing this game, but to be honest I find that roleplaying skill and equipment usage makes the game much, much more enjoyable, challenging, and overall better.


to reply to Muzzy quickly, since it happens to be in line with my copied post, i find that playing the second way is much, much better, and the loot + enemies are almost exactly the same , plus what is the use of all this loot.. once you have one of those weapons, which can be found as early as 20 in a big chest, you don't really need another, or that 200k saved up. During my current warrior play, I dont even buy or sell from shops, because I don't want to raise speech.

There are tons of enchanted daggers around. You'll find plenty of them, or you could enchant one yourself.

With crafting you can stay ahead of the curve of what NPCs use and make them yourself, or as stated the level dictates what type of loot starts to drop from NPCs if you dont want to craft.

smithing and enchanting are your friends.

First, Thanks Muzzy. I ALWAYS role play and play for enjoyment. I never worry about leveling or what my stats are. I have felt that TES series is very conducive to that type of play choice.

I felt that smithing and enchanting would be my way to go. The only "issue" I have with enchanting is that I haven't found the right "throw away" items to destroy to give me the enchanging skill that I need. Perhaps I just need to pay closer attention to my loot that Marcurio lugs around (and complains about constantly). I haven't some nice staffs that I don't really like using. They were just such nice gifts which is why I hang on to them. I suppose it's time to let them go so I can enchant some nice rings and circlets I've found. Conveniently, I married a blacksmith so my homebase is his shop and house, which has all I need to work on that trade. I've been keeping all the animal skins I find (darn wolves).

Thank you all for your input. Sounds like my way of adventuring IS possible if I make a few changes.
Safe travels to you all!
Rhiannon (aka Altatari because the Rhiannon name was taken)