When casting a summon spell the game recognizes the effect it puts on you as negative. As such, if you have an absorb magic effect up, then you'll have a chance to absorb your own conjuration spell. This is a bug that I find to be both a blessing and a curse. It is a blessing in the fact that the game recognizes you failed the spell so it refunds you the cost of the spell, but it also recognizes that you absorbed the spell so there is a chance, with every cast, that you can get additional mana. I've gotten out of many close fights due to being able to replenish my mana pool from my failed conjurations. But it is a curse in the fact that sometimes I just want to summon my [censored] atronach and have to spend 2 minutes running around dodging enemies while my summon spell fails 20 times in a row. Not to mention the fact that the atronach stone also interferes with many quests such as the Mage's guild quest where one of the apprentices turns you into a variety of animal.

This is a bug I've not seen anyone talk about because I really don't think many people are aware of it. As such, I worry that Bethesda will not get around to fixing it anytime soon. I like summon spells. I like the effect of the atronach stone. It annoys me that I can't have both at the same time.

Ah, I didn't realize that this what was a causing it. I would keep spamming my spell trying to get the damn thing to stick, but it only does maybe once out of every twenty casts. I thought it had to do with the terrain (it seemed to work on flat surfaces better), but this maeks a lot of sense.

Its pretty damn near game breaking.

Edit: For clarity and brevity: I CAN CONFIRM I AM HAVING THE SAME ISSUE AS THE OP.

i can confirm this too

kind of game breaking and a little disapointing... o well

i would also add that this bug also happens with the perk Atronach (gives 30% magic absorb) anyone eles can confirm this promble to?

What I find interesting is that, apparently, spells can fail. Haven't had that happen once. Weird.

That's what I thought as well. I thought I had to cast it on level surface for it to work or I had to cast it in an area where there were no enemies nearby. Then I switched my stone and found that my conjuration spells were a lot more reliable. In fact, the only time they failed was when I tried to cast one when I had my Dragonskin power running which is, again, a magic absorb effect.

I wouldn't call it "game breaking", but it's certainly annoying.