There is something seriously wrong with magic in Skyrim. Everyone knows the issues so I don't need to go into them. I will, however, propose my solution:

A special Psijic enchanting altar. Fortify magic school enchantments would not only decrease spell cost but would also make spells in those schools more powerful and/or have a longer duration when you use this altar. The catch? It only works on items without an armor rating. It even kinda fits into TES lore. Psijics are masters of Mysticism and enchanting is definitely mystic-y.

It solves a lot of issues people have with magic in this game and it should be pretty easy to implement.

You're welcome gamesas! No need for accolades for my brilliant idea. This one is on me.

ETA: This could also make school/regen enchants closer to what is found in game.

I like this idea a lot. Thus far, on all my many mage attempts, I have yet to find a real reason to play a mage who wears clothing type armor. With the enchantments you can add to heavy/ light armors, why bother with robes? Kind of breaks the reason to bother with clothing armors. After all, Alteration flash spells are fairly weak next to armor. And Alteration (for me) takes forever to get improved (short of buying skill levels). Also, perhaps we can get Beth to add some more clothing models & help to improve enchanting a bit. I like the look of the Dragon Priest, Psijic monk robes. But I have yet to be able to self enchant robes that come even close to master robe skill buffs.

Exactly! The lack of spellmaking, the lack of spell effects, the wimpiness of destruction magic, etc etc didn't bother me as much as there being no incentive to wear robes.

If I had a computer that could run Skyrim well, I'd make a mod. Alas...

Ive found it super easy to max alteration. Especially as I use the armor spells in every bit of combat, and never wear armor. That combined with paralyzing enemies makes the skill rocket up. Its destruction Ive had most trouble leveling because other schools are just much more effective like conjuration. I just use a bound sword, armor spells & paralyze and enemies drop a lot quicker than trying to spend 10 mins aiming and shooting a low damage spell off at them multiple times that just ends up running you out of mana leaving you toothless. And because Im not using armor Im having to lean on the resto school for healing meaning destruction takes a back seat, even when reducing casting costs for it.

In short magic is busted and needs fixing.


Simple way to sort it is to link damage/defence to school skill level the same as weaponry then we wont svck in attack and defence.

Any particular spell you think isn't doing enough damage?

Ateration was relatively easy to max out.

Cheers

You know, I tend to groan and roll my eyes when people around here complain about magic in this game … but that's really quite clever. More likely to get picked up by modders than Bethesda, but still…

Awww, shucks. The things you think of while walking the dog...

I'd give a mod that does this a go

I don't think I should be able to one hit a Dragon Priest or anything, but I hate getting locked into an impact-stun Thunderbolt (or whatever expert spell - even master spells) battle with them because it goes on for ages. If I don't use dual wield it takes even longer. I'd rather send in two Dremora, who make quick work of them, while I loot. My husband's big buff Nord can wallop them too (he didn't do the alchemy/enchanting/smithing loop) with an unenchanted Ebony War Axe.

Mages should be squishy, but they should be able to lay down hellfire. I just want more hellfire is all.

everything except the expert bolts.

^This. The Mage character is the original "glass cannon" character class. Able to dish out extreme levels of damage but sneeze in his direction and he falls apart.

But the way it is in Skyrim atm, means that you must specialise in every school except destruction to dish out damage. This is simply because destruction magic is pitiful for damage, which is rather ludicrous. Its the prime school for direct damage dealing, but cant keep up with the other schools or with weaponry classes.

Vs an undead dragon priest fire does extra damage to them. Also make sure to get the necro-mage perk, should drop a dragon priest really quick w/ incinerate. Also theres an illusion perk that raises fire damage. (on accident)

I find the cloak spells, chain lightning, fireball, ice storm, the expert bolts, and firestorm to do a lot of damage. I play on master difficulty.
I'm not going to say that conjuration isn't more powerful I just find it extremely boring.
Also what difficulty are you playing on? Cause keep in mind a lot of people that complain about damage are on expert and master which the game isn't balanced for.

Difficulty | Damage Dealt | Damage Taken
-----------------------------------------
Novice | x2 | x0.5
Apprentice | x1.5 | x0.75
Adept | x1 | x1
Expert | x0.75 | x1.5
Master | x0.5 | x2

It is by no means an insult to consider turning down the difficulty if you want to do more damage. The game is balanced around Adept.
If Bethesda added 20 more levels of difficulty and there were people that found that fun and challenging, there would be people on this board that would complain about something on the hardest difficulty, when it was never supposed to be balanced in the first place.

Also a question for whoever uses conjuration, do the damage modifiers (taken/dealt) apply to summoned daedra lords?

I play on master as well. Maybe that's my problem. I imagine if I put it on adept I'll blast everyone to pieces but I'd rarely be in any danger of dying though.

I'm unsure about the damage modifiers for summons, but I think it stays 1:1. My boys own everything whereas I have to shoot them for ages and ages...