High elf
Atronach sign
Only mage primary skills
intelligence and willpower main attributes

Very slow start character


But hell of a potential


wadaya think?

I did a character like that (all magic plus H2H) and it wasn't as hard to get going as I thought it would be. There's a ring and cuirass you can get early that cancel all the weaknesses. Also H2H doesn't depend on strength so no worries there.

If you want to make it harder (but with even more potential) try using the mod Galsiah's Character Development.

With a balanced magicka regeneration effect based on your willpower, and no cap on your skills/attributes/level, there's no limit to what you can achieve.

Modded( Galsiahs, wakims or similar mods) its debatable whether high elf is the strongest character. He needs resistances, or he will be one-shotted, period. It boils down to which gives more mana, High Elf's INT modifier + items with CE res. Or races with innate res + items with CE fortify INT.


And the answer is not that straightforward.


The NORD may be the best caster actually, for he gets the most resistances and can really load up on CE INT items, w/o losing on defence. Also, the racial int modifier is additive, means if you have the 5.0x Int Mantle, the altmer bonus adds rather little, unlike CE INT items, which apply to the base factor and always give the full bonus.

Ofc unmodded its not a question, anyone is unstoppable and the race choice doesnt matter.

which will have no effect when you choose atronach...?

i use http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=mods.detail&id=1849. with this i played an orc hc mage following build: unarmored, destruction, illusion, alteration, mysticism - enchant, alchemy, speechcraft, acrobatics, one i don't remember
intelligence and personality. she was f**king bad*ss!

Oops, true.

I like playing a Breton character with the Apprentice birthsign. The Breton's magic resistance cancels out the negative effects of the birthsign, leaving you with a decent supply of magicka.

breton i also played as a mage-focused char (some kind of magical monk). this is why i use this leveled magicka plugin->it mostly makes you independent to a birthsign. like hitpoints based on endurance it genereates an amount of magicka points to your pool based on your intelligence.

The big problem with this type of character is the money, because if yu don't have the funds, you can't buy the potions for field trips, and with stunted magicka and the low life and armor of a mage you need some potions or you will die really easily or fall out of mana faster than you can say abracadabra

Most money problems are easily solved with the unbalanced value of captured souls.

There's the atronach trick where you attack your own summoned ghost and let it cast crappy absorbable spells at you, plus spamming shrines for magicka.
With these the atronach is by far the easiest birth sign to play with.

i make money with selling potions. you need them anyway for magicka regeneration if nothing else is available.

Altmer Apprentice with Galsiah's mod is epic win. Hard, but so much fun.

I modded a Dunmer to have the same stats as an Altmer (roleplaying a Telvanni), and selected the Apprentice birthsign. It forces you to really think because you absolutely cannot afford to get hit.