I am a Redguard, but I want to use more spells. I have a Destruction rating of 50, but only 78 in Magicka. I have been increasing my Willpower and Intellegence levels ever time I level up. I read in one of the posts to do a simple spell repeatedly with illusion magic to get your Magicka level up, which I have been doing with a captivate spell./ Any help would be appreciated. Thanks !

Illusion is governed by personality, so don't do that.

Magicka is governed by intelligence, so you'll want to use conjuration, mysticism and alchemy to raise it. Each time you level up, raise intelligence.

You could also wear items that boost magicka. If you've only just started this character I'd suggest restarting as a Breton or something.

Something as simple as eating Alchemy ingredients will help raise your intellegence score. This is the basis of Magica. Making that regenerate faster is tied to Willpower.

Go to a farm, pick all the fruit and veg. Get a pestel and mortar and make loads of potions.

You can increase alchemy in blocks of 10 very quickly, leading to +5s for intelligence every time you level up.

Magicka is determined by intelligence, racial bonuses (Altmer, Breton), birthsign bonuses (Mage, Apprentice, Atronach), and any equipment that boosts magicka.

The intelligence aspect of this is simple. Every point of intelligence = 2 magicka. That is, with an intelligence score of 100, you will have 200 magicka from that source. Therefore, you want to increase intelligence.

Everytime your character levels, you have the oportunity to increase 3 attributes anywhere from +1 to +5. In order to increase an attibute by +5, you must have increased any combo of skills governed by that attribute by at least 10 during the process of that character level.

Alchemy, conjuration and mysticism are the three skills associated with intelligence. Therefore, you want to earn at least 10 skill ups to any combo of those three each level so you can boost intelligence by +5 every time you level.

You also want to consider items that boost magicka. At higher levels, you can find/create items that boost magicka by as much as 50.

If your using Redguard then I would definitely pick The Mage the 50 points of Magickia is essential. My advice if you can't do that then use Alchemy its really easy to level up and its base skill is Intelligence. Conjuration is also easy to use just buy the Bound Dagger spell and spam it to get +5's

The other thing to notice is that the Magicka cost of a spell goes down with proficiency in its school, which has the same effect on how many you can cast before you run out.

So with higher Destruction skill, a destruction spell costs less to cast. But casting a destruction spell a lot only increases your Willpower (governing the rate you regain magicka) not Intelligence, which governs total magicka. That means you have trade-offs to make in using your skills. Using a spell increases your skill and lowers the cost, but using a different skill may increase your magicka pool, or make it refill faster, which may make it easier to cast.

Increased skill allows you to use more powerful versions of spells, so then you get into considerations of casting one big spell or a flurry of cheap ones. And remember then that you gain skills based on the number of spells cast, not how much damage you caused.

Thanks for all the help !

Furthermore if you haven't completed the main quest you can save just before you take the Sigil Stone. The one you get is determined when you pick it up. This means if you constantly re-load your save you'll get a different one each time. If you're level 21 or over you can get Stones that can increase your magicka by up to 50! You can then use those fortify stones on each article of clothing, two rings, and a necklace for up to 400 points (I believe.) That should definitely solve your Magicka problem.

All correct, except that the top level (transcendent) sigil stones become available at level 17, not 21.

Ah! Thanks for that correction. I've been waiting until level 21 with my characters before doing that when I could have started much sooner.

You might consider playing a breton or altmer and master Restoration. They come with fortified magicka. Mage birthsign would help as well.
Once you master restoration, you can cast yourself "fortify Magicka" with very low cost. When your magicka is fortified, your magicka regeneration is accelerated accordingly, so at the master level, whatever magicka cost you have will be more than compensated by the accelerated regeneration rate from fortified magicka. Just make few custom spells with max time/point, and you have theoretically unlimited magicka.
Of course, you'd want to max your Intelligence and Willpower before that.

Also remember self made restore magic potions, drink one if you run into a situation where you would need lots of magic like fighting multiple enemies. Easy to make once you are over 25 in alchemy and restore magic fast as long as it last, just remember that even if it restore hundreds of magic points it restore magic over time not instantly so use it before you run out.

Welkynd stones found in Alyied ruins instantly restore your spent magicka meter to full. More wisely used at higher levels, though. At lower levels, weak to normal restore magicka potions are sufficient.

This is slightly off topic, but I figured it was close enough not to warrant a new thread...

Based on what I found in the Wiki, 1072 is the maximum constant Magicka possible...

- Altmer = +100 Magicka
- Birthsign Atronach = +150
- 8 Sigal Stones Enchaments of +50 Magicka each = +400 Magicka
- Necromancer's Amulet = +130 Magicka
Total = 780 Magicka


- Maxed Base Intelligence = +100 Intelligence
- Necromancer's Amulet = +14 Intelligence
- Scales of Pitiless Justice = +2 Intelligence
- Hermaeus Mora Daedric = +10 Intelligence
- Julianos' Blessing = +5 Intelligence
- Felldew withdrawal exploit = +15 Intelligence
Total Intelligence = 146
Intelligence x2 = 292 Magicka

Maximum Constant Magicka = 1072


Did I miss anything here?

Also a question about the Felldew withdrawal exploit. If I already have all of my Intelligence Skills maxed out, and my Intelligence is already at 100, can I do the Jail trick to drop my Intelligence Skills by 30 and then re-level those skills to max, and level up 3 more times, while on the Felldew withdrawal? Would that work?

You said 8 enchantment slots. I have used up to 9:
Ring, ring, amulet, hood, shirt, skirt, shoes, gloves/wrist irons, shield.

If you want 100% spell effectiveness (no armor penalty) just carry a 2 handed weapon (staff, bow, whatever). When carrying a 2 hander, if you 'equip' a shield, it will be 'equipped but not in use' - that means you get no block, no armor rating, no armor penalty, but you DO get whatever enchantment the shield has on it.

I didn't know that about shields and 2-handers. Thanks for the tip Acadian.

I put 8 slots instead of 9 because the Necromancer Amulet takes up the neck slot.