This is a question that comes back to bug me every once and a while in my Morrowind experience. How does someone play a mage? A quote 'pure' mage. Not a battlemage with heavy armor who whips out an axe in the thick of it, or a Nightblade using Illusion and Alteration to get around in the shadows. I see among the Morrowind fandom that many people play mages, and I have tried myself many times. But I seldom have fun doing it, because I am always killed very easily and I never feel as if I have done it 'right.' It may just be possible that I do not enjoy this style of play, but I would like to get the opinions of all you mage players out there, to see if I am missing something. I feel that if I can get into the correct mindset and build my character accordingly, I can open up a style of playing the game that I've never experienced before. I am very sorry this is so long, and a bit of a ramble. Mostly just trying to get my own thoughts on this matter in order. But I hope some of you mage players out there will be interested enough to finish reading, and perhaps give me some advice on what I'm missing.

In no particular order, here are the obstacles I face;

Unfocused Play: I'm a pretty simple person, without a lot of mental capacity to juggle or maintain a lot of different strategies and elements at the same time. In games with choices like the classic 'Mage, Warrior, Rogue' archetypes to choose, I tend to prefer the games in which each class is given a focused role. In Morrowind, warriors and combat classes tend to be uncomplicated damage-dealers, with armor to absorb physical damage and a deep pool of hit-points for anything else. Stealth classes tend to be best at range, with a skilled enough Sneak being able to take on enemies one at a time. My personal strategy for them tends to revolve around bows and Jinkblades. But with mages, it is not so clear-cut in my mind. There are so many different schools of magic, all with wildly varying offensive and defensive spells within most of them, not to mention Alchemy and Enchanting. It's a veritable swiss-army knife in which every tool is just a slightly different shaped blade, and I feel like an idiot for not knowing how best to utilize them, especially in concert. When I try to play a mage, it usually ends up that one or two skills become much higher than the others, and I feel like a fool for choosing the other schools of magic that I barely use.

Combat Efficiency: I enjoy Morrowind for perhaps being the least combat-focused TES game, which gives you a variety of goals. But combat is still a huge part of the gameplay, and one of my biggest sticking points for playing a mage. At its basest level, combat is about dealing more damage than is being done to you. You can add in layers of attribute damage, elemental resistances, spell durations, attack bonuses, healing, and what have you. But at the end of the day, you still need to deal direct damage to your enemy somehow, and from what I see, mages are not good at this. All that a rogue or a warrior need is a sword, a bow and arrow, and some Fatigue. Anything that the enemy does besides direct damage, such as Burdens or Attribute damage, can just be avoided by dodging the spell and ending the fight quickly. But an unarmored mage will not have Endurance, so they will have very few hitpoints, and very little ability to lessen direct damage besides Shield spells. For me, this usually translates to a quick death. Most of the defensive spells of the game seem entirely geared toward countering other magic-users. Unarmored is a flawed and buggy skill without mods, and even with them, it simply makes the character lose out on many armor slots for enchantments. I can see no good reason to choose Unarmored over any other armor skill. For offensive abilities, Destruction requires that one know the correct spell, use an element that the enemy is vulnerable to, have enough Fatigue to cast it successfully, and enough Magicka to power it, and all must be calculated in the few seconds I have before a bandit with an axe wipes me out. Conjuration is very useful in sending wave after wave of minions out and replacing them as they die, but I see very few ways how this can be combined with other schools of magic, especially Destruction. Bound weapons and armor are also more useful for warriors, at least in the early game.

In short: Morrowind's magic system is very open-ended, and I very much enjoy that. But that in my mind comes at the cost of focus. Magic out of combat is a blast, such as using Alteration for levitation and water-walking and jumping around while traveling, Mysticism to teleport, and Illusion to ease sneaking and manipulate NPCs. But for a rogue or a warrior, those things are easily granted by potions, scrolls, and enchanted items, or even taking one or two of those schools of magic in their class. In combat it becomes much less useful. Either that, or I am missing something. It is possible that I simply lack imagination.

Number Crunching: Also a matter of combat efficiency. For a weapon, it's much easier for me to tell how useful it is, based on my skill with it, its damage, and its durability. I also don't need to count the cost of hitting something with it. It's easily repaired, and that Fatigue grows back. But a spell has its effects, its range, its duration, and its magicka cost. Especially with custom spells, this makes it very difficult for me to gauge its relative usefulness. I am a mathematical [censored], and magic-use in Morrowind seems to be all about calculating the successful use of every last bit of magicka in your pool before you even start the fight.

Roleplaying: As I've said previously, I try to have a character that uses all of the skills they have learned for a specific purpose. But my mages always end up with 90 Destruction or Conjuration, two skills at perhaps 40, and everything else very low. This keeps making me think of much more useful skills I could have used, such as Light Armor, Long Blade, Sneak, or Athletics. Is this just a meta-gaming instinct that I have to learn to subdue? Is the key to enjoyment of a mage character in learning how to carry on, despite knowing that another set of skills would have been more useful? To enjoy the combat because it's harder to win, and the traveling because you can bend the laws of nature to your will without the use of a scroll or potion?

So you Telvanni wizards out there, what do you think? Am I missing something obvious? Is there a mindset that I just haven't found? Please let me know your thoughts!

*ahem* So...

First of all it didn't matter even if your post was rambling. I like rambles!

I think I'm not the right person answering to this. This is because I don't see why the mage should be just pure mage, as in the class Mage. I start with a good custom build. For example, you cannot possibly level Enchantment on par with your quickest growing skills if you don't even use any weapons to enchant and especially recharge!

So, my question to you is, why should you play the "pure mage" in the first place if you don't feel you're up to it, or that it seemingly can't feel interesting to you? I haven't actually played one myself - I use Blunt weapons with mages, as I feel they're very mage-y at their best - so I stress that I'm not the best person to give you advice for it. Clearly you have more experience with the class than I have. Here's a retrospective anyway. Or more like random points.

First things first. You say that you often see people playing "mage" in Morrowind fandom. Are you sure they're talking about pure mages? We could call whatever mages mages, no matter how mixed a skillset they have!

About Unfocused Play:. Maybe you don't need to be extremely innovative. There's also room for more readily-decided strategies. I find myself having, like, three, or only one way to finish off opponents. You can memorize one, or a few, and stick to them. Only if you really feel very creative could you invent something new on the fly, but you really don't have to! There's no "right" or "wrong" to play anything in this game. Not even a pure mage.

Does it bother you if one or two skills rise high faster than the others? Anyways, you always could play as such that they level evenly. But even I can't bother to do that. For example, you don't have Endurance, thus hitpoints? Okay, create Fortify Endurance and Fortify Health potions and see what happens to your Alchemy skill and hitpoints. Do this once. The next time, paralyze your opponent before finishing them off. Many times, if needed. It boosts your Illusion. The next time, use Shield (Alteration). When you finish them off, keep switching between any Destruction spell and Absorb Health (which belongs to School of Mysticism). Have these kind of strategies as "presets" that you have thought through beforehand. If even leveling is what you absolutely want, that is. It wouldn't have to be, by any means.

Granted, the games UI isn't good for switching like this. You'll pretty much have to go back to the menu every few seconds, then choose a new spell and such, since everything cannot be hotkeyed. It is also a very clunky thing, to change spells, to switch the "casting mode" back on every time you've used a scroll, etc. It requires a lot of pausing and work. I think it could get better with mods, but I'm no expert.

Yes, one point of playing the mage is the diversity, and a certain challenge. That you can use your imagination. I bet that's a major reason why people might like to play a pure mage. A fact that they could (momentarily) do anything they want to. With alchemy, they could surpass the best of Melee Tanks. With Illusion, they could stop the foe attacking them altogether. With Alteration and Mysticism, they can make themselves even immune to whatever the foes throw at them. The sheer amount of possibilities should be taken as an intriguing challenge, not something like an unresolvable chaos. If you do the latter, I'd just say that pure mages aren't for you.

Combat Efficiency. I already said many things about this above, but here's some more. You could think of some mage's tragedy anologous with that warrior's strategy you don't see any problems with. A sword, and a bow and arrow. A Destruction spell on Touch, and a Drain/Illusion spell. You can neutralize your opponent from the distance, then finish it off with a touch spell much like a warrior would swing their sword.

I agree with defensive spells being directed to facing other casters. However, there is at least Shield. With 100% Shield, you're immune to physical damage (as far as I know). You could abuse Alchemy (those damn Fortify potions. A lot of them) to enchant yourself something with a very high Shield number. (I just came up an appropriate item name: "The Shield of... Well, Shielding". ) Or something. Everything, really. Just fortify your speed and keep dodging. The possibilities really are many! You just have to find some you stick to, or change them on the fly.

You pretty much have to patch Unarmored. Too bad it's broken in vanilla. A high Unarmored skill is good enough for you to last some physical damage. But if you're a superior mage, you don't even have to take physical damage (Use Your Illusions, for instance) if you don't want to. Unarmored is a good bet because, without fortifications, you're bound to be pretty weak. You can still have at least some loot with you, since you don't have that Heavy Armor on your inventory and you're not close to being over-encumbered all the time. Also, you can Fortify your Strength, use Feather... keep switching again, if needed, to level both skills...

You also have many means to keep your Fatigue and Magicka at bay. My favorite: Restoration potions! A lot of them. Alchemy incredients are easy to find for Restore Fatigue, and especially in the beginning of the game the Mages' Guild's Supply Chests are enough with their Standard Restore Magicka potions. At least for me. Or rest when there are no enemies around (and you're not born under the sign of The Atronach).

There's not really that much to remember with Destruction. Don't use fire against the Dunmer and frost against Nords. That's about it! Pretty much everything else works against everyone else.

Conjuration is another great way for your "bow and arrow" replacement. Cast a summon, if only to get the opponent's attention away from you, so you can move closer yourself and blast 'em with Destruction, for instance. Works as a "long range attack", even if it's not an attack. There's also melee for you without actually picking a melee skill: Bound Weapons. My god are they good! Another variation for you to attack up close, if you want to. I don't see why they wouldn't work in later game as you think...

Anyways, PAUSE A LOT if you play a mage. You get time to think and select required spells. (You could also roleplay it as just real-time thinking, because, again, the UI is clunky, so you have to do it anyway. That, or some freaky time-slowing stuff that a mage could be able to do... If it gets boring to you, well, then this playstyle might just not be for you.)

Number Crunching: Well, I don't calculate anything myself when I use magic. I usually just stick with spells with no area effect anyway. And I have 2-3 spells of different volumes, let's say a weak, a medium, and a strong spell. Then I just use what I estimate as an appropriate spell for any opponent. A Cliff Racer goes down with a pair of spells of weakest damage values, while the powerful NPCs I face will only face my strongest arsenal. Don't count, use your intuition! Less thinking, more fun that way.

Roleplaying: As said. If you master all the schools of magicka, you can surpass everyone in everything. You can Fortify your skills and attributes, you can diminish your foe's to hopeless numbers. Or, you can neutralize your opponent so that they cannot even hit you. Or invent another way I didn't mention right now. Your possibilities are endless! You just need to think about them, and figure out ways to use them. Just think a few tactics through beforehand if you want to, learn them by heart. Then use them.

If you want to stay with this "pure mage" ideology and the ready class, then... yes, I guess people could enjoy it precisely because it is hard to play and it is not combat oriented. Precisely because it grants room for creativity of the player, instead of, say, rapidly clicking your left mouse button.

The beginning of the game can be hard, admitted. Just keep your Restore and Fortify spells/potions/scrolls ready at all times. It will get easier. You will learn your favorite tactics (and stick to them even too much, even though, again, the possibilities really are many).

I find pure Mages difficult because of the way magicka is handled in vanilla MW. (if by pure mage you mean no weapons at all, even conjured ones) The only way to make it work for me has been to spam potions of restore magicka and fortify intelligence. This is not necessarily a terrible thing but it is so much easier to have a hybrid that can use a weapon when it's more efficient. I agree that it's a pleasure to have the utility spells available without having to depend on enchantments. There is also something wonderful about casting a room clearing area spell but a pure mage is a challenge. I guess the answer for me is to give myself a little latitude on the word "pure".

I always reserve the right to pull out a bound battleaxe in dire circumstances, not ordinarily in basic MW but a few times in the expansions when you come across magic resistant enemies. Also, I think having an enchanted back-up item is important for the rare moment when you really run out of magicka. If you don't mind using (not abusing) alchemy, magery can be fun for sure. A really well planned warrior with enchanted items will be more powerful but very different and not necessarily more enjoyable. The main thing is that being a mage requires work and planning and, unfortunately, a warrior with alchemy and enchanting can get the benefits of a mage without the pain.

A pure mage is a rewarding challenge but it's not the easy path in MW.