So after 500+ hours of gameplay I have done everything possible in Skyrim.


Tried to do Solstheim too but I just couldn't, as soon as I encountered a riekling, thought it was awful! I will revisit later.


In the meantime I fancy another, Skyrim was the first ES game I've played and I know some say it will ruin the others but I still hear a lot of love for Oblivion.


My character is always a squishy mage utilising all schools of magic. Is the magic system in Oblivion good? I've heard you can't have different spells in different hands??


Any pure mage players, is this game for me?


Thanks!

You can make your own spells, so yes. Don't need two hands if you can fire everything at once from one.

exaggerating a little of course.

but custom spell making is fun

I think magic is Oblivion is great. In fact, I think a case could be made that magic in Oblivion is the most fun in the entire series. It's true that you can't wield two spells at once or lay down Runes but you can wield a physical weapon in one hand and cast a spell with the other hand.

Oblivion has one great thing that Skyrim does not: Spellcrafting. You can create and name your own spells, tailored to your specific character. The possibility for different types of really idiosyncratic spells is probably endless. You also have more stock spells to work with too. Mages can open locks magically, for instance.

There are several Mages Guilds scattered across Cyrodiil. The Mages Guild quest line is quite a bit longer than the College of Winterhold quest line and has you travel to all of the Mages Guilds around the game world in order to earn entrance to the Arcane University.

At least two of the DLC are aimed specifically at Mages: Wizard's Tower and Spell Tomes. And if you play on PC there are some really great mods than can enhance magic too.

If you like magic in Skyrim I'd say it's a pretty fair bet that you may like magic in Oblivion as well.

I don't know you, OP, but I get the feeling you'll like magic in this game. It isn't as "flashy" as it is in Skyrim, and certain spells like Raise Dead and Clairvoyance are not to be found in Oblivion, but there are more overall options, and as these others have noted, you can eventually make your own spells.

I've had a couple pure mages (or nearly pure) in this game. You run around a lot in the beginning, but eventually become so über, if you don't restrict your gameplay. You'll see what I mean.

Nope, not true at all. Every gamer is different. Some gamers may have had their experiences "ruined" but this doesn't go for everybody. Certainly not for me.

Oblivion has more spell effects than Skyrim does, but their efficacy is a matter of debate. Some, like Silence, are incredibly useful, whereas others (like Burden) will never get used, and some are too expensive to cast to be useful.

There are no Mage Armor perks to increase armor rating without using armor, but you can enchant with the Shield effect. How much armor you wear also affects the power of your spells negatively.

You may only cast with one hand but you may wield a weapon and cast magic at the same time, because casting is its own button. All spells have the same casting time and may be cast instantly.

You magicka pool is significantly smaller than Skyrim, because it maxes out as Intelligence x 2 + Fortify Magicka magnitude, and you maximum Intelligence is 100. However, casting cost decreases more significantly with higher skill level. There is no way to reduce the casting cost of spells to 0.

You may not find spellmaking as magical as people describe it -- it's just creating spells of different magnitudes with the same effects as the pre-made ones. You can't add the same effect more than once and due to the magnitude cap, some effects (like Damage Fatigue and Burden) aren't useful to make spells with. You can't cast or create spells beyond your skill level, so you can't even create weaker spells with "late game" effects (like Spell Absorption).

Damaging effects like fire, frost, and shock damage only deal damage with no additional effects, though there are spells which directly deal the after effects the spells possessed in Skyrim, such as Damage Health and Magicka. Fire damage only harms; frost damage is cheapest but it will fizzle out before hitting distant targets -- however, area effect frost spells will linger and continue to cause damage for a short period of time; shock damage is the most expensive but travels fastest.

If you define pure mage, as never using weapons to fight then I think there's a good chance you would. Some people like regenerating magicka, some people find it more interesting when it doesn't automatically regenerate, some people enjoy the playstyle of using potions/daggers/enchantments when magicka is low, other people hate being a mage without regen. That all said from what I know, Oblivion's magic system is pretty well liked. More spells than Skyrim has, way more powerful magic than Skyrim's, but unlike Morrowind/Daggerfall magicka automatically regenerates- which though I'm not into auto magicka regen I think most people quite like. I think Morrowind had the most interesting/diverse/fun magic system, Oblivion had the most powerful from a combat perspective, and Skyrim has the weakest but most magicka efficient magic system.

That's not entirely true. Creative spell makers can combine existing effects in ways that create spells that do more than the sum of their parts.

This too is only partially true. If you can learn the effect through a power, like a standing stone or a birthsign, then you can create weaker versions of spells that you can cast with less skill than the stock version of the same spell.

Thanks everyone who replied. It's settled, Cyrodiil has a new mage!

Love the idea of being able to create your own spells!

Someone mentioned there are no necromancy spells, how about conjuration? Ok, I've just looked on uesp, conjuration looks amazing - bound armour?! I'm totally starting this game right now! You guys weren't exaggerating the number of spells compared to Skyrim!

conjuration is awesome in oblivion, although more for the variety of summons than the bound armor (Actually bound armor is kinda useless for a non trained squishy mage imo). It also has a mod scene almost as large as skyrim's. Hope you enjoy cyrodiil!

Glad to hear of your recent decision, Alexanderfc!

YAHOO Go for it. If you like creating things, you'll love the spellmaking. And absolutely DO try the Burden spell despite what others say. It use to be a staple in my mages arsenal. There was nothing like running across a two handed wielding Orc and stopping him dead in his tracks while I ran like crazy. OR Burden and add a frost or fire spell with it and let them stand there freezing or burning to death. Or lead someone into water and burden them and cause them to drown! Also turn undead + fire is a great mage friend. The higher level you get, try paralyze+summon Deadroth for a nice "nightmare" type spell. The possiblities are only limited by your imagination! It is so fun to find new and creative ways to deal with enemies .

Remember to take stuff slow and enjoy the journey!

Definitely! Oblivion and Morrowind allow you to craft your own spells, giving you complete control over the name, effects, duration and more. Oblivion's Mages Guild in particular is my favorite. You get to earn your way into the prestigious Arcane University (which in my opinion, was pretty wonderfully done for the time) which grants you access to enchanting and spell-making. Plus, it's very possible to be a competent killing machine as a pure mage in Oblivion so long as you keep putting points into intelligence and willpower. You wanna figure out whether you're gonna rely on conjured beings to protect you, or a proficiency in Destruction. If you're going for destruction, definitely try and train it up to Journeyman as soon as possible. Alchemy is a very easy skill to train up, so I'd almost even recommend placing a different skill in place of it.

Right, so I've downloaded it, ready to play.

Are there any "essential mods" I should download before I play, I know about the Script Extender, but are there any Unofficial Patches, like the ones on Skyrim?

Thanks for all the advice guys, I hear very good things about the Mage Guild(s) in Oblivion. Totally want to start right now!

I'm one of those annoying people who tell new players they should play a game awhile before they add mods. The only mods I consider "essential" for a first-time player are the unofficial patches:

http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/5296/?

http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/10739/?

http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/9969/?

I urge you to play at least a few hours before you add anything besides the unofficial patches. The worst thing any mod user can do is add a boatload of mods simply because other people use them.

But if you're absolutely determined to use mods immediately there there is one more I never ever play without: http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/10763/? If you're like me and you spend hours upon hours in character creation fiddling with appearance sliders, DarN UI is a must-have. It displays the exact numbers for face sliders, which is a goddess-send. It also adds a good number of other quality-of-life features.

And since you're playing a mage here are my two favorite Mage mods:

http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/12466/?

http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/9562/?

Dangit, all this talk of Oblivion magic is putting me in the mood to play some Oblivion again, maybe with an Orc shaman type of character, a "pure" mage that ain't so pure, since he carries a big hammer as a backup for when his limited magicka reserve runs out, or just to show those snotty alter mages the what for.

I tend to agree with Pseron regarding playing vanilla a bit before adding mods. I also agree with Supreme Magicka and Midas Magic recommendations. Both excellent recommendations. I am also partial to http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/32432/?tab=1&navtag=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nexusmods.com%2Foblivion%2Fajax%2Fmoddescription%2F%3Fid%3D32432%26preview%3D&pUp=1, although it has minor conflicts with All Natural's Real Lights addon (some floating candles in a couple rooms). Others prefer Origin of the Mages Guild.

Oh definitely, I only tend to use 'non-game-fixing' mods when I need the game to be a little different on a second play through.

Thanks for the suggestions though.

And as I always play a mage character (or stealthy archer if I want to mix things up) I'll leave those other two mods for now.

The only mod I may consider is if there isn't a Favourites hot key system like in Skyrim.

As for my character's appearance, I have used RaceMenu on Skyrim, but there is no way of making a non-grotesque Altmer! Plus I play 99% of my game in first person so never see my character.

We have eight hotkeys in Oblivion. There is a great mod that expands this called Maskar's Hotkey Pro but it is currently hidden and I cannot link to it. I can link you to an alternate mod if you're interested.

If you want to improve the look of Altmers you could try looking at one of these mods:

http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/44676/?

http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/46984/?

Other than the official plug-ins (some better than others) official and unofficial patches, the single mod that made the game SO much more enjoyable was something called Auto Update Leveled Items and Spells. All that it does it update quest rewards to match your level, even if you already have them. The standard game penalizes you for doing quests early, but that mod lets you just play and any quest items you might get will level with you (just like the enemies do).

I played totaly vanilla Oblivion for five years despite a steadily growing collection of mods. When it all started to feel 'same' my first step was modifying the .ini file to extend grass visibility and visible trees at long distances; using the graphics sliders to max out anitialiasing and max textures sizes. It was like a whole new game with just those changes. I would advise to go slowly with mods. To me, some of them are garish and take away from the charm of the game and some just take my breath away with their http://imgur.com/2YvXnks.

If you enjoy horseback riding in-game as I do you would find 'mounted casting' useful. Just set a scamp or a clannfear in the road behind you to take care of that pesky wolf or bear without the need to stop.

If when you switch to third person view, the sickening camera sway makes you barf all over your keyboard, get this one: http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/1840