My character is very vulnerable to spells. He has a big weakness to magic as well as weaknesses to fire, frost and shock. i am fine against most things but mages tend to deal a lot of magic with their spells. what will be the best way to compensate for this? (reflect? resist? absorb? whatever)
i have a lot of money and access to enchanting altars. (with a load of filled black soul gems)

Reflect. Damage your attacker while protecting yourself.

Use shield potions or spells; you can get a lot more protection that way, rather than wasting clothing slots on shield enchantments.

The other thing, if you're playing a mage, might be to modify your tactics. I've got an Altmer Apprentice (weakest to magic that anyone can be), and she makes heavy use of Illusion magic; just Command one of the enemy, and then go Invisible while they fight each other. She also conjures big scary things to distract the enemy. She rarely gets hit at all.

Reflect.

The problem with Reflect is

1. It's difficult to get to 100% reflection. And if don't reflect a spell it has it's full effect on your character and if strong enough could be an insta kill.

2. You cannot enchant with spell reflection.

if you chose the Apprentice sign you may just need to live with weaknesses. Avoiding being hit is probably the best solution, by a combination on summoning and invisibility. The Apprentice, in my opinion, the most difficult birthsign to deal with.

If you do go the reflect spell route, then it seems you should get Spellbreaker, as well as getting good at alchemy and mysticism - to make reflect spell potions and cast reflect spell spells.

at my current level i will be able to get my reflect spell up to 54% using:
ring of namira: 10%
ring of sunfire: 14%
Spell breaker: 30%

do you guys know any other items that will increase my reflect spell. preferably items that can be obtained at level 10 like the ones stated.

What level character are you? At level 25, the Amulet of Axes or the Necklace of Swords, in addition to the weapon bonus, also gives 33% Reflect Damage. Can't beat that stat.

Yes, that's why, while suggesting going for Reflect stuff, I also suggested either potions or spells of shielding. If you get alchemy up, which is easy to do, you can produce some pretty good stackable shield effects. I also strongly suggest a revision of tactics; it's better, if you're weak to magic, to not get hit by it at all.

It sounds like you have an Altmer born under the Apprentice. This is the classic glass cannon mage and should be played as such. Glargg is exactly right that your best magical defense with this type of character is to master tactics that prevent them from being hit. Remaining unseen, attacking from range, controlling the minds of foes who get close, disappearing and leaving a conjured summon in your place, etc.

I honestly would not try to 'fix' the glass part of this mage; rather I would focus on the cannon, and avoiding getting hit.

If you want to trade trade spells with other mages, then consider a Breton born under the Mage. Very safe, very strong, very defensive and very forgiving.

:foodndrink:

At level 25 the ayleid crown of Nenalata has 25% reflect spell.
The crown of Lindai has 35% resist magic.

At lvl 20 you can find glass or daedric greaves as random loot that have 20% spell absorbtion.

From lvl 17 on sigil stones can give 20% resist magic or 20 pt spell absorbtion.

somehow i picked up the Gray Aegis from the arena. I think it might be a glitch or something but it let me keep the shield and it does 100% resist magic.

Ring of Namira.

Wait, you can wear it? I thought you couldn't (or maybe I'm just mistaken with another crown)

Sounds like you solved it anyway. The Mundane ring is also good: if you are playing a Breton it's the same as your item (you become immune to magic.) Combination of rings, potions could get your reflection upped quite a bit, and you can combine those with elemental shields to stack and lower hit-percentages. I think an Altmer born under the Atronach makes an awesome pure mage.

Not true if your character has the Apprentice birthsign.

Breton/Apprentice/Mundane Ring has no resistances or weakness to magic (assuming no other resistances or weaknesses).

And it appear the OP is playing as an Apprentice. And also Altmer.

I played http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v90/subrosa_florens/oblivion/Oblivion524.jpg recently, and found it to be a ton of fun. As Acadian suggested, I did not try to overcome her weaknesses to magic and create a balanced character. Instead I embraced the glass cannon concept with her. Being hit by magic was always going to hurt her. So I took the advice of Mr. Miyagi: "Best defense, no be there." It worked beautifully. She would hammer enemies with a flurry of destruction spells. If they survived long enough to shoot back, she would just dodge. Magic is easy to dodge, as excepting for shock, it is slower than arrows. For enemies that use lightning she took cover and summoned up a shambles. Resulting in no more lightning-using enemies. The same goes for anything that tried to come into melee with her. All in all she was a very powerful character in spite of her 125% weaknesses to elemental magic. That massive tank of extra magicka that comes with it is really great for dishing out the punishment.

1: Spell Breaker, Mundane Ring, and Amulet of Reflection. 85% reflect spell and helps your birth sign penalty.

2: 5x Transcendent Sigil Stones with Spell Absorption on clothing items and the Sorcerer's Ring. that'll grant you 100% Absorption and still leaves abit of room for other enchantments.

1. Summon Daedric Lord to stand behind.
2. Launch a 500 magicka spell at target
3. ???????
4. Profit.

HANDS OF THE ATRONACH =Imperial city Market District=Mystic Emporium.