But i thought he made the Necromancer Amulet though? at least according to the uesp he did, the helmet is a daedric artifact

I'm not going to post spoilers about this here. Play through the Mages Guild quest line, and your questions will be answered.

You can out spoiler tags on it, I already played through the guild a few times but specifics like this i tend to forget over time. In any case uesp did mention that so don't see why it needs to be hush hush

You would be surprised how many people on this forum have not completed one or more quest lines, despite thousands of hours playing Oblivion.
Many of them purposefully don't read the UESP precicely because they don't want this kind of advance information. The reason it is "hush hush" is because of the forum rules about not posting spoilers in the general forum. Spoiler tags might be okay though. I honestly don't know the precise rules about the use of spoiler tags in the general forum, but I try to make judicious use of them myself, since I know some people just cannot resist clicking on them.

Turija is correct. We don′t put any quest spoilers in the general forum for exactly those reasons

I assumed by now those quests most people knew by now, it's a 7 year old game most people should know at least the mages guild considering it's one of the more useful questlines in oblivion the rest only depends if you want to role-play. For skyrim however it's a bit different since it's newer and some people still haven't played it.

I understand the reason why some wouldn't go to uesp it makes sense, for me it's a different case i only brought up the Necro amulet to point out to glargg that he has used the amulet at some point or wanted it back as opposed to the "mages don't need steeking magicks rings/apparel etc"

Well, my comment about mages was clearly a joke, given that only mages can make enchanted stuff in the first place.

But this is the general forum, and spoilers are indeed a no-no (there's a pinned topic on the front page that says "Don't post any spoilers!" in big easy-to see print.) And the reason for the rule is that there are new people starting Oblivion for the first time every day. It doesn't matter that it's a few years old; it's still selling. Those people deserve to be able to seek advice about the game without having plot-lines spoiled for them.

We have a whole forum for hints, cheats and spoilers.

Frostcrag Spire. I've never actually built it, but my son has. (I'm referencing enchanting without the Arcane University.)

I understand that based off the smiley, but the necro amulet isn't a spoiler really. The plotline is much deeper than just what this apparel is or who made it but i digress. I get the point however...

I kinda wish that the ps3 version had Vile Lair plug-in considering

All this talk about pure mages has got me wanting to start up a new character, an Argonian mage...

Have you read my list of what to do?

Yeasterday i added this, thx to this discussion:

Mage
--------------CLASS
magic
Inteligence, strenght

Light armor
Using staves with weakness spelss - destruction
armorer
block
conjuration
alteration: locks
acrobatics

--------RACE
female argonian

----Name

Tarak Kolder

---------------BIRTHSIGN
WARRIOR/RITUAL

As i realized i have not done the playthrough like that (i think)

Heh, nope, my guy's going to be pure mage: Born under it, classed as it, and using no weapons. Well, except staves, just because I've never really used them. And I may swap out alteration and alchemy for a air of skill he'll never use, both because they increase too fast and because it'll stop him from leveling too high.

Interesting class setup though, if a bit confusing.

Tarak is gonna be pure mage as well. Do not let the strenght/armor and block fool you. I want to try out some things... for example how spell effectiveness affects open spells.

I decided to have low Endurance and use live shields via Conjuration.

This is also alpha version... i usually rework it a little before actually playing the character.

I imagine spell effectiveness would be straightforward enough. Or do you mean you want to know if there are chests with a lock level of 100?

Also, the choice of birthsign kind of threw me. Don't really see what you're going to need strength for at all, or why you'd consider the Ritual. Or are you just going for something completely different?

The Ritual is a great birthsign for an armor wearing mage. The turn undead spell it provides is a power, so wearing armor won't affect it. And it is a level 25 spell, so you can turn any undead in the game with it. And it is not one of those "once a day" powers (I hate those). It is a lessor power with a magicka cost that you can cast repeatedly, provided you have the magicka.

I've never actually found a use for turn undead in general, and I don't really see the value in picking a birthsign for a mage that doesn't boost magicka, especially if there's no racial magicka bonus.

Turn undead works wonders when facing multiple dread zombies, gloom wraiths or liches. You can send all but one running while you deal with them one at a time. The Ritual turn undead power only costs like 40 magicka so with a decent willpower, you can cast it repeatedly even witout a large magicka pool.

I used to think that the magicka bonus was paramount, but glargg finally convinced me that you don't need that much magicka if you have enough skill in yoru school of magic because of the magicka cost reduction, plus alchemy can give you all the magicka regen you need.

Ah, I dislike relying on potions, so boosting magicka is of paramount importance to me.

Although I've had an idea I've been meaning to test with regards to magicka regen, ever since the last thread on spell chaining, but I need a master of restoration to test it. And I've never had a character reach master in anything

I have only had a few characters become master of a couple of skills.

A battlemage type character can make good use of The Ritual without relying too much on alchemy. The 40 magicka cost allows it to be cast two or three times -- enough to clear out all but one undead -- even without a particularly large magicka pool. Then you can deal with the last one using a weapon, while your magicka recharges, so you can turn the rest when they come back. A pure mage, may need alchemy though since there would not be much magicka left after casting The Ritual's turn undead a few times. So it might be better suited for a hybrid. My character that used it was a holy knight, relying on restoration and The Ritual to supplement his weaponry.

But it's something that only effects one type of enemy, and is ony really useful in a situation where you might otherwise be outmatched. So it's usefulness is limited. In that same scenario with a Battlemage I'd split magic between offense and defense, and try to bottleneck the undead to force them to face me one at a time.

It's just something I don't see as being worth it. Sure, every now and then it might be handy, but unless you're only going after undead and necromancers, most of the time it's useless.

More magicka is always useful, unless you've been silenced.

Well, yeah, The Ritual's turn undead power is only usefull against undead, or against summoner's who summon undead. However, if you play the character to above level 25 and wear armor, then The Ritual's turn undead power will be the only way you will be able to turn those high level undead. So that is worth something if you want to wear armor and turn undead.

Is it worth giving up the extra 50 magicka you get with the Mage birthsign? Well that may depend on how many mages you have played in the past with the Mage birthsign. The Ritual is certainly not a bad sign for a mage who wants to turn undead. And it is a particularly good option for someone who wants to change it up a bit and try a mage who isn't born under one of the three typical mage birthsigns.

That is exactly my reasoning behind it.... since i plan of "farming" staffs (wanna try them all) from liches and their chests it is gonna be handy. And since i plan on using conjuration when 1v1 i felt like it is balanced.

I never found magicka pool limiting. I have a lot of mage characters that use many type of spells and don't have racial bonus to magicka. And since i plan on using the staves a lot i think it should be ok, since my real use of spell would be on utility and summons. And you can always get more magicka with enchanting or sigil stones etc. if i find the need.

To be quite honest, right now i forgot what was my plan with that strenght.... probalby inventory space.... but for what i don't know right now. Maybe alchemy or potions or i don't know...... if i remember i will post it here.

I think a big magicka pool is probably very useful to the Destruction-oriented mage. But Destruction is, in my opinion, the least efficient of the magic schools. One good Illusion spell can often accomplish more than a whole series of fireballs.

It's possible for an Illusionist/Conjurer-type mage to manage quite well with a modest magicka pool; with good Willpower, the pool regenerates fast enough to keep up with the mage's needs.

What's a good number for willpower and intelligence for a mage?