"Pure" mage? : IV - Oblivion

» Sat May 17, 2014 11:37 pm

I'm just gonna say it.

*puts on flame cloak*

Luck. At early levels, every three points you add to Luck, will reduce the cost of your spells. However, this only works when you are below being Master in said school(s). When reaching 100, this bonus goes away. There are many who argue that putting valuable points into Luck, for such a small benefit that goes away when you are level 100, is a waste. And they would be right if you will be a mage who uses the game's spells only.

However, if you venture into the custom spell area, you will find that the bonus for reducing the magicka cost of your CUSTOM SPELLS ONLY, to continue as long as you add points to Luck.

The percentage is vague, at least to me on console, but the benefit is quite real, and some characters create spells knowing that they won't be able to cast them unless their Luck is in the mid 60s. I'm usually perfectly willing to sacrifice those valuable Attribute points for more custom lightshow, at least for a "pure" mage.

*daddy quickly left*

» Sat May 17, 2014 7:14 pm

As said above, as high as possible unless you use the Atronach sign. Then you need not worry about Willpower as much. A good starting number for both, barring Atronach, is 50 each.

» Sat May 17, 2014 11:22 pm

Well... it depends on your magicka pool.

Having huge WIllpower with low magicka pool is not really good. As will power tells you how fast your pool will fill (in ammount of seconds, not actually by raw number of regen). So if you would have 50 magicka pool and 100 willpower it will take 36 seconds to fill. (the actuall magicka reagen would be 1,39 magicka per second.), or with same pool 50 Willpower - 57 seconds (0,88 magicka per second). While if you had 100 magicka pool and 100 will power you would have 2.78 mps and 50 willpower 1.75 magicka per second.

So while it is good to have both as high as possible, if you have low inteligence/magicka having huge number of Willpower is not necessary as it doesn't make that much of a difference.

So i would say having inteligence as high as possible and willpower on 100 is the best way, probably.

» Sun May 18, 2014 7:07 am

Magic totally rules in Oblivion. With 100 for Intelligence and Willpower my character can adventure in her underwear with no gear whatsoever and do pretty much every quest. If you do choose to wear gear, then enchant a full set of clothing with Fortify Intelligence. That would add 216 more points of magicka. A couple potions to further boost your Intelligence and your Willpower as well by 100 points and all of your 600+ magicka regenerates every 21 seconds for the duration of the potion. My mage is a Nord with the Thief birthsign. You don't need a racial or birthsign bonus to get magicka to work really well.

» Sun May 18, 2014 9:25 am

Before you leave daddy, can you post your a couple of your custom spells and your characters skill/attribute levels? I'd like to do some further testing. I have tested this before an have never seen Luck make any difference to casting cost once your skill in all schools used in the spell reaches 100 regardless of whether the spell was a custom spell.

» Sun May 18, 2014 1:28 am

I'm at my gig now. When I get back tomorrow am, I will post my customs and attributes.

» Sun May 18, 2014 8:41 am

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Luck

The spell cost reduction may be from the skill boost that Luck gives until your character reaches master level.

» Sat May 17, 2014 11:06 pm

Right, but daddy was saying that with custom spells he was getting cost reduction even after his skill reached master level.

» Sat May 17, 2014 11:58 pm

I don't think so.

» Sun May 18, 2014 9:36 am

Read the rest of his post. He said:

He's saying that Luck continues to reduce cost of custom spells even after your skill in the school of magic hits master.

» Sun May 18, 2014 9:41 am

My mage wears the prettiest dresses and shoes she can find. No real armour at all. No physical weapons either.

And she's badass.

» Sun May 18, 2014 4:01 am

Yeah, that's the direction most of my mages go in, as well. Armor just gets in the way, and those awful helmets just mess up their hair.

» Sun May 18, 2014 8:53 am

» Sat May 17, 2014 8:53 pm

I never use feather enchantments. Fortify Strength is a better bet, because it increases your actual carrying capacity, instead of tinkering with your encumbrance. Feather spells (or potions) are good though, if you just need to haul a pile of loot somewhere to dispose of it.

» Sat May 17, 2014 9:13 pm

Problem is fortify strength is limited to 50 additional lbs, and while I know feather tinkers with the encumbrance it does allow me to carry more even if it's an illusion. And since a mage wouldn't necessarily increase his strength per level ups it seems like a waste to add points into that attribute.

» Sun May 18, 2014 5:24 am

Fortify strength increases the amount you can carry. Feather effectively allows a certain amount of weight to not be counted towards endurance. But it won't let you into negative figures. So feather is only useful up to a point. If you're playing a High Elf mage with base strength, you can only get 150 points of feather. From there you need to increase strength.

I've always thought as glargg does, it's best as spells or potions. It's actually one of the few spells my characters use that they buy, since they benefit from a greater duration than you can make yourself. Even the apprentice level one lasts for four minutes, so it'll never really be a drain on your magicka.

And since fortify strength increases the amount you can carry, it also increases the maximum magnitude of feather you can have, effectively giving you two benefits.

» Sun May 18, 2014 1:24 am

With a perma-base of 30 strength, Buffy can get pretty easily pinned in place by enemy burden effects (which they use fairly regularly). So she has a feather spell quickly at the ready to counter that. She favors that as a response over casting a dispel spell. Unfortunately, dispel only dispels the effects of pure spells - meaning it is useless when an undesirable effect is caused by poison, scroll, staff or greater/lesser power. For example, a dispel potion (or scroll) is useless to get rid of 'silence' caused by the lessor power of a wraith. That kind of svcks because there is quite literally no way to get rid of silence if inflicted by, say the staff of a necromancer. The best we can do in that case is pop a potion of disappear and quietly slink away to let the effect wear off.

» Sun May 18, 2014 7:08 am

As i said, fortify strength is limited on enchanted gear outside of spells. It's more of the less same as feather in all honesty except with feather you can increase your carrying capacity to a point. For example fortify strength 10 isn't better than feather 75 nor does strength benefit a mage(outside of carrying capacity) since strength is governed by blade and blunt weapons

» Sat May 17, 2014 10:02 pm

Where are you getting that number from? At one point, my Phoebe character was wearing three Fortify Strength items. This is a Breton female who is carrying around over 600 pounds. How much do you want to carry?

Note that, as I said, I use potions or spells for temporary increases in carry weight.

» Sun May 18, 2014 2:08 am

Cause 1 point into strength is 5 extra carrying capacity, i figured this out by unequipping my ring of strength(10pts) and reequipping the ring. For example my female nord Hjotra Bradyn has a carrying capacity of 280 when I equip the ring she has 330 when I equip my 75 feather ring she has 355. So naturally it appears she has more capacity or something is being altered to make it appear she does. Either case however my one strength ring only gives me an extra 50. If you have 3 that means you have an extra 150, so you technically have a base of 450 capacity due to your increasing of strength on your character.

As for your second question: i want to be able to carry enough where i'm not constantly getting over-encumbered. So 400-450 maybe. but this would force me to level up and get strength to +5 if possible, each time. Bit unrealistic for a mage. it's possible the potions i'm using is taking up some space and the soul gems lol

» Sun May 18, 2014 12:09 am

Your character is going to develop Strength during gameplay. You don't need +5s to build Strength, over the long haul, but a melee character is going to want to put points into that. My Phoebe is level 30-something (I haven't played her for a while, but I'm remembering about 33.) She's sort of a Nightblade/Battlemage hybrid, and carries around a bunch of different weapons with different enchantments on them.

A mage shouldn't be getting over-encumbered so easily. You don't need armor or heavy weapons, so you don't have that encumbrance. What are you carrying around that weighs so much? If it's loot you're carrying back to sell, then all you need is feather spells.

» Sun May 18, 2014 10:15 am

Lothran used to have a bunch of things with him. Books, gems, stones, various other misc stuff and too many weapons. I think he had an encumbrance about 250, and that′s without any loot to sell!

» Sat May 17, 2014 6:10 pm

Sure, but he doesn't NEED to carry all that stuff. At one point, I unloaded Phoebe down to the "essentials," just some enchanted clothes, one sword, one bow, and a bunch of potions and arrows. She didn't even add up to 100 pounds. But I don't have enough discipline to play that way, so she was soon all loaded up again.

My longest-lived "pure" mage, Silvonwe, didn't carry very much. I think her encumbrance rarely exceeded 120. Her Strength was permanently capped at 30. She never bothered to loot any heavy stuff like armor, which in the long run is not worth hauling back to merchants to sell anyway.

» Sun May 18, 2014 5:30 am

Very true, and I did the same with Lothran one day in Anvil. Nowadays he can barely get up to 30 unless he carries a heavy weapon

» Sun May 18, 2014 1:39 am

Mine is a hybrid i am using melee weapons, even if it's a dagger but that's because mages typically use daggers. Not all of them carry staffs so having more strength is great though i think adding more into endurance would be better imo.

I am wearing armor that's enchanted. Mainly the elven armor you get through the fighters guild. Yea i know it's not really a guild for mages usually, but it's not like they refused mages as members lol. The other reason i'm wearing that is cause you told me wearing my previous outfit gave me no armor rating. And since light armor is better than heavy for sneaking and stuff i thought it wouldn't be a bad idea. The armor that is enchanted is mainly to increase my magicka pool and 2 to give me extra fire protection with shielding i have like 57 armor rating now :smile: