Ive been puzzled by both of the stave systems use in both Morrowind and Oblivion.

Just as a recap so we are all on the same page, in Morrowind staffs were basically just blunt weapons that could carry large enchantments, and Oblivion is was a similar deal; spell launchers with the magical ammunition. Like I said, both of those have always puzzled me. They never really seemed that useful, or even fun to use for that matter. In Morrowind it was just a glorified blunt weapon, and in Oblivion is basically hampered the reasons to put training into your magic skills, as you could essentially get the staff to do your work for you by putting in one destruction enchantment.

The idea Im proposing is that Staffs become their own class of weapon (with its own skill) and rather than being spell launchers or spell holder, they become spell amplifiers. You select one of your own spells as you normally would, and you can use the staff to cast it. The staff could have its own mana, and whatever spells you cast drain the staffs mana instead of your own. As you go up in tier for the particular staffs, they could hold larger mana reserves, and offer a higher amplification base; and likewise, depending on how many points you have in your staff skill, it would modify the efficiency of staff use. So somebody with 0 skill in staffs would quickly drain the mana reserves and would get very little effect amplification, whereas somebody with 100 staff skill would be able to shoot around high powered spells with better mana efficiency.

It seems like this sort of system would better benefit mage characters, while so adding more specialization and use to the class of character itself. Instead of hunting around for regular weapons and enchanting them, it make more sense for mages to find and purchase more powerful and expensive staffs, or even enchant their own with specific base modifiers. To further enhance the idea, certain staffs could be geared towards certain schools of magic to propagate the idea of magic specialization.

The downsides of using these theoretical staffs would be that you`d need to spend a lot of time putting training into the stave skill, and during combat they'd be slower to cast spells than doing it by hand.


Just throwing the idea out there.. dont know if anybody would agree, or if any devs will even take notice of the idea

I like the idea, it solves both of the problems with staves in the two previous games

If I can use staves in melee combat then I'm cool with it.

Thats a pretty good idea, I don't care much for staffs either way but if I had a choice I would support this idea.

:twirl: Sounds good.

I just use my staves when I am out of magika

I love the idea Toad, I sure hope that this is similar to the way that the devs have implemented it in the actual game. The staves have kinda svcked so far in the series. I mean I love the magic but come on, one spell?

I want to actually be attached (emotionally) to my staff and maybe be able to level it up or modify it as I become stronger, both in visual and statistical ways.

Hey, this sounds great

Yeah, thats sort of why I came up with it. Being a pure-mage has never really had the oomph that it needs. It`d be awesome to spend time finding new staffs, or creating your own. Its always just felt like staves were just magic shooters, rather than a crucial focal point of magic power for your character

The only time I pulled out a staff in Morrowind or Oblivion was to lightning-spam an enemy to death, its sort of lacking in style and finesse

I whole heartedly support this idea. However, the staff should still be usable as a blunt weapon.

This does seem to be a more traditional role of a staff. Seems like a good idea.
However, maybe it could be used as a blunt weapon when the magicka reserves were depleted? :shrug:

I feel like Im talking into air here, since im not sure if the devs look at these sorts of suggestions too seriously, but it could always be done so if you are carrying a staff and cast a spell (by hitting c, or whatever button it is), the staff will automatically be used instead of your hands, and then you can click as you normally would to bash people as if its a blunt weapon. Though at that point Im not sure if the damage would be derived from blunt weapon skills, or if they'd be derived from the staffs skill. I think blunt would make more sense, that way you'd still need to be proficient in combat skills to use it for melee.