I am thinking about making an Altmer Battlemage, but I'm unsure about what attributes, skills and birthsign I should use. I thinking about the Atronach sign, so does anyone have a good character-build for this? And a name fitting for a male Altmer Battlemage? Thanks in advance :foodndrink:

Apprentice if your wanting to be a Glass Cannon, otherwise I would suggest Mage for your starsign. Are you going to use the Preset Battlemage or try your hand at making your own?

As for names I quite like the name Salan Cheipa who is a Altmer Mage in Sabarel's back story.

I was thinking about the preset, but I'm not sure. It's a decent class.
What is the backstory of Salan Cheipa? If I am to play him I migth want to know something. If he doesn't fit me I will go with Erestor or something along those lines.

Salan Cheipa is an Altmer Mage that has recently traveled back to the Imperial City from Morrowind. He has spent 10 years there developing his skills in Illusion and Alchemy. He likes to get things done and doesn't count on many people helping him out. While he was in Morrowind he traveled for a short period of time with Sabarel and learnt a fair bit from her. He came back to the Imperial City after hearing of the problems with Necromancers and came back to help sort the problem out.

I can't remember how the Preset looks but are you wanting to focus more on casting magic and having the armor to make you last or are you wanting to augment a Combat fighter with powerful Magic?

Tdroid, consider whether or not you want to use magic to support yourself defensively, or whether you want to offensively support yourself, and tailor your skills to that.

To be honest, if I offered you more advice on char build, I'd be suggesting a Spellsword at best, and a pure mage at worst, so I'll not do that

I've never tried a battlemage, I'm not really into tanking melee combat.

I quite like Eleison as a name for an Altmer.

The preset class is more of a offensive caster and do not have any armor skill or non-alchemical healing. Basicly switch out illusion and restoration with blade and blunt, and willpower with strength. I like the armored combat caster type of mage, so the preset class might not fit, but I can just work around that.
Count Lauriel: Like the name

You may disagree, but I would always take at least one useless skill as a major, not our fault, the levelling system forces these compromises. For a battlemage, archery seems ideal for this filler skill.
Remember with the Atronach, willpower is relegated to fatigue only, so you could take several willpower skills as majors, you don't need to get +5's for it.

Personally I would take magic specialisation, bonuses to intelligence, and either strength or endurance, and these as majors :

Marksman and speechcraft as useless skills, limits your level to the low 30's, and helps slow your levelling, remember it's not bad roleplay ( no such thing ), the game forces this counter-intuitive approach, and :

Either blade or blunt, ( whichever you like the feel of )

Destruction, ( you are a battlemage after all )

Alteration ( perfect for controlling levelling, and enchanting shield spells on armour )

Alchemy ( obviously for Atronach )

Illusion ( see everyone else on the OB forums for the 1001 uses of this skill )

No conjuration? Well, it's so easy to level up anyway, and is great for that +5 intelligence each level.

Use heavy armour, but don't take it as a major skill, you have to remove it to control levelling, and concentrate on maxing intelligence, you need every drop of magicka, and always make restore magicka potions, they are absolutely necessary.

Don't know why, but names ending in -as always seem good for Altmer males, Tyyras, Lethas, Arapras, whatever. i like to stick an 'Ar' between the names, again don't know why, Imras Ar Fiaren or something.

Of course, feel free to tell me I am talking rubbish, I won't be offended.

Your talking nonsense Just kidding
What you say makes sense and will actually fit well with the preset Battlemage class. It have no armor skill and both blade and blunt, leaving one useless(to soe degree at least). It does not have illusion however and that might be the only real weakness of the character. Not a big fan of marksman so I rather leave that out.

Tdroid I don't know what Starsign you plan on taking but although many people seem to think Attronach is good for a Magic caster it can sort of gimp you quite badly aswell. I normally suggest it to people that want to play a more traditional Paladin or Assasin. These people normally have little knowledge of Magic and are able to protect themselves from it very well while being able to cast basic spells. Mage or Apprentice is better for someone focusing on using Magic most of the time, but thats my view.

Zen - Just cause someone is a Mage/Battlemage/Whatever doesn't mean they have to use Destruction. Also depending on how often you use Alteration or spend time Dungeon Diving it can go up very quick. It went up 20-25 points for me within my first 5 levels and was the 2nd skill I got to Journeyman on both my Custom-Mage and Custom-Warrior.

I'll point you towards my Custom-Warriors build Tdroid. She is a Close Combat Brawler by build and uses her Magic to augment her skills and protect herself.

Willpower & Endurance
Blade
Conjuration
Illusion
Alteration
Heavy Armor
Block
Mercentile

She uses Alteration to protect herself with Elemental Shells while using Illusion to help her in dealing with her foes. She uses Heavy Armor to wade in and stand toe to toe swinging her Conjured Weapon or blocking with her shield to reduce the damage she takes. Mercentile is just a personal skill and I have taken on nearly all of my characters for a reason. Her only problem is that you will likely level up very quick to begin with for the first 5-10 levels but then she slows right down.

I think you are right about the sign when it comes down to it. No magica regen is generally a bad thing for this build IMO, so I probably just go with the Mage since I don't want any glass canon.
So far my build looks like this:
Altmer
The Mage
Preset Battlemage class(but I will take up heavy armor adn armorer as minors for the endurance),