nothing wrong with buying a good mid-high level spell in oblivion (contrary to what people say, many of the spells were built just fine and usable as written).
But you could use spellmaking to adjust it to exactly how you wanted it.

Buying a novivce flame spell, then going through the (not insignificant in oblivion, unlike the 5quest wonder that the skyrim guilds are) effort to gain access to the spellmaking altar, then spending the money to build a higher end version, was not the cheapest and easiest way to have a high level basic attack spell. In general it cost more than just buying on in the first place.

But you could build interesting things. I remember being so happy when I got the idea of building a huge area - low damage spell to knock all the crystals in a room down in aleid ruins in one shot. That was the kind of cool stuff available then.

Sure you could play around with efficiency and build a spell with multiple elements, but it wasnt insanely better, and had its weaknesses too. It really was about variety and customizability.

Sure there were some effects that were buggy, but most of it wasnt, and clearly skyrim is ok with some broken stuff being in the game after all

I see no reason why skyrim couldnt let the player tweak with the numbers of a spell while keeping the good looking effects for the most part. It seems like a pretty glaring omission compared to the rest of the elder scrolls series.

Spellmaking was removed because supposedly it allowed for unbalanced exploits favouring mages. Now we have only the unbalanced alchemy/echant/smithing exploits, but those are fine because it's a single player game and we're not forced to use them, unlike the previous games, where spellmaking not only ruined multiplayer, but also crashed your game if you refused to use it. Also the current exploits mostly favour warriors, so it's okay, becaue God of War is rad.

Skyrim is freaking awesome people. I am playing this game non-stop and loving it more than Oblivion by far.

But it would be even better with spell making

I always feel like saying I told you so when spell making comes up, I kind of want Xarnac to comeback for his I told you so tour especially given the abuse he got for thinking no spell making would svck pre-launch of the game. Everyone kept trying to sell us on how wonderful and diverse the 85+ unique spells would be, how they were just effects, how each one had massive customization in power depending on how you caressed the trigger etc and we got pretty much none of that. 90ish fairly generic spells that admittedly look kind of cool in some cases, but really are not impressive.

I hear you man.
In fact, while it is slightly childish I have not resisted the urge to print one or two 'I told you so' posts myself.

The thing is about spell crafting in oblivion, it really let you mold how you played your magic user more than any other game i have played before. I really can't see a reason as to why bethesda decided not to put it in besides time and resources.

To disagree with some of the posters before me, enchanting in Oblivion felt just as "spreadsheety" as spell crafting did. You picked and item picked the effect(s) and selected a soul gem, yet it is in skyrim. Saying it was removed to make the other spells in the game feel more unique and interesting, Skyrim is the type of game you can play for hundreds of hours, Incinerate.thunderbolt/icy spear will start to feel bland the 100th time you cast them.

Thats why i think there's a problem with trying to treat TES spells like plasmids (as todd said in an interview). After using the spells for so long i really would like to try something new without having to make a whole new character. Casting fire rune so many times, not even considering what little effect it will have end-game, will get boring after seeing the same effect over and over again.

Spell crafting could have added a whole new facet to the game, fire runes that would also frenzy or had long lasting DOTs, flames spells that also drained magicka or created and aoe burst when the target dies, an oak flesh on other spell that fortified health and gave a small heal over time. Bethesda could do this without having to get rid of the other spells.

destruction is pretty much a fancy version of archery at this point, only damage won't scale.

Custom Spells would break the game even more then it currently is.

Not this again :facepalm:, really?

Sure the spell system in oblivion could be exploited, but only if you knew what you were doing through loads of experimenting.
Discovering really powerful combinations is part of the charm!

This is dumb.

The game is already fully able to be broken wide open, without outside cheats or anything. just by using the skills normally as designed.
Adding spellmaking would not affect that truth.
IF they madee bad choices with spellcasting, it might create a second avenue to break the game.

Regardless of the above, players in this _Single Player_ game can choose to break the game for themselves or not. its really silly to say 'lets not add features, cause they may be broken'. Might as well go back to pong at that point, after all, not many features to break there.

Cause they screwed it up...
BOOO

lets not add dlc, could be an infinite exp exploit.

Just a rough count-up over at UESP... daggerfall has ~101 or so spell effects (individual spells could combine these effects, but still about this many individual effects)
Skyrim, about 95 or so different spells.

I don't see how this is 10% of whatever daggerfall has.

Spellcrafting is kind of a joke, and I never really used it (of course, was never a pure mage either). It's not like your character is doing magical research and discovers a completely new spell (aka, a new spell to launch acid at an enemy when no acid spell currently exists in game). All its doing is combining spell effects. Now that we have dual casting, it kind of defeats the purpose, you can cast 2 spells simultaneously. This also limits you to 2 spell effects, so that players can't create atom bomb destruction spells like they did in oblivion.

What I'd love to see is a spell interaction system. Cast lighting at the water enemies are standing in to elecrocute them, or cast a wind spell at a wall of flame to spread fire. I'd give up spell making for that kind of system every time. Dragon Age did it in a limited way, seeing a fully fleshed out system in an elder scrolls game would be epic.



Removing the lockpicking spells from the game was such a good thing. Thief characters never felt special to me in any TES game because a mage could do their job better. Why learn lockpicking when you can cast a spell to do it. Sneak? Just use an chameleon spell.

They're probably saving it for a DLC.

just so everyone sees this...
there were 2000 spells in oblivion and there are 92 spells in skyrim...
nuff said..

Erm....... because the game is being dumbed down each release?

it's the honest reply.

Hmmm... well, just so everyone sees this, quantity will never, ever equal quality.

The thing is... the spells in skyrim has no quality either... A spell that was worthless at level 4 is still worthell at level 30... it svcks.. and so does the master destruction spells

Because this is an RPG and you roleplay a rogue and not a mage?
Meanwhile, in Skyrim everyone is a rogue because mages are so gimped beyond belief they cannot even open a lock.

Secondly, 101 spell effects is far, far greater than the measely 95 spells of Skyrim, because you had the spellmaker to tailor any effect into any spell you desired.

I want to make an Apotheosis spell and I'm sad that I can't... well at least until the CK is released. Those who played OB know to what I am referring.

lol

Spell making was awesome. I got loads of extra hours of fun in Oblivion just by screwing with different, overpowered effects.

Damage stamina = instant ragdoll

You do realice that the quality of spells in skyrim is way less as well, the fact that they don't scale is extremely lame
I would also use the term 'variety' instead of 'quantity'

I pick 3

3. Still having these fun, unique spells in the game as blueprints for basic making of spells. A balanced system of spellmaking that scales depending on your skill and magicka capacity, while giving you flexibility and endless possibilities of character gameplay. Could be a whole new skill tree.

See how simple things become when you take off your fan glasses?