Hello,

I've kept as close an eye on the news for Skyrim as possible but i have not yet seen whether it will be possible to be a robe wearing mage exclusively, i have noticed that the info released on Skyrim so far has been very melee orientated, which is great but i was just wondering if there will be robes for casters, and if so will they give any benefits to spell casting that armour wouldn't?

I've always liked the beard-robe-staff combo and i'm hoping that i'l be able to swan around in a robe and sandals like Gandalf

Thanks!

There's a person wearing a robe in the trailer. There's also concept art for the robe.

Ah ok thank you, i'l have to watch the trailer again more closely, i've watched it a couple of times and i must have missed it, i wonder if they give benefits to spell-casters for weraring them.

Ever played an Elder Scrolls game before?

Of course. Everyone in the mages guild is sure to wear robes.

Oblivion didn't have any specific "robes make you cast better" rules. But armor did give some penalties to spellcasting. (And then, of course, there's always the possiblity of enchanted robes with bonuses to one of the spellcasting skills, or mana points.)

i have played yes, Oblivion on the 360 first, then morrowind after that on pc.



Ah yes i remember Oblivion had robes, but i also remember i could get more magic enchants if i wore full set of clothes, which made robes less powerful for magic by one enchant i think it was, i'm hoping this time maybe robes will boost magic more than clothes, thank you all for the answers.

http://i801.photobucket.com/albums/yy297/b_harrison/skyrim/skyrim_gameplay_village.jpg

Cheers thank you i did see that before actually, for some odd reason i came away thinking it was some kind of leather overcoat with a hood, but now i see it is a robe, albeit not a particularly grand one where's the fine silks and wizard sleeves? hehe

The question should not be "Will I be able to be a robe wearing mage?" as unless robes don't exist as wearable items in the game at all, which is obviously not the case, you will naturally be able to play as a robe wearing mage. The real question is, will there actually be benefits for playing that way? Because in Oblivion, aside from being spared the penalty to spell effectiveness which at higher armor skill levels became small enough to be negligable and not needing to deal with the weight of armor which became irrelevent with certain higher level armor perks, there was absolutely no benefit to going unarmored, okay, there's also not needing to repair your armor, but regardless, even if you decide to play the game unarmored you're still better served by wearing pants and shirts than robes, because all robes at least cover the pants and shirt slots, some even cover the hand and feet slots as well, meaning less room for enchantment, now, will this change in Skyrim? I don't know, though one solution I could see to it is to allow wearing robes over top of other clothing so that you can have both a robe AND a shirt and pants. Or Bethesda could bring back enchantment capacity for different items and have robes have a higher enchantment capacity than other clothing items of comparable quality.

Well I have different question
Will robes useful for mages now?

Oblivion make robes even unique ones almost completely useless for mages because of flawed enchanting and decreased number of equipment slots available for enchanting, robes and suits take many slots and don't provide equal difference between them and other equipment, our starting prison rags was better then arch-mage robe because of cheap constant enchanting and no enchant limit for items.

Another problem was generic common design of robes whiteout of memorable details what almost all share the same mesh and only have difference in textures, as well quality of such textures was bad.

If second problem can be resolved what about first one?

I think return enchant limit can help greatly as well it can work with spell effectiveness penalty well
Robes from one level with armor and other clothing will have better enchant limit then such set of clothing and armor what made from common materials, as well spell effectiveness can be tied enchant limit of items so mage in iron armor what have low enchant limit will suffer greatly penalty to spell effectiveness (it impact must be more visible then before) while mage in linen robe will not suffer such penalty, mage in daedric will suffer reduced penalty because daedric is best for enchanting, but not lower then 50% of spell effectiveness penalty all from above can be reduced with special training for battle mages and spellswords in form of perks what can be achieved as special training at start of game or as reward from an guild or be achieved by self if character has enough skills in mage schools as well in combat skills, there is can be also special items what can reduce such penalty like wielding staffs and orbs in hands so staffs will not equivalent of fantasy gun but more like mage tools again.

As well such enchanting limit can help to make difference between material for amulets so highly cost jewelry from different material will actually worth something for enchanting (copper ring will be differ then gold ring), jewelry will have better enchant limits of the same level clothing expect of robes what will have same limit or be better.

Enchanting limit can also be one of changeable parameters for smithing and will work similar to alchemy when item quality will used as base and enchant limit can be increased with rare jewels gems gold and ingredients, enhanced in such way item will receive increased enchant limit but also will have increased weight and greatly increased cost so repairing of custom item will have larger cost, as well enchanting of such item will require better enchanting skill large soul gems and souls or high cost of fee for NPC service.
In such cases constant enchanting can be not only high level one but available for middle levels and low levels if requirements was met.

Using a robe in Oblivion gave you 50 magic less fortify magic than using a skirt and shirt.

Gandalf wears boots. Just saying, FYI. Lol. I understand you though. :wink_smile:

Ah yes, i remember now that when reading :read: one of tolkien's books gandalf was described as having boots, much more practical than sandals no doubt

I really like the concept art robes. Looks like clothing in Skyrim will be improved greatly.