Thing is, alteration dont realy alter you aside from stats and few effect, I always expected it to actually change your apperance, like turning into wolf spell or something in those lines. I was actually dissapointed when I figured out there are no transformation spells in Morrowind . Sooo yeah, I would like alteration to be ubgraded with transformation spells in TES 5.

Also, I would like necromancy as an actual magic school, an banned one that will get you into trouble by using it, but still learnable and usable. There is just so much you can do with that, all of it inhuman but still interesting nonetheless.

All opinions are welcome.

I think it would be cool if they added some physically altering spells that allowed you to change shape of some sort. This would have to be done well, and of course they should keep the normal very important alteration spells like ease burden etc.

Necromancy wouldn't be absolutely necessary, but the more they can pack into this game without making it buggy and slow, the better!

I hope you do know necromancy is legal everywhere, save for MW and the Mages Guild (both of which are defunct).

Altering your appearance would be a good addition to the magic. Imagine becoming a vampire and having the ability to hold you appearance to complete normality through alteration magic, it might make becoming a vampire actually useful as opposed to oblivions method.

I think it'd be really sweet if like, strength and other stats were represented in your character's appearance and animations. That way, if you cast a spell to increase your strength, your guy (or girl) looks big and muscled, maybe some magical glow coursing through your veins to show that it's magical and just temporary. Spells that let you impersonate other characters, or just change various aspects of your appearance (height, skin tone, hair, etc.). Stuff like that would be really nice.

Altering your physical form sounds like a nice idea. It would allow for shapeshifting of sorts, like the mod for Morrowind, allowing you to get past certain creatures without much trouble.

I have always wanted Necromancy, in the hope that I can finally stop getting attacked by undead all over the place.

Just to throw this out there, but being able to alter one's form at will has only been practiced by the Glenmoril Witches, who are as powerful and possibly even more powerful than the high mages in the mages guild (when it was doing good)

Definitely a yes to Necromancy.

As for Alteration, probably, yes, but it depends how it's implemented.

Being able to zombifie those stupid High Elves would be........... :intergalactic: :intergalactic:

Alteration with such customization would be great. I support that all the way.

As for open necromancy? I don't think there should be a school, no. It goes against the very nature and spirit of necromancy in the first place. It's supposed to be an underground school of thought, one that's taught behind closed doors between allies that's completely taboo. Having a "school" would make it feel official or - hell - like the dark side of Hogwarts or something. Instead, I'd rather see more detail and depth added to the exploration of necromancy as seen in Morrowind and Oblivion. With the tombs of Skyrim, necromancy would be a serious issue. I feel it'd be far more interesting to explore it in a similar fashion to how it's been already explored.

Both ideas sound good to me. Shapeshifting has long been associated with druids and nordic cultures in fantasy settings, so it would fit Skyrim nicely. Necromancy is just not the same when it's legal if you ask me, so even if Imperial culture doesn't outlaw necromancy, I would like to see some traditional nord communities attack or at least despise you if they catch you messing around with their ancestors' remains... in a magical manner, I mean.

Alteration manipulates basic qualities and states of matter: conductivity, mass, inertia, momentum. There's no conceptual tie to bodily transformation.

Shape-shifting magic either involves extensive manipulation of biology and belongs to Restoration, or reaches into mythic potential and belongs to Mysticism. (Personally I prefer the latter.)

I think physical transformation should be reserved for were-creature abilities. I swear if I don't get my damn were-sharks in this game me and Bethesda are going to have words.

It should be noted that Alteration *doesn't* alter your stats. The "Fortify" line of spells are all part of Restoration (at least in MW and OB).

It would make sense, though, that if you polymorphed into some other critter, you would temporarily assume that creature's stats instead of your own. But as far as altering your human stats, I would expect that is still Restoration in TES V. Hmm, it would seem like you could theoretically have a polymorph spell which changes you into a giant or tiny version of yourself (like Alice in Wonderland), which might shift your stats somewhat - maybe giant you is stronger, higher endurance, but lower agility and speed, while Intelligence, Willpower, and Personality remain unnaffected. Tiny you might go the other way, faster, more agile, but weaker and less endurance.

Would be cool if there were even places you could only get to as 'tiny you' (although, that introduces a gameplay problem - how to handle the user changing back to a larger size in a space too small for their larger version to exist; I say just kill the player if that happens *grin*).

Anyhow, yes, I think Alternation could be expanded with some new cool spells. Actually, most of the schools could probably use some new spells, if for no other reason than to keep gameplay fresh, so it doesn't feel like just playing Oblivion in a different landscape.

Altering your looks so you look like a different person (if youre disliked, got bounty or w/e) would be sweeet.

Yes and Yes, especially if the Necromancy had a sort of DB secrecy storyline.

And that one's illusion.

Turning into an ogre or wolf or something would be pretty cool.

I think there's a language barrier here. In English, School has two connotations. The one it appears you are thinking of is an organized instution of learning. The other is simply a body of knowledge, philosophy, or thought, which one or more people knows.

So, for example, in TES, each of the different 'disciplines' of magic - Restoration, Alteration, Destruction, is a "school" in the second sense. What the OP is suggesting is adding a new list of spells, basically, which would be categorized by a "Necromancy" skill/school of magic. It has nothing to do with an 'organization' in this case.

The flip side of that is, if you joined a necromantic cult, and they teach you necromancy, are they not acting as a 'school' for their disciples, in the sense of an organized institution of learning - a 'school' doesn't have to be a public, state sanctioned institution to be any less a school.

However, the main meaning in this discussion has nothing to do with institutions, and everything to do with a body of knowledge related to that type of magic, and more specifically, an in-game set of magical effects related to necromancy, and an associated skill..

Actually, I could see accomplishing the same thing with either school. In the case of "Alternation", you physically alter yourself to *become* the other person. In Illusion, you create a *perception* (optical, or in the mind of the viewer - it's not clear how illusion works) to others that you look like that other person.

In the game, it would probably be implemented as only on or the other, based on what the devs would decided - I would guess they would make that an illusion, because if they gave polymorphing abilities to alteration, they'd probably want to toss a bone to other schools of magic as well, giving them some sort of new abilities. Hard to say though, and at this point, I bet that whatever changes to magic are happening for TES V, are probably not going to change with only a year left in development - those types of things have to be decided pretty early, so that the rest of the game (maps, quests, NPC scripts, etc) can be 'shaped' around the abilities of the player. TES V has probably been in development for like 3 years or so?

It's fun playing 'what if'?', but I don't think devs can make major changes to something like that magic system too easily.

yes and add a necromancer's guild!!!!

I hope they introduce new skills and bring back old skills (I want staffs back damn it)

Also new spells would be nice regarding any school of magic.
Again I want levitation back aswell.

Being able to shapeshift would be awesome!

You are nearly out of mana and the zombies are running towards you, but then BAM you change into a huge bear and go crazy on the poor undead.

The Alteration version could be you turning into an (example) known and feared barbarian. You would be strong like a mother`ucker, but since you also look like him, everyone would think you actually are him. In the case of a barbarian, you would probably be disliked with the shopkeepers, provoke citizens to attack you and the guards would come running after you whenever they see you. There you have both a negative and a positive. The upside being that you get physically stronger, but the dowside is that you will be feared/disliked/chased.

The Illusion version could be that you choose who and/or what around you will think you look like a bandit. In their heads you look like the most badass kid on the block and react with fear, anger or happiness, relative to the form you portray in their heads. The upside with this scenario would be that you could stage an assault to make it look like you enemy assaulted you for no reason - and therefore not having to fight him. He thinks he will be rich from the prize on the bandits head, but all the guards see is him attacking an innocent citizen - you. The downside would be that you dont actually become any stronger, faster or prettier, you only look like it in the targets mind.

So; Alteration would be for groups of enemies and Illusion would be for one target/few targets. Those adept enough in the art of magic could naturally learn both and become pretty darn dangerous. Which all high-leveled mages should be.

I think if necromancy is included in the game it should be slightly rare and could easily fit into the summoning category of spells. In Oblivion, the first Summon magic spell you learned was Summon Skeleton (which in itself is basically necromancy). I would love to see the Summon magic tree strengthened with spells dealing with necromancy but i would also love to see some summon nature spells (i.e. summon wolf and or bear)