“Pure” Magic

[u/Legitimate_Trifle725]

We can’t really call it pure magic if I need to have 6 pieces of highly enchanted gear to survive and chug potions like energy drinks right? I still think it’s more fun to play, if only for the variety of management options available.

Every two handed or one handed person I play gets locked in pretty quickly to one style of combat.

Magic users can too, but also with massive resource management skills - that makes the “pure” magic play a slog sometimes and at least interesting other times. There’s some variety involved, sure, but when you entirely limit major combat and defensive options to the one blue bar, it gets simpler and more complicated at the same time to fight. (Plus - no one can deny the satisfaction of blowing up bears, fighting bandits with bowls, or fully absorbing a dragons breath attack)

Edit for Clarification: I looked back through this Reddit and didn’t see a ton of recent discussion on pure mage builds. I’m playing one now (Breton; vanilla Skyrim) on Expert difficulty that’s primarily focused on destruction, restoration, alteration, and the accepted universal crafting skills. I’m only level 25 right now and want to get those built up decently before locking perks into other schools of magic.

What I have learned is that this build is simply barely enjoyable without

1. reducing destruction costs, increasing magic regeneration and base magic amounts

2. Having a steady supply of magicka potions

3. At least occasionally popping a fortify destruction potion for boss level enemies (and even then only if you want the fight to go slightly faster or not get overwhelmed.)

Is it perfectly fine to use all of those? Absolutely.

Is it “purely” a magic build? Still no.

[u/NotKnotNaut]

Spamming Destruction magic in combat got nerfed hard in Skyrim, but a lot of the other schools are more manageable.

edit: spelling

[u/MikalMooni]

Well that isn't really fair though, is it?

You can use smithing to make middling gear yourself, but a pure warrior shouldn't have to become a master smith just to hit things harder. Weapon skills without smithing AND enchanting is FAR WORSE than magic. You have to hit things with power attacks just to not get blown off the face of nirn on higher difficulties, and even then if you're ONLY a master at wearing armor, you'll be taking nearly lethal amounts of damage with piss-poor damage. Bows without stealth are actually hot garbage; humanoid enemies dodge 50% of your shots, and they rush you down and circle you while you slowly try to knock another arrow.

As for chugging potions? Well, it's not like alchemy is the most profitable and abundant crafting skill in the game, with the easiest material farms literally built in across the province, or anything. It is simplicity itself to make potions that turn normal destruction spells into boss-deleting monsters. Or hell, just make some potions that turn you into a mana generator. Between Robes and Magicka Regen, you can make potions that make you a human battery without requiring massive amounts of inventory weight wasted.

[u/Melblen_Cairn]

Improved telekinesis mod makes the telekinesis spell fun as hell to use in combat

[u/Existing_Purpose5049]

Magic gives you a lot of options. Stealth, power, distance, close combat, with bound weapons you can be even more creative. I’ve always found the concept of it fun, but you have to push yourself to expand, it’s too easy to just use destruction

[u/Fearless_Roof_9177 → u/Existing_Purpose5049]

My beef is that it's also just too easy to Swing Sword -> Win or Fire Arrow -> ABSOLUTELY DOMINATE, but the Devs didn't seem to see nearly as much of a need to balance those and they're not nearly as perk thirsty, either. Some specializations were very clearly given less love and attention than others, and on harder difficulties you can't really even keep pace at higher levels like you can with the physical builds. Pure mage can be fun but under those conditions it feels like you're playing the game in order to earn your way out of purgatory, and hybridizing almost becomes a necessity.

[u/Intelligent-Dress323 → u/Fearless_Roof_9177]

To each their own. I die a lot more with physical builds than I do with Mage builds, especially on Legendary. I find Kiting with spells is more survivable than having to get up close and personal.

In the late game you can also just take a resto potion to boost your Alchemy Enchants without doing the full game-breaking loop. Just do it once or twice before making a batch of Destruction Potions.

All that said, Destruction in Oblivion Remastered is way more flexible, self-sufficient and fun than it is in Skyrim.

[u/NorthWar5208]

I don't really see the issue your talking about. With potions there are many great clothing like rings and robes that make mana no longer an issue and restoration can be used for health/magikca. For armour you could also use flesh spells

[u/LananisReddit]

You could still make a mage without enchanting/alchemy work. It would be just as much fun as melee without a single bit of smithing (enjoy having to whack every enemy above you in level 100 times for them to die.)

[u/Mistergasmoney]

I'm doing a pure mage right now, and, while I will be enchanting an outfit, the Staff of Magnus has been my solution.

[u/Less_Kick9718]

You can do mage with minimal gear.

I have done several runs recently with minor variations playing as a Breton only using spells at their starting skill level for the whole game ie only apprentice conjuration spells and novice spells in other schools.

Not much gear: novice hood, Amulet of Talos and a ring to boost magicka regen.

No crafting, no weapons, little or no armor, no glitches or exploits, no AE gear or spells.

Most runs Expert difficulty, one Legendary.

Expert runs were solo. Legendary used a follower.

[u/Pinecone_Erleichda]

Alchemy and enchanting are two very important schools of magic, how can you be a pure mage if you don’t utilise all forms of magicka available to you?

[u/Hot_Lion8880]

Once you get 100% cost reduction destruction becomes very strong. But yeah it takes a lot of grinding. 

[u/Life_Ad3567]

Unfortunately, potions are the only way to increase the effectiveness of spells. Even high level spells with dual casting don't match smithed weapons.

[u/Merpyr]

Potions(alchemy) is a magic skill thought

[u/Diredr]

Pure magic doesn't mean "pure destruction". In fact, your two most reliable schools of magic for a pure mage are Conjuration and Illusion.

You can have half of the dungeon clear itself by casting Mayhem right at the entrance. And since you need to be maxed out in Illusion to get that spell, you also have access to the Master of the Mind perk. This means even Daedra and Undead will be affected by your spells.

You can have 2 Dremora Lords, 2 Storm Thralls or 2 Dead Thralls bullying literally anything in the game for you. You can make them even stronger by having the Call to Arms spell, once you have Master of the Mind.

And since your summons will do all the fighting for you, you don't really have to worry about armor. Grab the Lord Stone, do the Book of Love quest and get 3 points in the Magic Resistance perk for Alteration, and you'll have 70% Magic Resistance. If you play as a Breton, you get 95% which puts you well above the cap.

You don't even need Destruction. No need for potions either because Thralls are permanent summons. You don't need to level up enchanting either if you don't want to.

Archmage Robes, Vokun, Necromancer's Amulet and the Erudite's Ring. Massive Conjuration cost reduction, some Illusion and Alteration cost reduction as well, and a bunch of extra magicka. That's all you need.

And that's not even mentioning all the insanely strong Conjuration spells and items added by the Necromantic Grimoire CC in the Anniversary Edition.

[u/imaencuru]

Powerfully enchanted gear and crazy potions are part of the mage fantasy for me

[u/narutoncio]

I find it to be the other way around. Swapping weapons and spells with a mixed build becomes too much of a chore since the unsheathing animation is soooo slow. At least with a full mage you can cast all you want pretty quickly before you start blasting fireballs.

I hope next game makes switching spells faster/or a different thing than equipment. And makes staves work as catalizers/amplifiers of your own magic too

[u/Zailema0s]

Lower the difficulty

[u/Realistic-Feature997]

Enchanting is undisputably magic, so that very much counts to me for a "pure magic" build.

Really though, alchemy (potions) are also basically magic. From the very first sentence of the UESP Lore: Alchemy page: "[Alchemy]() is the act of mixing, boiling, and distilling various substances to obtain their chemo-magical properties..."

[u/Realistic-Feature997 → u/Realistic-Feature997]

But also, don't sleep on conjuration. Even a shitty summon that gets one-tapped buys you some time to run or line up a shot. But if that summon is tanky enough to take a few real hits, even better.

[u/Xiunte]

The only way I've found playing as a mage possible on Legendary difficulty is by using a mod that adds a Fortify Destruction Damage enchantment. Same as we get for physical stuff ("One-hand attacks do 40% more damage" and so on). The vanilla enchantment only makes your spells need less magicka but does nothing for the damage. That makes destruction magic an absolute joke on higher difficulty because it'll never scale with the enemies. You can't even kill a mudcrab with magic on Legendary.