How to Make a Battlemage in Oblivion

[@bacd-nn2lg]

I have been using Conjuration magic in Battlemage build and it fun.

[@PacifictheCasualGamer]

Sweet

[@tyrander1652]

Thanks for taking the time to make this video. It has made me think about what a Battlemage actually is. How does it differ from the other magic specialist melee fighters--NightBlades and Spellswords? Without a good definition, championing a custom build for a class/archetype is like saying a homemade car is a Ferrari because it does not look like a truck. It might be more like a low end Mustang. If we let the major skills of the game class define the archetype we can make a roleplay tactical profile and make a custom build that will optimize the ability to increase those skills (and attributes) within the game's leveling system (which the premade classes are not good at doing). Note that the three fighter mage classes seem to be confrontational types, not sneak attackers. It is unclear what the game designers think the role of minor skills should be in role play, so I have decided for this exercise that the game class battlemage minor magic skills won't be neccesary or significant in gameplay. Class definitions -Combat skills Battlemage: Blade and Blunt Nightblade: Blade and Athletics Spellsword: Blade and Block -Stealth Skills Battlemage: None Nightblade: Acrobatics and Light Armor Spellsword: None -Weak Magic skills Battlemage: Illusion, Restoration Nightblade: Alchemy, Conjuration, Illusion, Mysticism Spellsword: Alchemy, Conjuration, Mysticism Tactical Profile--Battlemage Does not use Illusion or Restoration Does not wear heavy or light armor (based on skills), but NPC battlemages always wear heavy armor, so (?). Melee--Blade or Blunt Protection--Alteration/Conjuration/Alchemy Healing--Alchemy Illumination--Alchemy/apparel/torch Range--Destruction/Conjuration Stealth--Alchemy/Mysticism/apparel, Tactical Profile--Nightblade Does not use Alchemy, Conjuration, Illusion, or Mysticism Melee--Blade Protection--Light Armor/Alteration Healing--Restoration Illumination--apparel/torch Range--Destruction Stealth--apparel Tactical Profile--Spellsword Does not use Alchemy, Conjuration, or Mysticism Melee--Blade Protection--Block/Illusion/Alteration Healing--Restoration Illumination--Illusion/apparel/torch Range--Destruction Stealth--Illusion What makes a good build? Game-play strategy must be known first. "I like to running around casting spells and hitting things with a sword" isn't enough information. For this "best" build let's assume efficient game-play for building skills and attributes in an effective/powerful way for the framework of the game. It takes eight levels to take a major skill from 25 to 100, so you can have only two major skills mastered by level 17 when transcendent sigil stones appear in the main quest, or Level 20, which is when the last Deadric shrine quest becomes available and the game can be 100% completed. What should your major skills be, and should they be raised together or in series? Certain skills are easy to raise so it is better to have them as minor skills if you are going to use them a lot any way. It is also good to have major skills that do not have to be used together because doing so tends to interfere with attribute bonuses. Your offensive weapons should always be major skills (and also specialty skills whenever possible) to make them easy to raise. In the case of the three melee mages, Blade or Blunt and Destruction should be major skills. You can avoid ranged combat but not melee combat, so it is safer to work Blade or Blunt first while enemies are wimpy (levels 1-7). If you are not a hybrid character you would want to work on your protective skill (Block, Sneak) after optimizing melee or Marksman. A pure mage might want to optimize Conjuration before working up Destruction because conjured creatures lose effectiveness when they start fighting creatures of equal rank. Often used accessory skills such as Heavy/Light Armor, Armorer, Illusion, Alchemy, Alteration, Security, Mercantile etc, should be minor skills in most cases. What about the other major skills? This is where the leveling system causes a philosophical problem. From a practical standpoint, adding "easy-up" skills that don't fit your role play makes the most sense. If you have used Alchemy at 10 pts per level as a minor skill to build Intelligence early on, Mysticism and Conjuration work well as major skills--just walk around casting skeletons and Detect Life when you want to level up. Illusion is another good one. Acrobatics can be spammed by jumping down Dive Rock, and whatever armor you are not planning to wear is easy to build by standing in front of rats in Fort Ash and Fort Carmala. Not withstanding the bone-numbing boredom of spamming Speachcraft, Block is perhaps the most tedious of the easy skills to raise, but it is not much worse than the Armor skills. If you can get by without using Alteration or Restoration in game play they are both good as button tapping major skills as long as one of them remains as a minor skill to help raise Willpower. How would this work for a custom Battlemage? Best race - Male Altmer or Orcs of either sex and male Nords. These will yield the highest combination of Strength, Health (endurance), and magic. Birthsign - Warrior for Altmer, and Apprentice or Atronach* for Orcs and Nords. The weakness to magic from the Apprentice sign is not a big problem since magic attack is more dangerous during ranged combat than melee combat. There is also a lot of gear in the game that offers protection from spells. Specialty-Magic (simply because it is in the definition of "Battlemage." It will also help leveling this skill set) Attributes-Strength and Endurance--More beneficial than any other combination, and it helps max them out early, which is also beneficial overall. * The benefit of the Atronach sign is that you don't have to worry about increasing Willpower when leveling, but it limits your ability to cast frequent spells like Shield and open locks. It also hinders your ability to raise magic skills through spamming, but it all can be done if you are fond of Alchemy, collecting welkynd stones, and know where to find Ayleid wells. Major Skills Blade* or Blunt* Destruction* Conjuration* Block Acrobatics Illusion (leveling only) Restoration (leveling only) *Game class Battlemage major skills For an Altmer, Mysticism could substitute for Block or Acrobatics when Umbra is used for trapping souls. Minor Skills Armorer (Endurance and weapon power) - Use often and buy lessons until 75 pts. Alteration* (Willpower, Shield, open locks) Alchemy* (Intelligence, fatigue, health, and sorcery potions) Mysticism* (Intelligence, Detect life, Soul Trap) Heavy Armor (Endurance and protection) Hand to Hand (Strength) Light Armor Athletics Security Sneak Marksman Blunt* or Blade* Mercantile Speachcraft Levels 1-8 concentrate on melee fighting, armor/weapon repair, and Alchemy/Mysticism for Strength, Endurance, and Intelligence bonuses Level 9-16 concentrate on Destruction (w/ help from Alteration) for Willpower. Keep boosting Endurance and Strength until they are maxed, then switch to Alchemy/Mysticism for Intelligence, and Security/Sneak/Marksman for Agility before turning to Speed skills. Level 17-25, concentrate on Conjuration and/or Blocking; use minor skills for the remaining weak attributes. Ignore Luck.

[@PacifictheCasualGamer]

+Tyrander165 I really like how at the bottom it just says, ignore luck. In all honesty, this is a build for people who don't want to play the same character like me for very long. I put in the easiest way to get the most out of the character, without worrying about how long it will be played. I think my ideal battle mage would be an Orc, with all their major skills being their lowest skills, like magic and some stealth. I do actually know how to make a max level character with the most amount of points, but I just don't like to play the game that way. I really wish the game did a better job at making more defined classes. I think they were trying to do what Skyrim did with the skills in this game, but kept Morrowinds system, which doesn't work for what they were trying to do.

[@tyrander1652]

Unless they designed the classes before they added the leveling system, I don't think they were trying to do anything with the class builds other than put archetype names on something for "one day players" to work with out of the box. The class builds do makes sense somewhat for NPCs, and the build inefficiencies within the leveling system give advanced players a reason to mess with custom builds. Unfortunately, the hype or P.R. or whatever you want to call the information in the user's guide has brain-washed a lot of people about the value or strategy of Major skills. Cheers.

[@grunsoul50]

Tyrander165 how long did this take to write?

[@tyrander1652]

Half a day?

[@destinyblade1167]

I first regretted clicking read more but this is actually useful

[@bobbackwards8481]

Another good birthsign for Battlemages is the Lady, +10 Endurance and Willpower is a nice boost to both halves of the playstyle. I'd also recommend using a soul-trap on touch spell, it saves you from carrying around a soul-trap weapon and wasting soul gems on it.

[@PacifictheCasualGamer]

Ooo, that soul trap spell is a good idea. No more wasting soul gems to get more. I guess if you get the star of azura it doesn't matter.

[@bobbackwards8481]

True, once you get Azura's Star you won't need to worry too much about wasting soul gems, and it just comes down to the convenience of needing to perform less soul traps and recharges.

[@Eric-gv4di]

I'm starting the playthrough tonight, thanks man!

[@PacifictheCasualGamer]

Np!

[@unaranka1583]

Can’t you just open locks with alteration instead of possibly picking up security?

[@PacifictheCasualGamer]

That's a good idea! I'm one of those people that has unlocked so many things, that I never worry about lock pick counts and open lock spells. Therefore, that's something I don't think about.

[@benishmael9451]

If your destruction is at 25 or 50 you can make a drain security 100points for 1 second. If you have the skeleton key then you can spam security on a very hard lock.

[@benishmael9451]

Only to level 60 though. After that you'll need about 2000 lock picks to get from 60 to 100.

[@jjy7336]

Ben Ishmael just get skeleton key

[@tedcook9621]

You nailed this One! I'm currently running a female Orc with Atronach, sign, as a stand up FM..Heavy armor, armorer and blade, with Destruction, Alteration conjuration and restoration as my mains. Needless to say alchemy goes up like a rocket as does my Int, and willpower. I spend alotta time in aylied ruins. The collector quest is a must.

[@PacifictheCasualGamer]

I also love raiding ruins! They really help with mages.

[@Nomorehats]

Whats rarely mentioned is spell effectiveness as a battlemage or spellsword. Wearing armor drastically reduces the strength of your spells. Just use the shield spell, You don't have to repair it!

[@PacifictheCasualGamer]

That's a good point. I still like a heavy armor shield combo.

[@Nomorehats]

@@PacifictheCasualGamer getting extra enchantments with armor is op :) But without it, you can sneak better, and arent as encumbered. Which just means you dont have to spend as long grinding sneak and armor attributes. Just alteration

[@mf_LIFErip]

This is my favourite class in the whole game, thanks for the guide!

[@PacifictheCasualGamer]

You're welcome!

[@МитяИзверг]

I really love default battlemage class. Why use armour, when you have a shield spell? And armour also give you penalty to spell effectiveness

[@PacifictheCasualGamer]

It's just the math in Oblivion. Two rings for magic resistance usually, and then you can armor + shield enchants or magic. Because magic is weird in this game, using destruction plus something else most of the time is magic hell lol

[@benishmael9451]

Once illusion is at 50 then you can sneak past everything. Provided you have 5 items enchanted with chameleon.

[@PacifictheCasualGamer]

I love it!

[@federicovalle2245]

True story. It actually turns out your chameleon level has to be over 100, then NO ONE in the game can detect you. You can sneak kill the world without them even noticing

[@benishmael9451]

Federico Valle get the Ring of khajiiti from meridia. I believe it's meridia. With 5 pieces of armor and boom., invisible..

[@benishmael9451]

I usually pick Athletics,Armorer, blade, conjuration, illusion, security and restoration. I generally don't play as any specific class but I like picking one skill per attribute. Sometimes I'll pick light armor instead of athleticcs. The only real decision is what race to be and I'll pick whatever sign works best with that race.

[@PacifictheCasualGamer]

I don't usually pick security. Mainly because of the skeleton key

[@benishmael9451]

Yeah but you can spam security with the skeleton key. I know you don't need it if you have alteration.

[@TonyMontana-po6fl]

Hi! After replaying a game i decided I want to be a battle mage, can you please help me choose? I am more on fighting with swords and I use conjuration illusion and destruction magic. Should I choose Redguard with more damage with weapons and then upgrade conjuration destruction and illusion or go with Breton to do more damage with a magic skills and then upgrade blade?

[@PacifictheCasualGamer]

I like Reguards for the fighting. If you are a complete noob, I would go with Bretons

[@patrickpedersen6141]

for magicka in your battlemage builds use sigilstones that gives i think its 40 or 50 magicka each and use 5 on your armor and 3 on 2 rings and 1 amulet thats between 300-400 free magicka u could also use the arcane universety enchanting alter it will just require grant soul gems to get u the max

[@PacifictheCasualGamer]

I like doing it the soul gem way because why not?

[@solidskullz5736]

Would this build be good with a high elf? Or should I go with something more geared towards melee?

[@PacifictheCasualGamer]

The best way is either High Elf and be a badass and deal with the magic weakness, or go with a Breton for infinite tanking capabilities

[@David-Starwarsfan]

Why oh why did they take out the ability to use spells with your hands full? It was so useful

[@PacifictheCasualGamer]

I don't know.

[@StyxSen]

Still come back for a build now and then

[@PacifictheCasualGamer]

:) Respect

[@KingKyah1]

Honestly for this build if you have Alchemy on this class then you really don't need resto or if you have resto you don't really need alchemy but alchemy is better to have so you don't have to use magic to heal and you can restore magic also you can get skeleton key at like level 9 so I don't think security is that big of a deal while you also have alteration to open locks until then if needed. Just my opinion though just started to do a battle mage and wanted to see what other people were doing great to see there's still interest in such a great game

[@PacifictheCasualGamer]

Really, the only reason I put in security is so that I can unlock something if I see it and I'm out of magic lol. Alchemy I put in as a more passive leveling up thing, because I'm the kind of guy who makes a bunch of characters, so I fight wolves and bandits, like, all the time. It'd be interesting to see it switched with something more battle-like like illusion or conjuration.

[@JamesBond-ii3cw]

Which race is better for a battle mage?

[@PacifictheCasualGamer]

I'd say a Breton for magic, or a Redguard for the combat. Pick the race that helps you with the skills you are worse at.

[@teddyigor7343]

Is it possible to use claymores instead of single-handed blades?

[@PacifictheCasualGamer]

Yes

[@katokhaelan4881]

Hey man, what grass mod are you running at the beginning of this video?

[@PacifictheCasualGamer]

+Kato Khaelan I'm running Vanilla on Xbox 360.

[@michaelh1603]

What race should I use for this build?

[@PacifictheCasualGamer]

+King Ape it depends on whether you want more magic focus or physical focus, or both. For magic, a male Breton is best, Physical abilities is a male Nord, and both is a female Orc. If you want to expirament, a female Imperial also works too, as she will not effect Strength, Intelligence, Willpower, or Enduerence.

[@michaelh1603]

Pacific the Casual Gamer Okay, thanks.

[@michaelh1603]

Pacific the Casual Gamer So I made a Nord male and pick the mage as my birth sign and combat as my playing style, and pick strength and intelligence. My seven main skills are- Blade, Athletics, Destruction, Alteration, Block, Restoration and Marksman.

[@PacifictheCasualGamer]

I don't think I've ever seen that one before. :)

[@michaelh1603]

Pacific the Casual Gamer Yeah, its strange but also fun. I am not going for a really high level. Level 25 will be fine with me.

[@scpropstify]

make a 5 best classes for the Atronach sign

[@PacifictheCasualGamer]

Good idea. I will work on it, as well as some single episode classes for it. Maybe also a series on classes for signs too!

[@zanethzarareth6747]

How 2 battlemage 1. Load up Oblivion 2. Follow all his steps 3. Get bored and download mods 4. Download more mods since you already got bored with the previous ones 5. Nothing can ease your boredom. It's there and it's a hole that you can't escape: it's not immersive enough! 6. Buy crusader armor from Amazon and get a magic staff or some sh*t 7. Live a life of a battle mage

[@PacifictheCasualGamer]

Hahahahahaha

[@Adam-zb5kk]

You should size down your camera thumbnail to about 25% of this size. You're taking up a quarter of the screen >.>

[@PacifictheCasualGamer]

Yeah, I made that mistake and never did it again lol

[@user-xb7dp4vu3r]

What about maces?

[@PacifictheCasualGamer]

Maces are okay. I find the slower speed doesnt compensate for the higher damage, and makes them.worse than swords

[@user-xb7dp4vu3r]

@@PacifictheCasualGamer I investigated about this, and I found that maces consume less stamina, which means that you can do more hard hits than swords, so they have more power in battle, because hard hit is far more effective than normal hit. Also, their weight less than swords.

[@PacifictheCasualGamer]

Ah, I didnt know that. Ive always preferred daggers and longswords because of how fast they are and how you always have unlimited stamina potions

[@user-xb7dp4vu3r]

@@PacifictheCasualGamer I didn't think about potions! Haha, I think all ways of playing are ok, you have options, so you can choose what fits you more! I did not pretend to defend one thing or another, but there's "hate" about this class of weapons.

[@adampastor9339]

what race!?

[@PacifictheCasualGamer]

Breton or high elf

[@A2goddess]

Bretons make great battlemages

[@PacifictheCasualGamer]

Bretons are best Battlemages ;)

[@A2goddess]

@@PacifictheCasualGamer especially in skyrim

[@laurancestreet1874]

I wish I played on PC, the mods make me jealous. PS3 has nothing on it.

[@PacifictheCasualGamer]

Yeah, PC has some really cool looking mods.

[@madsarbothomsen2603]

pacific make jedi that would be awesome

[@PacifictheCasualGamer]

Legit it's filmed

[@hotdogjon6810]

Lol the face can is too big

[@PacifictheCasualGamer]

Yeah, it really is lol

[@Jack-wy4cg]

deeedric

[@PacifictheCasualGamer]

That would be funny if it was spelled like that. I think they just added the a to make it look normal

[@Jack-wy4cg]

nah mate I'm just making fun of the way you said daedric

[@Jack-wy4cg]

3:42

[@PacifictheCasualGamer]

Oh, alright lol

[@alexandrospapadopoulos4323]

A kripparrian clone

[@PacifictheCasualGamer]

+Alexandros Papadopoulos what is a kripparrian?

[@alexandrospapadopoulos4323]

Pacific the Casual Gamer the streamer you copy

[@PacifictheCasualGamer]

+Alexandros Papadopoulos idk who he is