A good "Spellsword" build

[Freeed]

Im trying to create a powerful Spellsword character. The character fights with pure physical combat, combined with strong support spells to assist and amplify your combat effectiveness.

Race: Breton
Sex: Male
Specializarion: Magic
Favored Attributes: Endurance & Luck
Sign: The Atronach
Major Skills: Long Blades, Light Armor, Marksman, Alchemy, Alteration
Minor Skills: Restoration, Illusion, Conjuration, Mysticism, Enchant.

Undecided skills: Armorer, Athletics, Speechcraft or Sneak.


Will use Spear at the beginning to max endurance per level up. Will also do a lot of jumping for Acrobatics to max Strength per level up. Actual leveling stats will be purely Light Armor and Marksman to max Agility per level up.
Once Agility and Strength has reached +70, i will focus on Intelligence and Luck. When Endurance is 100 I will switch between Speed or pushing Agility/Strength up to 100.

What are your opinions / experience about this?

[Nebgama]

Undecided skills you can drop most of them a pretty trash except for speech craft but you don't really need it.

I would probably drop Conjuration and enchant especially Enchant because Enchant is a primary build focus and hard to min/max build for etc its useless in your build atm. Your build is leaning more towards the physical side of spell sword atm. because of your majors.

To me your build looks more like a paladin style char well withing the context of course, being Morrowind that is. And a spell sword would favor destruction imo which you don't have.

meant illusion not conjuration.

[Freeed]

Originally posted by Nebgama:

Undecided skills you can drop most of them a pretty trash except for speech craft but you don't really need it.

I would probably drop Conjuration and enchant especially Enchant because Enchant is a primary build focus and hard to min/max build for etc its useless in your build atm. Your build is leaning more towards the physical side of spell sword atm.

To me your build looks more like a paladin style char well withing the context of course, being Morrowind that is. And a spell sword would favor destruction imo which you don't have.

You're right, I didnt really consider "Paladin" but thats actually more spot on. I dont want Destruction since its too much of an inconvenience late game.
A Paladin would probably favor Heavy Armor over Light Armor.
If I drop Enchant then i'd probably replace it with Armorer or Block.
I do want my character to be more magic oriented, without Destruction.

[Nebgama]

Yeah heavy armor and mace would make it definitely a paladin, but seeing as there was no destruction but Resto with Conjuration and Mysticism makes him seem more paladin because they can use swords as well, illusion does not really fit a paladin though of course.

[Nebgama]

Still your build fits a spellsword and it is morrowind after all.

[Valden21]

OP, you may want to consider switching out your character's race to Dunmer. Dunmer get skill bonuses that mesh nicely with the skills your character's gonna have. If you do decide to go with the more DnD-style paladin-build, I advise also exchanging Illusion for Speechcraft. Being eloquent and charismatic is one of the things that kind of paladin is known for, and that's Speechcraft.

[Lobo de hielo]

Originally posted by Freeed:

You're right, I didnt really consider "Paladin" but thats actually more spot on. I dont want Destruction since its too much of an inconvenience late game.
A Paladin would probably favor Heavy Armor over Light Armor.
If I drop Enchant then i'd probably replace it with Armorer or Block.
I do want my character to be more magic oriented, without Destruction.

I actually like Breton with Atronach sign, can become OP'ed in whatever build you choose.

Armorer and block are difficult to level up.
The most I ever have needed is 30 or so in that skill. Along with block I would leave them in your misc pile and when needed to balance a level up train up in them.

I play mainly BattleMage, Arcane Archer or pure mage. The magic I find most useful is:
Mysticism is great for "Absorb Health" as it hurts everything and heals at same time, also Mark, Recall and Soul Trap.
Alteration - Levitate, Water Walking, Water Breathing and Open.
Restoration - Heal, Fortify Attribute, Restore Attribute, Cure Blight, Cure common disease, cure poison.
As soon as possible (when have the money) I buy all the spells necessary and create (at spellmakers) some very nice low level "utility" spells. i.e with Alteration at level 35+ a levitate - magnitude 1 for 20 seconds.
Restoration at 30+ - Restore Strength 10 pts for 1 second, also endurance the same. Forget all about Greater Bonewalkers.
Fortify Personality for 60pts 2 secs. Great for a lot of quests.

Never seem to need any other spells unless I go big on Illusion and then grab Paralyze.

[Innocent]

I second the speechcraft option. There are also a lot of quests that require you to convince people via dialogue. Unless you want to roleplay a character with the charisma of a brick wall or spend thousands in bribes, consider this skill.

Alteration doesn't make for great combat magic. The only thing useful you'll get for combats are the shields. They are ok at the beginning but soon your armor will outclass the usefulness of shield spells. I'm a big fan of Restoration here. You can buff yourself to hell and then wack things with your sword. Also heals. Destruction is a bit redundant if you're going to use your weapon for damage, but it does have some good debuff spells.

You can keep Alteration as a secondary skill, it's useful for movement and you can use it to open locks, but you can easily get those effects from scroll, potions, rings, or even lockpicks. So up to you.

[Lobo de hielo]

Originally posted by Innocent:

I second the speechcraft option. There are also a lot of quests that require you to convince people via dialogue. Unless you want to roleplay a character with the charisma of a brick wall or spend thousands in bribes, consider this skill.

Alteration doesn't make for great combat magic. The only thing useful you'll get for combats are the shields. They are ok at the beginning but soon your armor will outclass the usefulness of shield spells. I'm a big fan of Restoration here. You can buff yourself to hell and then wack things with your sword. Also heals. Destruction is a bit redundant if you're going to use your weapon for damage, but it does have some good debuff spells.

You can keep Alteration as a secondary skill, it's useful for movement and you can use it to open locks, but you can easily get those effects from scroll, potions, rings, or even lockpicks. So up to you.

Totally disagree about speechcraft. See my few "spoilers" which are not cheats.
So I will put a couple here, especially since OP wants to use magic. Low level early spells that are extremely useful.

Restoration at least 35. Fortify Personality 60pts 2 secs. Who needs speechcraft? Doing the same thing over and over to raise disposition, "Taunt, Admire, Admire etc etc" like watching paint dry. Magic and spells by pass all that.

Alteration is not for combat its a great utility skill. Try and find open lock 100 pts on a scroll. Alteration of at least 40 you will have a great chance to cast. Water Walking, water breathing, levitate.
Who needs potions or scrolls? A Spellsword should not.
You do not need Destruction, you use Mysticism as your back up killer which also buffs you, that spell is Absorb Health and you can use at a very early stage. Quite honestly totally OP'ed early on.

If going Spellsword/ Palladin I would put the 2 skills needed to have a good strong build to start which might be Heavy Armour and sword and throw Mysticism, Alteration and Restoration as Majors.
Minors are a (to me) waste, throw anything in there you like. They hardly ever get levelled unless you concentrate on them or train them. Skills like that are best left in the misc pile.

But everyone plays differently.

[Innocent]

Originally posted by slayor3000:

Try and find open lock 100 pts on a scroll

Ekash Lock Splitter is everywhere.

The rest of your comments are fair.

[Kemalist(mdx³)]

instead of "Light armor" go heavy or medium.
spellswords are frontline fighters, no stabby mcstabberson assassins.