Casting Won't Raise Skill

[HexWedgie]

I've been leveling magic skills by creating & casting custom spells - eg, a fire damage spell on touch for 23 damage, 10 ft area, 1 s duration to raise destruction - but in my current playthru, casting will not increase the spell school level. Normally if I tweak the spell attributes to a touch below max, I can bump the level every 2-6 cases, but with my current character I can cast unlimited times without getting a single skill increase (stuck at 35 since the start).

This has worked without any issues on several other characters - exact same spell settings.

Any ideas what might be wrong? I've tried save/quit/reload.

[sliver4]

combat spells have to be cast in combat

[FTWO]

It will level up Destruction even if you're not in Combat, but it will be a lot slower. The fastest way to level any of the Mage Skills, is by casting Spells that use up a great deal of Magicka. I would recommend going to Frostcrag Spire, create a Spell that will deplete your current Magicka pool with a single cast, but of course have something that'll replenish your Magicka quick, like a Welkynd Stone or make some Replenish Magicka Potions with Alchemy. This will level up any of your Mage Skills very quickly.

[R3sistance]

One of the changes in remaster is that experience gain is now related to magicka cost and as spell costs decrease with skill... you gotta push more expensive spells now. You'll still get there if you continually cast for days but it will simply take longer to get there.

[Caden2112]

As an addendum, since you can do custom spells, make spells that target yourself, which also seems to help boost skill level since the spell is succeeding at hitting its target (For destruction, exploding your gear over and over also lets you rank Armorer if you need to do that as well. If you're not interested in fixing your own gear, just use the garbage you find off bandits.) Or, you know, make a spell that sets you on fire for 1 point a second for roughly eternity to crank the cost if you're a true masochist. :P

[Wingnut Mcmoomoo]

Originally posted by HexWedgie:

edit: there were several odd things I noticed about this game instance - eg, I started with a bunch of spells instead of the normal 2, and edgar didn't have his usual stock of spells - so I just started a new game, and everything looks and works normally now.

this is normal, the spells you start with are based on your skills, the only promised spell you start with is the baby heal spell. They just seem to give you the skill based spells straight out of the cell instead of making you wait for a few mins.

[Wingnut Mcmoomoo]

Originally posted by R3sistance:

One of the changes in remaster is that experience gain is now related to magicka cost and as spell costs decrease with skill... you gotta push more expensive spells now. You'll still get there if you continually cast for days but it will simply take longer to get there.

This is honestly the best change I've heard of, I used to mod the game for exactly this, mostly because it was too easy to max out spell skills on accident within a few hours of starting the game.

The version kind of feels like the best modded overhaul ever made with how many of the old "included in every overhaul modpack" QoL mods they just decided to put into the base game. (thank god for unmodded hotkeyable torches)

[Rommel]

This guy said cheese will raise everything.

[HexWedgie]

it's possible that I never used a combat spell like fire damage to level my previous characters - but even non-combat spells won't level their spell school (eg detect life, light, open lock) - all of these worked to level other characters, but not this one.

[xPEDx]

make sure when you finished a custom spell that it is a destruction spell and not a restoration spell or alteration, cos thats whats gonna level, to level destruction fast id make a small spell that you can cast about 5 times before your out, and train with that, Also you need a target for destruction to level it need to hit a valid target. try your own summon . adding para for example will change a destruction spell into an Alteration spell.

[HexWedgie]

I restarted & all seems to be working now. the fire damage issue was self-inflicted: I created the spell as touch, and I had to use self instead (since I have no target) - so I just used 1 of the elemental weakness spells on self, and now I have a custom spell that works to raise each school. thanks!

[Mav99]

Combat spells only raise your skill if you actually HIT something. And indeed, magicka cost now determines by how much.

So to level destruction fast, you could raise conjuration to 25, conjure Scamps and hit them... ;)