Can enemies really run out of magic?

[Lucid]

I've been kiting this Necromage around for like 10 minutes and he has not run out of mana yet. He's spamming single and double cast ice bolts.

Also Legendary is soooo much fun.

[Hoksu]

Originally posted by Alexraptor:

Actually all enemies have Magicka reserves, they just regenerate faster than the player.

This. It can seem like they have infinite magicka when some enemies can spam fireballs at you constantly, but it has a limit. Most mage enemies also have mage robes, and a huge amount of mage perks, which all stack. But using lightning spells/enchantments and poison does make them run out of magicka, after which they'll switch to a dagger and make a pathetic opponent.

[Red Bat]

Originally posted by Belanos:

Originally posted by Pidgeotto:

Sure, if your character isn't a mage. Altmer characters START with more magicka than some of the weaker mage NPCs.

If you use mage robes and a magic build, you'll outlast the majority of the mage NPCs.

If you open up the Creation Kit and take a look, you'll notice that Mage NPCs get a bonus on their Magicka pool. Melee based NPCs get a bonus on their Health.

Weaker mage characters like Novice Necromancers get 130 magicka. Altmer start with 150. With fortify magicka enchantments, it's very easy to have more magicka than even the lategame mages. You get 30 magicka from a mage hood looted from almost any mage NPC, and you get 30 more from an amulet you get early in the College of Winterhold questline. With a few level ups to magicka, you'll have more magicka than pretty much any mage you encounter so long as you aren't putting too many level ups toward stamina and health.

I have no idea if their magicka scales with difficulty, but I've definently seen enemies run out after only a few ice shards on Master.

I can't use the creation kit to double check. I'm stuck with a console version of the game.

[Belanos]

Originally posted by Pidgeotto:

I can't use the creation kit to double check. I'm stuck with a console version of the game.

In the CK, under stats, NPC mages have a special field called Magicka Offset. This represents the extra Magicka a character would receive beyond what their particular class entitles them to. There's also a Health Offset field and a Stamina Offset one. Mages get a bonus to both their Health and Magicka, while taking a hit on their Stamina. Melee characters get a Health and Stamina bonus while taking a hit on their Magicka.

[Thord]

Originally posted by ThordTV:

Necromage

They can be up to level 50. All have a boost to life and magicka but what I will call a debuff to stamina. The extra magicka is a fixed number not a % so at level 50 the extra makes less difference than at level 1, that boost tends to be around 50-200 points.

When NPCs level up they do so like we do in the sense that mages choose extra magicka rather than stamina for example. Also as they level up they have more spells and perks.

"Double icebolts" sounds like a high level one (Arch Necromancer). At level 50 he/she has Life 659, Magicka 576 and Stamina 50. Perks would give him/her even more magicka and a regen boost. He/she would also be able to self heal.

Gear will give either extra magicka, increased magicka regen, it will do more damage or it will do nothing to help (eg could be boosting conjuration but it has no conjuration spells).

Magicka does go down same as ours. We can also use the same enchantments.

Poison which takes x points of magicka won't help nuch I think. There are some which take all of the magicka or knock out regen which are better perhaps.

Shock enchantments won't do as much against a level 50 mage so check your numbers but mu guess is by then you would be better off with a different enchantment.

By the way normal Dragons don't need a lot of magicka because they have their own spells some of which don't need Magicka at all so shock is sometimes wasted against them.

Levelling is done in "steps" with a max at 50. Not actual figures but perhaps if you are level 20-29 the mage is level 20, when you are 30-39 the mage is level 30 and so on. There are some NPCs that will always be your level, some do level with you but can be a few levels below, some always a few levels above for example Followers. All NPCs have a level cap but that could be 99

[lupus_hegemonia]

I would really want to add a mod that LIMITS the NPCs' magic. I mean, they looks like they're never run out of magic, which is not natural.