Spellsword or something else?

[Imp]

I just started a new playthrough as a Breton, I want to include magic in this playthrough. Should I be a spellsword or something else? If you guys do say that I should be a spellsword, should I use heavy armor or light armor? Thanks!

[Vladimir Vega]

I'm playing a heavy armor spellsword nord.......get apocolypse mod for all the different spells to add to your repertoire

[Solomon Hawk]

Aside from Altmer, Bretons are adept in magics and are often called upon to be battle mages.
It which case, heavy armor with all the perk enchantments would be ideal.

[Belanos]

I've always played the game as a Breton Spellsword who uses Heavy Armour and it works quite well.

[Dodece]

When it comes to armor the game is terribly unbalanced. There just isn't any real reason for any player to forego the greater defense that heavy armor provides. Unless they want to make things harder. Basically if you want to incorporate magic use into your combat. You are going to need a lot of armor, because one handed magic use is pretty anemic. As in it doesn't do anywhere near enough damage.

Spellswords are nearly impossible to balance, and at best the contribution from spell casting is fairly negligible. It isn't uncommon for your sword to do many times the damage of your spells, and at a fraction of the cost. You really need to fight this trend every step of the way, and even then it probably isn't worth the effort. I mean enchanting every item, drinking the right potions, and so forth. Usually to just end up prolonging battles needlessly. Melee in this game is just that overpowered, and higher level enemies only tend to make the problem worse.

Anyway you need the heavier armor to soak up the added damage you are going to take in order to be able to get some variety in your diet. Otherwise you are going to need to go for the sure kill over a far more harrowing battle. It is actually kind of sad when you think about it. Overall as far as this game is concerned the magic is half baked, and not all that rewarding.

[SuperBobKing]

I'm not fond of spellswords in this game, it just makes you worse at both of them. You need to build both magicka and stamina, at least enough to be able to cast the higher level spells, which leaves you with less stamina for your sword and less magicka for your spells. You also have to split perk points and gear enchantments between the two, and would be unable to dual wield spells for the extra affects or block to take less damage. You might be able to counteract some of that by using as many enchantments for reduced spell cost as you can and only using spells in schools that you are able to get down to zero cost. You won't be very effective until you can get your enchanting maxed though. IMO it is more fun to go for primarily magic or primarily weapons, or maybe a sneaky type where you would only be using spells before combat and weapons in combat. I haven't tried that though.

[Belanos]

Originally posted by Dodece:

Spellswords are nearly impossible to balance, and at best the contribution from spell casting is fairly negligible.

While I would agree with you when it comes to Destruction or Illusion spells, Conjuration is a good school to use as a Spellsword. Especially as a Breton since you start the game with Conjure Familiar and get a bonus to your Conjuration skill. Once you get into being able to summon higher level creatures, having that extra body in a battle can really come in handy.

[Zsrai]

Originally posted by Dodece:

When it comes to armor the game is terribly unbalanced. There just isn't any real reason for any player to forego the greater defense that heavy armor provides. Unless they want to make things harder. Basically if you want to incorporate magic use into your combat. You are going to need a lot of armor, because one handed magic use is pretty anemic. As in it doesn't do anywhere near enough damage.

Or, if you skill up Smithing, you could ignore heavy Armor entirely because you can hit the armor cap with most improved Light Armors (without Enchantment/Alchemy looping). Either works; I tend to stick with Heavy for the looks, but I like Light a lot for the mobility. It depends on what I want my character to look like, because the stats don't matter a whole lot unless you're skipping Smithing.

Spellwise, I would probably use Destruction as a ranged attack (instead of Archery) for dragons or sniping Bandits/soldiers on keep walls, but otherwise it will likely do far less damage than your weapon ever will. Illusion can be useful for some crowd control, but will trail off at higher levels without dual casting. Conjuration is always good, both for the summons and for the Bound weapons (useful until you can temper a high level weapon). Alteration is always useful for the extra defense (especially without Smithing), Paralyze, the perks, and occasionally the other utility (Water Breathing, Detect Life, etc.) Resto is also always useful to heal yourself at the least, and can be good for crowd control vs Undead if it's not faster to just melee them down.

If you just want to use SOME magic, and not have it be as big of a focus, you could do a classic "D&D cleric" or "paladin" type build: Heavy Armor, One Handed, Block, Restoration, Alteration would be the main skills. I'd use a shield mostly and use spells to support instead of being a major part of combat with that build. Even as a full blown Spellsword, I'd probably be more like 2/3 warrior and 1/3 mage, not a 50/50 split.

[Brandybuck]

There are no classes in this game. So asking if you should be a specific class doesn't make sense. If you want to use both magic and melee, go ahead.

[alexander_dougherty]

Originally posted by Belanos:

I've always played the game as a Breton Spellsword who uses Heavy Armour and it works quite well.

I always play Bretons as mages first, then broaden them into warrior mages.
For a spellsword right from the start I use Dunmer.

[Zsrai]

Originally posted by Brandybuck:

There are no classes in this game. So asking if you should be a specific class doesn't make sense. If you want to use both magic and melee, go ahead.

Yeah, but sometimes it's nice to have a basic "layout" of what skills you want to focus on. I tend to limit myself to certain skills instead of being a god and maxing out all 18 skills on every character. It feels more realistic to me to play a Warrior who never uses Thief skills (except Speech because of the automatic use and maybe Lockpicking). Same with a pure Mage never using any Warrior skills. I usually try and pick 6 or 7 fitting skills to heavily perk up, and then maybe 2-3 more that I'll skill up a little (Lockpicking usually fits here) and maybe drop a perk or two into only. I'm pretty sure that's what the OP is asking about, what type of build to use and not necessarily picking a set class.

[Imp]

So I think I might go with a sword and conjuration. I think I will use heavy armor because I do want Daedric armor.

[Almanac]

I once had a really great run through this game as a conjuration breton mage and enchanter. I only used bound swords, and would frequently conjure atronachs. Jzargo was my steady companion and pack mule through thick and thin.

[Belanos]

Originally posted by Imp:

So I think I might go with a sword and conjuration. I think I will use heavy armor because I do want Daedric armor.

Then choose a Breton as well. As I mentioned, they get a good bonus on their Conjuration skill plus they start out with Conjure Familiar, so they're the perfect race for that kind of character all around.

[Imp]

I think I might use a bound sword too

[RoxxasTheDemonslayer]

Spellsword is a RDM type build i take it?
(Armor, sword in main spell on other, maybe a bow sometimes)