restoration only viable?

[CyberWire]

anyone ever tried a restoration focused build? like full restoration tree and you just stand behind a companion and heal while they kill? ive play till about level 12 now but I just realised that I donno if companions level up or have any scaling to combat higher tier enemies later on?

[alexander_dougherty]

Has anyone tried it?
Yes, people have done every single build, both viable and not.

Have I tried it?
No, not even close...

[light-dan]

Originally posted by CyberWire:

I just realised that I donno if companions level up or have any scaling to combat higher tier enemies later on?

most (if not all) followers scale up with you to a certain level

[Riverdusk]

With a spell overhaul mod like Odin (which adds poison and sun spells to the restoration school), sure. Pure vanilla doing it sounds painful.

[Rez Elwin]

Originally posted by light-dan:

Originally posted by CyberWire:

I just realised that I donno if companions level up or have any scaling to combat higher tier enemies later on?

most (if not all) followers scale up with you to a certain level

Depends on the companion, early game companions like Faendal only scale to 30, but most like Lydia and the other housecarls scale to 50. However, by only using a select few skills, you won't be getting very high level for this to be an issue.

Restoration only is possible, the only real issue is dealing damage without a companion, as you will sometimes find yourself without one. There are a few damage dealing restoration spells, but the ones that do decent damage, only do so against undead. There is a single damage spell you'd have to work with, Poison Rune. It's not a great spell, but it's all you'll have for some enemies.

[ChrillBill]

I have tried a mage only playthrough, and one of the things or strategies I tried was this. Essentially being a tank. Didn't work out very well. I could hardly do anything without getting botched! x.x Same when I was mostly focusing on conjuration and destruction. I don't know, doesn't feel like this game was really built for a mage only playthrough. But maybe with mods it would be a different story. I wasn't as addicted to mods back then as I am now so there might be some goodies I have overlooked :>

[CyberWire]

im testing restoration only now with ordinator mod and it seems to have some powerful boosts to restoration which is making it more viable to support a companion in fights

[Neo]

Restoration is a perfectly valid school of magic. And don't let anyone tell you otherwise!

[Riverdusk]

Originally posted by ChrillBill:

I have tried a mage only playthrough, and one of the things or strategies I tried was this. Essentially being a tank. Didn't work out very well. I could hardly do anything without getting botched! x.x Same when I was mostly focusing on conjuration and destruction. I don't know, doesn't feel like this game was really built for a mage only playthrough. But maybe with mods it would be a different story. I wasn't as addicted to mods back then as I am now so there might be some goodies I have overlooked :>

Yep, try Ordinator or Vokrii (perk overhauls that add scaling to magic skills) along with Odin and/or Apocalypse (some better spells), and a pure mage can be very strong.

If you have the full AE edition, there is also the new elemental spells that it adds that are several times stronger than any of the vanilla destruction spells. Potentially to the point of them being overpowered if anything.

[Total Saikou]

There's a loose guide on how to do this in the most hardcore way possible, you can tone it down however you wish from there
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aM7zd24AH7Q