College Of Winterhold quests - do you need mage skills?

[stuw23]

Pretty much as the title indicates, do I need magic skills to do the College Of Winterhold questline? I'll obviously need at least a little in order to enter, but aside from that, do I need to play a mage character to stand any chance with the College quests, or will I be OK playing a heavy armour based character?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Jouchebag]

Nope. There's an assortment of ways to convince the lady at the gate to let you into the College. You can use dragonborn shouts, you can Persuade, and she also -gives- you a tome to use, provided you have the mana to cast that spell.

After that your magic skills are not even relevent at all.

[stuw23]

Thank you very much :)

[ShinyToyGuns]

Of course, the benefits of the College of Winterhold quests also tend to be magical in nature (e.g. quest rewards). I can't think of any non-magic(k) benefit unless you plan to develop at least one school of magic. Just some XP, and more interesting quests than say from the Bards College (IMHO).

I've never managed to play a purely non-magic character though, so maybe I'm missing something.

[NoLimitJuice]

lol no. i used weapons the whole questline

[Jouchebag]

Compared to MO/OB which required you to be skilled in magic to get anywhere in the Mages Guilds, Skyrim really went with the "everyone should be able to do anything" mentality.

[Trigger]

use whirlwind sprint shout and she'll let you in

[Zefram Cochrane]

I'm Archmage of teh college and I only know about 3 spells which I hardly ever use. Ridiculous really.

[RosarioLuigi]

Mage skills to be a mage... what game do you think this is?? Morrowind?

[Mr. Shaggnificent]

Originally posted by rosarioluigi:

Mage skills to be a mage... what game do you think this is?? Morrowind?

lol

[Brandybuck]

Originally posted by Jouchebag:

After that your magic skills are not even relevent at all.

Not quite. There are two other spots where you are required to cast spells. And if you consider the Master Spell quests to be college quests, then you do need at least 90 in each of the five magic schools.

p.s. Also, the title of "arch-mage" is largely an administrative position. It's like being a chancellor at a university: has absolutely nothing to do with teaching, research, or education. :-)

[Brandybuck]

Originally posted by rosarioluigi:

Mage skills to be a mage... what game do you think this is?? Morrowind?

Actually I found grinding out skill points to get a promotion to be very mind-numbing, doubly so since my two favorite magic skills don't count (conjuration and restoration). A better solution would to provide quests that actually required magical knowledge. But that would require thinking outside the box.

[West Staines Massive]

you really dont need mage skill i went to collage of winterhold and get any help just hard missions.

[MadsDavidson]

well funny story, my brother played skyrim for a while,and he delibiratly ONLY did melee and then we he got to the bridge and had to get over, he did not have high enough skill XD i would say that you should find an important person who cant die, and who isnt gonna be too essential to you later, there is an argonian follower who cant die at a mine, just keep on attacking him, and then use mana potions,and go again, ou can raise your lvl compared to how much mana you has

[Owl]

I can absolutely, and disappointingly, answer you with a big, fat "NO". You could be the dumbest and smelliest of orcs/wood elves, it does not matter. Just pile some scrolls in you bottomless inventory and to the College you go!

After passing the initial test of entering the place you barely need any magic talent at all. There's some in the beginning where you need to show some exercises with a mentor, but otherwise you will just explore places and kill baddies, with claws/hammers/magic as usual.

So, for those that can't pass the entrance, or whatever, either get a few scrolls or be good in persuasion.

*Sigh*

This once used to be so much more complex, you know. You had to be a master mage in skills to ever attain the last few ranks in the Mages Guild, and you had to know some badass spells to survive the quests/trials ahead. Now it's all easily avoidable with a big hammer and your iexplicable capabilities of PERFECTLY using scrolls of prepared magic. :/

[RosarioLuigi]

Originally posted by Brandybuck:

p.s. Also, the title of "arch-mage" is largely an administrative position. It's like being a chancellor at a university: has absolutely nothing to do with teaching, research, or education. :-)

I find our acceptance of this to be very sad evidence of the state of a) the game and most especially b) our schools.

Originally posted by Brandybuck:

Actually I found grinding out skill points to get a promotion to be very mind-numbing, doubly so since my two favorite magic skills don't count (conjuration and restoration). A better solution would to provide quests that actually required magical knowledge. But that would require thinking outside the box.

But you have access to all the trainers, my friend. Pay someone to make you better. I do like your idea but then (Morrowind for example) you would need be be a High Elf or Breton to be Arch-Mage since the high level spells are so expensive.