conjuration mage

[elias]

Hey guys, so for a while I've been wanting to make a conjuration-only mage (for purposes of role playing). Thinking about it, I've realized that this is going to be way harder than it sounds. It seems like I'm going to get pounded for the first couple of levels, since my only offensive tactic will be to summon an axe or something.

What do you guys think about a build like this? Have any of you ever tried it before?

 

[AS88]

Necromancy or Daedra Summoning plus a Bound Bow and Bound Sword?

If you were willing to use Alteration, that could be considered 'conjuring armour' at a push, or you could download a Bound Armour mod if you're on PC

 

[Gigapact]

I'm doing an illusion and conjuration mage only right now, and it's really not so bad. Although I do not allow myself to use bound weapons, strictly atronaches and things like that.

What do I do? If I'm sticking to just conjuration, I get in sneak mode. I get in a dark corner, cast my atronach or whatever, and let them do all the dirty work. Or you can put on some armor, and summon yourself a bound bow in sneak mode and pick them off from a distance without having to get close. If you want to get close, then get the bound sword or whatever weapon.

Personally, if you don't care, I would recommend starting out as a High Elf as you automatically get an extra 50 points of magicka, plus the novice hood you find in the Helgen, starting you out at 180 magicka from the get go. I say this because some spells like the bound bow are going to be a tad costly in the beginning.

So are you not allowing yourself to use any other school of magic at all? If so, you'll need to invest in smithing/enchanting since you can't use alteration and get mage armor. In the beginning, you can try some vampire armor (they have magic enchantments for mages as well as provide armor rating). Or you can wear a robe, but wear gauntlets, boots, and helmet with a good armor rating, you will just look kind of stupid in the beginning. But I would definitely work on your armor situation if you're using bound weapons (not the bow) ASAP because you will be up close to your enemies. If you're going to be summoning and attacking from a distance, it is not as dire.

So in the beginning, I would stick to attacking from a distance, relying on a bow and summoning creatures like a flame atronach, until you figure out your armor situation and everything you want to do. Sneak will help you too. Have fun!

 

[elias]

It would be preferable to just rely only on summoned creatures and thralls to kill things. That's my goal. But it seems like I'll have to have another strategy in the beginning, seeing that if I stick to summoning/reanimating things, I'll be stuck with a wolf or a low level drougr.

 

[The Phoenician]

Pure conjuration mage can be a lot of fun. You can pick up the flame antronatch spell fairly quickly from any of the court mages.

 

[Snake Tortoise]

Bretons start the game with the conjure familiar spell, and that wolf is actually pretty powerful in the early levels. You could definitely get away with using that until you get the conjure flame atronach spell

 

[Adam Warlock]

Elsweyr Fondue was very helpful to my conjuration mage in the early going .
If you are not investing in Alchemy , give it a try since it will enable you to spam Familiars/Flame Atronachs during fights for greater skill increases.

Best advice is to recast your summons as often as possible with due regard for personal safety.
Even if you only really need one Familiar to kill that bandit who`s chasing you , if you cast 3 you`ve tripled your skill gain.

 

[Adam Warlock]

A reliable method for increasing conjuration skill if you don`t want to stand around casting Soul Trap on a dead animal-

Find an open bandit camp or the like.
Sneak around to a spot up on rocks/cliff or other location where the enemy can`t get too close.
Now spam your summons down on them until they are all dead while dodging arrows/spells as need be

 

[elias]

Thanks for all the good ideas, guys.

One thing I've done before is use soul trap on things I've previously killed, but I'm not sure if this works anymore. Kind of an exploit, but it works.

 

[Agentoringe]

Yeah it does work Elias, pure conjuration mages are fun, probably the best assassins other than an illusion Mage or long range bowman, after getting the perk for summoning twice/three times as far, you will quickly realize you can summon things THROUGH walls or doors...a little time to get your illusion skill tree to 50 (strictly for the silent casting) and you can sneak up, summon something beefy (frost atronach) and then use the bound weapon to assassinate the target from behind while they focus your summon, also later on once you explore the soul cairn and at least the house telvanni apprentice in solstheim, you gain some amazing summons, the summon wrath man spell sets you up with a pretty tanky undead wielding dragon bone weaponry, pretty snazzy lol and the summon ash guardian (with heart stone of course) is a great addition since (last time I checked) it DOESN'T TAKE A SUMMON SLOT!!!! Meaning you can have 2 thralls/a follower, your thralls summoned creatures AND an ash guardian lol pretty awesome...not to mention if you happen to nab the Aetherium Crown, apply the ritual stone as your "crown" stone, then once you use it, you can unequip and re-equip the crown and the power can be used again...conjuration is a pretty broke tree, and it is a ton of fun and challenging at early levels, but it snowballs mid-late game very quickly, with proper magic regen and timing, you always have a summon/thrall up, and very rarely have to engage the enemies yourself...

If you want to really have a challenge though, play a pure frost mage...considering 80% of skyrim is nord and 80% of the vampires you face are nord vampires, the dawnguard content gets super hard lol haha either that or play a "priest" that only uses non damaging spells...those have been the more fun mages I've built, but you seem to be on the road to a fun time yourself good luck!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Cherry]

If you want to level up conjuration quickly without grinding, you can incorporate some necromancy. The simple novice-level Raise Zombie spell gives ridiculous amounts of experience.

 

[Agentoringe]

Yeah Cherry, but dual summoning bound swords for combat will give almost triple that xp, and it will be a skill level up everytime until he gets close to SL50, then it's every other time til 70, bound sword and soul trap are the fastest conjuration leveling spells there is for early game, although once you kill a couple of enemies w said swords, you can dispel one, raise what you killed, and likely be able to summon another sword so it would really speed you up, but if you used that tactic I would play on a difficulty like expert instead of master or legendary, bc taking that much time during a fight to do something other than damage, even against a single target will cost you dearly or cause a death more often than not...I'd recommend boosting magicka as much as I could (math required sadly lol) and account for enough extra magicka to be able to lead the engagement off with summoning a familiar THEN summoning swords so they have something to be distracted with while you summon.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Tayal]

I recommend roleplaying and using destruction magic like Sparks or Flames, and say to yourself that your summoning the magics, if you dont like the idea, it would be a good idea to get at least a bound weapon or summon spell, and a raise dead spell

 

[Cherry]

Yeah Cherry, but dual summoning bound swords for combat will give almost triple that xp, and it will be a skill level up everytime until he gets close to SL50, then it's every other time til 70, bound sword and soul trap are the fastest conjuration leveling spells there is for early game, although once you kill a couple of enemies w said swords, you can dispel one, raise what you killed, and likely be able to summon another sword so it would really speed you up, but if you used that tactic I would play on a difficulty like expert instead of master or legendary, bc taking that much time during a fight to do something other than damage, even against a single target will cost you dearly or cause a death more often than not...I'd recommend boosting magicka as much as I could (math required sadly lol) and account for enough extra magicka to be able to lead the engagement off with summoning a familiar THEN summoning swords so they have something to be distracted with while you summon.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yeah, dual Bound Sword does give a lot more xp, that's true. I was simply stating that a little necromancy also helps a lot with leveling conjuration.

 

[shadowkitty]

I have been working on my Mage character and she uses duel bound swords almost exclusively. I very luckily found the Bound Sword spell book really early in my game play. It works for me very well. She switches from armour to robes, depending on the situation she is in. Granted it is difficult taking on a dragon with just swords but then you use your terrain and NPC's around you to your advantage.
It does involve a lot of dodging and running at first, until your skills level up. Maybe a follower who is also good with magic, or an archer to help out in the beginning?

 

[Agentoringe]

I have been working on my Mage character and she uses duel bound swords almost exclusively. I very luckily found the Bound Sword spell book really early in my game play. It works for me very well. She switches from armour to robes, depending on the situation she is in. Granted it is difficult taking on a dragon with just swords but then you use your terrain and NPC's around you to your advantage.
It does involve a lot of dodging and running at first, until your skills level up. Maybe a follower who is also good with magic, or an archer to help out in the beginning?

lol "luckily found the bound sword spellbook"? You do realize you can BUY that tome for 150g at dragons reach from farengar right? lol along with bound battle axe as well as most novice and apprentice level spells.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[shadowkitty]

I have been working on my Mage character and she uses duel bound swords almost exclusively. I very luckily found the Bound Sword spell book really early in my game play. It works for me very well. She switches from armour to robes, depending on the situation she is in. Granted it is difficult taking on a dragon with just swords but then you use your terrain and NPC's around you to your advantage.
It does involve a lot of dodging and running at first, until your skills level up. Maybe a follower who is also good with magic, or an archer to help out in the beginning?

lol "luckily found the bound sword spellbook"? You do realize you can BUY that tome for 150g at dragons reach from farengar right? lol along with bound battle axe as well as most novice and apprentice level spells.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes but I found it before I even went to Dragonsreach. Like I said, I found it early on in the game.. Why pay for it when you can loot it?

 

[Agentoringe]

bc that's a 1/million chance (not exact numbers but you get the idea) to loot it before dragons reach, or would take extensive dungeon clearing before you go there, either way, starting a new character you can buy the time as fast as you can make it there, usually 15 min after starting the game...faster more efficient, gets you started on your progress quicker and to what your wanting to use quicker as well lol


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk