I'd like to max my pure mage to 81.

[RainingBlood]

I started him off as a pure mage and he's currently level 35 with 91 destruction, 60 conjuration, and 45 restoration. I've grown to really like this character and I'd like to max him out to 81.
Only problem is, it's difficult to train the other combat skills without investing valuable perks into them. Would it be practical to do this? Or should I just start another character...

 

[DovahCap]

Don't max him level wise. Max him magic wise, I think you can get to about 45 levels under a specific sign.

 

[Squirrel_killer-]

If you max just the skills in magic and are perk wise you should actually have extra perks.

 

[RainingBlood]

Don't max him level wise. Max him magic wise, I think you can get to about 45 levels under a specific sign.

Why shouldn't I max him level wise?

 

[DovahCap]

Why shouldn't I max him level wise?

Because it's siiilllllllly.

 

[Xivia4]

You can max any skill to 100 without putting a single perk in that skill. I always max out lockpicking without spending a perk point.

 

[Squirrel_killer-]

Why shouldn't I max him level wise?

Destruction caps out too early to be effective past level ~50 at the most. You will be too weak to enjoy the game on any difficulty. This is because enemies scale with your level, but destruction can't do enough damage at higher levels and thus becomes too weak to be effective unless you stun lock the enemy.

 

[Kalin of High Rock]

You can max your mage just fine. However, you will find as you get higher in level you'll have more talent points than you need. It's good to supplement these into your melee skills so you can adopt a spell-sword/Battle-mage build if you so desire. As said earlier, destruction magic doesn't scale well. Some times it's best just to beat people with a sharp stick.

You won't have any issues leveling your melee/defensive skills without perks, especially if you use dead-thrall to level up in a controlled environment. Fine a sturdy bandit chief with good teeth and strong legs. Apologize profusely as you murder them and enslave their corpse. No need to be rude about this, we are going to be working together after all. I'm sure they understand. Nine out of ten necromancers agree that people are happier as zombie slaves.

Trot your new best friend forever over to someplace safe. I like The Companion's courtyard behind Jorvaskaar simply because I enjoy the way the Companions gather to watch me spar and Cheer and place bets...On "the big one...", though I am invariably "the little one", I pretend I didn't hear my sword brothers and sisters say that. Equip the armor you want to focus on (Light, Heavy). A shield, if you want to block and a weapon (Don't use power attacks.)

Give your Thrall a little whack (Four taps will set him off) and then just weather the blows. Block if you like. This is also the perfect time to work on restoration. If you intent to melee him, you can go until he dies, then raise him again. Or you can lower your weapons. This will stop the attack and you can both take a breather if you need it.

It's perfectly safe, fairly efficient and I enjoyed this method quite a bit...and I'm not sure why.

 

[MushroomGenius]

Why shouldn't I max him level wise?

Because then he'd no longer be a "Pure Mage". He'd have the taint of weapons + armor on him.

 

[Doomy]

Enchanted would give a nice boost and is a mage skill

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[Agentoringe]

I really wonder where you guys get your info on destruction not being able to do enough damage, I hear at lower levels it's underpowered, and higher levels it doesn't do enough damage, etc etc, but at level 3, if your first 2 perks are apprentice destro and destro dual casting you kill almost anything either before it gets in range or before it can even draw a weapon...if anything it's overpowered at early levels and tapers off as you level, also, the npcs in game only level with you until level 50-55, alduin being the exception at 62, so not only just bc of a level difference in power, but at 81, my Mage with 100 destro can drop a legendary dragon in about 3-4 dual casts of incinerate/thunderbolt/ice spear...and.i play on console (Xbox) so I don't have the "spell boost" enchants or any kind of augments to my game available (I know I can copy my profile, add the mods and then xfer it back but I don't have a comp lol) mages, let alone a true Mage is incredibly overpowered, especially with the options of either casting 3 spell schools for free, or casting 4 spell schools for 85% cost reduction, they are stronger early and late game than anything other than an illusion assasin/assasin type character and that's only bc you won't see them before they would hit you lol true mages are too stronk man, don't let anyone tell you different lol

 

[BSE]

I think it would be silly to level to 81. My first character was a pure mage and by level 40 I was a god. I played for about 10 more levels then got bored cuz nothing could even touch me.

Ive actually had more difficulty playing as a warrior than as a mage, so I dont get where people come up with the idea that mages are underpowered or weak.

 

[Doomy]

Agreed. Destruction is plenty powerfull, it might not one shot everything, but with stagger nothing ever gets close enough to do any damage.

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[Gandalf The Boss]

Hehe.. I have was just like you one time.
Than when I had maxed all the Magic Skills I started to stain myself with the knowledge of more physical nature. So I became a Battlemage with no regret in learning to ways of swords and armor.
Happy times

 

[RainingBlood]

So, would it be actually bad to level my mage to 81? I'd feel better maxing the dude out before moving on. And I've also heard that enemies stop leveling with you in the mid 50s.
Would a warrior be a better candidate for level 81?

 

[Morgan]

So, would it be actually bad to level my mage to 81? I'd feel better maxing the dude out before moving on. And I've also heard that enemies stop leveling with you in the mid 50s.
Would a warrior be a better candidate for level 81?

But then you'd have to stop playing the archtypical warrior style at around 50 and switch over to be a mage. Leveling to 81 means maxing out every skill, so really the only chars who can do that are the jacks of all trade, bard types.

The only reason to level to 81 is to level to 81. If that's important to you, by all means have at it. I'd rather start a new char if I wanted to switch playstyles though, and have the experience of really RELYING on the new skillset, rather than knowing I have an uber-powerful fallback, or just sitting there and grinding it using an exploit. I'd feel like I was cheating if I decided to level Destro from 15 to 100 when I already had a bunch of other primary skills maxed out. Leveling it from 15 to 100 when it's my highest skill is entirely different.

 

[Kalin of High Rock]

You also need to get to 79 before Legendary dragons start appearing on a reliable basis, for achievement hunters. Then it's just a short trip to maximum level, I know that's why I maxed out my mage. Pursuit of the legendary foe.

It was my white whale for some time, a real annoying achievement.

 

[Dagmar]

I really wonder where you guys get your info on destruction not being able to do enough damage...

I don't know what even brought this comment up. No one in this thread said anything like this.

Kalin of High Rock did make the accurate observation that comparitively, spell damage doesn't scale well. That's not a matter for dispute, it's simply a fact. Melee skill has a scaling effect on melee damage, magic skill doesn't on spell damage. Melee damage bonus perks increase melee damage by 100%. Magic damage perks increase spell damage by 50%. You can dual cast but it's only 20% more than the damage increase from a melee power attack.

That's not to say that Destruction magic doesn't deal enough damage or have other features that equalize the playing field in terms of damaging enemies, with the Impact perk being the most signficant one, but when it comes to actual damage per attack the ability to increase damage with weapons dwarfs the damage per attack you can achieve with Destruction magic. It's very telling that you can often read about players deliberately self-nerfing their weapon damage in the Skyrim to make it more challenging but you almost never hear about players self-nerfing Destruction magic damage.