I have a problem here.
Finaly I understood principles of character creation.

And i baffled

There are 2 magica points for 1 intelligence point.
And masx Intel. is 100.
So if i use Breton race and Mage Sign i'll have 300 magica points maximum (without using potions, rings etc.).
Is it true?

I thought there must be at least 400 - 500 to be a powerful mage. 300 is too little .
Am i right or there are ways to increase magica without using additional stuff and cheats???

nope... only mods, enchantments and spells like fortify int... but there are a few instances where you can permanently get your int higher than 100... that shivering isles fellmore drug initiation quest for example (int gets lowered while your high, then lvl getting 10 levels in any low lvl int skill and voila 105 int...)

My friend told me once that mages are too weak and he prefers warriors. Now i can see why.

Thanks very much

I can suggest you Transcendant Fortify Magicka Sigil Stones (50pts) enchantements applied to your robes/armors. A couple of rings will bring you 100 magicka more, which is a great asset.

Also (if you were not aware), spells cost less and less magicka to cast the higher your level in the spell's skill. Really, 300 magicka is plenty (especially if you have maxed Willpower as well).


Spoiler tip below (if you want it):
If you have low magicka and need to train a school of magic, having access to a spell creation altar (via Mages Guild membership or a mod) really helps. You can create a cast anywhere (on Self) trainer spell for each casting skill, costing 3 magicka per cast.

For the most part, the magic system wasn't built for anything other than the standard game. And even then, it was intended that people use other things, like staffs, scrolls, potions, and other magic effects in order to really do anything. Afterall, what is the point of playing if you just have to lob a single fireball something to kill it. Or spend your time throwing 20. Warriors aren't necessarily in a better place, they are limited by what equipment they can get, their fatigue, and usually end up taking damage every time they fight.

The reality is that eventually you need to use more creative means of fighting. There are more ways to get a job done than just flat out damage spells. Don't discount effects like absorb magicka, fortify, elemental shields, damage over time spells, charm, calm, ect. You'd be suprised how quickly a difficult fight can change by combining chamelion, some sneaking skill, and a 100 point charm for 30 seconds on target. It isn't the maximum amount of magic which is important, but how well you can use it.

And how expensive would that be?

Always have Invisibility spells, that way just incase your about to lose you can get far enough away to heal and then blast them to death with fireballs.
Damn bears... (When they go all out on you, constantly staggering you against a wall...)

Playing a spellsword type char is horrible. At about lvl 30 I still had to use flare due to low magicka.

depending on which lvl you advance in the mages guild you get that "wizards fury" spell which is much better than flare and only costs around 50 mp depending on your destruc skill
these dominate spells really are overkill imo... you dont even need to fight anymore lol, just get at least 2 mobs to attack you and turn one on your side hehe... or if it is just one, dominate him and run off...

for a spellsword: get a descent and fast weapon, put a damage spell on 2 and a heal spell on 1, maybe even a summon on 3 and let loose... npcs and mobs usually attack your summon instead of you and you can blast em with whatever magic you like... paralyze is quite good too... or frenzy and then jump on a rock

always have some pots in reserve tho...

also if youre a breton as most mages are, get up your endurance asap... just wear heavy armor and use some repair hammers and it should be up in no time while you lvl destruction and restoration or somin like that...

the difficulty slider is quite useful too lol... around 60% to the right it becomes quite a struggle as you start to do like no damage anymore, but at 50% is quite easy if you use your spells wisely... anything above 70% should only be tried by the most deadly kind of adventurer...
poison using stealth killers (6x times damage for 1st attack + somin round 7 dmg for 30 secs - then a weakness to poison spell maybe paired with some moderate damage or paralyze)

making spells that suit your style of playing is one of the fun aspects of the game imo

One thing to have in mind is: magic driven chars must relies in Intelligence AND willpower. Spells are directly related to skills and attributes. Illusion even uses Personality as driver. The point is fighters will never be good mages even if you give then high Magicka. Why? lack of intelligence and/or willpower, low magic skills. These are the factors that affects magicka cost. Is Better you having 300 magicka and cast a spell costing 100 magicka points than having 600 and casting the same one for 300.

But you can even try Intelligence overhaul and Legendary mastery mods. All my "Antamages" get easy 500+ magicka at levels as 25/30... and even makes up for fearful pure blades when need.

Another thing, Magic driven characters "need" have Magic as his main trait, forget Combat or stealth if planing such personage. This is paramount.

Besides, willpower plays a very important role in magic defense. Elves are wise if invest in it. Personality is wonderful NPC mouth opener (some quests will never show up to rude ones, albeit vanilla bribes are sickly implemented).

PS: if you plan making a Magic driven char, try the Afinity sword mod (shameful self advertisement here ), indeed it is a good weapon for fighters too and just get the better of stealth ones... well, each one type get something different of it but all enjoys its features someway. The point is if using those enhanced monsters mods, this may, can and will save 'your' life several times, without killing the challenge and fun.

PS2: Just curious about the first that will discover and report Afinity's not documented secret

And if you're using the PC version, there is nothing wrong with making a few setting changes since it affects everyone. The vanilla game is by some views, so broken that it actually requires many setting changes. By what logic should it take 30 hits with an ebony longsword to kill a rat (exaggeration)? The advantage of the PC version is that you can make minor changes as they exist to better suit your needs. You can also make things harder for yourself to make up for any advantage you give.

But generally, yes, a specialist character tends to be better than a generalist character at lower levels. At higher ones however, a generalist has more options open to them. A spellsword may be worse in magic compared to a pure mage based on how they spent their stats, but unlike a pure mage, the spellsword can actually fight face to face to do damage, and can use their magicka to keep them healthy, summon assistance, or provide buffs and bonuses. They are also more able to make use of enchanted weapons to cover up their lack of magicka. As said before, a weapon with absorb magicka can make all the difference in a long fight, especially against things that use spells.

as you can lvl 3 attrib each lvl you dont depend on plain magic... personality imo is not so very important and might even break the game if you max it (you might not get attacked anymore and npc might start fighting for you and die)... getting info can easily be done by persuading and illusion skill is mainly useful for sneaky characters (even if they just use invisibility or chameleon which is the ubercheat anyway above 100%)
thus mages should really get up int (alchemy is quite fast), will (alteration) and endurance (armorer and heavy armor) imo and then start lvling the rest to their liking

but as the rest said... use mods or make your own lol... the easy stuff like making a weapon stronger or a spell cheaper etc is done easily by using the cs

also i dont think choosing the mage sign is a good idea... compared to the thief its quite cheap... with thief you basicly get 10 full luck lvls, 2 full agi and 2 full speed which makes you reach the 100 points in each attrib much faster and is a good trade off to a 50 mp points which basicly are just one good spell cast (if at all) even if your favourite skill is maxed (might be useful at the start but even then 10 luck are better i think)

a basic tip is to max one skill first before spreading out to the others as youll have to stay on par with the enemies

also imo sneaking is a valuable tactic for mages... disappearing and the reappearing just to wreak havoc is one of the funniest aspects anyway... all these selfchats of the npc are just too funny to miss "i really shouldnt drink so much ale" etc lol

On the contrary, focusing on just one skill can leave your other stats much lower than they should be (since you'll be only raising one stat by 5, and everything else by 1). Rather than focus on a single skill, focus on skills which are all related to the same stats. Initially, this would be wisdom, intelligence, and endurance. Skills which are not your main skills should not be ignored, they still play a role in determining how much you can raise each stat, and do not count toward your actual level. Blocking, armorer, alchemy, are all things which every character can benefit from. Actually, you may end up havig a harder time being a mage if all your main skills are magic related, since every skill up moves you closer to a level. It's always good to have atleast one skill from each attribute group, that is one of your minor skills. That way if you find one or more stats lacking, you can simply raise that skill a bit. Keep in mind, some of those skills are easier to raise whenever, wherever than others. A lower starting skill is a small price to pay.

who would do a 5/1/1 lvling? either go freestyle and lvl when it happens or go ahead and plan 5/5/5... or 5/5/1 if you look for luck... (thats the most annoying part of oblivion imo... who remembers how many lvls he got in willpower skills after he just closed 3 oblivion gates and did 2 quests over a course of 2 days or somin lol)

concentrating on one skill doesnt mean that you shouldnt lvl anything else lol... but good that you pointed that out

I always just play the game and when I want to level just spam level up whatever skill I want, like for strength, intelligence and willpower. Blunt/handtohand, other magical skills that arn't my major skills. Then I level with +5, it's really not hard, especially when you use alchemy for intelligence, that is just simple to level.

I personally don't level up luck, my character is going to have max level of 50 (can't you just go to jail for ages and lose skillpoints then level up somemore?) so I'm pretty set to use my level 1 point for luck each time.
Character's already level 20 and pretty set in attributes so...

sure you can use the jail method the problem is that it decreases random skills and not necessarily those you like... and loosing restoration or athletics imo sucks quite good as these lvl slow as hell...
it might even increase security and sneak (which i usually use to lvl and gain agi - sneak that is not security)

but ya that just lvl when you do or want to (maybe cause you want to make a smoke break or somin lol) method is probably the most fun...

luck on the other hand really affects anything you do ranging from alchemy over damage to sneaking... its really the best attribute thats why it gets only 1 point... you wont notice changes necessarily but its effective

but if you dont do the 5/5/1 technique it gets hard to reach all attributes at 100 before you hit the end lvl (also be careful not to lvl your main skills too much in the tutorial dungeon or you loose lvls) without using the jail method

That's why I just ran through there without doing much of anything, and I still managed to get him to call me a knight.

Since I deem the Oblivion's leveling system somewhat weird I have been using KAS-AF and intelligence Overhaul for so long that I don't even recall the standard system very well
In KAS I use as normal "The Wheel" path, but the others are interesting in others play styles (let alone custom setups). Intelligence overhaul gives a bit more of purpose to this attribute so underrated in vanilla too.
The main point in the wheel path is the way the adjacent attributes are affected by the 'central one' being practiced, what leads to a balanced leveling without forcing so much 'artificial' playing just to care of this or that attribute. Indeed KAS-AF itself is an whole chapter in the ways of leveling control, so much extensive to treat here.