UESP Forums

Hello yes hello...

I'm playing a pure, (well if wielding swords counts as pure) mage, but I'm very unsure wheather I should use a weapon or not! I've thought about this for a long time but I'm still unsure. I wanted to dual-wield bound swords and use every magic school, is this a bad build? And should I even use bound swords or normal swords!!!

Or should I use a two-handed weapon, or not use any weapons at all?!?!

AAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If I dedicate myself to the bound weaponry, then I'll get all the perks for them, but if not, then I'll carry around a dagger with soul trap to make up for easy soul trapping. I could cast banish anyway, and yeah I could smith a daedric sword to legendary and give it paralyze and absorb health and 1 hit kill everything and so forth, but I also don't feel like carrying around any weapons, though I seriously want to invest heavily in the one-handed skill tree, be it normal or bound swords...

Should I even dual-wield?

Don't worry if it is a bad build or not, (it isn't) just play the game that yo want to play. That build sounds fun so use it.

I've just made a brand new Argonian mage too (my Orc Imperial Soldier got boring), and I'm not using any weapons at all. I'm using a shield though and it's working great so far. I can block a heavy hit that would otherwise flatten me (I'm not investing in Health and I'm wearing robes with gauntlets and boots, kinda like the Vigilants of Stendarr), and I can bash anything that gets too close, and then fry it while it's staggered. I do have a dagger, but I honestly didn't have to use it even once yet.

I don't think there such a thing as a "bad build" here. In Oblivion I had that problem all the time - I'd pick wrong attributes, I'd train up the wrong skill and boom, some stray wolf would be able to rip me to pieces around level 12. I've started a bunch of different characters in Skyrim and they were all totally playable, even if not exactly easy to deal with.

Using every magic school would be good for versatility, especially if you're having trouble deciding. One-handed is definitely more practical than two-handed for a mage, and then you can use spell & sword with dual-wielding.

Ultimately, it's just whatever you want to play, as Dika and dzio said. Go with whatever you most want to use, and you can make it work.

There some disadvantages to bound weapons - they aren't improvable, and hence are limited to around 70-100 damage if you have maxed skill and all relevant perks. I don't know if fortify weapon skill affects them, but it should, and that remains the only way to increase damage.

base game only has bow, sword and battleaxe, with a dagger available with the Dragonborn DLC.



There are major advantages - they are zero weight and equivalent to Steel/Daedric (perk dependant) weapon of the same type - in essence they are worth knowing just for that. Also the bow, available at level 1 to an Altmer wearing the novice hood found in Helgen, in a bucket in Fort Amol Prison, does 42 damage before skill and perks - the highest damage achievable at level 1, which when sneaked is able to one shot a bandit on Master difficulty.

For sword and axe, they gain conjuration experience as well as relevant weapon skill when used, don't know about the dagger myself, and the bow doesn't because of a bug.


While I wouldn't use them for an endgame character, a low to mid level character they are almost ideal, the lack of damage improvement without using an enchanting slot being the only major problem.

I'm not sure if the Bound Bow can be improved by Elemental Fury, but if it can, you can turn it not an unstoppable weapon with the right combination of perks. If you get the Power Shot and Quick Shot from Archery tree (plus the perks that increase damage, of course), meditate on the right word with Paarthunax and then increase firing speed with Elemental Fury, you will fire so fast and stagger enemies so often, that they won't get a chance to reach you, even if it takes quite a few shots to bring them down. Combine it with the sneaky first shot (or first few if you're careful and a bit lucky) and it's the most awesome weapon ever. My main character is lev46 now and she doesn't even carry a real bow (have one stashed away for later though).

Thanks for all your inputs guys, I don't think elemental fury affects bound weapons, but another reason I only want to dedicate my self to the bound swords is because if I get powerfully smithed swords with deadly enchantments, I may be using them over magic, but it's mainly the whole 'carry nothing' thing. I power-leveled conjuration all the way to 100 so I could make it legendary, just to get the perks back from the bound weapon perk tree since I thought I'd use normal weapons instead. Now I'm going back to bound weapons, all this is madness.

But I think I may stick with bound swords now, another advantage is that they can't be disarmed either, that way I mainly rely on spells. (now I'll have to make smithing legendary to get back that 1 perk I put into steel smithing...)

You're right, Elemental Fury doesn't work on bows and it doesn't work on boud weapons. Still, even without that part a bound bow can be a fantastic weapon.

I've played a few ways with bound weapons and with smithing.. I lean towards bound only because my Mage wears no armor and bound weapons don't need smithing perks and I can use them perks elsewhere.. Now after I'm leveled I can switch and start perking smithing since I have stock piled material, but early game I almost always go bound weapons, its cheap, it levels multiple skills, and it can be used to trap souls and banish deadra

Sounds like a good idea, I might switch in the future, but I'll make that choice when the time comes. The bound bow and bound arrows are apparently equivilant to a daedic bow and arrows with mystic binding, plus the 100 arrows out of nowhere sounds like a nice feature. Not that my mage uses bows though, but it's very tempting...

I've never actually got the spell

Use a staff....

Raynil dralas wrote:Use a staff....

I dont believe i have ever actually used a staff in combat before (besides in the CoW questline). They just feel....impractical to me.

I usually only carry a staff as a last resort weapon. Something that can let me retreat if I'm getting my butt kicked and run out of magicka, scrolls and potions.

Staves really never appealed to me. Spells were almost always weaker than what I'd need or want to use except for the wall and aoe spells like flames.

I don't know if this is still active or not, but I'm not necro posting... So I guess it's alright. I would suggest doing the bound swords due to the fact once your conjuration get's high enough, it's basically wielding daedric weapons into battle. When you aren't able to wield them, with the mixture of all magic school, you'll be able to output a lot of damage and do good amounts of healing for yourself as well.

Both of my mages use weapons. Well, one of them is more of a nightblade but my conjurer uses Dawnbreaker all the time. She doesn't leave home without it. She summons, ebonyflesh, then pulls out her sword with a spell in the other hand. It helps her save magica and its way funner to play her that way.

I never use bound weapons..

I usually keep a bow and an enchanted weapon (a sword or a dagger) on my mage in case things get ugly. I usually keep a follower around as a meat-shield, but I need to get better conjuration spells.

Go old school and just use your fists.

Pfft. Aetheria is my weapon. I rend soul and flesh as one would butter with a knife. The hard part is getting the blood out of my robes.

Try out a bound sword in hand, and spell in the other, it lets you be very versatile without giving up damage output.
Dual-Wielding bound swords is an interesting idea, but stick with the spellsword until you are low on magicka, then start slicing away until you get it back up.

My mage only use Staff of Corruption

Mostly it comes down to what level of difficulty you play on. If you play on lower difficulties this allows magic to shine at higher levels it becomes weak since you cant really improve it. I found that at adept it played well for the different schools Alteration for defense conjuration and destruction for offense. Summoned weapons just depend if you want this to be one of your stronger schools of magic.
I played my mage till she was level 70 and had a great time just watch out for supprise attacks catching you off guard.

jermleenats wrote:The best weapon choice is the one that gives you the best stats. You should NEVER melee (wand if you are OOM) so damage doesn't mean anything. It always comes down to staves vs 1H weapon + off hand item. Just go with the one that gives you the better TOTAL stat buffs.

This sounds like it should be directed at a different game.

These mages that everyone have played, do they only wear robes? I hate getting killed.([&@%!] me off)
I kinda prefer the spell-sword techniques. But just wondering what the majority of you wear.
To see a good spell-sword in action hire Belrand. I learned much from him.