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I'm level 23 and have my Int and Willpower maxed out at 100. My current magicka is capped at 300. How do I raise it such that I can cast a spell (Paralyze) that costs 472 magicka? Will the cap raise above 300 at higher levels?

No, you must temporarily fortify magicka with spells. You may need to cause "weakness to magic" to yourself to make it strong enough though.

Petrus wrote:I'm level 23 and have my Int and Willpower maxed out at 100. My current magicka is capped at 300. How do I raise it such that I can cast a spell (Paralyze) that costs 472 magicka? Will the cap raise above 300 at higher levels?

This makes me wonder. If a character with maxed intelligence and willpower cannot cast a 472 magicka spell, then who can? Does it take a certain race, class, birthsign or whatever? I have just built a breton spellcaster and this makes me worry about her progress in the game.

Some signs, powers and items fortify magicka permanently. Combining weakness to magicka on self and fortify magicka on self you can quite easily get yourself into thousands of magicka points temporarily (try the hardest difficulty strategy guide in the wiki to see how). This might seem pointless until you face a boss fight and start casting 1000-point destruction spells, ending the fight long before the fortify effect expires.
One thing more, when you reach master level in given school of magic, the cost of its spells drops significantly. Quite possible that 470 points effect would drop to some 300 points. Anyway, Paralysis effect is definitely overpriced, no sense to cast long paralysis because if you attack the paralysed, the effect is dispelled. Better tack 1s paralysis on top of some damage spell...

Paralysis for more than 5s simply doesn't cut it in the means of cost:efficiency. Drain Strength+Burden+Weakness to Magicka is way better against heavily-armoured enemies, and after you cast silence on a spellcaster enemy, the fact that they still can move really doesn't matter much. This still leaves silent, light, assassins but applying 800 points of damage in two-three spells will immobilize them permanently

Vook wrote:if you attack the paralysed, the effect is dispelled.

huh, where did u get that idea? if you successfully paralyzed an enemy, it'll lie there on the ground for u to attack until the spell expires.

a 1s paralyze is far more cost efficient because ur enemy spends more time to lie down and then get back up than the time actually paralyzed. i consider this a fair bonus given the ridiculous high cost of the spell.

since we're on the topic of magicka, is there any way to cast the highest level of the finger of the mountains without the fortify spell stacking trick?

I don't think so. I looked it up in TESCS and Finger Of The Mountain is simply overpriced. The "auto-calc cost" is unchecked and the cost entered is about 50% higher than what it would be if calculated. There are several level-versions of the spell (levelled prize) but the higher the level, the more overpriced the spell. Pays most to get on lvl 1-5. Go to Arcane University, spellmake a spell of equal damage and the magicka cost will be much more within reach.

Is this where I point out that magicka costs drop as your skill level rises? When I mastered Conjuration the 500 magika summons I was afraid of in my 20s were barely over 150.

You all are missing the answer to the question: as you raise your casting skill (in a school of magic), the cost to cast spells in that school go down. Once you buff your skills up, Intelligence, and magika...you will have plenty of magika.

Also, always look at the efficiency of a spell... most of the time a spell doing half the damage as a higher level spell will have a magika cost much less than half...you must cast more frequently, but you will at least be able to do it.