What I Want from Elder Scrolls VI: Magic
I already talked about what I’d fix for Stealth builds, but my other favorite play style is Magic builds. Don’t expect one for warriors though. I have only ever played a warrior one time, and I got bored of it pretty quickly.
- I want Necromancers to be able to do more. I liked that Skyrim expanded magic to give players the chance to play Necromancers, but for Elder Scrolls VI I want them to take Necromancy, and push it further. In Skyrim, necromancy pretty much only brings back the dead. While we got more options in Creation Club and Anniversary Edition, most times when I build a necromancer, I still rely on mods to give my necromancer damage-dealing spells. Elder Scrolls Online moves in the right direction, giving Necromancers a multitude of different necromancy spells that aren’t all just animating skeletons, and I’d like Bethesda to keep going in that direction. Let me create a Spirit Cloak of wailing phantoms or necrotic energy. Let me manifest skeletal armor and lob magical skulls. Let me drain life, magicka, and/or stamina from my foes to make them weak and easy to kill. Let me sacrifice a portion of my health to deal massive damage with forbidden dark magic, paying a blood price for power.
- Allow players to interact with their summons. It’s all fun and games summoning frost atronochs or having an army of skeletons. Until you need to move through a hallway and your stupid summon is blocking your way. You can’t move them out of the way either. It takes the fun out of playing a necromancer when you have to just stand there and wait for the spell to expire, attack your own summon, or pointlessly run into them, hoping you might push them out of the way just long enough to get past them.
- Give damaging spells to every spell category. Are you trying to play a sneaky illusionist, but oops, Frenzy is your only means of fighting enemies with your illusion magic. Good thing sometimes you only get attacked by one enemy and now Frenzy is worthless. This sort of feeds back into the expanding Necromancy thing. Sometimes players want magic catered to their character, or they challenge themselves with a certain build.
- Add or Expand Upon Spell Types. In the Dawnguard DLC, there are a few Restoration spells that deal Sun damage. Through mods, it’s possible to build an entire character around being a sun-damage cleric type, and it’s a lot of fun for roleplaying. I’d like to see Elder Scrolls VI take this idea and expand it further, making Sun damage the main damage type of the Restoration school. Maybe make Psychic spells the damage type of the Illusion School. Necrotic or Shadow damage for Conjuration. Stone and Wood magic for Alteration, altering Alteration to the school for environmental magic. Maybe Water and Wind would also be Alteration. Add Blood magic or Dark magic to the school of Destruction.
- Add unique quest and faction spells. Have you finished a quest for the priests of Dibella, or joined their priest faction? Maybe the high priestess will teach you some Illusion or Restoration spells only available to those favored by Dibella and/or the Aedra. Have you killed in the name of Sithis and the Night Mother? Here’s some spells that deal Poison and/or Necrotic damage, disguise your appearance to frame others for murder, or a spell that disorient guards while turning you invisible, allowing you to escape detection and hide from authorities. Did you become a vampire? Here’s spells you only gain access to as a vampire. Have you won the favor of Nocturnal? You should get some spells available only to those favored by the Daedra, as well as some stuff exclusive to Nocturnal. Now, if I want to build a Priest of the Divines, I can win the favor of all the Eight Divines, and just build a character around Sun damage, Aedric Spells, and the unique spells I can only get from each Aedra. Did I build a Necromancer? I’ll bet the unique spells from Vampires, Sithis, or even Arkay made that build more diverse and interesting.
- Allow Mages to Play Different Archetypes. While I don’t want hard classes in Elder Scrolls VI (we have Elder Scrolls Online for that) make it possible for magic builds to cater to every magical archetype: Wizards, Necromancers, Clerics, Druids, Bards, and Cultists/Warlocks (Daedric Priests). And by mixing those with other builds, you can make a Paladin, Ranger, Arcane Trickster, or Arcane Knight. Just add spells that fit those archetypes.
- Give mages a Lockpicking Spell. Have you ever played a mage in a dungeon and come across a mandatory expert level lock that you need to pick, but you’re a mage build and picking a lock just feels out of character? Give mages spells to open the door or teleport past it so that they aren’t forced into one type of gameplay. Maybe it’s the point that Stealth characters are the best dungeon delvers, but it kinda breaks the immersion of playing a master wizard. It’s also not very immersive for Warrior players, but this isn’t about them. Sure, you could just make your follower pick the lock, but that’s not the point. You’re a mage. Use magic to solve the problem.
- Make learning and mastering magic part of the Mage Guild Questline. You barely need to know magic to become the Archmage of the College. I’ve never completed the Mages’ College storyline, but I’m pretty sure you only need to know two spells to complete the storyline. Whatever random spell you demonstrate to Faldi to cross the bridge and join the college (which you can skip with a high enough Persuasion. I would know, I’ve done it) and Steadfast Ward. You can become the Archmage of Skyrim knowing only 3 - 5 spells depending on race and persuading Faldi. I should need to learn spells and prove my level of progress before my guild master trusts that I’m strong enough for the next task in the main storyline. Is it possibly frustrating and grindy? Maybe. But I’d rather have a main storyline take me 20 hours than 20 minutes. This kinda gets back to the issue of ranks within factions I’ve mentioned over several posts now. I should not be the archmage of Skyrim with 3-5 apprentice level spells.
- Have multiple Mage Guilds. Ideally, the best choice Bethesda could make in giving us factions is to basically make one for every archetype: a wizard’s college, a cleric’s cloister/temple, a druid’s grove, a witch’s/hagraven’s coven, a bard’s troupe, a necromancer’s sect, and a warlock’s cult. But I’d settle for 4 factions: Wizards, Aedric Priests, Necromancers, and Daedric Priests. Though for the Priests, I would like it if you could join the temple/cult of a specific Aedra or Daedra. While I’d settle for a blanket faction of Priest that worships all of the Aedra or a Cultist that serves all the Daedra, it would be fun to be able to play through a game as solely a Priest of Dibella, and serving only her for that character without automatically being in a faction for all of the aedra. Plus, more factions means more storylines, more hours of gameplay, more builds, more playthroughs, and more unique characters.
- Have Multiple Mage Colleges. If they can’t manage to have multiple “class” factions, then just having the mage college be split into literal schools of magic would be the next best thing. It would still be an improvement over Skyrim. Let there be a school of restoration, so that if I want to only focus on restoration magic, I can just attend that school if I so choose. I cannot emphasize how barren and empty the College of Winterhold feels. At least across multiple colleges, 3 students each would actually amount to something.
- Streamline the Mage Perk Tree. If you’re going to play a mage, you’re going to dump a lot of points into boosting every type of magic. It’s doable, but mages have to invest a lot more perk points than Warrior or Stealth characters.
- Make Magic less taxing. It costs a LOT of magicka to be a mage. I often hear people say when building mage characters to split your skill points 70-30. 70% Magicka, 30% Health. Magic basically requires complete commitment, because if you only put a few points into magicka, you will struggle to cast just about any spell, making playing an Arcane Trickster or an Arcane Knight very difficult, forcing you to invest a lot of resources into magic that you maybe only wanted as a support skill.
- Add a Faith/Alliance Perk Tree. This is again mostly for Aedra/Daedra, but the concept could be expanded to other things, like how Skyrim has perk trees for the Vampire Lord and Werewolf but use different points than the ones you use for leveling your main skills. Conceptually, it would give unique perk trees for either the Aedra as a collective whole, or each aedra individually, and likewise for the Daedra (and possibly other gods and powerful figures like Sithis). This would allow you to earn points with those you serve, unlocking new features as you level up your faith or loyalty with that higher power. Thus allowing a character to really worship and devote their build to either a single higher being like a Priest of Dibella build, or an entire pantheon like a Priest of the Divines build. However, maybe this idea could work as sort of a faction tree. Unlocking unique skills and perks as you level up in a faction, like how joining factions in Elder Scrolls Online gives the player unique skills and perks from joining that faction. Or, you could even earn the respect of high power NPCs. Wouldn’t it be nice if befriending someone like Maven Black-Briar came with perks? An Alliance skill tree where you unlock new perks as you win over NPCs would give players incentive to become invested in the social aspect of Tamriel. Not unlike confidante perks in Persona 5. Your friends make you powerful, and it’s good to have friends in high places. Especially if you’re set in High Rock where there’s so much intrigue, backstabbing, and plotting, having perks from your allies would be beneficial and immersive.
- Vampires of Every Shape and Size. I mentioned this in my vampire post, but I’ll repeat it here. I’d like to see multiple vampire factions in the next game. Elder Scrolls VI is theorized to be set in the Iliac Bay region of High Rock and Hammerfell, which is host to NINE different Vampire Clans. That’s enough options and variety that you could have 3 clans each that lean more toward Warrior builds, Stealth Builds, and Magicka Builds. And those are just the ones in the Iliac Bay region, that’s not including the other vampire clans that exist in Rivenspire.
- Allow Players to become a Lich. Not everyone wants to be the hero. Sometimes, they want to become the most evil thing possible. If we’re going to be expanding necromancy spells, and maybe even getting a necromancer faction, I’d love the option to perform the wicked sacrament that turns us into a lich. Let it be like becoming a Vampire Lord or Werewolf, with its own skill tree. I don’t know if players would be able to enter and exist Lich form the way they can do with Vampire Lord and Werewolf, but it would truly take playing a Necromancer to new heights to be able to become a true master of undeath.
