Is a Skyrim Blood Mage feasible?

Question

Ever since I saw the Equilibrium spell I thought that it might be possible to play a 'Blood Mage' like character. Instead of putting points in magicka you could put them into Health. Equilibrium would be used at the early stages of the game before enchanting was high enough to give you free spells. After that the absence of magicka wouldn't really be noticed and the extra health would be useful.

Are there any special effects on artifacts or perks in the game that would be useful to this character build?

Are there any potential downsides in this character design?

Some of the higher spells use more magicka than is available at the start of the game.

Would it be better to use items with +magicka to cast higher level spells or to put some attribute points into magicka instead of health?

Answer 1

Sort and simple answer is yes! My second character is based around this build. I am currently level 32 and I am quite enjoying it. I rarely use equilibrium as I rarely run out of magicka and when I do I have a loooot of potions from hoarding them around.

At the moment I am dual casting apprentice level destruction - and yes this more than enough to kill frost dragons. maybe it takes a few more hits but it staggers dragons (not Alduin) and I am waiting till my enchanting is 100 so I can make my destruction free and not waste anymore perks. I use rune spells and conjuration (fire, storm and dremora lord) regularly to give me a tactical advantage.

Early game I'd suggest having a follower but not really that necessary later on.

I used restoration perks to increase my magicka regen by 50% so I can use atronach stone. i use arch mage's robe, morokai's mask and self enchanted amulet and ring for giving more magicka+magicka regen. So I suggest doing college of winterhold quests asap. Right now I have around 430 magicka and 410 health.

Hope this answers your question though I am a month late :p

Edit:

I will put up my character build here and edit it every so often if it helps:

• level: 35 (atronach stone)
• Enchanting - lvl 100 (and I always use grand souls for enchanting my gear)
• Destruction - lvl 90
• conjuration ~ lvl 86
• alteration - lvl 33 (I am including this as this is the next skill I will try to develop)
• gear: orcish armor (destruction+alteration), ebony helmet (destruction+alteration), ring (destruction+conjuration), amulet (destruction+conjuration), ebony gauntlets (magicka+something nice). So this makes all my destruction cost 0 magicka.

I tested this at the last part of the main quest-line

from the point where you enter Skuldafn.

It works rather well, would work better with some (crowd) control spells eg. paralysis from alteration, or some illusion spells etc.

Answer 2

I would not worry too much about not having enough mp to cast higher level spells. Reason being that since you are emphasizing enchanting as a skill you want to keep improving, the highest perk in enchanting gives you the ability to dual enchant items, so for all of your reducing cost items, you can also give them an increase to magicka as well. Be careful though, because not all enchants are available to any specific item. Rings and necklaces are work wonders though.

Answer 3

Fortify Magicka and Fortify Health Regeneration are great combo's to put on items for Blood Mages.

Also choose a Fortify Restoration potion before choosing the Atronach. This highly increases your magicka pool and freezes your magicka regeneration entirely which in this case is good; you relie on your Health to use your spells and this way you are more forced to use your Equilibrium spell.

The legally highest possible enchantments you can get per item is Fortify Magicka 108 and fortify Healing Rate 54%. This includes being a Vampire Necromage and the ability to use Ahzidal's Armor as well as the Black Book that can lead you to ways to fortify all of your crafting abilities even further.