And mages have lots of tricks up their Magicka-regenerating sleeves to deal with any situation.
One of the most fun mage archetypes to play has to be the battlemage – a ranged/melee hybrid that can take a beating while dealing devastating damage in return.
To become a true battlemage, you’ll need good armor, powerful spells, and the right skills to swing back and forth between short-range melee and long-range magic casting.
It’s definitely possible to play a battlemage in vanilla Skyrim – but it’s even better with some mods that cater specifically to that build.
Regular mages are nothing when they run out of Magicka.
But battlemages are always prepared.
I’m not talking about a flimsy dagger for self-protection but of powerful staves that can unleash fearsome sorcery on your enemies without relying on your own supply of magic energy.
No battlemage would charge into battle without a couple staves rattling behind him – and thanks to KataPUMB’s Staves on Back, you don’t have to.
This mod simply makes your staves visible on your back whenever they are sheathed, which for some reason was left out in the vanilla game.
They’re supposed to lob fireballs, icicles, and all sorts of brutal magic at a mid-range that exposes them to damage.
Much like knights, battlemages need some of the best armor available to withstand their enemies’ physical attacks while they rain down fire on their forces.
DeserterX’s mod is one of the most appealing & high-quality heavy armors you’ll find for Skyrim.
Details like the massive ebony pendant and the dark gleam of the armor give it a certain occult feeling that’s ideal for a battlemage.
Battlemages and spellswords are hardly the same, but they share some characteristics – such as mixing close-range melee combat with powerful magic.
The Wizard Warrior by Dhxxqk2010 makes playing as any of these two archetypes much more dynamic by allowing the Dragonborn to cast magic without unequipping their melee weapon.
No more handicapping yourself by having a spell on your left hand and a mace on your right.
Now you can grab your favorite two-handed sword and swing at your enemies while simultaneously burning them or healing yourself!
Conjuring spectral weapons is one of the only ways to mix magic and melee combat in vanilla Skyrim.
It’s a solid concept, but considering you’ll need to armor yourself if you’ll be fighting in close quarters, you might as well just grab a regular weapon.
Alternatively, you can download Leron9999’s Battlemage Extended.
This introduces similar conjuring spells for heavy armor instead of weaponry.
This way, you can dress like a mage and get those sweet Magicka regeneration effects without leaving yourself open to enemy blades.
If you’re looking for something special to wear underneath your translucent magical plate, check out Elianora’s Battle Mage Armor.
What sets this armor apart from the competition is how it mimics Skyrim’s original style.
This outfit has enough in common with the vanilla mage equipment to fit right into an otherwise unmodded game (pretty lore friendly).
With a low-profile steel cuirass and additional leg protection, this outfit is perfect for the mage who needs to get down and dirty with bandits and Forsworn every other day.
Conjuring a magic weapon so you don’t have to carry one around is clever.
But do you really need to hold it to wield it? I mean, it’s magic!
Eo Geom is an exciting new spell by Elysees that lets the wielder materialize six swords to float around behind them until they choose to attack.
These magical weapons let you fight with melee attacks at a mid-range, keeping you safe from physical damage and striking fear in the hearts of your opponents, now powerless to stop you.
Intellectual inquiries are what they live for – and so, they’ll come to accumulate countless artifacts and trinkets worthy of study throughout their travels.
Modder Elianora captures the battlemage scholar lifestyle in Tel Aschan, a small player home just outside Winterhold that’s packed with potions, books, scrolls, ingredients, and all of that good stuff adventurers love to hoard.
Tel Aschan is a bit like the TARDIS – it’s bigger on the inside.
You’ll find a portal to a grand display hall sitting somewhere in the Void that’ll let you display important souvenirs like enchanted armor, daedric artifacts, and so on.
Skyrim has a reasonably large pool of different spells to try out.
But if you’re roleplaying a battlemage, you’ll need something more specific than what vanilla can offer.
Robbie’s Witch Hunter Spells & Prayers is a 75+ spell pack built around using magic in conjunction with weaponry, both melee and ranged.
Most of these spells provide some sort of buff to your weapons, such as bonus fire damage or the ability to silence enemy mages. There are also more practical spells too, like conjuring arrows out of thin air.
These spells must be learned from Witch Hunter spell books sold by merchants, and they include in-depth lore about the apocryphal Witch Hunters of Tamriel.
In the ultra-violent World of Warcraft, all mages who are still alive are some sort of battlemage.
After all, war is everywhere in Azeroth.
One of the sharpest-looking wizards in World of Warcraft has to be Khadgar, the Leader of the Kirin Tor and one of the most powerful characters in the lore.
These robes by JohnSkyrim are ported over just as they’re seen in the game.
They feature scaled steel protection around the shoulders, and sturdy leather to act as an extra layer of skin – protecting without impairing movement.
This is one of the ultimate battlemage looks you could ever hope to see in Skyrim.
Nelson Chitty is a Venezuelan expat living in Argentina. He’s a writer and translator passionate about history and foreign cultures. His ideal weekend is spent between leisurely playing games of Civilization VI and looking for the next seinen anime to marathon.
