Skyrimis a familiar fantasy world, populated by elves, humans, dragons, giants, and much more! As you’d expect, magic isn’t uncommon and you can use it to your advantage (in and out of combat) as you journey through this treacherous land.
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No matter who you are, what kind of weapons you prefer to use or armor you prefer to wear, spells can be the difference between life and death. In this list, we’ve compiled all the best spells for any play style that you should always have at your fingertips (literally!).
Since we want these spells to be accessible to literally any play style, not only a mage, we’veonly selected spells from the Novice and Apprentice skill levels.
6Clairvoyance
The Clairvoyance spell is simple but effective: it shows you the path to your current goal. This isn’t like Captain Jack Sparrow’s compass;it doesn’t just magically know what your heart desires most!It actually justleads you to your current active quest objective(or the nearest quest objective, if more than one quest is active).
It might seem like there’s no need for this spell when quest markers exist, but quest markers can fail us sometimes. If the location you’re trying to reach is on a different floor, in a ruinous maze, or otherwise hard to find,you’ll be glad you had the Clairvoyance spell handy.
5Lesser Ward
Every character starts Skyrim with the basic Healing spell, so we haven’t bothered to mention it here. However, another basic Restoration-type spell is the Lesser Ward.Wards you cast are functionally like shields:they increase your armor rating and deflect damage. However, they can only deflect spell damage, not weapon damage.
The Lesser Ward is the lowest-level type of Ward available, and someone who only has the base amount of Stamina can cast it for around 3 seconds. It’sgreat for enemies with slow, two-handed weapons,when you can see the hit coming.
Steadfast Ward is the Apprentice-level upgrade of this spell; we don’t recommend it for absolutely every playstyle because it requires 58 Magicka per second. However, if you’re playing in a way that means you’ve dumped at least a little energy into magic, it’s a great improvement.
4Conjure Familiar
If you’re playing as a Breton, you already have this spell! Conjure Familiar allows you tosummon a ghostly wolf to fight at your sidefor 60 seconds. This spell costs 107 Magicka, only one level-up away from the base Magicka you start with, and can come in handy in lots of different situations.
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Regardless of your playstyle,you’re bound to come up against a situation where a distraction would be helpful.Maybe you send your familiar into battle long enough for you to sneak past a group of bandits. If you wanted to fire off a few arrows at range, a familiar would keep the enemy from following you as you back up. You could even just want a few moments of respite and aid to let your Stamina regenerate. Whatever the reason, this wolf is here to help!
3Healing Hands
As we mentioned, everyone starts with the basic spell that lets you heal yourself. However,sometimes it’s not yourself that you’re worried about!
NPCs get themselves into trouble all the time. Some of them are deemed permanently or temporarily “essential” by the game, which means they can’t be killed, but not all. Do you want to back up your follower in combat? Are you trying to keep a quest-related NPC on the move? If so,Healing Hands will let you heal your targetfor 10 points per second, costing 25 Magicka per second. A spellcaster with just the basic level of magicka could heal an NPC for 40 points.
2Magelight
This is a utility spell, not a combat one. It allows you tocreate a light that sticks to any surface you attach it to!The light will stay for up to 60 seconds. It’s an Apprentice-level Alteration spell, but can still be performed by someone who has never upgraded their Magicka.
Candlelight is the Novice-level equivalent forif you don’t want to level up the Alteration skillor if you want a hovering light that follows you instead of a light that sticks to a surface.
Torches are usually readily available in Skyrim, but there’snothing worse than entering a deep, dark cave only to find there are no torchesin sight and none in your inventory. Mightyena to the rescue! It’s also nice not to have to hold the light in one of your hands, in case you want to equip weapons or other spells.
If you cast Magelight on an enemy or NPC, it will follow them arround as if they had cast Candlelight!
1Soul Trap
Enchanted items in Skyrim need to be powered by literal souls. Try not to think about that for too long. To harness those souls, mages use special gems that can contain souls until they are applied to the item in question. When you get into the late-game stages of Skyrim, you’re bound to beusing an enchanted weapon or three, so you’ll need these Soul Gems yourself.
That’s where the Soul Trap spell comes in. This Apprentice-level Conjuration spell costs 100 Magicka (so you don’t need any more than you started the game with) andallows you to capture a soul into an empty gemif something nearby dies within 60 seconds.
