Being a fan of Skyrim is often very confusing as the game goes from astounding to just completely baffling. The people who live in the providence of Skyrim don’t seem to be the brightest lot at times. From thinking they are the Dragonborn, to literally getting robbed because someone placed a bucket on their head, the Skyrim general public seems a bit too oblivious. Since magic is frowned upon, players would think the reaction to them becoming a mage would be a bit more extreme. As it turns out, though, many residents may not even know how to identify an actual mage, let alone deal with one.

10 Ice Powers

Being able to be an ice mage in Skyrim is just a bit redundant if you ask most players. With the hordes of enemies use to the freezing cold and ice wraiths flying around near the northern mountains, it can be a bit hard to be a truly effective ice mage in the game. Surprisingly though, players can beat the game this way.

It’s a bit surprising that being a fire mage isn’t more powerful going on how the whole providence is made out of snow and ice.

9 A True “Mage”

Using magic is pretty easy to do, and can be pretty helpful when you in a tight spot. This is how many mages in the game are made. Players either run out of arrows and result to flames, or they need a ranged attack and result to sparks. Before players know it they have leveled up their destruction magic pretty well.

There are a ton of mages playing the game, but the NPCs just might not be able to recognize them for all the armor.

8 Swords Are Easy

Playing as a mage can get a bit boring at times and it’s just so easy to use that looted broadsword. Many players set out determined to play just as an all-powerful mage build, but upon looting a few bandits, they switch over to a sword or bow because it is just so much easier to use early on.

Building up a powerful mage can take a lot of time, some players are just more interested in going with the flow than leveling up a mage.

7 Conjuration Complications

For players that do end up learning a few spells, the conjuration class can be quite tempting for a wide range of reasons. Some of the early conjuration spells will let you create weapons that you can use over and over again out of then air. One of these conjured weapons is a trusty bow.

Many players will start to sneak around more with this conjured bow and before they know it, they become an archer.

6 The Arch-Mage Knows All!

There are tons of completionists out there who had very little interest in magic but wanted to do every quest in the game. It was inevitable that they would have to beat the College of Winterhold questline sooner or later. Some players decided to be good sports though and use their limited range of spells to do so.

It’s no secret that there are tons of arch-mages now walking around without knowing anything, but the base spells.

5 The War Path

Players who don’t have time to use weak magic spells will simply take on the College of Winterhold using their trust swords and hammers. The college really needs to implement more magic centric tests as it’s way to easy for any sword-wielding resident to walk in and become the arch-mage.

Some players even make it their goal to take on the questline without ever using any type of spell to complete it.

4 Magicka Problems

Mage classes are partially irritating to play because of their heavy reliance on magicka. If a player runs out of magicka, then they aren’t really able to defend themselves. Other builds don’t deal with this, as even on depleted stamina, they can still deal light blows to the foes around them.

Many players will start out using destruction magic only to learn that the magicka meter is completely drained in a matter of seconeds.

3 No Respect

It’s no secret that news seems to travel incredibly slow in the providence, but gamers would think that the arch-mage would have an air of power. Even after proving yourself, everyone in Skyrim will still recommend that you go visit the College of Winterhold or ask you if you have ever heard of it.

This is the equivalent of in-game years going by and NPCs still talking about dragon attacks that happened forever ago.

2 Powe Levels

It’s a bit confusing how many enemies in the game are willing to take on clearly overpowered players. The Dragonborn looks quite frightening when he gets to higher levels, and the armor players usually wear is nothing like anything a simple guard puts on in the game.

Even so novice mages still believe that they can take on an overpowered hero with the powers of a dragon.

1 Controlling Your Power

It’s no secret that destruction magic is well, destructive, and can be quite problematic in the game. Many players have had to deal with accidentally dowing their ally or killing the person they needed to protect in the quest. This is just one of the many problems that comes with being a mage.

No matter what type of gamer picks up Skyrim, they will most likely end up destroying something with fire.

NEXT: Skyrim: 10 Easter Eggs You Might Have Missed The First Time Through