Do you want to create a powerful wizard to cast spells all over Tamriel? Well, you came to the right place! In this article, we’re going to tell you the best race for a mage in Skyrim. We picked these races based on their racial abilities and starting skill points, as mages need very strong racial perks to survive during the early game.
Mages also need magicka in Skyrim to cast spells, which can be hard to stack if you haven’t developed your Enchanting skills. All of the races we picked are exceptional at staying alive during prolonged fights. This is necessary due to the limited magicka pool that low-level mages have and the costs of regenerating it. These races will also adapt very well to any mage build that you can find online. So, you can just pick the one that fits better to your playstyle or the one that looks cooler to you.
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Imperial: Best Race in Skyrim for Defensive Mages
Imperials are the perfect race for players who want to roleplay as a priest or a paladin, as their starting stats and abilities are useful to make defensive or ‘spellsword’ builds. While their bonus skill points in Restoration aren’t exactly powerful, they can be useful to heal yourself during your early levels without having to invest extra points.
The racial ability of the Imperials is called Voice of the Emperor, which is an ability that pacifies nearby people for 60 seconds. Pacified enemies will stand around as if they were regular NPCs, which can allow you to get enough time to assess your situation. While this ability isn’t powerful nor fancy, it can be used to save yourself if you get surrounded by enemies, or to get enough time to conjure your most powerful spells.
Dark Elf: Best Race for Vampire or Sneak Mages
If you want to play as a vampire or a sneaky mage, then the Dark Elves are the race you’re looking for. They can make for good vampires due to their natural fire resistance, as receiving 50% reduced damage from fire halves the most negative effect that vampires have which is a 100% weakness to fire. Their bonus starting points in Illusion and Sneak will boost the effects of the Nightstalker’s Footsteps and Champion of the Night abilities, which are vampire perks that increase your sneakiness and the power of your Illusion spells.
Dark Elves have the Ancestor’s Wrath racial ability, which gives them an aura of fire that damages nearby enemies at no cost. While the Dunmer are extremely powerful mages at early levels, they fall off hard as their racial ability doesn’t scale with anything. Sure, having free AOE damage can save you from a lot of bad situations, but at a certain point, the damage that the Ancestor’s Wrath skill does isn’t enough to justify even using it.
High Elf: Best Race for Spell Spamming
The Altmer, or High Elves, are one of the best races in the game for players who want to play a pure mage build in Skyrim. They get a set of well-rounded magic skill bonuses that can help you go deeper in any school of magic that you decide to rank up. They also get 50 extra magicka points due to their passive Highborn racial ability, which can go up even further if you make yourself a vampire and then take the Necromage perk from the restoration tree.
Their Highborn ability lets them regenerate their magicka faster for 60 seconds and you can use it once a day. This can be used to restore your precious magicka faster after a long encounter or to maintain a barrage of spells during a difficult encounter. While this sounds overpowered at first, you won’t get the magicka instantly, so you still need to wait for your mana pool to regenerate.
Breton: Best Race Overall for Mage Builds
The Breton are the most magic-oriented variation of the subraces of men, and for pretty good reasons. They get innate 25% magical resistance, which is nice enough to get to the magic resistance cap without much effort. They also get extra points in the Conjuration school of magic, and a few extra points in alchemy, which are skill trees that always come in handy for magic builds.
Their Dragonskin racial ability lets them absorb 50% of any incoming magic damage and convert it into magicka. While it might sound bad at first, 50% magical resistance is a lot, and coupling it with converting some of the damage you receive into magicka will let you power through magic-oriented enemies. If your enemy casters are close, you can use it to tank some damage and return some spells. You can also use it to recover mana if you think that sacrificing some health to get mana back is beneficial. And if you like cheese strategies, you can also use it to beat high-level casters like the Dragon Priests.
