A specialized build can be a wonderful thing in other Elder Scrolls games, including Skyrim, Oblivion lets you equip items in both hands in addition to your preferred magical spell or power. That means you can use either a one-handed weapon and a shield, or a two-handed weapon alongside your spells for maximum flexibility.

Battlemages can be incredibly powerful at higher levels, but they do get a bit of a weak start, and you'll need to level them up carefully to make sure you get the most out of them. Thanks to Oblivion Remastered's new leveling system, though, that's never been easier than it is today. Here's everything you need to know to build an all-powerful Battlemage, ready to face down the toughest foes in Oblivion without flinching.

Best Skills & Attributes For A Battlemage Build

Choosing A Race, Class, & Birthsign

Thankfully, if you're playing Oblivion Remastered intending to be a your class is already picked for you. There's really no reason to design a custom class - stick with the default Battlemage, and find ways to make it work for you.

As for race, you get excellent bonuses for the Battlemage by choosing to play as either a Breton or a High Elf. Bretons get bonuses to Intelligence and Willpower, both of which are important spellcasting skills, plus a constant Fortify Magicka effect that gives you 50 extra points. High Elves, meanwhile, get bonuses to Alteration, Destruction, and Mysticism, plus a more powerful Fortify Magicka effect. See the table below for a full breakdown of both races' bonuses to skills and attributes by origin.

Ultimately, it's up to you to decide which kind of spells you'd like to use more with your Battlemage build. If you want to deal damage with Destruction and power yourself up with Alteration, choose a High Elf. If you'd rather summon allies with Conjuration and heal yourself with Restoration, choose a Breton instead.

As for Birthsign, there are effectively two philosophies: you can either choose one that boosts your natural abilities, or one that compensates for the Battlemage's shortcomings. Personally, I generally prefer to min-max a Battlemage for maximum damage and compensate for their low defense in other ways (see the gear section below), but I also recognize that their low Endurance in the early game can be annoying. The table below includes a few recommended Birthsigns to consider.

Any of the above will do; choose one based on the types of spells you think you'll be casting most often, and your preferred method of keeping yourself alive during relatively difficult early-game battles.

Best Spells For A Battlemage Build

Heal/Restore

As a Battlemage, your spells are your bread and butter. You'll be using them for everything from healing to damage dealing, but we'll start with the former. You'll want to keep a wide variety of Restoration spells in your arsenal, including those out of the Heal line. You'll likely start with Heal Minor Wounds, which you can upgrade throughout the game at Mages Guilds and, eventually, the Arcane University.

Immolating Blast

You'll pick up a lot of Destruction spells as you progress through Oblivion, but perhaps the strongest available is Immolating Blast. It's a simple, elemental point-and-shoot that does a whopping 110 damage to its target instantly.

You may purchase it from Vigge at the Skingrad Mages Guild, or from Borissean once you get to the Arcane University, but it requires a Master Destruction skill to cast.

Shield/Fortify Endurance

As a Battlemage, your greatest weakness is your relatively low Endurance. Although you'll often be on the front lines of the fight, you don't have an awful lot of HP, and you'll need to find ways to compensate for that. An easy way to do so is to pick up some spells from the Shield line to boost your defense, or anything with a Fortify Endurance effect to temporarily increase your maximum HP.

Disintegrate

Just as you'll be buffing your own skills in battle, you'll also want to weaken your enemies as much as possible. You can purchase Disintegrate from Vigge or Gaspar (at the Arcane University) to slowly chip away at your opponent's armor, quickly making them vulnerable to any and all damage.

Summon Xivilai

Another thing you can do with your magical mien is to summon a wide variety of creatures to fight alongside you. Of these, one of the most powerful is the Xivilai, a powerful Daedra. You can buy Summon Xivilai from Borissean.

Create Your Own Spells!

While purchased spells can take you pretty far, the cornerstone of Oblivion's magic system is the ability to craft your own spells. You can only do so once you've gotten recommendations from every Mages Guild in the game, and unlocked the Arcane University.

As a Battlemage, you'll specialize in a wide variety of different magical schools, which means you'll have lots of magical effects to blend together at the Altar of Spellmaking. This is where you'll find your most powerful spells - feel free to experiment, and get really weird with it.

Best Weapons & Armor For A Battlemage Build

Heavy Armor

Battlemages begin the game with relatively low Endurance, although this can be boosted later on by leveling up. At least until then, though, you'll want to rely on Heavy Armor to keep your Battlemage alive in the early game. Work your way up through the ranks from Steel to Orcish to Dwarven to Ebony to Daedric, and feel free to swap in any unique pieces with handy effects as you go through the game.

Best Weapons For A Battlemage

By choosing the Battlemage class, you grant your character proficiency with both bladed and blunt weapons, although not with shields. As such, I recommend picking a high-damage, one- or two-handed melee weapon as your main tool of destruction.

Ultimately, your choice of weapon isn't particularly important here, as you'll be buffing your melee skills with spells more often than not. Instead of searching for one particularly powerful sword, I'd recommend just picking up what you find, and making liberal use of enchanting to grant your weapons unique magical effects. Just make sure to upgrade your weapon early and often to keep pace with increasingly different enemies.

Battlemage is a surprisingly difficult class to play, but with the right spells and a lot of careful leveling, it can also create an incredibly powerful character. Just make sure you know what you're getting into when you choose this unique character build in The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered.