SureAI

I know HOW to raise combat skills (buy and read skill books) but I have not figured out what raising skills, specifically magic skills, actually does (beyond pillaging your bank account). I haven't noticed any increase in spell efficacy (e.g. power, duration, mana cost) as a result of raising magic skill points. Is the only benefit that merchants stock higher level spells in the relevant magic skill?

Given that you can find leveled magic books lying around Enderal that suggests (if true) the only incentive in spending thousands on skill books is convenience, not having to depend on RNG to find that spell book you wanted. I'm guessing that I am overlooking something (probably an obvious something), but I haven't yet come up with an answer. I'm not even sure merchant inventory is effected by skill levels in a given discipline, it's just the only thing I can think of since there seem to be no other benefits.

A couple of suggestions (yes, I know there is a suggestion sub-forum, but this is piggybacking on my "help" question):
1. The benefits of spending your hard-earned pennies on magic skill points should be made (more?) clear. The benefits of spending memory points are obvious (perks) and maybe the same applies for non magic combat skills and craft skills but, for magic skills, it is not clear enough.
2. IF (IF...I'm totally allowing for the likelihood that I have missed something) the benefit of raising magic skills is just that higher tier spells are made available at merchants (or in the game world..still not sure about that) it seems like a poor incentive for all that money and makes choosing skill points less interesting. At least in Skyrim, raising skills in a given school was necessary to unlock perks.

I'm not knocking SureAI's decision to go old school rpg point system, just looking for what I'm missing or making a suggestion if I'm missing nothing.

Trying to figure out the same thing. Judging by a little research on reddit (I cannot give you the exact link because I'm new here and the forum is blocking me from doing it, sorry) it seems that leveling magic skills only lessens mana cost for corresponding spells. And it lessens it not even that much to make a big difference. Especially considering the cost of expert and master skill books. Which is kinda strange if it is correct. It seems there is no influence on spell damage at all.
And I'm almost positive that there is no connection between magic skill level and spell books available in the stores. I think the stores are influenced by character level or maybe by main story progression.

Thanks for the response, Svaln.

I think we both saw the same comments on Reddit (or elsewhere...I tend to avoid Reddit – it gives me a rash). I also think you are exactly right about the spell book levels increasing for reasons other than skill level.

If it's only a minuscule (read: I cannot discern any difference) reduction in mana cost that magic skill books provide, that's disappointing. It definitely seems like mana cost reduction awarded by magic items and perks far outweigh anything granted by upping skill level.

If there is a mana cost reduction, I'm not sure it's worth the equivalent of a house in the noble quarter every few levels to earn! Focusing on entropy/psionics, I was hoping for more powerful summons (or at least less cowardly...lookin' at you Oorbaya!), scaled or more powerful fears, etc.

It seems odd that you have to spend so much for so little gain on skill points. The best investment for a magic user seems to be saving your money and focusing on a magic tree and using every level up for mana. Without base Skyrim's gated perk system, you can achieve perk mastery in a given school AND have the perk/magic enhanced mana to cast max level spells by level 12 without a single skill point invested in any skill, magic or otherwise.

Gotta be missing something.

If anybody has an answer to this, drop some wisdom on us!