Magic is a feature of all Elder Scrolls games. The Elder Scrolls 6 will invariably continue on the tradition of giving players access to various powerful spells and abilities. Many long time fans of the series may be wondering, however, if an older feature of magic will be present in The Elder Scrolls 6.
The game mechanic in question is spellmaking. The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion was the last Elder Scrolls game to have this feature, but it was also present in The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind. Despite being in The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, Skyrim made enchanting, forging, and alchemy the forefront of the game's crafting system and removed spellmaking altogether. However, tons of players want spellmaking to make its return in The Elder Scrolls 6.
Oblivion Explaining Spellmaking
First of all, what is spellmaking? Spellmaking is a mechanic featured many years ago in The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion that players could only access once they had completed several quests to enter the Mage's Guild. The player could only make spells once they had access to an altar of spellmaking which was located inside the Mage's Guild, but the Frostcrag Spire DLC could bypass this by giving the player a house with an altar of spellmaking inside.
Once the player gains access to an altar of spellmaking, they can create special versions of spells they already know. The range of customization includes the spell's range, area of effect, magnitude, and duration, and spells that the player knows can also be combined to make new spells with both properties. The cost to creating the spell is gold and its value is determined by the number of spell effects used and how potent the spell is supposed to be. The player must also be prepared to spend more mana to cast these spells and be at the appropriate level to cast them, something that might be difficult to translate into the next Elder Scrolls game should The Elder Scrolls 6 adopt the stat system from Skyrim.
Skyrim: Why Spellmaking Was Absent
The next question to answer is: Why didn't Skyrim feature a spellmaking system like its predecessors? Something readily noticeable about the spellmaking system from Oblivion is that it functions similarly to the enchanting system last seen when The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim was released. The player must already know the enchantment they want to imbue an item with, and there must be an equivalent soul gem investment to obtain a better enchantment. For some characters, that may require a considerable gold investment, just like in spellmaking.
The answer lies in how Bethesda Softworks changed the magic system. It seems like every time The Elder Scrolls franchise changes locations between games, the spell system became more and more consolidated. Many schools of magic became removed from the series, taking many of its spells along with it while sending some to other schools. The two examples of this are Thaumaturgy and Mysticism. Soul trap used to be a Mysticism spell in Oblivion but was moved to Conjuration in Skyrim while the reflect damage spell was removed entirely alongside Mysticism. It's very unlikely that The Elder Scrolls 6 will bring back Mysticism or Thaumaturgy, but perhaps some of the lost spells may resurface. Even schools of magic that still exist like Illusion and Alteration are shadows of their former selves by the time Skyrim rolled around.
Upon further analysis of the game philosophy that went into Skyrim and Fallout 4, it is obvious that the developer was searching for ways to streamline the RPG experience to gain a wider audience. Proof of this comes from observing the ever increasingly consolidated nature of the stat system. Skyrim becomes the first game to introduce leveling by means of exercising skills rather than gaining raw experience from quests and then putting points into stat lines, whereas Fallout 4 exacerbated this by removing skill points altogether and focused solely on the SPECIAL stats backed up by a perk system.
The intent was to streamline the process of determining the effectiveness of stats, but too much nuance was sacrificed along the way. Bethesda should pump the brakes on this philosophy for The Elder Scrolls 6 because devoted players are becoming more outspoken on the flaws that this consolidation creates for the game.
Because of this idea of streamlining the experience system, the developer may have seen spellmaking as a balancing issue. It wasn't technically a skill one could master in any of the games it was featured in; technically, the players only had to pay the altar enough gold to make the spell. Spells could be made with two different schools of magic or even three, and this would mean that the player could exploit the leveling system in The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim by using the spell to level magic across 3 different schools. This would make any magic build far superior to a non-magic build because they could level up at triple the speed. If The Elder Scrolls 6 is going to have spellmaking, this obvious exploit would have to be addressed first.
The Elder Scrolls 6: Spellmaking Should Return
Despite this, its not too late for The Elder Scrolls 6 to learn its lesson and have spellmaking. As mentioned before, one solution would be to go back to the skill point system similar to Fallout: New Vegas, a system most RPG players are familiar with. Most RPGs have this system implemented to give the player the ability to maximize the effectiveness of their character build as soon as possible. It was a nice piece of immersion to exercise skills to make them stronger, but it lead to the gutting of choice for players.
With Skyrim's enemy level scaling alongside the player, there was little room for pivoting to other combat skills. Crafting skills like alchemy and enchanting required a ton of gold and time making them tedious to level. There were even skills like Speechcraft and Pickpocket that most players never leveled because of how difficult they were to level normally. Reverting this system would be a good idea regardless if spellmaking is included.
Admittedly, the 18 skills in Skyrim are fine as is because Bethesda created balance between them by making 3 equal groupings with Alchemy, Archery, and Enchanting used as soft barriers between them. Adding spellmaking as a skill would upset this balance, not to mention would be a little too exploitable so early. Spellmaking in The Elder Scrolls 6, could be implemented as it was before, through a dedicated crafting table.
However, the best way to implement spellmaking would be to have the player find special NPCs who can be convinced to create spells. These NPCs would be given gold by the player but be forced to wait a certain amount of in-game time before its ready. Dungeons and Dragons is a fantasy RPG that already uses this mechanic to make magic scrolls where a wizard would buy expensive ingredients and then spend days working on making them. The only thing that would have to change for The Elder Scrolls 6 would be to remove the wait function, and relegate time skipping to sleeping in a bed.
The Elder Scrolls 6 is a long ways off, but this should mean that developers have enough time to think about implementing spellmaking. Spellmaking would give some power back to the player by giving players more imaginative ways of interacting with the world.
The Elder Scrolls 6 is in development.