OK, ladies and gents, I've always had a problem with magic users. Am I the only one? Maybe I've been playing FPS's for too long? What the world?

Well I've always been a warroir character but, I've been working on my magic but, it doesnt do much damage so ya I guess its hard...

But destruction isn't the only type of magic. There are plenty of "support" types like shields, invisibility, chameleon, stat boosts and the opposite in case you want to cast them at the enemy. I think the biggest problem would be choosing the right spell for the job and getting it selected in the heat of battle. And I don't use much magic myself, mostly waterbreathing and adrenaline rush.

Magic worked well at lower levels but after you start gaining levels I dont think the magic keeps up as well as the sword, it was also stated by bethseda somewhere I think that magic wasnt as powerful and the sword in morrowind and was something they were correcting in oblivion, I am excited to see the result.

I use Magic to Aid combat, but never as the Primary form of fighting or anything. I used Conjuration a lot until I was at level 20 or so, then I could defend myself and didn't need to Summon armour or scamps.

I'm an old fighter converted to mage so I know your frustration well, however I found the freedom of magic excells the "feel" of bashing with swords (although I love to do that aswell from time to time). I think it was in Baldurs Gate that I finally changed my preference from fighting to magic, there was simply much more to do as a mage than as a fighter, but I agree it was a real pain getting used to it.

Magic for me has to become a part of the player to be easy/fun to use, I tend to think of all options I have in a situation and choose the best spell to use accordingly, in fighting I never really worry what kind of attack spell to use (measuring resistances vs damage types) that is just too much trouble, I just use the spell I like the most and does the most damage and fire away.

However I tend to have a sword ready just in case. It's also a good thing you can quickly pause in most games (both BG and MW at least) and choose your next spell with care.

Also a good think with magic is that (at least in morrowind) it doesn't leave you optionless. If you face a tough enemy as a melee-fighter and find out you can't beat it you have to run and buy better equipment or level up a few levels, however as a mage it all depends on how you fight, maybe it's better to put on a poison first and paralyze later just to drain it's endurance and finish him off with a fire spell? If that doesn't work there are litteraly dozens of options to choose from.

I'm pretty much exactly the same, I always like magic but BG definitly turned me to playing magic characters. Mysticism and alteration offered me all the usefull spells for situations which brawn couldn't get you through, and conjuration offered the means to beat somebody more powerful than me without coming back ages later, I just have to use some magicka to summon some sweet armour and a daedric longsword. Dispell was quite usefull for my character who had a couldn't take some of the more powerful spells enemies cast at me (being a vampiric high elf with the apprentice sign)

Well, what with combat (melee primarily, ranged to a degree) being more 'twitch' based - ie. timing swings and blocks - i'm extremely excited to see how magical combat will work.

Its good to see that you can now use magic in combat, because before by the time you change to magic then you are already dead/close to death. I will bet looking forward to use all the destruction explosions with physics too, I think now it will never be better to be a mage.