Now at this point everyone is thinking NO. But let me explain why they have are a good choice Their cons are: no extra starting magika, no extra starting spells, they start with no major mage skills, and most Nords hate Mages. But they have one huge thing going for them, they have battlecry. I recently played a Nord Pure-Mage for roleplay purposes but soon realized their potential as mages. At the beginning he appeared horrible at magic compared to other races, but once he leveled up a little and was at par with the other races I realized he was greater. Anytime a hard boss fight came up I would drop battlecry and destroy the fleeing boss with dual cast destruction spells. This became a better tactic when I got the Impact perk and could hold an enemy in place without worrying about it hitting me. To me battlecry makes Nords the dominat mage race, but I want to here what you think about Nords and if they are good choices for mages.
Although Battle-cry is very awesome, and the power works effectively with practically any build; its limitation is that it is once per day. This limited use cannot be the 'end all' for the best mage. (Similarly, one could argue that an orsimer was the best mage due to their ability to more effectively handle melee opponents once per day, or a dunmer's fire cloak, or Imperial's voice, etc...). I think the best mage is the Altmer - bonuses to starting magic skills, a bonus spell, and the 5 free levels of magicka is hard to top, plus their once per day power of magicka regeneration fits specifically with a mage class.
I agree with the limitation it is very annoying but reasonable, I don't agree with the rest. Battlecry works on almost any creatures at any length away, unlike any of the other beginning powers you named. And after once you get past the beginning ten levels it will be just as good as an Altmer. Where you are right about is the start. As I was playing on Master it was incredibly difficult to kill almost anything until I got impact. Thanks for all the replies so far.
I have to disagree with your statement "unlike any of the other beginning powers that you named". Voice of the Emperor has the same magnitude as BC, 99 (but it works only on NPC's including vampires), it has a greater range (75' r. vs. 60' r.), and double the duration (60 s vs. 30 s). In addition, battle-cry could agro some non-enemies while Voice does not.
And an altmer will always have 50 more attribute (magicka, health, or stamina) points. With their once per day power, magicka regenerates extremely fast, allowing for more spells to be cast during that time period (all else being equal, and disregarding a zero casting cost exploit)
I was unaware of what voice of the emperor did. For some reason I have only just started to use race abilities. I think voice of the emperor only calms which isn't as effective for my play style, but would be great for a healer.
Even if an Altmer always has 50 more magika, which don't get me wrong is great, it also will also have a huge weakness to magic attacks, and assuming a mage is doing the College of Winterhold quests then it will make it hard for them.
With all we've said would you call Nords the dominant Battle-Mage?
Because it's totally possible to have an army of Nords, and the Nords can make everyone flee constantly without them ever fighting back. Same with the Imperials, anyone fighting them would stand there getting killed not fighting back. Altmer never, ever run out magicka and Redguards never, ever run out of stamina.
Won't Chain Lightning fill that requirement? Every race can become a badass mage, Argonians can heal crazy fast and use that to cast spells (check Ponty's Histmaster), Bosmer can get nearby animals to help them, even Khajiit have backup weapon in case the weapons fail. For me the best mages are Altmer, simply for +50 magicka gives them head start and with Highborn you can obliterate huge number of enemies.
This feels more like an arguament at the moment.
I agree that Nords would make very good mages, but there are serious limitations to the once a day. I also agree that statistaclly, Alter are probably the best natural mages.
I never actually use the racial powers unless I'm a Khajiit so it doesn't affect me :3