I wrote about my return to Skyrim in my character article Pom Pom the Illusionist – part 1: Inspiration.  In today’s article I expand upon the development of my character Pom Pom, and the process I went through in defining her playstyle.

Old habits

During my initial leveling stages with Pom Pom, I used Fury from the Illusion school of magic to make enemies fight each other and Raise Zombie from Conjuration, to reanimate fallen enemies or animals to fight for me to my delight.

While I had initially enjoyed the concept of being an Illusion and Sneak focused character, Conjuration magic, especially necromancy, began to tempt me in another direction due to the fun gameplay options it afforded me.  I had never explored those mechanics in the past due to their inconsistency with my previous characters.

My obsession with the Bound Bow Conjuration spell, and Archery in general began to pull my attention into investing skill points into Archery and Conjuration, which skewed Pom Pom away from my original intent. Thus, I ended up returning to an early save and starting over with a better sense of clarity on what I wanted from her as a character.

(Courage is one of my favorite spells from the Illusion school of magic, it grants buffs to a unit making it a great tool for helping out your companion)

Pom Pom the Illusionist 

After some experimentation I have defined Pom Pom’s playstyle as one of stealth and avoidance, influence and mind games, aid and healing. I am now focusing Pom Pom on the following skills:

• Illusion: magic to play with the minds of her enemies, strengthen the resolve of her allies, sneak undetected, or hide in plain sight.
• Alteration: magic to protect herself, detect threats, and paralyze those whose minds resist her magic
• Restoration: to heal herself and her companions

Below is some gameplay footage of my favorite early moments using  Illusion and Restoration: Fury to incite enemies to attack each other, Healing Hands to heal my companion Sven, and Courage to strengthen his combat prowess.

This is the second installment in my character series titled Pom Pom the Illusionist, if you enjoyed it please feel free to read through the other articles within the series. I welcome discussion on this topic and if you have experiences of your own you wish to share please do so in the comments below, or write in to playprofessor@gmail.com.

Andrew Mantilla is a ludologist and video game journalist for Play Professor.  You can check out more of his content on Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube.