Spellcrafting

Spellcrafting, or spellmaking, is the art of creating your own spells. To create a new spell, you need access to the Arcane University or Frostcrag Spire.

A custom spell can have more than one effect (such as frost and fire damage). The magnitude of the effect is proportional to the magicka required to cast the spell. Multiple effects have compounding magicka requirements.

Altar of Spellmaking
Spellmaking must be performed with an Altar of Spellmaking, available in the Praxographical Center and the Wizard's Tower mod.
 * Note: To use the spellmaking altars in Frostcrag Spire, you must purchase two sets of Magetow Candles from Aurelinwae at the Mystic Emporium in the Imperial City.

If you complete the entire Mages Guild quest line and become Arch-Mage, you can perform spellmaking in the Arch Mage's bedroom.

Effects
Effects are only available if you already have a spell including that effect and the ability to cast that spell (both sufficient rank and sufficient magicka).

Choosing spell properties
You can also set area damage and duration to a spell when selecting the damage. Along with that you may choose to have it a touch, target, or a spell on yourself. (can determine amount of magicka needed.) You may even mix and match spell types and schools, such as, making a single spell that cast Charm on touch and Fortify Personality on self.

In general, destruction spells that have a longer duration for the same final damage amount will cost less magicka to cast than one that deals the entire amount of damage over a single second. For example, a fire damage spell that does 50 damage over 1 second should cost more to cast than a spell that does 10 damage over 5 seconds.

Some skills, such as Armorer, Speechcraft, and Mercantile, may be exploited by creating a spell that fortifies one's proficiency in that skill by 100 points for 1 second. Simply cast the spell and call on the menu related to that skill (repair menu for Armorer, barter menu for Mercantile) and enjoy the boosted stat. Such spells usually cost less than 20 magicka and may be cast by almost anyone.

Up to eight fortifications (racial boosts, enchanted items employed, active spells) can be stacked. To stack spells, you must create different spells with the same fortification. Since spells take about 2 seconds to cast, stage the durations to be 2 seconds shorter for each successive spell in a sequence. Name the spells in alphabetical sequence, so after the 2nd spell the 3rd and subsequent spells will kindly be positioned under the cursor when tab is pressed to bring up your spells.