As a non-magic user, is it convenient to go to college (of Winterhold)?

Nidoru is a level 32 sneaky archer assassin thief. She has been called "dumb" by a number of city guards (all are dead now).

Well, Nidoru now wants to go to college to prove all the dead guards wrong. What benefits will she obtain from going to this college and completing their quest? Is it even possible for her to get admitted or "finish" college when the only spell she has ever used is Healing?

As a college counselor what would you recommend Nidoru to do?

Solution 1:

In order to be admitted to the college, it's normally necessary to learn and demonstrate an adept level spell, so if learning a magical spell doesn't fit your role-play, you may not want to do the quest line with that character.

If you don't know any magic, but want to learn it at the school, that's definitely an option, the examiner will offer to teach you the spell required for the admittance test for a modest fee if you don't know it, and the only place you can learn the higher level spells is at the school, though you'll need to get your skill up in each school of magic to enable you to learn them.

You can also gain admittance to the school by using your speech skill to convince the examiner that you don't need to perform the test; however, the quest line does involve a few doors that can't be opened without knowing frostbite and flames (though staves might also be an option); the spell tomes required are generally close by, but you'd have to find the staves first if you want to complete the quest line without ever casting a spell yourself.

There are also mastery quests for each school of magic, those quests can only be unlocked by reaching 100 skill in the respective school of magic, so you can't experience everything the school has to offer without actually learning magic, though you should be able to complete the main school quest line.

Solution 2:

Well first, anyone can go to the College. You are given some simple spells to learn which is all you need for quests. The rest of the quests don't require anything more than simple magic such as "Sparks".

The benefit from the college is mostly for spell casting, these include:

• A set of gear focused for spell casting
• Access to all the spell school trainers
• An enchanting trainer and an enchanting table

However the actual quest line is just another (epic) quest line. Although the rewards are tailored to spell casting; the story (lore), experience and gold are meant for anyone.

If you have completed any of the other factions such as the thieves guild or dark brotherhood, just think "What rewards would a spell caster get from doing these quests?" and the inverse should be true for the college at winterhold.

You may even find that you want to do more spell casting when you're finished.