Never had this issue, I'll test when i get home. Tell me more about the issue.

The skill not firing has nothing to do with being in a delve. If you were able to unlock the skill, you should be able to use it. Are you targeting an enemy when you try to cast the spells?

Do you have any addons who could affect this, could easy see some prevent you casting criminal skills in towns and mess up as you have an quest follower or similar.

Also many skills are not castable without target, this is pretty much all single target ones, this should not give an message just no effect.

SALLEE wrote: »

I would really appreciate if someone could explain to me, I am level 37 necromancer when trying to use skeletal mage it says "you do not have the criteria to use that ability" is it because I was in a delve in Glenumbra? or what criteria does it mean ? very much appreciated for any explanation offered. Thank you in advance

regards
SALLEE

If you look at tooltip for skill, do you have enough XP in that skill line for Skeletal Mage? You gain XP buy having the very first skill that is free (don't need to use any skill point) when you start to play, you just need to place it active on your skill bar. Every time you finish a quest or certain step in exploring you gain XP for that bar that is active, and sometimes skill point. Game explain these steps if you have enabled its introduction guide (which is on by default) while you level up.

You need to fulfil requirement in rank (that is the name for skill lines "level") and also have enough magic (attribute) to be able to use it.

https://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Grave+Lord+Skills

In the future when you ask about help, please provide information about which is your highest attribute (magica, health or stamina) as that might have impact on how your damage (and healing) will scale.

For weapon you need to equip the right weapon type to open skill line for weapon, so you can use the basic skill on your skill bar to start gaining XP for rank in that skill line. The same happens when you equip gear that isn't weapon, but those are passives with one active skill for each weight of gear. It is those you can equip yourself that you need to equip to gain in rank, World, Guild and so on will trigger automatic and show up in your skill window when those get started.

As always it is very possible that you fulfil requirement and that is a bug that show up with this kind of message for some reason. That happens too...



How to handle Criminal Act on Necromancer
Skeleton Mage is also one of those skill that can give you a fine or even start Guards from hunting you from being used in front of some NPCs, so be careful when you interact with wandering merchants in the world. In general you can escape if you want to try your luck, use dodge roll, block and break free to get away.

[edit]
I forgot to mention that you should always let Skeleton mage (and its morphs) time out (this is important for necromancer skills that are labelled with Criminal Act and have a "pet" that are showing) when your are getting warning that NPC is getting hostile, as then your bounty status will go to from hostile (kill on sight) to only a bounty, as long that bounty haven't become too high. When Criminal Act pets disappear your bounty status will be back to normal and you will not get attacked.

That is why recommend you to look further down on Thieves Guild to keep bounty as low as possible and always pay your bounty at fencer before you continue questing or use an edict). Don't attack back at those NPC that are hunting you, if your goal is just to get away with as little bounty as possible (it can increase very fast if you do this and can get you to a kill on sight when you are too high in bounty). If you have only one NPC that are hostile for some reason and can't get rid of that NPC without being forced to kill that NPC, then you can pay bounty or use edicts when you are out of combat, but take care and use single target skills to not increase aggro that will drag into a larger group with CA AoE skills.

Prevent attacking innocent enabled in settings will also only partly block you attacking, so if you have hostile after you, you will damage those even if you are careful and think that it doesn't matter as you shouldn't be able to attack neutral NPCs when this settings is on.

[/edit]


I would recommend get access to Hew's Bane (DLC). Abah's Landing (way shrine) is outside city and there is no guards on your way to Thieves Guilds. TG is useful as you open up a skill line with only passives for doing activities related to TG, which includes that you fines/bounty will be reduced from passives in this skill line among other.

https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Thieves_Guild_(Online)

Scroll down and you should be able to see which rank will give you access to what in TG, also here in this link you will find quest starter in each Outlaw's refuge that exist locally for every cities.

Overview of Guilds:
https://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Thieves+Guild+Skills

Quest start (both quest starter can be found in Outlaw's hideout places):
https://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Thieves+Guild

https://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Dark+Brotherhood

Focus only on TG as there is where you will have most use for getting down bounties and you should also get access to special chest called Thieves Troves, those can contain Edicts which clear your bounty up to a certain amount, most common is up 500 Gold, but there are edicts with higher value. You need to go to a fence and launder those edicts before you can use them. You do this at Outlaw's refugee where can find Fencer NPC, be careful to have correct window open for launder vs sell, you want to launder these so you can use them later the same way as experience scrolls or food from you quick bar. Sell window at fencer do not have the ability to buy back as normal merchants have.

Thieves Troves can be bit tricky to open as you need to do it in stealth (sneak and avoid being seen) and use lock picks. Most Thieves Troves can be found out in the open, so it isn't that problematic, but Safeboxes are often to be found in more guarded environment like NOC chefs, brewers at inns or public spaces with pleny of NPC going back and forth. Take you time and observe each NPCs pattern and you will get a hand on when to open Safeboxes and this will also increase your TG skill rank. Just by doing this often enough you gain XP in Thieves Guild skill line while you do other things, so it is worth to rank this up as means to counter those times you Necromancer will be getting a bounty even when you are careful with you usage of forbidden skills. I haven't really done any quest in Hew's bane and have reduced bounty already at fencer. On PC there is plenty of good add on that can help you reduce the danger of getting caught stealing or by accident take something when you don't want to steal. Sneaking or crouching will also show you hidden things in game that you wont see when you run/walk normally in game.

Remember that you also have access to free room (housing) for each new character, so you can teleport directly out from danger as long you aren't' in combat mode and let bounty time out. Houses and rooms are account bound which means that should be able to have at least 8 characters with a room in each larger city. Elsweyr have a room not far from city WS so it is very central and will also get a second house after main quest is finished, but that house is a bit far from main daily quest and daily writs. Look up houses that are free in ESO and rooms, those are always useful even when you are in player guild to fast get away from spaces that restricted before getting spotted or to get to safe location like in north of Morrowind (Vvardenfell).


//RexyCat

Thank you all so very much, you have all been so very helpful and I appreciate your ideas and grateful for the links you have given to me.

very much appreciated

regards

SALLEE

Are you using No Accidental Stealing mod? Because that blocks casting the skelly pets unless you set the timer to 0 in the mod settings or double-tap the relevant spell if you have no target.

If not that mod, check through any you use in case one of them has a similar function.

Coggage

Thank you so much it was indeed the addon no accidental stealing as I turned it off and skeletal mage etc now work as they should, thank you very much, much appreciated.
regards SALLEE

thank you all for your kind and helpful responses

regards
SALLEE