The master illusion spell text

I believe that you will still get a bounty if people see you attacking him i cant test this because i have finished the mage guild quest but im fairly sure you can attack him as much as you like he shouldn't be able to die he is integral to the mage guild story line the only 2 things i can think of are him fighting back and killing you or getting a bounty for attacking him.

Edit:

well that picture was funny, yes i believe you can attack him without problem, it might be a bit of a glitch because this is the first NPC i have seen that doesn't fight back when you attack him but from what i can tell it shouldn't harm you game in anyway to train on him. happy training!

Very odd - I found the wedding ring on the witch myself, so it does sound like a glitch. Unfortunately as an Xbox user you can't abuse the console into solving the problem.

If I remember correctly if your speech is high enough, you should be able to persuade/intimidate Ysolda into telling you the next location for the quest. This looks to be your only option if you don't want to pay.