I'd like to be a pure mage with no melee skills. I'm hoping my summoned minions can fight for me while I attack from afar and heal. Is this possible?

I'm level 7, wearing cloth and get my a** handed to me often. Should I wear leather? I'd like the ability to sneak.

I'll place points into other magic skills along with alchemy so I don't intend conjuration to be my only skill.

Yea it probably is you just probably will have to play on novice lol

I'm sure it won't be very hard once you get the higher level spells.

All mages are weak at start, but when your skills get well rounded you get to be unstoppable. My Necromancer is quite OP at level 40

Relying on solely Conjuration or Destruction? You're in for a world of hurt. When it comes to dealing damage, Mages kinda get the shaft; Atronachs or fireballs just don't hurt as much as an axe across the chest, there aren't as many ways to boost Destruction or Conjuration damage, and Destruction magic just drains you out of magicka too quickly on anything beyond the Apprentice level missile spells unless you commit enchanting abuse.

Illusion, however... why fight your enemies when you can make them fight each other? Or make them flee in terror from you? Or wonder why they were fighting you for a moment?

One exception: Dremora lords. Holy poo on a pike, they cut things up like you wouldn't believe. However.. that's kinda an example of how melee weapons outclass damage casting, for the dremora deals damage via a freakin' daedric greatsword.

This is my favorite and current character. My first character was a pure mage Conjurer. I retired her at level 55 (IIRC). Playing DID. It is perfectly viable, on the hardest setting. Don't let others tell you it's so bad.

You must play strategically and know when to run. Any single enemy in the game stands absolutely no chance against a Conjurer. You do not need armor. This playstyle is basically ran on a "Don't get hit, Take no damage" viewppoint. However you WILL get hit and you WILL take damage. Just keep those to a minimum and run when ever possible.

The most fun about this is avoiding combat. Crank up the difficulty and just be careful.

Yes, you can do it, but it requires strategy. You can't just barge into a group and swing wildly and/or set every thing on fire.

I also recommend using illusion with your conjuration.

3 foes against one of you? Fear one, fury the other. Reanimate the first one that dies. Toss in destruction of your choice to finish off a straggler. It's very powerful and a lot of fun.

Two of the atronachs have ranged attacks. Raising a caster gives you a big boost in dps as mob destruction is much more powerful than the player's.

Go for it. Have fun with it. There's a learning curve and some rough patches early in until you get the spells and your rhythm.

Dual Dremora Lords can win almost any fight by themselves on Master. I'd combine them with either dual Firebolt or Fireball. I would not recommend using any destruction spells higher than Adept level. The cost it takes to cast them vs the damage they deal is really poor. You're better off just using destruction to knock enemies back with dual destruction spells and letting the summons do the rest.

Skyrim cannot simply be "finished"
But I suppose if you tacitcalise enough, then sure.

My current mage is illusion/conjuration only. Working really well. It helps a lot to be stealthy.