Imperial and I completely forgot about light armor !
And the perk tree for lockpicking IS horrible, except I've love it ever since FO3

by all means use lockpicking, just don't invest perk's in it. I'll be playing a Dark Elf. And I defiantly think the all 3 combat types can work together; Destruction spell and sword for close quarters, and the bow for ranged encounters, or getting the drop on someone.