Well i did a mage and warrior with shield and 1 hander already, although my biggest problem is i have done all content for each guild on both chars! (i play universal for some reason i dont know why, just a habit)

This is my question now

Wants: Aiming for a battle mage type char, but open to others BESIDES strict stealth char

Light Armor
shield + 1 hand
magic - no conjuration, main destruction and resto
archery (3-5 pts in tree)
enchanting (no perk)
smithing (light armor only)
Will do other thing as i advernture like alchemy, lockpicking, speech, etc the usual ones but put no pts into them. (maybe speech a few pts)

my question is:
1) is this to universal again like i have done with other chars, or am i okay?
2) should i pick archery or magic or is both okay?
3) what should i focus my lvling on, stam/health/magic?
4) What race should i go, what racial buff will help me the most?
5) Should i change anything, if so make a build like i did above and a little discribtion on what to focus on!

Any other recommendations are welcome

1. It does seem a bit universal since you're using archery, melee, and magic so I'd cut out one of those.

2. There's a build of an arcane archer but I don't know if it uses One-Handed

3. If you're using Block and magic, I'd focus on Magicka and Stamina more than Health

4. Redguard is your best bet since they get a bonus in pretty much everything you're going to be using

5. Hm. I'd cut out one of the ranged attack styles. If you want to combine them, you could use Bound Bow so you won't have to worry about bows and arrows. You could also do shield+spell if you wanted.

This kinda confused me a bit, as you can see. To me, the build you described seems universal. You're also somewhat limiting yourself on magic without Conjuration. If this was my build, I'd take out destruction completely or perk enchanting so you can get a decent cost reduction. If you use Archery, you couldn't really use magic because both of your hands are being used. If you're bent on using magic, I'd go spellsword instead of something like arcane archer.

Personally, I always thought of battlemages to use heavy armor not light armor, but to each their own. My whole thing with magic users, and in Skyrim particularly when you level up, you need to split your attention from the typical stealth or melee and put it into magik. Therefore, you won't have as much health as say a warrior or agility like a thief (basic types). So go with heavy armor and give yourself more protection imo.

Shield and spell characters can be one of the most effective in game...particularly if you take perks on both sides of the block tree. I'm not so sure on the arrow deflection perk, if there is still a bug with it, but certainly the 50% magick resistance is very handy. Also, the right side of the block tree is the 'offensive' side...power bash, and the 5x damage turns your shield into a very lethal and ubiquitous weapon...you can block bash powerfull opponents causing a stagger-damage combination that they can't recover from before you kill them (and the killcam animation for shield kills is pretty speccie). With my melee character, when he reverts to sword and board I would think that 1/3 to 1/2 of his kills are shield based.

There are a couple of things you need to consider...

First, single handed desto casting can be limited, because the main factor for desto in the earlier spells is time. You need to cause damage over time to take down enemies, whereas a strong bow can put a lot of damage in fairly short time onto targets, and if you take the appropriate perks you can slow things down and drop targets like on a shooting range, which means that you may find yourself not using your destruction magic so often. Which leads to the next part, which is that once you lose the advantage of ranged fire with spells, you will take damage while you are trying to rack up damage on the opposition...if you have followers with you, those area effect destruction spells aren't that good in close in fighting.

Second, enchanting without perks is a bit like chips without salt...it lacks something. Enchantment potions are available, but they aren't common, and without a good alchemy skill you won't be able to concoct up your own, meaning that you may have severe limitations on the strength of the enchantments you do have, and with no perks you will definitely miss out on the double enchantment ability.

Third, a choice between magicka, stamina and health is always a bit of a lottery. You have to keep in mind that the regen rate of those is a bit like lifting yourself by your bootstrings - the higher they are, the faster they regenerate. Also, it's very much dependant on how you want to play it out...if you are going to concentrate on magick use, then obviously you will want a focus on magicka, but if you are choosing a shield based mage, then you need stamina if you are going to use your shield offensively. If you intend to do so, then you will probably need decent health, because you are likely to get knocked around a bit. Now, all is not lost, because you can boost or increase your initial reserves by the use of potions, and your regen rate as well, but you may find that will burn off your available potions like crazy, so you may need to have good enchantments to limit that, or you may need good alchemy skill to create your own potions, and lots of them.

Now, just so that you don't need to bang your head on your table top in frustration at all that, the game can save you...your skills increase as you use them, so you don't have to actually focus on something that you use a lot, except for the perks you may want to take. Also, the radiant system tends to provide you with some assistance, for example - if you use a lot of magicka restore potions, and fewer health restore potions, you will find that stores will have more of the magicka ones, and fewer of the health ones, and vice versa. Also, magicka based opponents are more likely to face magicka based opponents, etc etc. That is only really noticeable for 'generalist' type characters if they are long term ones...you can 'doctor' the types of opponents you prefer to fight once you work out the rhythm of how the game does it.

I understand what you mean as i go back i am using every atk ability possible wiht arch melee and magic.

I guess my main worry was that with my previous mage EVERYTHING was so easy with the stun effect of fireball (believe that was the spell), dragons could not even move or atk me monsters and other mobs didnt even hit me. If i could change this some how maybe i would stick with magic and archery just for a little stealth, but if it go to easy again i could just got light armor shield and 1 hander with some stealth arch. (any suggestion on fixing my problem)

If i took out archery and went mage and shield and 1 hander i would not use conjuration because i could just pop out shield and 1 hander for close combat, but then i worried about how i would separate my health/magic/stam



I dont want to be a tank mage, and personally i like Light armor looks better than heavy armor, just preference. Archery would be my stealth not magic, and restoration will make up the hp difference that a true warrior

everything you are saying i agree with, but i feel the game is to easy with 2 enchants on my gear it makes me like a god that cant be hit by anything. + wiht alchemy skills i will never be afraid to run into a fight becaue ill have OP potions and enchants so what is there to be afraid of. I want to use tactics and stratgy more than just a char that can run in. As i mentioned no strict stealth chars, this is for the fact you can do a crazy stealth bonus and 1 shot everyone = no fun

Shield and magic seems like the best thing for me with maybe conjuration of a bow for some stealth atks to get the taste of it again

Also i should have mentioned i hbave been out of skyrim for a few months before dawngaurd came out so if any huge things were change i am unaware of them.

1) I'm not sure what you mean by universal, but if you mean 'jack of all trades' then I don't think you are

2) Archery and Destruction are both similar gameplay styles being ranged. I'd drop the archery because destruction and restoration need to be used a lot if you want to keep them levelling with your other skills. It's also more in the battlemage style to use magic rather than archery.

3) You'll need a big pool of magicka but also some health and stamina if you are using 1-H and Shield as back up I'd go 6:3:3.

4) Why not try a Nord who is on the side of the imperials like so many other Nords in the game. Their racial power is stronger than the Imperials, they are better against frost magic, and being local they have a high boost in the Speech skill starting at 20

5) What I'd change is to put perks into Enchanting and even use staves to keep it rising. Mages need it and when your destruction is high the staves last for ages without having to be recharged - that allows you to put points into health and stamina later on. Keep useful 1-handed weapons like banish, soul trap and absorb magicka.

BTW Aranea is a great battlemage with skill in light armour.

after all the info i got what about this

light armor
full magic
archery for stealth (conjuration)
enchanting
Smithing (light armor only perks)
Will do other thing as i advernture like alchemy, lockpicking, speech, etc the usual ones but put no pts into them. (maybe speech a few pts)

Factions/guilds - college of winter hold and dark brotherhood, maybe champions just for werewolf form

would like to go full cloth but i feel the armor looks cooler and might help me when mobs get to close, what do you think?

anything i should consider or change that you guys think?
- for example maybe go through conjuration lvl 1 handed swords for back up