Hey all, was hoping to get some hints on surviving this gritty world of Skyrim. I played Morrowind into the ground, and after finally getting a new laptop this year, decided to try my hand at Skyrim (thus, I skipped Oblivion and it's combat). I created a mage type character who only wears enchanted clothes, and things were going fine (level 11) until I decided on a lark to jump into the Sightless Pit (not knowing beforehand what Falmer were or the markings they use to distinguis their lairs). Anyway, my game autosaved, and after meeting and getting killed by the first falmer a bunch of times, I finally bested him by making him walk into a trap. I then foolishly saved over my one normal game save (right before I jumped into the pit), proud of myself for what I had accomplished, and then proceeded deeper...

Anyway, as you may or may not know, there is quite a bit more to the Sightless Pit, and as things progressed I found myself looking for ledges to jump to where they couldn't reach me, and just dual-casted my flames spell (one of the weakest destruction spells) while they stared at me slack-jawed, and even with my various enchantments and perks to make destruction stronger, it took a ridiculously long time to kill even one creature. I made it out alive, and just chalked it up to being dumb and adventurous, but then made my way to the Lost Knife Hideout and had to continuously jump into water and find a perch from which to snipe people just to survive...

Sorry for the long rant, in short, my question is, do you have some suggestions on how to stay alive in this world as a mage? Obviously, I need some better offensive spells, but my oakflesh defensive spell is pretty pathetic too... I'm sick of running from literally everybody I meet (including a would-be thief who I had to flame to death over the span of about 1/4 mile or so), and would like a better strategy. Any advice would help, thanks!

The problem with not using armor or using the console to add an armor rating to a mage is that even the best damage reduction master spell only last like 23 seconds and in some fights that is no good. Going pure destruction will get you owned in the long run so you need to utilize summons for help and illusion also helps you pwn the world of Skyrim.

This.

Also, Falmer are just plain nasty, period. They will consistently be challenging no matter what level you are.

It sounds like you're trying to rely on Destruction only to survive fights - never a good idea. You need to work on other schools of magic as well to use in support. If you're not using any armor, you need to level up Alteration so you can get some of the stronger protective spells and the Mage Armor perks. Conjuration is a good skill to use as well, so you can use summons to aid you in battle. The other schools also allow you to use powerful spells to assist you in battle.

As a mage, if you haven't done so yet, you need to make you way to the College of Winterhold as soon as you can and start those quests. You'll get some powerful magical gear out of completing them, as well as access to the best spell vendors in the game.