So far I have played a dozen warriors and rogues, but only one mage. She was a ‘pure magae’, no weapons no armor. Basically focused on destruction spells. Really, no thrills.

I want to try a mage again, but I’m debating whether or not armor should be used and what spells I can focus on that will work besides Destruction. I also only perk one crafting skill (perking more just seems too powerful). Most my characters picked Smithing, so how about Enchanting? Is it any good by itself?

Would being focused on Light Armor and Enchanting work better than just robes and spells? What about a bound weapon and summoning? Doable?

I just feel like I am missing out on some very major points about playing a mage. What I need, don’t need, potential problems, etc.

Thanks.

There is no penalty to being an armored mage. The magicka regen on armor doesn't even work in combat, making the use of robes largely cosmetic and suboptimal.

Bound weapons and summons are very doable. The bound bow spell with the mystic binding perk is a very powerful weapon, equivalent to exquisit daedric with daedric arrows. The bound sword spell is not as good. With Mystic binding it is equivalent to only unsmithed daedric, which is good at lower levels but not that great at higher levels. The oblivion binding perk is awesome when fighting other summoners and necromancers, but not much help against anything else. The perk that captures souls with bound weapons makes it easy to level enchant without even trying.

There is no penalty to wearing armor as a mage, and if you perk enchant, you can make better gear than anything you can find. I have a nightblade that wears heavy armor (I like the look of orcish and ebony on Dunmer), uses bound weapons and Illusion magic. Very fun playstyle.

The only thing I don't like about perking enchanting is that it takes some of the fun out of looking for gear, since what you can make is better than what you can find.

I'm usually an armored Mage, works fine

You won't be able to use the three "Mage Armor" perks in Alteration. Not a really big deal, just don't make the mistake of taking those perks if you put any into an armor tree.
Enchant + light armor will be great because you can still buff your armor with casting cost reducing enchants.

It does work in combat. It is just reduced by a large percentage. You'll still regen faster in combat with regen gear than you would without but it's always slower than when you are out of combat.

I was wondering about that actually. I guess the Mage Armor spells (Shield spells like Oakflesh, etc.) don't work if you are wearing armor?

I just really want to do something totally different than my last mage that just flamed everything. Skyrim gives you a lot more freedom in playing a mage than I'm used to (from back in the old D&D days). The thing is I hardly feel that armor is any good unless you upgrade it. Course I could add some Smithing skill to some items and in that way maybe still do a decent Smithing upgrade to some light armor.

So I guess I can wear some upgraded Light Armor (add perks), Enchantment perks (and enchant armor), Conjuration for bow and meat shields. Well, that would certainly be different than my last character anyway.

It doesnt work at all while you are casting. So if you are just continually casting with no break in between spells it will not work. If youre a pure mage you may want to enchant all your stuff with magicka regen and then pick the most important or costly magic skill tree and enchant them all so that whichever tree you pick has the casting cost reduced by 25% per armor piece with the enchantment. Then you're magic will regenerate fast when not casting continuously and youre destruction spells will be free.

The mage armor spells work with armor on its just the perks in the alteration tree that make them stronger that dont work. The master destruction robes are definitely worth wearing. Of course if you can get the enchantment almost that strong on armor you are better off because you can smith armor of infinite strength.

They still work in their basic form. What Mage Armor does is it doubles the effect of the spells if you are not wearing any armor. I'm not sure if this includes shields. So basically, you would be wasting 3 perk points if you plan to wear armor.

Yeah, I hear you. You would want Arcane Blacksmith, minimum. That's only two perk points if you don't want to spend a lot in the smithing tree. This is actually a huge flaw with the game. Why can't you pay one of these blacksmiths to upgrade your gear for you so you could just avoid the smithing skill altogether?

I'd also suggest levelling your enchanting first. It can be difficult managing your mana without robes or any decent enchanted gear and may find yourself resorting to weapons as you run out too fast, but you might get lucky finding or buying a piece with a good enchant on it.

Well, depending on how 'magey' you play it, regen may not be a huge issue.

I could really get into a 'mage tank' build, probably using Imperial as a race, with something like the following:

Heavy Armor
Destruction
Alteration
Restoration

Add other skills to taste. You could grab Block, pick up a shield, and be a spell + board caster (though fiddling with the UI every time you want to switch spells would be an irritant).

You could instead grab Conjuration and 2-handed and go nuts with the bound battleaxe (though this would be very Magicka-intensive, precluding you from using some of your other spells, not to mention the 2-handed nature of the weapon).

Or you could just add 1-handed to the above 4 skills, make use of runes, walls, and cloaks, and perhaps carry around a big ol' mace because who cares if you get hit! Go all out for Wards, grab all the resistances from the Alteration tree (except Mage Armor, of course), and run with the Atronach for a while.

Damn, now I want to make another character.

I kind of agree with that. You can also smith first and then enchant if you don't want to take Arcane Blacksmith. You can easily smith light armor to be better than fully perked ebony flesh with no perks in smithing. Fully perked ebonyflesh is 300AR, but wearing four pieces of armor gives you a hidden 100 AR, so you you only need a displayed value of 200AR from armor to equal a fully perked ebony flesh. You can easily get that or better with light armor no perks in Smithing, especially if you enchant a bunch fo fortify smithing gear.

Now that's an interesting point. You could skip Arcane Blacksmith altogether and save two perk points. You wouldn't be able to improve enchanted quest rewards or Daedric artifacts, though.

I've done a similar thing with one of my mages, going the sorcerer route (Conjuration, Destruction, Enchanting, Heavy Armor). I only ever perk one crafting tree, so I find that enchanting helps a lot. The Dragon Priest masks are also really great for an armored mage (bunch of options for heavy and light armor and they allow you to make use of the Custom Fit or Well Fitted perks). Use one of those with a full set of enchanted light or heavy armor and play away.

The only one I was intersested in was the Savior's Hide, so I would need it for that. Course leveling Smithing will be very easy with the Transmute spell making gold like crazy I'll be smithing jewelry which, since the last patch, level's Smithing very fast. In fact now that I think about it my mage will be leveling Smithing faster than my warrior can.

Yep! I just had another thought. You can still cast Ebonyflesh and get 100AR even if you have taken no mage armor perks and are wearing armor. That means you only need a displayed value of 100AR from your armor to equal the three perks in mage armor, given the hidden 100 you get from wearing four pieces of any armor.

Wear Light Armor, put a shield in your left hand, and a destruction spell in your right. You will have fun.

I FULLY second this notion. Did a Shield Mage playthrough myself and was easily my most fun character to date. Light armor, fire spells, block runner, shield bashing... and had a backup flame atronach on top. Awesome, awesome character. (I'm a svcker for smashing faces with a heavy disc of steel on my arm)

I'd love to do a shield mage, but how do you guys deal with switching spells? Do you simply find that you can rely on one spell throughout most combats so you don't need to swap out in the middle of a fight?

There are so many different ways to play a mage you just have to try different things. One of my favorites was a heavy armor wearing, dual bound sword wielding, necromancer. Lots of fun and casting bound sword in each hand levels Conjuration very fast, especially early on.

Wear whatever armor you like, use flesh spells if you want the extra protection. At least it will level Alteration so you can get the magic resistance perks or atronach perk (although I wouldn't recommend the atronach perk if you plan on summoning due to the bug. Necromancy works fine with it though)

Reading all your comments I wonder if a pure mage is viable/fun? I'm thinking about no armor, perks in conjuration, destruction, alteration and possibly restoration/enchanting. Am I correct to think there is no penalty anymore for wearing armor?

I played once with a 'spellshield' mage, had a lot of fun and the shield was very useful for bringing the fight close, personal and against magic / shout users.

There is also the class spellsword you could a try as well.

Played a pure mage myself and it is viable and fun. Just don't expect an easy time if you just focus on Destruction. Don't forget Illusion as it can be helpful, though perk heavy. And a pure mage can be perk heavy too. And you are correct that there is no penalty for wearing armor.

Ok I tried this last night and well ... it svcked. I mean I am still low level so even though I do not want to use Destruction I have to. It's about the only thing I have to fight with. I used a follower, Sven, and I did get the Raise Zombie' spell and used it a few times, but dang this is not easy and I still end up flame blasting the enemies. Course at low level I am not finding any armor with magical bonuses on it yet either.

So at about what level is this character build really doable and what conjuration spells should I be looking for? And where is a good place to just train myself up?

Thanks.