I always and always play as a Warrior-type character in RPG's. I hate magic.. to an extent... it get annoying. Therefore, I have never once been a spellcaster in games.

Deciding to try it out now.

Let me get this right:
--Instead of Armor, wear Robes?
--Instead of buying weapons, buy spells?
--Why should I or should not use a Staff and what bonuses would it give me?
--College of Winterhold is where I should go right?
--Do robes count as Light armor?
--Any tips/suggestions?
--Should a mage storm in and go crazy, or sneak around a remain hidden?

Thanks for the answers.

I understand I am free to do as I please (like wear armor if I want) but that would not feel like a legit 'pure mage' to me.

BF makes all good points. I would listen to that. I would add to that...Illusion is a very powerful school of magic. In fact one could argue it is THE most powerful. BUT...it is an all or nothing school when it comes to the perks. Plan to take ALL of them and you will be hard to beat. Couple that with Conjuration and you are...a God.

The trick with this build is to apply strategy and avoid direct battle as much as you can. I know that may sound cheap but is is harder than you think. Play on master and pump points into magicka and health 2/1.

The pregenerated robes and hoods give you bonuses to magic point total and regeneration rates. More advanced ones add to a particular school. If you're planning to rely primarily on magic, you'll want that, rather than the AC bonus of light armor.

yes like already mentioned it is always a good idea to go with one of the "premade robes" for certain schools. you can buy robes for all schools from the teachers in the college of winterhold.

you get random ones from court wizards or general good stores.

Difficulty is a mater of what one can handle, I can't play any higher that adept in TES games, but Fallout I can easily do very hard. As for what and how many points to invest in, I don't personally put too many points into health for a pure mage...IMO, I wouldn't put more than 150-180 points into health for this type of build . Most of your points will be needed for magic, and as we both know, magic isn't what it could be in Skyrim.

I've always liked Necromancers... so I might focus heavily on Conjuration.

I want to be a magic user who creates a minion, sends them in to fight, while I sit somewhere else and enjoy the fight.

EDIT: What race is best to begin as a mage?

All around I would say breton is the best choice.

I don't normally play on anything other than Adept, myself. BUT with the Conjuration / Illusion thing happening. I crank it up because this character seldom takes damage. Maybe one or two shots in a blue moon.

I just threw that 2/1 out there. I add to both until I get health to around 200-220...somewhere in there and put the rest in Magicka. That is just to ensure the character survives a crit shot from a Bandit Chief or a series of Ice Spikes from another mage. Granted I play Dead Is Dead and the extra HPs comes in handy from time to time.

But you are right. Difficulty is pure choice and should always be set to the comfort of the player. Yet, even I feel comfortable with this guy on Master.

Yes, robes compliment your magicka regeneration, so it boosts you significantly. You don't get protection, but mages are not supposed to get hit in the first place.

Interesting might start a Mage for a change pretty soon.

Just wrote some advice for someone else in another thread, here's the link - http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1376625-mage-have-destruction-been-patched/page__p__20832889#entry20832889

Robes are considered clothing, not heavy or light armor, I'd suggest playing as a cloth mage using alteration spells for protection. You can sneak, but you don't need to, use conjuration and illusion to keep enemies off your back while you conservatively use destruction.

If your playing on adept you should be fine, you might need to be more careful when playing on master, plan a little more.

With this type of build, Alteration is entirely optional since you shouldn't be getting hit too much...especially if you put points into the sneak skill. At later levels, you will be nearly untouchable.

I always wear what ever is fitting for THAT particular mage to wear. Yes the robes are traditional, but I wear what ever. Be that robes or armor. I must say, that ebony Mail is a fav of mine for any character. Besides, I never liked the robes that much. You throw in some enchanting skill mixed with a little Alchemy. and you can duplicate almost any enchantment. This is with the exception of certain special gear. Thus you can essentially use any clothing of your choice.

Although the Alteration school has some interesting spells. Like BF said, it is purely optional, pending your playstyle. I find that after dumping into all of the Illusion perks, choosing either Necromancy or Atronach branch of Conjuration and then investing in Enchanting and or Alchemy, there is little left to spend.

There are many ways to play this. You should be able to come up with something that you like out of the given ideas.

It's good that you're trying out a new play style. I personally really enjoyed my Dark Elf mage (who was actually more of a witch-hunter because of my strategy of casting spells until I was out of magicka and then going to bow until it regenerated)
I do recommend using robes; you'll feel more like a mage and a lot of the pre made ones have great mage enchants. I like using glass gauntlets and boots though, along with arch-mage robes, because they look cool and I still feel like a mage. This should be what feels right for you.
Correct about buying spells
I never really used staves, but the advantage is you don't lose magicka. I gave my staff of magnus to my follower who totally abuses it.
College of Winterhold def a priority destination
Robes don't count as light armor. However most of the dragon priest masks count as armor.
Sneaking is a big advantage for a mage, that's how I did it but this is up to you.
Some tips- if you're going to use destruction (which I really didn't find that bad) definitely get the impact perk as well as the damage bonuses.
The key is to have your enemies not attacking you- this can mean they're attacking your summons or followers or they're attacking each other bc of illusion.

My mage is a female Altmer, her name is Arannayela

Illusion spells create the best scenarios imo. Theres nothing like casting frenzy on a group of bandits and watching the chaos. Or casting calm on a tiger that is in mid-air jumping to you and then casting fear on him XD

Sounds pretty chill.

I'll give some tips.

Altmer makes a really good Offensive style mage type, while Bretons, Orcs, Argonians make more defensive style playwise. (Funny, right? Defensive magic casting orc!? It's actually pretty damn good!)

If you want to play as a pure mage, You'll be wanting to use destruction constantly in fights. This will mean lugging around potions until you can create decent -cost gear. You can't really rush in with swords as a mage at those lower parts of the game because Destruction can't receive any bonuses other than from potions. All you need to make a sword effective at low skill in later game are the Enchantments for one/two-handed and potions/smithing.

If you plan to go the no robe route, then Alteration + Lord Stone will be your bread and butter. for defensive capabilities.

I'd also suggest picking between either Wards for their extra Armour bonus, or just plain Shields. Wards with Ward Absorb are great against other spell casters, Shields though would definitely make life a lot easier and they stack with the Mage armor perks. How you perk in the block tree is up to you.

Conjuration is great, but it doesn't necessarily have to be perked into to receive the benefits of a Dead Thrall. You could get two, I guess. But one is all I ever find I need.

Illusion, this is the only tree you absolutely have to grab dual-casting on to stay effective at those later levels. And it's a really good tree. Fury, Calm, Fear, Invisibility. The utility of this skill is just amazing. Defensive, Offensive, whatever.

Restoration. This is all personal Choice, I spec pretty heavily into this tree myself though. All perks except apprentice and higher, and no dual casting.

Destruction. You can go whatever route you want here, You can go for one or two specialties, or go for all three. I went for all three without the last perk into Flames, I don't really need them running from me and making them harder to kill. Though for crowds, I imagine it would be great crowd control. Dual casting is only worth taking if you plan to get impact as well. And then it just gets ridiculous once you have no cost cast gear =/ Personally If I take it, I don't wear much no-cost cast gear to keep the game challenging.

Alteration. No-armour mages best friend tree. I personally take just about every perk in this tree but master and dual cast, though right now I am debating on taking the Dual-cast perk so I can have longer lasting armor. With a shield, Ebony Flesh, and Lord stone it's possible to hit the armor cap with no issues. I Think you can with wards as well, though I'm not entirely sure.

Have fun! It can be a major challenge on those higher difficulties, but it can be loads of fun aswell =]