I have just created a Redguard character with the following basis (mystical and mythically Arab-esque stylings included):

• One handed weaponry for melee combat. This will mainly consist of one handed swords unless something truly epic is found.
  
• His one handed weaponry is supported by spell casts from his off hand. Something will always be equipped here (starting with flames and sparks, oakflesh on surprised fights).
  
• He will backstab if he can, but will never get the 15x dagger perk (mainly due to me wanting to keep the one handed sword style).
  
• He will use a bow for sneaky archery, but it will not be his focus.
  
• He will only use robes and hoods for torso and head. At the very most, he will use light armor for his torso, but always wear a hood of some sort.
  
• He does not use a shield.
  
• He will support himself with alchemy and enchanting.

My desire is to have someone a bit different than my Nord heavy-armored no-shield massive-war-axe barbarian and my sneaky dual wielding khajiit assassin/archer. It feels like he may be down on armor when the going gets tough (multi-mobs, surprise dragon encounters) but might pull through with proper magic usage. Being my first character that would use magic, I'm sure this'll be a challenge, but a welcome one for a non-powergaming role-player. This character might also use bound swords, but I've no experience with that so I'm only guessing it'd be fun.

Thoughts?

I went off and had a decent time getting through to Whiterun, but the Nettlebane questline (he's only level 6 or so at the moment) saw my poor horse get sent to the dog food factory, and the hagraven harpy almost decimate me with various spells. Thankfully my poisoned blade did some damage, as it seemed my destruction based left hand did little to hurt her. Is the fire / lightning in one hand and a weapon in the other just not that viable? I'm going to forge forward but I wonder what other people think of their magic and steel wielding characters.

1h + spell offhand is a pretty weak choice compared to the other ones, so I would not recommend it as a viable thing on Master. You should be fine on Normal though.

Really the game doesn't reward you for using a weapon in 1 hand and spells in the other.

Do it if that is what you want to play. You really don`t need our consent to play how you want to.

Pretty much exactly how I play. RIght now I'm roking an ebony sword in one hand and a mid-level destruction power in the other, with enchanted scaled horn armor, adept hood and ancient shrouded boots and gloves (all light armor)
I try to sneak as much as possible, since I can't really take too many hits and usually summon a flame atronarch to help out with the harder fights. I'll also occasionally use a bow if I think I can one-hit the target.

It's definately not an easy playstyle, but I enjoy it.

I appreciate the thought since I've given that same advice to others. I enjoy a challenge, I'm more curious how others think of the build. I also don't want to artificially gimp myself if I don't have to, especially if a one handed destruction magic spell is truly as lackluster as others make it out to be.

There really isn`t any way to gimp yourself. It all comes down to your playstyle and skill. a one handed spell user can be fun and to play if you are good at moving around to avoid getting hit. What others think is luckluster you may think is the bomb. You seem to have the build figured out and what path you to go skillwise. give it a shot and let us know how you liked it.

Well, I've had two experiences with this type of character. My Redguard has had a very difficult time (compared to my original Nord) completing some quests. Orphan Rock was quite hard to manage, and the following Eldergleam area was also hard to manage once more than one enemy started attacking me (a few reloads followed by getting lucky on a couple spriggands and sneaking out. My stock of potions isn't high on this character). Once I finally got out of there, the ensuing dragon attack had me reloading many many times (I hadn't died to a dragon with any character until this one), and only defeated it when by chance I got to run away, travel to get a companion, and come back and defeat the thing. The ensuing jaunt to Mistwatch was also fruitless, so I've left that area and gone to try other things. I believe my perk distribution (level 10, focused on sneak and 1h and basic destruction) is likely do blame, and I probably needed to put more thought into alteration for armor and also calming opponents for crowd control.

My 'redux' for this character was a Dark Elf. So far, he has had a bit of an easier time with it once I put points into the destruction dual casting, though picking up the fury spell has helped on early multi-mob encounters. I haven't encountered a random dragon yet (first one was easy to kill, as it seems with each character) so I wonder how that'll be, sans companion. The fury resistant mobs (draugr, initially) were easily dealt with by sneaking better and plain avoiding their slashes while dual casting flames until I was able to get clean hacks and slashes in. I'll be going off into the wide open world a bit more soon enough, so I'll see if I have to continue with the dual casting, or if the spell/sword in each hand thing eventually works out.

TLDR - Having a spell in one hand and sword in the other is tough for me on normal settings.