This is my first time ever playing a video game like this. Watched my husband play oblivion and WOW and had no interest, but Skyrim caught my attention and I'm addicted. So I could use some tips and advice on how to play a pure Mage High Elf.
I am currently at level 34 (difficulty set to novice because I'm still trying to get down how to use the double joysticks and what not)
Some things that have popped into my head are... (some may not have to do with being a pure Mage)
- I'm trying to make money, I loot the dungeons of anything valuable and sell them. I always seem to get maxed out on my carry weight, I have 345 max currently, and a follower who I give stuff to as well. I seem to end up with a wide variety of stuff that I can't sell because of the vendors money limits and the limitations on what they will buy. So now I have a house that I store everything to be sold in, and sell stuff as I can. Is there an easier way to get the stuff sold? Is there a list anywhere of what vendor types are in each city?

-I have master robes of destruction and don't want to wear any type of armor, my husband says to put perks into disenchanting items so I have a million things I can enchant on weapons. I don't see as many apparel items that I haven't already disenchanted. For example, I have a pair of elven boots that came enchanted with a +30 carry weight, if I disenchant then, they will be ruined and my learned skill will not let me recreate them anywhere near as high as they were. So should I be putting perks into enchanting simply for use of enchanted apparel?

-can you deny quests you simply don't want to do, like the thieves guild...I don't like even having to see it while I'm scrolling down my main quests.

Any other tips or advice on playing a full Mage elf?
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Yes, put perks into Enchanting... for nearly any character type, but especially for a pure mage, that skill will pay big dividends. You noticed that you can't enchant stuff very well (the elven boots) compared to how you find them, but if you get grand soul gems (with grand souls in them) or black soul gems (with NPC souls in them), and put perks into Enchanter, Insightful Enchanter, etc -- you will see that your enchants are more powerful than what you can find. If you want to be able to cast some spells without spending mana, use enchanted robes, gloves, boots, etc, with "Fortify Destruction" or whatever school you want to be free... when you get powerful enchants you can boost those enchantment levels to -25% casting cost. With four of those kinds of items, you now have a zero mana cost for casting spells in that school. When you get the dual enchants perk at 100 Enchant skill, you now can do this with 2 schools... meaning that almost half of the spells in the game cost you no mana to cast. My favorite schools for doing this from a gameplay perspective are the destruction and restoration school... I like having free killing and healing, which matters more on higher difficulty settings. Also, as a high elf, I like using Ward spells instead of Magic Resistance, which IMO is kinda a bit of a cop-out for defense against enemy spellcasters and dragons -- at least as being a pure mage, anyway... you're "supposed" to be using your spells to protect yourself, right?

Avoid enchanting stuff with +mana regeneration, as you will discover that it will be weaker in general than cost reduction... your mana regen rate in combat is greatly reduced, and the bonuses you get from gear will be applied to this lowered percentage, resulting in not a good payoff in comparison.

-Loth

Follow what Loth says he is right .

And what about the money? I want to buy a house in Solitude, but need $25,000, I have about 10,000 - so what's the best strategy to quickly earn the $15,000 I need?

As far as money goes, I deal in potions and enchanted jewelry, cause they're light and worth a decent amount. Visit a merchant and buy up all the stuff you need or want, then sell him all your jewelry and potions until he has zero cash( arrows are good for this) fast travel to the next merchant and repeat.

Okay... Enchanting helps here, too. Have you noticed that Enchanted stuff is more valuable that normal stuff? Start enchanting a bunch of things you find in your dungeon diving... this levels up your Enchanting skill as well as makes you money -- all you need are filled soul gems, which you can buy or make yourself with the Soul Trap spell and an empty gem. Tour the cities to sell off your stuff... merchant inventories and gold refreshes every two game days.

-Loth

Edit: Some types of enchantments are more valuable than others... you can see in the Enchantment screen what the values of the items you are making could be. Try flicking through the various enchantments until you find the most valuable one. For weapons, paralyze and banish are pretty valuable... for clothing and armor, I've had good luck with Resist magic and Fortify one-handed.

If you haven't enter the Collage of Winterhold, I would advise you do that as soon as possible. Completing their quests will give you some good stuff you normally can't get until higher levels. The Mage circlet (+50 magicka) will be better than you can find at your level and the Archmage rodes will be far better than what you can enchant.

Yes, I have a house in whiterun and the arch Mage quarters at the college, I guess I have trouble fast traveling to places I know have merchants during their business hours. I definately enchant things, but can't carry a bunch of heavy stuff so I tend to pass them up.

When exploring caves and whatnot, hang on to the unenchanted items you find that are made out of superior materials (dwarven, ebony, etc) because putting an enchantment on them will net you a tidy profit. If weight is an issue, leave the chest armors and 2H weapons behind and hang on to boots, gauntlets, helmets, and 1H weapons for enchanting later.

-Loth

I hate to be capt obvious but don't pick up the weighty stuff. Pick up the light weight money items and enchant them.
Speechcraft. There's a perk that allows you to invest in a business. They will always have 10K gold. And all merchants buy any item. Quality of life, makes it hella easy to vend.

Listen to Loth.

The speech perks are your friend. Invest in a merchant, get the perk that allows you to sell stolen goods with said merchant, and the one which allows you to sell anything to said merchant. Grind your speech with the guy at black-briar meadery in Riften if you want to do it that way.

Thanks guys, sometimes stating the obvious can be helpful. I had never even looked into the speech perks, so I'm going to work on it.
Using your advice I'm up to over 18,000 since last night

A pure mage -- heck, a pure sweet roll baker -- on novice shouldn't be too much trouble. Money, at level 34, shouldn't be an issue. What do you need money for? Training, maybe, but it's hardly worth lugging loot from town to town, shop to shop, to make a few coins. As long as you're looting containers and corpses, you should have plenty of coins and potions.

You certainly don't need to enchant to be viable, especially on Novice. Alchemy (Fortify Destruction potions) might be worth it though.

Bear in mind that, while you can get all skills to 100, you have a limited number of Perks. It's important to spend those Perks wisely, especially as a pure mage. You don't have enough perks, for example, to max out all the perks in all the magic skills. You'll never get to that high of a level, and even if you did, you'd be bored with the character by that point. So don't spend Perks too casually. Speech perks aren't a great idea, IMO. Better to invest them in Destruction, Alteration, Conjuration and maybe Illusion. Alchemy and possible Enchantment if you're really having a hard time but not necessary.

archmage robes arent recommended because even if you use tem and enchant your other 3 pieces with fortify destruction or whatever with the strongest enchanting potion 25% yyou can only get the enchant to 28% on each item. 28*3=84 and 84+15=99 so you still wont be able to get your school free to cast. its then better to just enchant all 4 items with 25% and make 100%.