I recently decided to start this playstyle and was looking for some tips on what perks and magical trees you guys have focused on. Also interested in general tips on how to approach gameplay, in particular boss or dragon battles where you can't rely on getting your enemies to beat each other up (thinking I may have to stun lock guys to death....)

Any ideas on which skills it would make sense to level up as I progress to make things a bit easier in the early going? For example: avoid sneaking while using illusion heavily with destruction, sneak later after illusion is above 50...

Thanks for the tips and insights!

Use Destruction almost exclusively to start with to get it up a bit higher than the other skills as it takes a while to level anyway and then move on to sneak and of course work on your illusion if you intend to make enemies beat each other up...

Make sure to take the Impact perk as soon as it comes available (40 Destruction I think)...

You could also use Conjuration though as a stealth type character you'll be using it more tactically than most (i.e. take the perk that allows you to summon Atronachs from farther away and summon them right into the middle of a room to cause some mayhem)...

And make sure to take the Quiet Casting perk from the Illusion school to keep you from being detected when casting from the shadows...

Use Rune spells from the Destruction school liberally especially from the shadows with the Rune Master perk which allows you to place runes from 6x the distance you normally could...

Also, when working on the Illusion Skill, make sure you take the correct path tho get Quiet Casting. Once you get this Perk, the whole "Sneaky Mage" concept will come together quite nicely.

Thanks for the tips!! In your experience is it more fun/effective to summon rather than confuse? Being a master of the mind has some appeal, but summoning daedric badass' is of course also cool.

It's insanely fun. The Assassin Mage that I am running as a side character right now uses Illusion, Destruction, and Conjuration almost exclusively. I have some in Restoration for those really bad times... and I have Sneak leveled to the point that I don't set off floor triggers for traps.

There is nothing I love better than to Sneak up on a group of enemies, drop a couple Dremora Lords right in the middle of them (they still haven't seen me), and then use my Destruction spells to help the Daedra mop up any stragglers. If an enemy is tough enough that they actually beat two Dremora Lords, then they don't have much life left anyways, and so I'll tear them up with Destruction and the Stagger effect from the Perk.

I have yet to find a group of enemies that has beat it yet.

Also, my Magica and Magica regen rate are high enough that if I see one Dremora fall, I can just quickly summon another one and they are then thrice screwed.

For some extra fun sometimes, I'll hit one of the enemies with a Frenzy spell so he starts fighting his own compatriots, then I'll summon the Dremora. That way there is a little dissension amongst their ranks and then they have to fight Daedra as well.

heh heh heh