right now I got my.

level 33 2H imperial warrior
level 20 Sneak/Assassin Nord
Level 14 Destruction High Elf

I was thinking of a character with a shield.

What else is a really cool character? Nothin to tough

A shield-wearing alteration mage who uses conjuration?

Make a pure archer with no sneak. I found it quite enjoyable.

lol that sounds a little strange.from what I have read alteration and illusion are very weak magic trees compared to destruction, conjuration, and restoration.

If you add heavy armor and blocking you have an unkillable turtle mage.

haha totally weird.what is a shield and 1 hander like though? Is it fun or is it really slow killing?

fun (I play on master)

what do you focus on? Heavy armor, 1 handed, and shield? Or do you go light armor?

Heavy armor + shield and an defense spell in the other hand

Same here. Tremendously fun. Sneak makes archery (or any style really) boring.

Well you have covered all 3 Archtypes however would you mind being more specific about your characters? Was your warrior heavily armoured or light armour? did your assassin use bows, daggers or something else completely? Did your wizard use staves or was it a destruction spell in each hand? Did any of your characters use any other skills?

I suppose you could try a monk or brawler type character though in order to make hand to hand viable you need to invest in heavy armour which kind of goes against the monk concept. Best race for this would probably be Khajiit to maximise unarmed damage.

You could also try a Bard that makes heavy use of dragon shouts, would be better if the shouts had a more melodic quality to them but not much you can do about this until mods come out.

Or you could play a raving mad man that walks around wearing nothing but a colovian fur hat attacking people with the Wabbajack.

well my warrior was 2 handed and used heavy armor. no bows or anything. I also have 93 smithing.my assassin was pretty much daggers only. no alchemy, smithing, or enchanting. I only had bows leveled up enough to zoom.my mage is pure destruction with enchanting. no staves.

bump still looking for opinions. kinda done with my mage right now.

Oi, dunno if you are playing the right game, but there are no classes in Skyrim.

i play with shield on master. Having a lot of fun. 1 handed, blocking, heavy armor and some smithing

like dudebag said- maybe do a more specialized character using unarmed and fists with maybe some magic for cleric-type or beast for brawler/unarmed. bard could be interesting for roleplay.

conjuration/illusion with archery and staves. most fun magic class i ever played.

I always base my character "builds" off of the classes available in Oblivion (which were simplified versions of the morrowind classes), and so far i've got a Bard, Crusader, and Nightblade, with an Archer, Witchhunter, and Sorcerer on the way.

If you'd like a fun and balanced shield character, i suggest creating a bard: shield, one-handed, light armor, illusion, and alchemy, with some speechcraft thrown in if you're interesting in roleplaying. illusion is an extremely powerful school of magic, as you can affect very high level enemies by simply dual-casting the apprentice level spells with the appropriate perks. Calm spell, for instance, has remained effective on everything (except dragons, which are always immune) even for my level 40 bard. For dragons and other creatures that are naturally immune to mind manipulation, make sure you've allotted sufficient points in stamina for shield bash interruption, which is vital to the build.

I usually work out my builds based on 35 level ups, or completion at level 36. thats 350 "stat" points to spend, and for my bard at level 36 the distribution ended up as this: 200 mana, 250 health, 200 stamina. He uses the steed stone for extra carrying, and also used "become ethereal" shout in order to avoid magic damage and dragon breath for closing in to melee distance.

Sword and shield is pretty fun, plus you get a really good look at all the trolls and dragons and stuff, spending so much time at point blank range with them. And I don't think it really makes sense to think about this game in terms of the classic warrior/rogue/mage archetypes. It's too easy (and fun) to come up with nontraditional combinations of skill sets. My last character was a sword and shield warrior that also pumped destruction via training and used it for ranged instead of a bow, with restoration for healing instead of potions.

I use heavy armor, shield, one hander, bow, restoration. Lots of fun, and highly recommended. You miss out on a lot of interesting dialogue as enemies hear you a mile away, but it's a visual treat as you get to see the models up close and personal.

I have enjoyed my battle mage the most so far.
I do Mace / light armor in the right hand and destruction/rejuvenation magic in the left hand.
then I got a follower that does conjuration so they dont get in my way (had Lydia until I could dump her for someone who has more range)

I've played all GOOD GUY (no sneak/no stealing/no pickpocket) - never take anything that says "Steal"

Its been fun...

My next character is going to be a sneak / theif / assassin - Jason with an axe style - the only magic I plan is rejuvenation and Illusion
Murder whole towns

ive made:
a true nord, axe sheild furs. (main play)
a ork shamen, dagger destruction sneak. (db)
a bosmer hunter, archery alchemy smithing. (tg)
a breton monk, illusion restoration sneak. (non combat playthrough/mage guild, see how far i can get not killing)

I will be making a khajiit at some point(wait for next patch probably) as they are one of my favs.
alteration illusion h2h archery me thinks.

My characters so far:

A Breton Mage (DW Destruction)

An Imperial Legionaire (Sword + Shield)

A Dunmer Assassin (Bow & DW Daggers)

A Nord Mage (Similar to my 1st character, but with better leveling)


My next character will be an Argonian Archer (no sneak) named Wants-A-Crossbow.

Breton Necromancer.

Wearing mages robes/hoods and armoured gauntlets and boots.

Spend all your money on raising dead and self-protection spells.

Play through the game trying to ONLY take down enemies using raise dead tactics. Be that a Bandit, a skeever, a giant spider, whatever is around...