This is my second character in Skyrim, level 4, magic only - no weapons, no bows and arrows, no summoned weapons, but can use bought enchanted armor of any kind. Expert difficulty. My upgraded lightning bolt is very weak against a normal dragon and my magicka is slow to regenerate. I lasted 10 minutes against Mr. dragon once, but he's too powerful and absorbs damage. So I had to duck unto a cave and wait for him to leave. I take it dragons have magicka resist?

Lightning destruction spells + dragonrend shout. With enough hits, the lightning will evuentually drain all their magica (obviously the more powerful the spell (and perks), the faster you will drain the magica).

So basically the dragon can't fly with dragonrend and can't breath fire at you since his magica is all gone, making him a sitting duck. The only drawback to this strategy is that you need a ton of magica and magica regeneration cause the dragon can just regenerate their magica.

Get thee to the college. You need magica buffs at early levels to make it useful. Get Dual Cast and although you get little in extra damage you can stagger targets for long enough to get off another one. Then repeat till you win.

Again you need robes, hood and jewelery to buff your magica to a useful level. Always take magica as your choice for the first while, then some stamina to help the essential kiting skills to express themselves well.

Oh yeah, get an Atronach to distract the enemy. The Flame one is available at any level I believe.

I use Lightning storm...the master spell..can't really help you. Just get a follower until you can handle one yourself

Umm they are level 4 I seriously doubt they have dragonrend. For frost dragon I use a firebased spell such as firebolt. If they use fire I use a frost based spell.

Oh, now I understand why this dragon stopped using breath attacks and went for projectile after I hit him enough times. Then he landed on top of me and bit me. I did have a fire atronach, but man the cost to summon her is heavy and I would likely have had to let her handle the dragon all by herself while I regenerate. Okay, I'm going to focus on magicka regeneration items. Maybe doing quests for the Mages College with earn me some.

Yeah, I'm going to need a follower or else spend perks on conjuration. Thanks guys.

At Level 4, using magic only, you're going to have to do lots and lots of kiting, with frequent breaks to regenerate mana and chug healing potions, to take on a dragon. Even with weapons, it's going to be a long, hard battle.

I would either pick up a follower to help with the dragon fights, or avoid dragons completely until you've leveled up some and increased your mana pool. It goes without saying that at your level, as a mage, you should be putting every level-up into magicka.

ETA - my mage is Level 25 and has completed the College quest line, so she has the Archmage's Robes plus his amulet, giving her a pool of 440 magicka with these items equipped, plus a 125% mana regen rate. She can handle dragon encounters pretty easily now.

Also fire breathing dragons are weak to frost, and the other way around. Their resistance -50% so they take 1.5 times the normal damage from the element they are weak to.

dragons dont use magicka? they use shouts, dont they?

Alchemy is nice to get some resistances. One can combine ingredients to get a combined fire and frost resistance potion. No need to carry two different potions for each type of damage. They will raise your resistance against a dragon's fire or frost attack for 60 seconds. Potions to fortify destruction will make your destruction spells more powerful (more damage), and potions for conjuration will make conjuration spells last longer.

Not much you can do as such a low level. Frost spells help to slow the fire breathers a bit when it's on the ground, but you'll definitely need help from a follower. Fire vs frost-breathers. Finding/buying elemental protective gear will be almost essential against the dragons (and mages), so be on the lookout for that kinda stuff.

As you progress, you'll want to hunt down the Marked for Death shout. Even powered by one Word, it's effective against low-level dragons Being able to summon a Storm Atronach will be a big help, as well. The ability to zap dragons in the air and serve as a distraction will help you recover from damage and prepare your next attacks.

Thanks for your help! I've got the archmage's robes now, dabbled in alchemy for the resist elements and resist magicka, looking for Marked for Death, and leveling conjuration for storm atronachs. Spending perks in this order:

Destruction
Conjuration
Restoration
Illusion

bigraj, that avatar of Data looks a bit General Zod

You can also acquire the perk for Restoration, when a Ward is hit with a spell it replenishes Magicka. Wards+Destruction+Thrall=Unfettered Powerful Mage.