The crazy six they give makes up for that.

They're beautiful!

Crazy kinky six with Gollum? I'll pass.

Dunmer prosttutes are actually prized in many brothels through out tamriel due to their bedroom antics.

I have a Nord battlemage. In my first playthrough she relied on one-handed as well as magic, but now that I have the Balanced Magic mod, magic is very viable for her and she's almost a pure mage except for wearing heavy armor.

If you don't have access to mods, I'd say a Breton is your best bet for non-Altmer pure mage. Magic resistance is very important in Skyrim since it also helps block the elemental damage from dragons. Get the Necromancer Amulet from the Blood on the Ice quest, and the Archmage robes and Morokei, asap.

You will:>

Let us put it this way.

If a prosttute looks like, say, Jessica Biel she doesn't have to do much.

If she looks like, say, Rosie O'Donnell she better do something to to compete with the Biel.

i made 2 altmers that both look awesome...the presets all look like crap but with sone tweaking they can look good.

also i did a pure mage playthrough without once using the highborn power...im fact i never use any race powers because once a day is useless when i'm fighting all day long

Anyone can be a mage, and you DON'T need ato spend any levels into magicka since you can just abuse enchanting.

I had an Orsimer pure mage, but a battle mage works better for them. I prefer the straight up warrior myself.

I recently started my tenth or so character, and it's my first Good-aligned destro mage. I went Altmer .... seems sort of obvious to take the magicka boost, really, and although I use Highborn only very rarely, it's a nice safety net. Of course, once I started using Barbas as a tank my build became almost academic ...

If I were going with another race I'd definitely go deep into Alchemy for decent potions.

Probably Thunderbolt. Expert level spell. 90 damage, so 180 on Master. Better shock resistance and or better magic resistance would help, of course. Breton has better defense against magic, but anybody can have good magic and shock protection.

First off, your avi makes me want to take a shot of Pepto-Bismuth.

Secondly, race has absolutely no bearing on the viability of any character type. Some make a little better than others for different types but any race can be very effective at any class. Just pick one that you thinks looks the best for the part.

i would vote breton or argonian. they could be decent mages, might wanna beef up conjuration school firstly though

The Altmer racial power becomes worthless when you get some decent Enchanted gear and you can cast all day long.

To answer your question, extra 50 magicka is very nice to have, but it's not necessary. I have done many successful pure mages as Nord.

Anything is practical in TES games. ANYTHING! Wanna be a naked nord barbarian? That is also practical. So is being a pickpocket who only wants to see women without their clothing.

I must say that lightning storm plus highborn is a lot of fun.