Been doing a lot of reading up on mages on the web, and as I expected there are many ways to take a build. So I am here to post what direction I would like to take a new build and am seeking input from experienced Mages.

I am well into Skyrim, over 300 hours with three different builds. My Thief/Assassin is my favorite so far. I tried a Thief/Fire Mage... that failed because of poor planning on my part... I ended up using my bow to kill and my Destruction spells got left in the dust. So I know to stumble into a build is to invite disaster.

So here is what I am thinking, and again looking for some tips, or someone to point out any obvious blunders that I make.

I love the stealth mechanic of my Thief. It gives me the ability to scout out the area and pick how where and when I enter combat. This stacks the deck in my favor. I would like to do the same with a mage, but use magic to kill and not a bow & arrow. Now I prefer to not rely on conjuration, as I am probably older than most here and my ninja reflexes have been fading for many years now. I think I would end up doing as much damage to summoned allies as my enemies unless there is a way to slow down time when I cast (excluding the shout), like the effect that happens when I zoom in with a bow (with the associated perk).

Is there a spell to use to snipe an enemy from afar? Do you get spell crits from attacking while stealthed? I like the fire spells, but do not want to rely only on them... will leave me weak against other mages in my estimation. So I am thinking fire and electric in the Destruction tree. Perhaps going into the Alteration tree for some defensive abilities. Also I want to raise my enchanting to fortify my spells so I can cast an greatly reduced costs.

What Standing Stone do you recommend I use? Remember I do not want magic regeneration, I want to fortify magic to reduce its cost. I am thinking the Atronach Stone as it gives me 50 pts of magic and 50% spell absorption. Could go with the Mage Stone to get 20% faster skill ups.

So any tips will be greatly appreciated. I am playing through Dawnguard now with my Thief/Assassin and have joined the Dawnguard. When I am done with all the new Dawnguard quests I am going to quit and start anew with my mage. I plan on joining the vampires as soon as possible and climbing the vampire skill tree also.

Every school of magic and it's equivilant perk tree will come into play, for the most part. Conjuration is probably the only one that's entirely "optional" whereas Alteration, Destruction, Restoration and Illusion will all come into play more frequently.

If you want to be a stealth-assassin-mage, the Illusion tree up to 50 points will net you Silent Casting, which masks everything you do similar to bow-and-arrow unless you're shooting Magelight spells. Silenced lightning bolts coming out of nowhere are particularly fun.

Restoration features the Recovery perk at 30 and 60 respectively, which will give you more natural Magicka regen and go a long way into helping you out assuming you DON'T want to do all the cheese manuevers available through Enchanting to make zero-point spellcasting occur.

Destruction is obvious.

Alteration is mostly beneficial if you're going for a pure mage as far as accessories and armor goes, the Mage Armor talent will triple the effects of 'Flesh spells if you're going completely unarmored. If you're fighting other mages, the Magic Resistance perks of 10/20/30% resistance are invaluable.

A Mage-Thief is very fun and absolutely viable. Illusion and Alteration are complimentary to no end : Muffle and Invisibility are better than Stealth most of the time and compliment it flawlessly to make you a damn shadow. Silent Casting allows you to operate without fear of detection from those obnoxiously loud sound effects. Detect Life will let you "scout" the next hallway, floor, or whathaveyou without having to give away your position. Don't think you can make it across that heavily guarded room and want something on the other side? Telekinesis that baby right over to you and steal it while it hovers above your face.

Shame you're going Vampire as your Mage, the Necromage perk in Restoration would make you an ideal candidate to purge the unliving from your universe.

[Edit]: If you don't want to do the "Replacement Archer" method of Silent Casting Lightning Bolts at people, you can dabble more into Conjuration with Bound weaponry and go the backstab route. However, this requires you to "cross-spec" more into Sneak for the appropriate Backstab talents, and One-Handed for the appropriate damage talents, which might leave you feeling a little spread thin early on.

Bound Sword/Bow should never be entirely overlooked either way, as sometimes you'll have your back against the wall, more enemies to fight, and out of blue fuel to fry them with fire and lightning. Bound Sword/Bow is actually an often overlooked tool in a lot of unfortunate ways, I found it invaluable in areas that remove all your weapons as my physical damage characters.

You don't have to worry about hurting your summons if you go the atronatch route. Just use whatever magic they are. Summon a storm atronatch to block a doorway and cast chain lightening at him. It'll bounce around and kill your foes on the other side of the door. Perfect "meat" shield. Even if you happen to kill them, no biggie. Just summon another.

If you plan to play in robes go with the Lord stone. 50 points of AR isn't much but sometimes it's the difference between life and death.

There are many types of mages you can choose , which one are you taking ?