Yes, let's disregard late game where you're a master of all trades, we all start somewhere, usually focusing on a handful of skills to master. I personally have probably started at least 50 different character builds since Skyrim came out, but there's at least one I feel that in hindsight always seemed like the most fun to play as.

For me it's the Conjuration Archer: Focusing mostly on Archery and Conjuration with some Sneak and a touch of Alchemy thrown in. I love to play ranged characters, and mixing bows with conjured minions who can tank for you is a real blast, and with Bound Bow being in the mix, you quickly get to the point where hoarding and recovering arrows is never a problem.

What is your all time favorite build you've had a blast with playing?

That's a dual edged sword.

On 360 is was a Spellsword; sword ( Dawnbreaker or Imperial steel) in right hand, cast a flame familiar spell, then switch to firebolt, shield when up close. Dragonborn, Dawnguard.

On pc, Bard/ 2h, light armor. Mercenary, but doing some of MQ for now.

Bound Sword Dual Wielder.

I can make the character into a Summoner that focuses on Conjuration, a walking chainsaw with friends, or transit into a stealthy character that uses a Bound Bow. I can make the character a Necromancer that can use Dead Thrall for fifteen levels until the Game Coding prevents any recent spawns from being turned to Thralls without spamming Soul Trap .

I have enjoyed playing a Hybrid that uses Destruction to weaken opponents before going in with Melee, and an Illusion/Conjuration build can be too overpowered.

Conjuration sneaky sneak.

Nothing more fun than getting silent casting and summoning thingies while sneaking by some bandit or w/e. I honestly have more fun in the game when I don't out right fight everything.

For me it's a devilish mage/thief with a sense of humor... A fire rune in the bucket bandits use for a chamber pot, poison slipped in the pocket of an assassin, a necromancer attacked by his buddy who is now a raised necromancer, the spriggan who summons a wolf,only to find herself attacked by an ancient matron sriggan, Commander Caius with a bunch of stolen boiled cream treats in his pocket, leading a horde of vampires, thralls, and death hounds into Jorvaskyr... (when the caharacter has never been in there before which means the whole crew of campanions is upstairs)... These are a few of my favorite things!

Mage. I just like the ability to command so many powers.

Ulda....of course....she'd kill me if I said otherwise. Scout/Ranger girl with bows and daggers. She's technically a warrior, because she fights physical, but a huge amount of her technique relies on sneak and sneaky long shots for first contact. When her position is blown, which doesn't take long! she relies on a good dagger and effective shield for up close and personal. Fights are fast and fiesty. Her specialties are Marked for Death shouts to soften em up and paralyse poisons to keep em down.

I guess she's more like a kind of Ninja warrior, but not an assassin, because she tends to kill, well, everything. There's no surgical strike with Ulda. Sneaks in, takes out sentries undercover then shoots at the kingpin. Runs in drawing blade dripping with paralyse. Uses cover to frustrate archers then up close whirls around the dance floor slashing with paralyse until the survivors lay immobilised awaiting a final taste of her short blade.

Pretty simple then, that just about mops it up

Oh and magic.....well not much, but a light spell, healing, essentially non combative low level arcane aids. Takes her a long time to improve her magical abilities even a tiny amount , but what little she does have is put to good use.

A build I recently got into which is a lot of fun is a dashing swordsman. It's very challenging:

• I played on expert for this build
• I only used clothes, no armor, flesh spells or lord stone
• I single wielded a scimitar

Somehow it's still very effective. By picking redguard and not leveling any armor skills one-handed damage is way higher than it would've been with armor. I get no magicka upgrades, minimal stamina upgrades and a lot of health. Also running fortify health enchants and blessing of arkay.

You know what would make life interesting? Back in the day, I was playing D&D with this guy (a DM) who had a favorite, and lethal spell he loved to use... "Implosion Inversion" I think it was... Anyway, at some point he forgot I had acquired an amulet of spell turning, and he tried to use that spell on me. You guessed it, he turned himself inside out and backwards!

I wonder if certain spells and shouts would gain less popularity of we had in-game spell turning? It certainly would be interesting, eh? Imagine a ward of spell turning that didn't just stop a spell or a shout, but reflected it...

Well then I'd be shooting you with arcane lovliness and my boxes of chocolates storm

The "no armour, just an OP weapon" build can be fun. The idea is to put all perks into smithing, weapon skill, and maybe enchanting, to make the offence as awesome as possible, while completely ignoring defense. One-hit kill or die trying. You can do it with dual one-handed, or two-handed, but shields are wimping out.

I'll admit to putting a perk or two into restoration, as well.

Any of my stealth characters. To me nothing is more satisfying than sneaking up behind someone and slitting their throat with a dagger, or a one shot kill from afar with my bow.

Mystic Archer. Archery, Sneak, Illusion, Conjuration, Alteration. No melee at all. No interest in armor rating. She is effectively a glass cannon. A small red bar, poor armor rating and no melee keep her wonderfully challenging and well - suited to a slow, methodical playstyle.

Unarmored sneaky archer/monk, with little or no magic, and unarmed for melee. It's a type that's hard to play in vanilla Skyrim, where it only works for low-level khajiits. So, for other races, I mod in the khajiit "claws." (At higher level, with good bows and poisons, enemies rarely get close enough to need melee.)

A close second choice is the armored hybrid conjurer/warrior, who uses summoned "helpers."

You'll need both ranged and melee capabilities, whatever build you choose, but you don't have to do those directly. Conjuring a helper with the complimentary skill can support a pure melee or pure ranged player character. So can a follower, if you don't want to use magic.

My current (non-test) character is a no-magic Redguard who's been upgrading a Scimitar ever since he got hold of one. His lovely assistant does the spells. However, I suspect he's having more fun than I am, judging by the look on her face in the mornings.

My very favorite is the Jerric build, which could be a flavor of battlemage from a previous game. The foundation is the Atronach stone modified to reduce magicka regeneration to zero. Evenly distribute attributes between Health, Magicka, and Stamina, and use up all three in fights. Conjuration, one-handed (sword), shield for bashing, Destruction for ranged attacks and rune fun, and as many pieces of heavy armor as necessary with Alteration filling in the gaps. Alchemy to even out the rough spots.

The fun comes from the uncertainty. With no magicka regen this guy often walks around with an empty blue bar, so he has to be flexible enough to deal with situations in multiple ways. Bandits can be brutal if they don’t have a mage in their ranks. He watches for those flesh spells and wards going off and tries to save them for last, then slings their own magicka back at them or uses it to summon something dreadful. There is no subtlety here, and things tend to get loud. I love it.

Edit: spelling.

Gaah, double post.

Double Grits....nothing wrong with that

Orses for corses! A short term fun play with those unarmoured happy go lucky adventurers on adept can relieve the boredom of a Sunday afternoon....but they're not gonna be around for work on Monday

You can INTEND to avoid melee and getting hit and maybe even get away with it for a while, before the dungeon and Dwarven delving starts. But once in those catacombs, in the dark narrow passages , in the realm of the Deathlord. Well, you WILL get hit, there's no where to run and you can't barely see. They'll come for you two in front and one behind. You will know fear before the end and you...will..die!

OR.....spend the whole play period near the fairy ring by the woodland waterfall hunting rabbit........

Stealth characters are always my favorite -- ranged attack with bows for extra damage, and sneak attacks with knives from behind. Seems that even when I set out to play another build, I wind up going back to that stealthy style of play, because it is just so darn effective, and generally a lot safer for my PC's. Mix in some alchemy for poisons or other boosts, and some enchanting for weapon and armor buffing. Illusion as well at times, to set enemies going off on each other before I get myself involved in the mess, and also to help be sneaky when I want to avoid the mess. It is also fun to "redistribute the wealth..."

I remeber a story about the Faerie Ring... People were welcomed there and given food, and danced to the music all night long. but it turned out the Faerie Ring Mother was a magic toadstool, and the food transformed the people into beasts, who at dawn ran off into the forest where they spent their lives as animals... Sounds pleasant, eh?

Shiny-Armored Do-Gooder Paladin in public, ruthless sneaky murderer in private. This translates to Heavy Armor and sword-n-board when traveling, in town, and formal occasions, and sneaking around in NO armor slitting throats and breaking necks whenever there are people in need of killin'. That she looks so darn wholesome really sells it. It's the best of both worlds. The only magic she uses is Frenzy spells, furthering the whole "Who, me? *bats eyelashes*" deal. I can't play anyone else for very long.

Was a sneaky illusionist necromancer. Not my typical style, and found it tough at times early on, but once powerful enough to cast spells like frenzy, invisibility became a lot of fun. No longer had to get his hands dirty at all.

My Vampire Red guard Nightblade. Used Illusions,sneak,one handed and archery. I enjoyed turning friends against each other and slitting the last guy throat

My main is a heavy armoured dual wielding (conjured blades) Nord http://i.imgur.com/n2GMIvG.jpg. I use the term Necrowarrior because of heavy focus on the Necromantic aspect, but still prefering to go close and personal with her blades. She also uses illusion (Mostly as RP skill, more for the atmosphere than pragmatic purposes) to inspire fear on weaker minded foes. Graceful and mystique, but hardened and brutal in battle, if needed. It's easily my favourite build when it's about atmosphere and overal ''feel''.

But gameplay wise, I enjoy pure warriors the most. Shield and axe, a bow for distance if required. It's not as fancy or as well thought out, but it's very physical, which I love.

Swordsman/thief. Light armor sneak character, but still a very capable swordsman. Can take most single opponents in a duel but will readily die if he tries anything like a tank approach. Makes me think through and plan every move.

Even more fun with slower leveling mod to keep him from getting too powerful.

Sneak

One Handed

Archery

Light Armor

I did one with illusion but rage is so OP that I usually leave it off.