Ok, first off, Hi

Now to get down to business *cracks knuckles*

Ok, so I've been playing Skyrim for a few days (just got it about 6 days ago) and I keep deleting my character and starting over because I wasn't happy with him. Like right now I am playing as a Redguard (was finally able to find a race to stick with, because of the lore and how he looked) who uses a bow, sword & shield, smiths, enchants, and uses healing magic. But I'm not happy with how he's turned out so far (only lvl 8). I know that I like magic, but I also like melee and archery. My problem is, would it be bad to do a blend of magic, 1h weapon, smithing, enchanting, and archery?

You can use a bit of everything yes , it doesn't matter really as you are still in the early levels you can level up pretty fast for each of them , like on High hrothgar u can beat them poor Greybeards down for 1H or abuse Shadowmere to level up in archery from the Dark brotherhood. Also muffle spell (illusion) or conjure spell on a dead body..Enchanting i usually take many empty soul gems with some cheap daggers..It takes time but in the end . Personally my character is leveled up in everything so in the end i just play an archer, a mage, a warrior etc , it's fun when there is diversity

I have heard though, that magic falls off at a later level, That true?

I did archery because of dragons, found out quick that a yolo melee attack results in a fast death, and magic doesn't do much (though that might've been because of my lvled spells)

I did have trouble finding a race I liked based on appearance, lore, and stats. I had at first thought of an orc shaman knight sort of build, but didn't know how well that would turn out. (Was curious about the orc strongholds too)

It depends with the magic, generally in the higher levels it's not practical to use expert or master spells no matter what your magicka level is which needs to be really high (+ 600), you would be able to use it twice approx. before recharging but from the other hand adept level magicka is pretty useful like fireball or chain lightning which are helpful fighting dragons ( i rarely run out of magicka before i kill them). In level 8 you will die many times so in your place i would level up a bit by some of the techniques i've mentioned above and find the style i prefer on my character. In the end i think you will find the race that suits you too. But according to race stats it doesn't matter , you can have an elf warrior and you can have an orc mage, it's not really 'realistic' from the game view but in the end they are all equally good..

I have noticed that I always migrate to a bow. Did figure out that I liked my Redguard's appearance while I found the Imperial's power highly useful. Plus the added gold "perk" was useful too. But I do a lot of smithing so that I can make me gear.

Saw a stream with glass armor and thought it looked awesome. Kinda like elvish armor from something else.

Thing is that most of the powers don't matter really. You can pacify someone with a spell if you are not an imperial, or can get a perk in the lockpicking to find more gold , doin' the Barenziah quest , enchant some jewel with breathing under water (which is awesome) instead of playing as an argonian, so as long as you like this character you can build him up in any style you like, And bows are pretty useful and fun yes..you can kill a giant on level 1 from a distance whereas with 1H you fly to the moon never coming back

I can never figure out how to kill a giant with a bow. Tried using an ancient nord bow and iron arrows. All I did was piss it off. Did kill a mammoth with a combo of archery and a basic fire spell.

You're gonna need something very powerful to down a giant. Don't expect to do so until you're atleast level 20 with a solid build.

Using too many offensive skills doesn't work in general, between archery, one-handed, two-handed and destruction I really recommend you use two at most.

it's possible to kill a gian no matter what level but it takes time and lots of arrows and lots of stamina potions, the key is to stay away from the giant like staying on an elevated surface, rock etc before he comes to you, it's basically a game ' catch me if you can' before you kill him

I'm thinking about making a Redguard Ghost build. Focusing on stealth and archery primarily, with lockpicking and 1h combat secondary, and a tiny bit in pickpocketing. I'll have him join the Brotherhood and the Thieves Guild (just for the Nightingales). Seems like that would be fun to play

If you get your character "looking" the way you want, do 2 hard saves back to back with him/her facing you. That way if you are not happy with the skill's, you can always go back and keep the character.

I don't tend to use more than one ranged type...so either bow or destruction. One meleee type for warriors, but sometimes adding in conjuration for battlemages or spellswords. But I also tend to be more focused on my characters story than what lvl they are, everyone plays differently.

Don't forget training, that can also help with lvl'ing.

I kept deleting characters I've made because I wasn't happy with how they turned out. One of my nords got booted because when the game was loading Warmaidens, I was getting attacked for some reason. Then I couldn't go back in without picking the lock.

Made an Argonian, just didn't like his looks.
Breton, magic skills suffered since I speckled into warrior and archery
Altmer, hated the look.
Dunmer and Bosmer, didn't like how the elves looked, to weird
Orc, looks were ok but I went stupid on skills lol
Nord, skills.
Imperial, wasn't sure what I wanted to do.
Current Redguard, skills in several things including 2 armors.