I'm still playing my Elegant Orc Blossom, who won't wear anything but velvet and jewels, but carries a waraxe in case she needs to negotiate. However, for variety, I've also started a Dunmer Nun, who's trying to avoid the use of weapons as well as armor! She wears a whimple (mod-supplied) with a robe and sandals. The robe she currently uses is one "of Deflection" providing a bit of Shield, and she'll undoubtedly enchant her own later. She's not a complete pacifist, and will punish anyone who attacks her. The only enemies she'll actually seek out are Vampires, which she considers an abomination. I may have her develop a similar distaste for Necromancers, too.

She's using Restoration spells as much as possible, including Absorb Health as her main offensive spell. The main issue she has is with blocking. Using a shield requires a weapon in the other hand, and blocking with fists is very ineffective. Right now, she's carrying a silver dagger just to use as a blocking mechanism, but I'd prefer a non-weapon method if I can find one. I may even have to make a no-damage "weapon" mod for her just to keep the game mechanics happy, unless someone can suggest an alternative?

For your blocking objectives, might you consider a staff that is out of charges?

She's just got her Mage's Staff (paralysis, chosen at random because she didn't intend to carry it around with her) so it won't be hard to try that out.

You can block with your shield with your weapon seathed, if that helps.

There are some dual wield mods out there which add a shield that uses a weapon's mesh and texture. So you see an axe or sword in your left hand. But the game thinks it is a shield. You might try one of those, and just not use the actual weapon in your right. You might even try making one yourself. It might not be too hard, just take a shield and substitute the mesh for a weapon. The only problem I see is that the characters hand might not equip it in the right place. Hmm, tried it and no luck. It just shows up at your waist. You must have to edit the .nif file as well.

There are a few mods out there (I'm using one bundled with OOO) that substitute a staff-like item for your shield. The effect is similar to carrying a staff one-handed in your offhand. The one bundled with OOO (and I believe exists as a stand-alone) has staffs in both light and heavy armor flavors. I imagine this would most certainly preserve the style of your character (some look like simple walking sticks) while giving you a functional block.

The discharged staff idea didn't pan out too well. As she's not using weapons or armor by choice, she's also not getting them damaged, so her Armorer is still at the 25 level it started at (and at least I thought to make it a major, or it would be much lower). That means she can't repair the staff, which is inevitably an enchanted item. So hers is down to almost broken.

I'll have to have her train her block up to the point where she gets no damage to the blocking weapon before I go back to the dead staff idea. She'll get some damage to her dagger and repair it which will help get her Armorer up a bit too. I'm also looking at making a non-weapon weapon for her to block with but can't decide on what it would be - the Tamrielic equivalent of the Silver Crucifix doesn't seem to exist in lore, so the Silver Dagger is a workable stand-in until I find the answer.

She won't be using a Shield at all, as that's Armor. It would reduce her spell effectiveness, as well as violating her "rules". Well, so does the dagger, but I'm trying to get around that.

In the meantime, she's now got a Robe of Warding - a nice upgrade from the Robe of Deflection without any visual change.