Ok, so I've already made my 2 melee characters (warrior and assassin). I want to make a mageish type of character now and I'm thinking of a type of battle mage. I have barely used any magic in this game and I'm new to TES games so bear with my dumbness lol. From what I've read the majority of people don't like destruction so I'm gonna stay away from that for the most part.

So far I've thought of these skills:
Conjuration (bound weapons and atronarchs)
One-handed (5/5 armsman and possibly the 25% less stamina on power attack)
Restoration
Enchanting

After that I'm not really sure what else to do. I plan on using a bound sword in my right hand with a healing spell / ward in the other. My plan of attack is to summon my atronarch before combat then proceed to attack with my conjured sword switching between a ward and healing spell depending on situation. I'm not totally sold on the heavy armor yet and may go with mage robes for a more magic type experience. What do you all think though? Like I said I've barely used magic in this game so far so im pretty much open to all suggestions and input. Thanks in advance.

Sounds not bad, Include Alteration for Armor, Ilusion for the fun, and Destruction for Exploding runes

The mage armor perk in alteration was 1 thing I was deciding on about whether or not to use armor or mage robes. I'd forgotten about runes in destruction so I might use those as well. 1 thing I am curious about though is how to tell the damage on bound weapons and when to switch to a real 1?

I dont think I'd completely pass on destruction. If it gets to the point where your not doing the damage you need to thats why you got the sword right?

I planned my current character and she ended up going down an entirely different path....
So I say go with the flow pick up your skills as you go along dont try and pre plan so you can beat the game....I didnt plan to beat the game but somehow like Charlie Sheen Im still winning

Go with Illusion - it's brilliant fun, if used in conjunction with Sneak you can hit any enemy in the game with dual-wielded Fury (a novice-level spell) to make them kill each other. You don't even have to get your hands dirty. It's also very easy to raise, and the Aspect of Terror perk which adds 10 levels to your Illusion spells also adds 10 damage to some fire spells - couple that with the Augmented Flames perks in Destruction and the Novice-level Flames spell does upwards of 20 DPS, or upwards of 40 dual-wielded (but not overcharged as that costs unnecessary extra magicka), which is strong even at level 30ish. It's arguably not worth concentrating too much on Destruction though, because whatever happens it's weak by high level (50).

I'm rolling an Illusion/Conjuration/Sneak mage at the moment. It's extremely fun and extremely powerful - you can control entire battles without taking a scratch if you use your spells properly. You have to use a load of different spells and keep changing them on the fly, but there's a lot of potential and lots of different possible approaches.

My Dark Elf Ill/Con/Sne mage regularly takes out entire forts with the following process:

1) Cast Muffle [EDIT: and Oakflesh (or higher Flesh spell) if you want to raise Alteration too, but this isn't necessary]
2) Sneak to a decent vantage point where you can see an enemy at a decent range. Stay hidden.
3) Dual-cast-overcharge Fury (dual-casting Illusion spells more-than-doubles the max level the spell affects). Watch as that enemy attacks his friends, killing them or being killed themselves.
4) Repeat 3), or go straight to 5)
5) Finish off any stragglers with Bound Bow Sneak attacks.
6) Reanimate the most powerful corpse to fight by your side.
7) Find the "boss" of the area. Sneak Bound Bow attack them to get their attention; let your undead thrall tank them.
8) When your thrall is dead, dual-cast Calm on the boss. They will stop attacking you.
9) Sneak again, conjure a Bound Sword, assassinate them from behind.
10) Reanimate the boss as your new thrall


Of course this is just one option - the simpler (although less fun) way to do things is just to conjure an Atronach (Frost ones work very well as they're melee fighters) and let them take the flak while you ping arrows in from a safe distance. I prefer the more complex option though, because it leaves you totally in control of fights with several enemies.

You need one defensive magic school there.

Choose between Alteration (soak damage) or Illuson (keep enemies away). Don't try to use both or you won't be good at any.

All i can say, don't play this game too systematically and pre-planned. Takes away the fun. There are plenty of choices to make.