Okey so, i've made a mage build character, wearing the capes gloves etc from cloth armor wich gives magical bonus like 50% magicka regen, destruction 12% etc... but how the hell i am supposed to fight when i am 1shooted from almost every monster/bandit in the area, i mean my cloth armor has 0 defense, and if i turn on heavy armor, my magicka will finish in half second, taking 100000000 years to recharge and the damage in itself will svck...

How do i am supposed to play or to wear in order to dont get 1shooted due to 0 defense, but also use the magic spells decently?._.

Start investigating conjuration. Summon an antronach for crowd control whilst you take down your enemies from long range. Also learn to use the terrain to your advantage. Increase your enchanting skills and remember the 1 handed perk tree works with bound weapons. Hope these pointers help.

When you say "turn on heavy armor," are you talking about wards, or -flesh spells? Wards are tricky to use well - simply trying to keep them up while under fire is a losing proposition. For that reason I don't use them, and for that reason I really couldn't offer tips.

Flesh spells are pre-emptive - when I played my "pure" mage, I would always cast a -flesh spell before combat, let my Magicka regen, and I'd still have enough time on the -flesh spell to fight. In fact, I made it a habit to keep a -flesh spell active at all times; maybe it was my imagination, but it seemed like I got Alteration skill experience simply from enemies becoming aware of my character.

Aside from that, and aside from craig1405's tips, companions are always useful, and don't forget you can order them into a fight first.

You, my friend, need some alteration spells!

Oakflesh improves your armor rating by 40(for 60 sec), as long as you wear "clothing", and not heavy/light armor. Robes are fine!

Stoneflesh improves your armor rating by 60 points(for 60 sec)

Iron flesh improves armor rating by 80 pionts(for 0 sec)

Ebony flesh improves armor rating by 100(for 60 sec)

Dragonhide ignores 80% damage(30 sec)

The Mage Armor perk is really helpful:

Protection spells like Stoneflesh are twice as strong if not wearing armor

Spells like Stoneflesh is 2.5 times stronger. If not wearing any armor

Spells like Stoneflesh are 3 times stronger. If not wearing any armor

You also need to think about what ratio you are putting into health etc. If I'm playing as a pure mage as I assume you are, my ratio is 1 health, 5 magicka and 0 stamina. Increase magic enchantments are a must together with speeding up magic regain. Remember to enchant a ring and a necklace and as your enchanting skills increase make sure you regularly upgrade your robes etc. A follower can be very beneficial at early levels where a pure mage will struggle. The pay back for this early struggle however is immense power later in the game when you will be one shotting many enemies from distance and rarely taking damage yourself if you develop your character properly.

wear light or heavy armor? what system are you on. There is a PC mod that allows you to craft light armored versions of most vanilla clothing so you can have armor and still look like a true mage.

That rather defeats the object of playing as a cloth wearing pure mage though doesn't it.

How come I never got the one-shot from any monsters and bandits?? Could it be because I sneak, and see them before they see me?? I do not use alteration spells, or the tree, only destruction, conjuration and illusion. I wear robes. I do not run everywhere, but take my time. I do not use wards. I do not put points into health, only magicka. What is my character doing so different??

I play a pure mage exactly the same way Ashley and although it can be a bit tricky early on I don't have these problems either. I think maybe it's the OP's 1st outing with this play style and I guess it can be a bit overwhelming when you 1st try it. OK for us old veterans though. LOL

If it's your first time as a mage, like others said I would invest in basically every magic school. But thats me. I like to be a well rounded mage. It can be extremely difficult and frustrating at lower levels. But every school has its benefits. I think the biggest thing like Craig said is conjuration and enchanting. If you get your enchanting to 100 and take the right perks, with focus on magika regen and magika, you my friend wont have any issues.

I would definately add Illusion to the mix. In my opinion and experience I feel that Illusion is the single most powerful skill in the game. But you need to go all or nothing. Meaning, get your Illusion level to 100 and invest in every perk for it to be most effective. BEing able to control the minds of all enemies with the exception of bosses and dragons is very rewarding and satisfying.

In my opinion the best defense for a mage is Amulet of Talos/Blessing of Talos/Become Ethereal First Word. You can get this combination almost immediately after beginning the game and don't have to make any investments into alteration/smithing and it does not waste any magicka to use. Focus on a withering offense and as soon as you sense any danger of being overwhlmed become ethereal to avoid any damage and reposition yourself to a safe location. Since the cooldown will be so quick witht the amulet and blessing you can do this very frequently. If you are a necromage vampire you can do it with no cooldown at all. Before becoming ethereal you can cast summons, cloaks, and frenzy and then become ethereal and flaot around unharmed as everything is gettig killed. You can also prep and drop master destruction spells and then become ethereal again and rinse and repeat. It really is the best defense and offense in my opinion.

i think we're getting a little ahead of ourselves here

Yea it's my first mage at all, or either first time playing skyrim xD thanx a lot for your help guys!

it's my fault also, i thought the magic gameplay is similar to any other MMORPG online game, when you jus have to 1shoot or 2shot your enemies with the same skil using just heal,damage spell for 50levels è.è

Don't give up on pure mage as a play style, it's just tough if you're not used to the game. I would suggest playing either a battlemage or a spellsword while you get familiar with magic skills, these play styles will help you advance your magic but you will still have weapons and armour to fall back on should you need to.

Good thread and thanks to those with advice. I'm in the same boat as OP. I'm learning. Jenassa is with me and I almost always have a flame atronach with me as well. I was hammered pretty hard at one point in Saarthal, but I otherwise manage alright with what I have. Very, very different style than I've played before.

Also if you start the main quest line and struggle through until you get your follower (Lydia), you can use her as a buffer while you recover health/magika. Then gather all the health/magika potions you can too.

well, there technically is no point at all in wearing clothes, it has absolutely no advantage to light armor or heavy armor. On PC, there are a huge amount of mods that add robes that are really light or heavy armor but look like robes.

The point of wearing robes is for the challenge, that challenge is removed if a character simply wears armour disguised as robes as far as I'm concerned.

To be successful as a mage I think it is best to go all in. Out everything into magicka and don't wear armor. The bbest argument for not wearing armor is that very early int he game you can get robes that exceed what you can get enchanting yourself with 100 enchanting. By level 10 you can be sporting arch mage robes, morokei, and ring of the erudite. If you invest everything into magicka then these magicka regen equipment gives you massive power. You should be able to steam roll through everything and use become ethereal when you get cornered. If you go the half ass route and wear armor your armor is going to svck as far as protection and giving good enchantments until you get 100 enchanting and high smithing which will be some length into the game. You will find your self getting half through fights and running out of magicka and then not knowing what to do since your armor still svcks and you have no weapon skills. My advice: To be a successful mage fully commit as one.

It's all personal preference. I'll agree that if this is your first go at Skyrim and you're hellbent on playing a mage, then you should do a battlemage or spellsword like Craig said.

I would suggest that the OP make a battlemage or spellsword. I would suggest light armor, a sword in the right hand, and a spell in the left hand. Focus on the skills: Restoration, Destruction, light armor, smithing, and one handed.

Here is a good perk spread to aim for by level 50: http://www.skyrimcalculator.com/#343580 I would spread points evenly between stamina, magicka, and health until they all reach 200, and then just focus on magicka and health in equal ratios. With the Respite perk in restoration you can restore stamina when you use a healing spell so you don't need a large pool of stamina.

If you go the spellsword/ battlemage route I would ignore the dual casting perks and master level spell perks. You only use one hand for spells so dual casting is a waste, and the master level spells take two hands as well and are kind of lame. Also, dual casting a spell gets you 2.2 times the regular damage, but for 2.8 times the usual magic cost. It is very inefficient over single casting.

you also die in one hit.......This is not good advice at all for the most part

Robes have no advantage, the ONLY reason you would use them is for challenge/looks(and if you are on PC, this is not a problem and is not really an advantage for clothes)/specific RP/archmage's robes (which is still not as good as enchanted armor anyway and is only 1 piece of armor).

the main issue with you post though is the "put everything into MAgicka" thing, that is stupid and will get you killed A LOT after a while unless you play on novice (and even then.....)

The thing with wearing robes is if you're going with a pure mage, you have to wear them over armor due to the magika regen in them, especially early in the game when you're extremely weak. I still think a battlemage is the way to go for your first mage. Then when you get more familiar with the game and mechanics, go pure mage. But if you choose to play a pure mage, then I would do it as an Altmer simply because of their extra starting magika.

College robes and mage armor spells + perks is what I usually use. Mage armor is incredibly handy as well as not very magicka consuming.

The advantage of robes is that you can get robes early in the game with massive enchantments that far exceed anything that you could make. Late game with high smithing/enchanting I agree you could make better stuff. Early in the game the offense provided by archmage robes will far exceed the shitty protective value of the 100 AR steeel armor he will be wearing. Mages should get killed in one hit. Using conjuration/illussion/destruction/become ethereal I rarely get touched by anything. I play on Adept and pretty much steam roll through everything. I don't even use alchemy or enchanting. The all magkca think makes you more offnesive and keeps you in the mindset that you must avoid open combat at all costs. I wouldn't criticize it unless you have tried it. I ahve tried it and it works very well.