My level 24 Mage has focused on the Destruction, Alteration and Restoration schools of magic, roughly each somewhere between 50 and 70 in skill.

Any players have mages specialising in similar schools and have no major problems when fighting multiple enemies at once? If so some basic tactics would be most appreciated.

My computer's beginning to get RSI from all the reloads.

1. I wear light armor (well, light armor that looks like the vanilla robes thanks to a mod) because robes are completely useless and there is literally no reason to use them , except for maybe the archmage's robes or for the challenge. that helps survivability quite a bit.

2. Destruction magic is not very good in non-modded skyrim, it is recommended to use Conjuration and illusion as you main magic skills

My mages tend to specialise in conjuration and illusion with destruction as a back up. I find sending in an antronach or two distracts the enemies and illusion makes them do strange things. Then if necessary I use destruction to finish them off.

You say that all the time and it's just not true. There are reasons to use robes. Why don't you just say "I don't like to use robes and here's why," rather than constantly making this sweeping--and untrue--generalization?

Destruction is fine, especially at Adept difficulty or below, it just doesn't scale well at higher difficulties. Instead of switching entirely to Conjuration and Illusion as main skills, since he's already leveled his Destruction pretty high, the TC can just take Sam's drinking challenge and get the Sanguine Rose. An angry Dremora Lord is really good at taking the aggro off of your character!

1. like what? what can robes do that enchanted armor can't? The only thing i can think of is Archmages robes, and IMO that is ALSO outlclassed by high-level enchanted armor, and i will admit that part is an opinion.

2. MAybe because i play expert, but even on adept, the higher levels (like 40-50) makes destruction magic seem more of a chore without a magic mod. not saying compltely avoid it, just that using it as the only source of damage without conjuration is not the greatest idea.

Flame Cloak, Frost Cloak, Shock Cloak, Summons, AOE Spells like Chain Lightning

Travel to Solsthiem, and prepare to see how a Godless Telvanni Mage lives, learn unique Spells and craft some Staves.

There are many useful Staves that are quest rewards with AOE Spell Enchants, Pretty,Pretty!

Since you play on the computer, I'd recommend modding, like has been done already. If you don't want to do that, just play on the normal difficulty (if you don't already) and pick up alchemy. I don't know what ingredients you can use to make restore magicka potions, but load up on those, along with fortify destruction. Once you have picked up perks to increase the effectiveness of mage armors (like ebonyflesh) you will have decent survivability. Once you have those things, whenever I got into fights with multiple opponents, I found it extremely useful to just spam the hell out of fireball. If you have the dual cast and impact perk, you can strategically use dual fireballs to stagger and then pepper in some low level flames. Its basically a war of attrition and you have to make the most of AoE attacks.

Or, even easier, go down into the College Midden and make a staff of Storm Atronach. No requirements and just as good, maybe better since it has a ranged attack.

Thanks for the tips.

Up against a few dremora and Valyn at the moment, and am not lasting 5 seconds in any battle against their rain of fireballs. But we'll keep trying

Edit: I think perhaps I'm just attempting things far too hard for my character at their current level. I'm sure that doesn't help matters.

That's a tough quest at higher levels (easy below level12) The best thing would be to get, even if temporarily, the Atronach stone to absorb as much as you can and use become ethereal shout. The idea is to go ethereal, rush past the Dremoras and get to Malyn directly. He's not too tough and you can absorb enough usually too make a good attack. If you are quick, you can finish him before the Dremoras catch up to you.

Thank you, Bradleyh. I try not to let any enemies get close to me, and ironically it's the fellow mages that I have most trouble with.

If/when I venture out Solsthiem way I'll be sure to keep a lookout for the mages, etc.

Something very important to some of us: roleplaying. They allow us to roleplay a mage who wears robes. For some of us, roleplaying is more important than being "uber" in combat.

Yes, very true.

A main reason why in my opening post I asked for anyone to give tips that plays a similar mage type character, rather than asking for what's the 'best' way to beat the game. Unfortunately most - not all - misunderstood what I was actually asking. But that's internet forums for you No doubt I could have explained myself better too.

Illusion + Conjuration = All enemies dead.

Basically what I do is depending on how many enemies their are, is that If I am in sneak mode, I will use the frenzy spell if there are a few enemies and I am not spotted. Then go to a dual casted flame cloak, and fireball in one and flames in another. If I am spotted, then I conjure a helper, cast flame cloak, and then dual cast fireball or firebolt. When I am going down the road or over the hill, I keep a summon frost atronach or fire atronach in one hand and flames in the other so if I am caught by surprised I am ready, then after the conjure spell I go to the flame cloak and then back to the atronach spell.

I use only destruction, illusion, conjuration and restoration along with alchemy and enchanting. When ever I am going down the road or over the hill, I am always going slow and looking around for enemies and I usually spot them before they spot me. I also use shouts to help me. I travel with no companion, except in the very beginning. I do not use alteration for I do not like it. I do not wear armor, but only robes that are enchanted from the college or enchanted by my character. I have never put points into health. Only magicka and stamina, at a rate of 3 health / 1 stamina, for stamina helps with carry weight.

My gals are over level 45, some over 55 and still going strong and the only real problems I have is with dragon priests. I have no mods, for I play on xbox and I have no problems with destruction. It depends on the perks you take. In destruction, the ones I take are augmented flames 2, impact, dual casting, intense flames, augmented frost 2 (only for fire dragons) and the master perk. In illusion I take everything but dual casting. In restoration I take recovery 2, regeneration, necromage and up to adept. In conjuration I only take the major perks, novice to master, and then mystic binding.

In Skyrim it is not how many time you hit an enemy with a spell that counts, but how much damage you do with a single spell that counts. I also only use the mage stone, and I always rest for at least 1 hour before going anywhere, and if I see a bed along the way, I also sleep an hour there. The higher you get in destruction, the better your spells, the stronger your spells. I very seldom use shock type spells, mostly fire spells, and frost only against fire dragons. I do not use wards, mage armor, or any of those. Just go slow, conjure a helper, use a flame cloak and burn them. I also play on adept, wear robes or cloth armor that my gal enchants, and I have very little problems with any enemies, except the dragon priests.

Hope this helps.

Here is a link that might also help.

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1481463-never-actually-made-a-mage/page-4

You get Paralyze and Ash Rune at 75 in Alteration which should help a lot with survival. Staffs or daggers with paralysis, or even poisons, should also help.

Impact in the Destruction tree is a given. Get that if you don't have it already.

Finally, get some items with resistance and try the Lord stone (Atronach if you're feeling brave). Elemental and magic resistance works ontop of each other, eg any fire damage will first be reduced by fire resistance, then again by magic resistance.

which is why i said challenge, and i usually say roleplaying here to, but admittedly did not see what he was asking specifically since all he mentions was being a mage using some magic schools and having issues surviving. And i do RP somewhat as well and tend to try and use robes a lot as well at first, as well as use the mod that lets me craft robes with an armor rating, it does not mean vanilla robes have an actual in-game advantage though.

Restoration, Conjuration and illusion are probably the most powerful of the magic schools. as said above summon an atronach or Dremora lord and watch the enemies almost completely ignore you most of the time.

Of course they have. Being a mage, having robes without armor rating would give flesh spells a higher armor rating than any of the armors available in the game as you level up.

not actually lasting any decent length of time though, making it impractical. Armor + flesh spells gives just as much as mage armor at a much longer time.

3 minutes is more than enough to last through any fight asuming you would get hit when you shouldn't. If you're getting hit from weapons as a mage then you're doing it wrong. Plus you can always cast the spell again. It's a mage thing.

you mean 30 seconds, which is nothing. Dragonhide, the only spell comparable to Armor + flesh spells only lasts 30 seconds. I THINK it can be dual-casted, but even that is only a minute.

With the dual-casting perk, I found I didn't have much trouble at all keeping my shields up, even in protracted fights. Given the OP's stated levels, I'd imagine that perk would be well within reach.

On the one hand, you're right - fully perked light armor gives better physical protection than fully perked flesh spells with no armor (with the exception of Dragonhide, of course). On the other hand, though, given the OP's numbers and making not terribly unwarranted assumptions about perking, flesh spells sans armor should be more or less on par with level-appropriate armor, even with a flesh spell added on.

On top of that, I've generally found it a lot harder to level Light Armor than Alteration. Light Armor requires you to get hit; Alteration seems to just require you to get spotted while having an active flesh spell (not to mention using all the other toys in the Alteration school). Thus, the benefits accrue a bit faster.

As for the OP's question: A tanky companion plus liberal use of the Impact perk did me just fine in most cases. An occasional Flame Atronach also helped keep the heat off (so to speak) without requiring heavy investment in Conjuration.

Edited for spelling error

All of the flesh spells are comparable to the level appropriate armors. It only takes 5 perks to maximize the benefits of the spells which are better than any armor a mage can wear. Deathbrand, Dragonscale or deathbrand doesn't even reach 100 armor rating on a mage whereas iron flesh has 160 and ebony flesh 350, and they can last up to 3 minutes which is more than enough to finish almost every fight without casting it again with the exception of some boss fights and maybe some dragons which aren't even a problem because as a mage you shouldn't be within range of their bite. Like I said, it's a mage thing.

Dragonscale at 100 skill + Ebony flesh = more than that. I play mages a lot, it is not a "mage thing" just a difference of what they see.

My preferred playstyle is a mage and I completely agree with this.