I always play a character that is essentially pretty much a straight class; pure warrior, or pure mage or pure rogue. About the only variance I have had is having a warrior using light armor once in a while.

Well I finally got the mods needed to make a Dunmer not look like a grandmother and I have rolled up a displaced Ashelander. She was born after the Red Year so I needed someone that looks young.

Anyway I really want to mix some things up with this character, but not sure what would work well together. I’m thinking:

Light Armor – For my protection (Ashlander lore friendly)
One-Handed – For melee attacks (Dual Wielding Sword/Dagger )
Destruction – For ranged attacks (Focus on Fire)
Smithing – To buff protection and melee attacks
Alchemy – Healing and buff melee damage

My biggest concern is ranged damage. I plan on her being a fireball mage, but I do not think that even with perks Destruction will scale well with damage as much as a good bow and Archery perks does, especially with a x3 sneak attack. Should I also go into Enchanting in order to enchant my armor to buff destruction damage?

To be honest I really do not like using more than one of the Crafting skills (I generally use only Smithing) but this character is already looking at using Smithing and Alchemy and maybe Enchant? Is that going to make her just too powerful?

What are some other options? Thanks.

You could always leave craft skills back, or make destruction spells cheaper so they're more appealing when it comes to compare them to archery. In that case, you'd likely be an enchanter as well. Either way it could be fun. IMHO, of course.

I've never tried the one-hand + destruction combination. It sounds interesting. I'm working on a character right now that has destruction + archery + sneak like you mentioned. I think she will ultimately be over powered though.

See my fear is that a character like that would start using bows only due to the x3 bonus and better and better bows and arrows, while destruction seems to get capped pretty early in the game.

For example I can't poison a Fireball. I can't wear a different glove and make the fireball more powerful. Other than a few perks and maybe enchant some items the fireball damage is stuck. It's later in game when I'm wondering if this would be a real problem.

Enchanting armour won't buff destruction damage - unless you're using mods - it will only reduce cost. Your character sounds similar to my Dunmer, but I stuck with destruction and didn't use archery. I also used a lot of restoration - wards are pretty good against ranged magic and dragons, and buff your armour in melee - cloaks are pretty good too.

I would stick with destruction and just get good at it - it's far more rewarding than sneak damage with bows when it comes off. Here's a couple of videos of my Dunmer spellsword late in the game on master:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRm7ApDlo8U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkaJy3yPaRE

why have archery & destruction as both cover range? isn't it better to specialize in one area over spreading across two and perhaps put those saved points into something like alchemy instead?