So I made a pure mage character today. I'm not to knowledgeable about how over-leveling works, so I want to make sure how to level him to a point where he can still kill things pretty easily.

Haven't played in a while, so I hope you can help me out as I've forgotten some things .-. :foodndrink:

Well, even pure mages can handle just about any baddie in the game at any level, depending on how you manage your spells. At levels above 15 or so it's quite necessary to start stacking up spell effects. I've found that a weakness to magic 100% for 5 seconds, followed by weakness 100% for 10 seconds, followed by weakness to element 100% for 15 seconds works nicely.

Right after those three, fire off a spell that does elemental damage for 2 or 3 seconds. Block, then fire again when the first one wears off. It will only take a few shots to bring down just about anyone.

You'll also be interested in getting your conjuration skill up to 100 so that you can summon the grand creatures. With them at your side to soak up some damage, you can even manage several baddies at once.

I usually carry a supply of welkynd stones when I play mages, because I like to have instant magicka recharges when things get tense.

Lastly, sigil stones are your friend. A few fortify magicka sigil stones can really work wonders for a pure mage.
(Other good ones are fortify endurance, and any of the elemental shield sigil stones).

Remember not to use armor or robes! Just enchant regular clothing with elemental shield from sigil stones, and your magic effectiveness will stay at 100 and you'll be better protected than any warrior.

Good luck!

You probably mean under-leveling (trying to keep your level low). It's really quite simple and there are two ways to do it:

1) Make a class normally, but then never sleep. The problem with this aproach is that it locks you out of certain quests.

2) Take major skills that you don't intend to use and then use your minor skills instead. The problem with this aproach is that it's quite tedious in the beginnign when your minor skills are all still very low.

Alternatively you can try partial under-leveling, which is a variation of the second method. Here you pick 3 or 4 major skills that you will use (for a mage they should definately include Destruction and Restoration) and 4 or 3 major skills that you won't use. This slows down your leveling and caps your level somewhere between 20 and 25.

A fourth option is what I call focused leveling. You take a normal class, but then you focus on 2 or 3 skills and you try to avoid using your other class skill until those 2 or 3 skills are all 100. This allows you to reach level 20-25 or so with a powerful character at which point the overpowered loot such as Mundane Rings and Amulets of Axes start appearing. And once you have the overpowered loot you'll be able to defeat anything, no matter what kind of character you have.