If you have played as a pure Mage, Thief, or Warrior. What did you find you liked most and least? What were challeges you faced and how did you over come them? Share your findings here.

Right now Im playing as Triveldyn a pure mage Altmer-Apprentice. I intend to play as each pure build then create my grand product. Notes so far:

Mage Run:
1. Conjuration is fav. skill
2. Spells expensive
3. Would like to carry more
4. Dont really use staff that often, would prefer weapon
5. Hate wood elf males
6. Alchemy Levels first, not as useful as once thought
7. Mysticism is detect life-Novice skill
8. Illusion is very good.
9. Liking bigger races
10. Conj
11. Thinking potions probably > Willpower 100.
12. Ring of Transmutation-Warlocks luck Bravil
13. Faster non-social playing style prefered
14. Argonians annoy me
15. May actually like Khajiit inspite of allergies
16. On fence with dark elves
17. Hate Bretons
18. May or may not drop destruction in favor of summons.

Hypothesis:
Orc, Redguard, Nord, Dark Elf, Khajiit
Male
Atronach
Intelligence, Strength
Magic
Alchemy, Alteration, CONJURATION, Destruction, ILLUSION,
Mercantile, Restoration

I've only played 2 or 3 "pure" archetypes, but they were all custom class, does that count?

I play almost pure Warrior (Only do one weapon specialization though) and almost pure thief (never privy to the soical skills) and played aPure Mage.

With the Mage I found Mysticism a pain to level, I hate Mysticism. Also the painfully slow leveling of Destruction and Restoration is irksome when compared to the leveling of the other skills.

I've played several pure mages (Oblivion vanilla Mage Class.)

A few of my observations about the type:

No weapon is necessary. A staff should be regarded as a separate Magicka Pool/Targeted Spell, and the choice of staff type should supplement the mage's skills, rather than duplicating one of them. In other words, a Conjurer/Illusionist might carry a Destruction staff, while a Destruction mage might choose a staff of Paralyze.

A mage in melee is a dead mage. Better to run away. Better yet to give the enemy something else to fight, so you can concentrate on blasting 'em.

Alchemy is the most powerful skill in the game. It gives the mage access to multiple spell effects, without tapping one's magicka. As an example, by raising Alchemy early, it's possible to be making and using Invisibility Potions at Level 2. (If you don't mind dodging wolves in the mountains, where the ingredients grow. )

Spells appropriate to one's level are dirt cheap (this is because as one levels up, money is no longer a problem.) Cheap low-level spells are ideal for training up a skill; better to cast a low-level fireball five times than a high-level one once. One should always acquire a given spell effect as early (and as cheaply) as possible, and custom-make spells as ones skills improve. Many spell effects can be learned from the various rune stones, so buying is not always necessary.

Mysticism is Reflect Damage and Reflect Spell, two of the most powerful effects in the game.