Ok so I rolled what you would call a pure mage going for dual-casting destruction magic (lightning) which I got to 100 followed by conjuration for atronachs (which I won't get again due to them constantly getting stuck in doors and blocking my path, especially true for frost atronach) and alteration for mage armor and hovering lightbulb. Also got restoration to 60 for the +50% magicka regeneration, oh and also I played a altmer for extra magicka.
I finnished the mage guild (winterhold) and alot of other side-quests, including Whiterun, Solitude, Winterhold and Windhelm. After this I got kind of bored of my character. I picked up enchanting to make my spells cheaper (so that I could cast more then 2 thunderbolts before going out of mana) which made the experiance somewhat better. Still though I often found myself running out of mana between chain-staggering opponents.

I found little joy in this playstyle however, let me explain why. First of all, constant mana-issues. I was hoping to solve this by getting mana-regeneration perks and such but apperently your magicka doesn't regenerate while you are casting spells. I figured I'd solve this by using staves while I regenerate mana but apperently it doesn't regenerate then either. I feel this forces me to either chain-chug potions or to kite mobs around while regenerate mobs. I did this and it made me feel little like a powerful wizard and more like a glitch abuser. This was solved by using enchanting to make gear that drastically reduces magicka cost of certain schools but I still felt that this playstyle offered me little. Another annoying thing is the 8 hotkeys. If I don't want to constantly pause the game to go into the favorite list I have to limit my arsenal of spells drastically, don't even think about hotkeying shouts.

So after completing the game with this character I want something new. I was thinking maybe a thief or a warrior or something in between. Probably skipping spells alltogether or exploring the illusion school which I haven't yet touched. The entire point of this thread is that I wish to request an interesting and challenging (to the extent that you don't have to constantly kite and such anyway) skillbuild for the expert difficulty.

Try a fully non-magic using stealth build. To make it more interesting go dual wield daggers/archery only and skip Alchemy. Or even tougher skip Archery but that really hurts.

Unless you force yourself into a single-player RP mindset. Their isn't that many amazing things you can do.

Dungeons, achivements, and leveling everything to 100? Good one time experience.

Go onto a killing spree in Skyrim... can't kill half of the NPCs... wtf?

Sight seeing? Umm ok, the sun is really bright and theirs a strange rock formation somewhere up north...


CK? Hell ya, Mods!

Thanks for replies, I supose I will make some kind of thief/warrior type character then. Dual-Wielding you say, what about 1h+shield? I supose that wouldn't make much sense as a thief character but I just thought the shield perk tree looked kind of neat. Also should offer more gameplay then just spamming LMB+RBM without the possiblity to block.
What other skills would you use/perk in? I was thinking sneak, light armor, smithing, one-handed to begin with. Additions could be archery/illusion/pickpocket but I'm not sure which ones. I found lockpicking to be rather easy without perking in it so that seems like a waste. The +100 carry weight from pickpocket is neat.

What race would you recommend? I really like the Khajit because they look awesome (Thundercats, HO!) aswell as having that neat night vision that no longer is available from illusion (afaik anyway). Redguard seems strong aswell.

I'm currently a dual wielding dagger assassin build Dunmer. Stealth fully maxed out first then working on light armor, 1H and Archery, ignoring everything else. I'm level 37 so the other 3 are all in the mid to high 70s. I wasted 8 perks early while I was trying to decide a play style so I could be even stronger now if I hadn't done that. I also trained smithing up to 60 when I had the cash so I can improve magic items but I took no other perks in that tree. Dual wield fighting can be fun. Mix in the stealth roll and you can stay in stealth, even when seen, get a couple shots in, roll behind the person, get more in, etc. It ends boiling down to more than spamming the attack buttons. The dual wield dagger power attack does stunning damage and will one shot most every foe. The stamina perks from the Light Armor tree allow me to get four or five dual power attacks in one stamina bar. There is nothing in the game that can take that except maybe ancient dragons. I also use the Unrelenting Force shout for crowd control.

My next character, after I finish the main quest shortly, is going to be a sword and board, no magic again, maybe smithing though. I haven't tried it yet so I can't give much advice about that. I will say, do not waste any perks in lockpicking. Like you say, you can pick every lock without it so don't bother. Maybe if lockpicks were rare or something but they're not. Also, if you're going to sword and board your going to be putting a lot into stamina anyway so the extra carrying weight perk is not really worth it in my estimation. Unless you want to pickpocket a lot, of course, that's up to you.

For a sword and board concentrate on 1H, Block and Light Armor obviously, then stealth if you want to go that route (remember though that only daggers and bows offer silent kills). Archery will sort of build itself as you'll be fighting so many dragons. If you are going that route you don't have to fill out the whole tree. The damage and speed perks are the most useful. Lastly, be wary of smithing. It levels ridiculously fast and if concentrate on it you can be wearing daedric armor by level 10 (actually earlier if you did nothing but smithing) and be unstoppable, which can be cool at first, but quickly makes the game boring.