Hey, this is my first post here on these forums. I was wondering how I should go about start building a mage character. Im level 23 almost 24 and to this point have only used archery. So I was wondering what I should try to focus on, where to get new spells and how to get my destruction spells up without getting owned.

Have you went to the college of winterhold yet? That would be the first place I would start if you want to be a mage. My opinion of course.

Well on my Spell-sword character I started leveling up my skills first.

Thats a good idea, thanks.

The only way to build a mage character is to use your spells. Like mega pointed out winterhold is the mage guild, but you can get spells from court mages in each city. Eventually you will have to go to winterhold but for early levels you are fine with court mages. Spell vendors will not sell you spells you cannot cast though,spells are only sold when you have high enough skill. If i were you i would just stick with archery if you leveled to 25 with it. Casting level 1 spells at level 25 is pushing your luck a bit, it can be done i guess but you will lag behind the rest of the game.

All the Jarls have personal mages. I believe most of them sell enchanted items/spells. To build a good mage you must use magic. I suggest trying out all the different types of magic and see which one is the most fun for you.

Yeah this is what I was afraid of, not being able to kill anything so I wont be able to level it up. Is there anywhere reccomended to go that the mobs aren't too hard and I have a chance to level it up?

Try combining conjuration with your archery, its pretty powerful and fun. Throw in the perk in illusion tree to silent your casting, summon a daedra or two to rush in and tank while you snipe with your bow, fun stuff.

You will still be fighting tons of level 5 mobs at 30. It's not that you cannot find stuff to kill or be able to level up your mage skills. The problem is your damage or summons or defensive spells will always be weak for your level. Once you get your expert spells things will change but by then you will be level 50 probably and mobs have stopped scaling with you, it will all be for the "end game"

One more question non-mage related. I just got 100 smithing and went down the left path since that was light armor and thats what I use. I was wondering if there is any bow better than the daedric bow or should I use all my skill points to get the perk to craft daedric?