SUBJECTS COVERED:
1) The Atronach
2) The Glass Cannon (Altmer-Apprentice)
3) Luck
4) Melee Stealth
5) A diferent take on the "Mystic Archer Hybrid"
6) Alchemy
7) Bartering
8) Conjuration+Restoration (provided by Salvian)
THE ATRONACH
Yes by now a lot of us have at least tried the Atronach Sign. However I include for the fact that many players never give it a look, because they dont understand how it works.
The Atronach makes it so that your character has a 50-50 chance at absorbing enemy magic attacks into your own magicka bar. The trade off is that your magicka is stunted meaning it does not naturally regenerate. You also receive a 150 bonus to your total magicka bar.
+Excellent for Warrior Types, because you dont rely on magicka. The Stunt weakness doesnt change your play, you can simply enjoy having an extra 150 total and the defensive perks of absorbing half of the enemy magical attacks.
+Excellent for Altmer because the absorption works to negate their elemental weakness. This combo also gives you the highest possible Magicka in the game.
-Early in game it is difficult to find enemies to absorb magicka from.
-Sometimes you will absorb positive effects from wells and chapels.
+/- 100% spell absorption makes you immune to all enemy spells. This is part of creating a "Godlike" character, but some find this to be too unchallenging.
THE GLASS CANNON (Altmer+Apprentice)
A lot people are deterred by a 125% weakness to elemental magic. However I want to point out that the weakness can be negated later in the game, and as few enemies early on attack with magic early. This is a very manageable and fun character to play with. I think more people should give it a try.
LUCK
Just quickly de-mystifying the Luck attribute. What it does is give you a hidden bonus to all 21 skills, that bonus is at 0 when your luck is at 50. As you add to your luck attribute you get a bigger hidden bonus. You also get better chances at winning when you gamble at the arena. Luck works best early on and is negated later in the game as skills near 100.
MELEE STEALTH
Most stealth characters I read about on the boards are Archers. I think its worth pointing out that single handed weapons get a *4 or *6 bonus when archery gets a *2 or *3 bonus. Just pointing that out because I feel it gets lost.
MYSTIC ARCHER, A NEW SPIN
Most mystic archers I read on the boards are Bosmer with Magical attributes. I would suggest an Altmer Apprentice with stealth attributes because they can use Illusion and Conjuration and playing at a distance makes since. Its just a Mystic Archer that emphasis the Mystic element over the Archer element.
ALCHEMY
A lot of people use alchemy just for Restoring health and Magicka, worse yet others totally skip over this awesome skill. Alchemy has a potion or poison for any situation, it can do most of the effects offered by other skills in the game. For example stack Fortify Strength to temporarily turn your mage into a tank. Experiment with all that Alchemy has to offer, and it is the best skill in the game. I once created a gimp character that I leveled up on Alchemy and speech-craft alone. The alchemy kept this character alive even at later levels because the alchemy could be used like steroids to make my character temporary super human.
BARTERING
Another skill and function that I think is under-appreciated and sometimes goes without being used. Bartering is brilliant when used in conjunction with SPeechcraft and Charm spells. You can take some merchants down to 120/80 and better. When your buying spells this can take 100's of dollars off the price of spells early in the game. The Merchantile skill levels slowly which means it wont hurt your leveling, and it remains useful throughout the whole game.
CONJURATION AND RESTORATION (provided by Salvian)
Im paraphrasing Salvian. The idea hear is to make more effective use of the Restoration spells that heal on target as apposed to on self. This way you can summon creatures to figh for you and play healer. A pretty great idea that I completely overlooked.
Just short thoughts I had. Comment as you like.