Anyone have a good idea for a pure mage character for OOO? My present toon is I think 'broken' because I spread her Major skills around too much. Now playing in slow levelling speed, I'm finding that it is VERY slow to level (although simply turning the speed back to Normal might fix that I guess).

Breton female, mage birthsign, favored attributes: Int and Willpower

Majors:
Hand to Hand (place holder skill to allow her to use blade or blunt as available without leveling on Strength)

Mysticism (primary Int leveling skill; I think I made a mistake of not having two Int and two WP skills to Level on)

Restoration

Security and Marksman (Sec I like to use but the problem there is: what I _really_ want to be using almost exclusively for the first five levels or so is Int, Willpower and ENDURANCE skills, so that I get some nice +5,+5,+5 boosts on those three attributes and do not 'waste' any on others; Marksman is really just a place holder skill)

Light Armor (another placeholder skill)

Armorer (intended to be THE ONLY other real source of levelling for the first 5 or so levels, in addition to Mysticism and Restoration).

How the heck else are you supposed to level up a pure mage's END for a few levels to get those nice hit point bonuses? Block seems to be questionable to me because, well if you are an unarmored magic user blocking with a dagger its not really so great eh? Can you even block with staffs?

I remember someone recommending that "Majors as Minors" is a bad idea with OOO but I've played that way with vanilla so much I'm having a hard time understanding what else to do.

Yes, you can block with a staff (or a bow.) You can also block barehanded.

With my pure Mage I just put a single point into Endurance each level and leave it at that. I figure my character's goal is to not get get hit in the first place.

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::Edit:: I just compared my current pure Mage's first and last saves. This is more or less what you can expect if you point one point into Endurance each level.

First save (level 1):
H 90
M 130
F 160
End 45

Most recent save (level 23):
H 248
M 326
F 249
End 67

Uh, excuse my ignorance, but what exactly is a "Pure Mage?"

A pure mage, in my terminology, and I suspect these other guys too, is a toon that doesn't mix much if any fighter or thief skills into their repertoire. For example, the nightblade, spellsword and sorcer basic classes are not a 'pure mage.' Although they make special use of spells for their offense and or defense, they also 'specialize' in some form of light armor and weapons.

Pure mage is basically what the stock "Mage" class represents: a physically relatively weak unarmored and lightly armored character who focuses entirely on magical abilities for defense, offense, etc.

Hmmm, good point: not getting hit is the goal, or if so, only with considerable alteration, mysticism or enchantment buffs to negate damage taken.

However, that leads me to a related question: if even half way properly set up (at least one but possibly as many as two Int based skills and same for WP) it is not hard to 'efficient level Int and Wis for +5, +5 every level. We all know that, obsessing over the +5s can detract from the game and actually be unnecessary fetishization, cause a few missed bonuses will not make a huge difference given that it is the attributes which make the smaller effect.

However, END is hard for a mage to train. Wearing Heavy Armor at low skill levels just to train it up for END +5 is awkward at best.
Blocking can be a good thing and if you plan ahead and bring a shield whenever you encounter a rat or other critter that does minimal damage and which will just keep pounding into you for 5 or 10 minutes block can be pretty useful to level up END for one or two levels. After that it gets more dicey I'd say. Armorer too is not really idea. It is the most controllable, but in order to get enemy loot that needs fixing you've got to go up and engage them in combat (or send a summons to do so). Then you gotta maybe cart the stuff to make ti pay for the repair hammers.

I'm leaning toward thinking that a third attribute that IS more naturally trianed up for the pure mage (for example, could be Speed, Agility, Personality, and to a lesser extent Strength) is the better way to go?