I'm thinking of creating a dabbler in the arcane, sort of a pilgrim/traveller. The challenge is keeping a magic-user from feeling overpowered.

As I understand it, a hedge wizard refers to a character who wanders about, somewhat removed from the hierarchy of academic structures. I picture a character who's good with alchemy and who knows a little about most of the schools, but isn't a total badass in any of them. Probably someone who has a bit of people skills (Speechcraft) and maybe Athletics for his ability to run when in trouble. I suppose Blunt as a fallback.

Has anyone played a character like this - primarily a caster, but not an uber-caster?