I've come to the realisation that I've never actually made a fully-fledged mage in Skyrim, or even in my whole six + years of Oblivion (They were always some kind of battlemage) so I decided that now was the time.

I don't even know how to go about doing this. Before, I just felt kind of underpowered and I felt... flimsy using magic.

Help please! The character I've created is a Dunmer called Derravis. Brand new, Legion-friendly and currently a warrior. But he's level two so I can switch to magic now before it's too difficult/ boring to do later on.

Make sure to use armor, even if you only use magic as combat.

Unless you are playing on >Adept, many two-handed enemies will instantly kill you, usually with a kill-cam animation, if you wear only robes.

Or just use flesh armor spells. Mage armor can get pretty useful. Illusion is fun, especially mixed with conjuration and destruction from afar.

Magicka 75%, health 25%

As far as being one-hit-killed by an animated (kill-cam) attack, my experience tells me that flesh spells don't make a difference.

Maybe I'm wrong.

Do not use armor if you are making a full mage. Armor is for battlemages, besides the magic regen on robes will help you out alot. Get a warrior follower like Lydia to soak up damage while you blast enemies with spells. Play smart, don't rush into combat like you are a warrior.

No, you don't need armor as a mage. I never wear armor as a mage and I do fine. If you are being hit by enemies with two-handed weapons, you are too close and not playing well as a pure caster. The point of a mage is to not be close to the enemy, at least for most character concepts (i.e., excluding a mage-melee type concept). You don't even need the flesh spells because the entire point is to not be hit.

Depends on the difficulty, dual flesh spells allow for maybe 2.5 hits on master. But being a mage, you shouldn't let enemies get that close anyway.

In theory this works, but when the time comes that you do get hit - trust me it will happen - you probably want to survive more than one hit.

Followers, though, are almost a necessity. They work as great damage sponges while you blast away at enemies with magic.

Something to mention, though, is that on difficulties past Adept, Destruction magic is more or less useless. Well, maybe not useless, but very time consuming and boring,

Speak for yourself. I don't let enemies get within striking distance of my SkyRe necromancer.

Fair enough, fair enough.

To the OP, just do whatever feels right. If you want robes for regen/magicka bonuses, use robes. If you want armor for more survivablility , use armor.

Stay golden, Pony Boy.

Except when you run out of makica and are put into a place where you cannot run from the enemy fast enough (it happens, even to the best of mages). Robes have literally no advantage over light armor (the ONE exception being the archmage's robes, but even then, it only takes up 1 spot.) Light armor can easily be enchanted to have the same things as robes AND still have and actual rating. The only flesh spell that would make armor a moot point is Dragonhide, an endgame spell that last very little time for the amount of time and magicka it takes to cast it. At very high levels it might not matter as much, but at least in the beggining, wearing robes is pointless.

If you are on PC and really must wear robes, there is a mod that allows you to craft all vanilla robes in the game as light armor and a decent armor rating, they do not have enchantments either, so you can enchant them as you wish.

If you make a Mage, don't rely overmuch on Destruction. It's dismal in Skyrim. Illusion's kind of fun, though.

Conjuration, Illusion and even sneak make for great mages. I say sneak, because it will come in very handy when you you are a glass cannon. Also, Invisibility can be a lifesaver.

A little tip: Do not attempt to rely on Destruction as your primary skill. It will do as a back up power, but your primary skills are best left to Illusion and Conjuration.

Lastly, as previously stated, armor is really not well suited for a pure mage.

how is it not, robes have NO advantage at all, for ANYTHING. The ONE exception is Archmages robes, which is only the cuirass AND you can eventually enchant stuff much better than it.

If you are playing Vanillia, do not play above "Adept" if you are focused on Destruction magic alone. You will gimp yourself beyond belief. However, what most people resort to is a combination of Conjuration/Illusion which is a very addictive combination and actually doesn't require much of a mana pool. In this way, you can balance your HP with Magicka however you see fit along with several items to help you out. This would be more akin to a spellblade/battlemage than actual mage.

If you are purely devoted to play a Mage go Magicka 100% and see how this game becomes from a hack-n-slash to a FPS-esque game which is VERY tense since you are glass canon in the literal meaning. Plenty of damage, none of the absorption.

Trust me, no, you do not get hit if you play the game properly as a pure caster and do not wear armor. Not even playing a Destruction mage. I have no problem at all.

Except that, as I clearly stated, I NEVER wear armor and have no problems... and that includes specializing in Destruction, yes, because it is no problem to do so.

Enchanting your own stuff, including clothing, is normal, and yes, no armor has tons of advantages over "light armor" because this is an RPG and you play the character concept you conceive, or you don't play at all.

Evidently you want to wear armor as a pure caster, but that does not fit my (and many people's) character concept(s). Fortunately, there is no need whatsoever to wear armor of any kind unless you wish to do so.

The OP asked about how to play a mage, implying a pure caster based on other stuff mentioned. Do not claim that it is essential to wear armor or that there is some advantage to doing so when it doesn't fit the character concept and there's absolutely no reason to do so (unless you want to play a warrior-mage of some kind, of course).

If I was making a pure mage, I would have them use light armor. Even if they were a stealth mage. There's just no reason not to.