I would scrap the Skill calculation thing and just play. Just do what you want to do regardless of levels. Once you reach a level like that nothing in the game will challenge you anway unless you run some high level mods.

These are the words of a wise person. Obey them, people.

We can only hope she uses this power for good, not evil.

Just play and enjoy the game without looking too much into that.

I've played on the 360 since release, haven't gotten bored yet. Like others I tend more towards RP than a set build. Only 4 of my characters have even gotten into the 40's, two to lvl 47 or 48. The first was my first character and was a Jill of all trades, my Skyrim test character. The second was a battlemage type character.

While I RP most of my characters, I also do them in different ways. Some are goal oriented, like my Sytara, whose main RP goal is to see the Higher lvl'd dragons.... she does have an RP story a reason for being a Dragon Slayer But the whole goal of the RP IS to see those very high lvl's dragons I have never seen in my game. Na'Ella is a Story oriented RP, she is a student at the CoW right now, who is learning her craft. Something will happen in her life, that will change her from a Good hearted wild child to someone that doesn't really care about others, She will join the DB. What is that something...well I don't really know, her story is still working itself out.

Then their are my Just for the fun of playing and being in the Skyrim world characters. No real goal's, no story, no real RP... Just some wacky idea I have about some part of them. Zerrak is my latest, I had a picture in my mind of a character...what he looked like, what weapon and what he was wearing...that's it. I had an Argonian character that really did nothing other than ride down every river in Skyrim and swim in almost every body of water. No other purpose for him either...just the seer fun of playing around in the Skyrim.

Heh heh... say it with me Pseron: "it depends on the character".

Areial: good point. Some characters are definitely more goal-oriented than others. Personally I've had more success with 'lack of quest' type characters in Oblivion (vanilla Oblivion, at that) than I have in Skyrim for some reason. I think once I start modding Skyrim that I'll be able to have some questless characters in TES V as well.

I played Skyrim extremely slow and ran out of meaningful things to do around level 35.

Getting to level 60+ involves massive amounts of Radiant quest grinding and, like others have said, tricks with spamming skills over and over and releasing all your skill points to do it again.

If you do any Daedric quest try to find Meridia Beacon without finding her shrine.

One idea I tried was to create 9 characters and place 1 in each hold to do each hold's quests. If you tried this with your one, I have a feeling that you would not "run out" of things to do very quickly.

If I may suggest a path (based on your doing the main quest):

Helgen - (escape)

Riverwood - (not too many quests there, but the Innkeeper may have a suggestion or two )

Whiterun - (LOTS of quests here as you start Dragons appearing, not counting The Companions.)

Now you can choose where to go and in what order, but you have the Holds that have a few quests each:

Falkreath, Morthal, Markarth, Dawnstar, Riften, Winterhold, Solitude, and Windhelm. Even the small towns (like Rorikstead and Ivarstad have some quests with them).

The thing is, Skyrim is loaded with quests. Being "magic based" basically is just a nudge in how you accomplish them, not necessarily just which quests, though The Companions do come to mind

If you decide to search for the Stones of Barenziah, you will be busy for a long, long time (without a cheat sheet)

Hopefully, this gives you some ideas. I've only read the first few posts, so my apologies if this has been suggested already

Something that you may want to keep in mind, just because you want a magic based character build, with certain perks and all that.

Why do they have to start out using magic? Who's to say that your character know's that he/she is a mage? What if they started out as a sword & board type? Then at a certain point, they find out that they do have magic and maybe he/she should learn how to use it! And their IS a point that you pretty much have to use magic or find the work around for the MQ.

No one says that you have to put perk points into 1h or block. Or even armor, but by using those to start a play through and then "finding" magic it gives a good RP reason for the switch AND you will have lvl'd the character up using a different set of skill's, so that when you start using the ones that you wanted to begin with... they will have the perk points needed to make them viable at a higher lvl, with less skill....*cough* training.... less grinding of any craft or skill. Why else the pointless practice of shooting fireballs at a wall or light source?

I'm not saying that you want to do it that way, just that it IS a good option, with a good RP reason for switching.

Edit: Oh and then their is the magic, health, stamina to put points in.... of course wanting a mage based character the majority should go into magic, with some in health and none in stamina. ( or at least I never do for a non-spellsword/battlemage character). Which will make playing the S & B a really fun trial...lol ( venison and/or veggie stew...will help)