I love MW's premade Battlemage class, and I'm looking for a good way to bring it into the world of Skyrim. Here's my current attempt that I'm playing right now (at lvl 19 so far).

Thoughts and feedback welcome!

Race: Dunmer. This was the first race I used for my MW Battlemage. I reckon a House Telvanni survivor in Skyrim has some nice roleplay opportunity. (Telvanni's obsession with power also lends itself well to the fact that Battlemages rely on a crazy amount and variety of skills, which would be hard for me to justify with most characters.)

Stone: I've just picked up the Lord. The Atronach was my first choice, but I plan to get into Conjuration and don't want to deal with the absorb bug.

Stats: I've been fairly even with Magicka and Health. No points in Stamina yet - maybe not ever. Probably Health is better at early levels, and Magicka can wait until you feel a little stronger, but both stats are close to 200 (with gear) on my character right now.

Skills: So here is where it gets a little nuts. Morrowind had the following for its Battlemage:

Major skills - Destruction, Alteration, Conjuration, Axe, Heavy Armor

Minor skills - Mysticism, Enchant, Alchemy, Long Blade, Marksman

I love the versatility there. (I also love that Axe is a major - there's just something so aesthetically pleasing about the raw brutality of a heavy war axe in one hand, coming down on the skull of a foe you've just scorched with Destruction magic in your other hand.)

So, here's what I'm planning on perking in Skyrim:

Destruction

Alteration

Conjuration

One Handed

Heavy Armor

Restoration

Enchanting

Alchemy

Two Handed

Archery

Destruction is a given. It's the primary (ranged) means of attack. I'll focus exclusively on fire spells, for efficiency and destructive power. Will probably go up to the Master perk, and take Augmented Flames 2/2 and Dualcasting, but nothing else.

Alteration will help with defenses against both physical and magical attack. Perks will be up to Expert for Ebonyflesh, and Magic Resistance 3/3.

Conjuration - Atromancy. I haven't really started to perk this yet; just taken Novice so Soul Trap isn't so expensive. I'm toying with the idea of just taking up to Expert, so I can cast the Dremora. I figure I can save some perks by avoiding Twin Souls, since twin Dremoras would likely make the game trivial.

One Handed - this corresponds to Morrowind's 'Axe' skill. War Axes have good damage, speed, and stagger chance - a good all-round weapon for a Battlemage. An Ebony War Axe looks amazing, and will be my preferred choice. I'm also using swords with this skill, though - currently using Bolar's Oathblade and some other pre-enchanted swords.

Heavy Armor - just Juggernaut. I plan to wear the Telvanni Robes, along with heavy boots, gauntlets, and the Shellbug Helmet (to replicate, somewhat, MW's Cephalopod Helm). I may also don the Ebony Mail in tough fights; we'll see. But since I mostly won't wear a full set, few of the other perks will matter. Conditioned might be good, but it costs 2 perks just to get there, and MW's description of a Battlemage says they "sacrifice mobility" - so we'll just live with a slightly slower movement speed.

Restoration - this is to replicate MW's 'Mysticism' skill. It's not a perfect fit, but Wards are cool, and if any spell in Skyrim would be a Mysticism spell, it would be Wards, with their ability to block and even absorb Magicka. Perks here would include Ward Absorb, Recovery 2/2, and possibly Avoid Death. No healing spells. Turn Undead could be justified (since this was a Conjuration spell in MW, and Conjuration was a Battlemage major skill); if I feel like it, I could therefore go up to Necromage. But I want to avoid using the high-level Restoration spells. For my Wards, I'll be using the Lesser Ward, augmented by Fortify Restoration potions as needed.

Enchanting - My plan is just to go up the right hand branch here. It was just a minor skill for MW Battlemages, so we're not going for Extra Effect. The ability to recharge enchanted weapons more efficiently will be plenty. Just 3 perks, up to Soul Stealer. I may be able to make decent custom enchantments through Alchemy synergy.

Alchemy - a very useful skill. I plan to make this my main crafting skill, going up to Concentrated Poison. The idea is to focus on Weakness to Magic/Fire poisons, delivered by bow, before blasting away with Destruction spells. Not sure how many base perks I'll take.

Two Handed - primarily for the Ebony Blade. A Telvanni battlemage will have no qualms about killing enough people to get this thing to full effect, and the faster swing speed will be great in combat. Smear a poison on this thing, grab the Sweep perk and Concentrated Poison, and go nuts.

Archery - long-range poison delivery, to weaken foes to my Destruction spells and enchanted weapons. Just a few perks in Overdraw here.

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So yeah, lots of skills/perks required. This will take me into the 50s at least, depending on how many base perks I take in 1-Handed/2-Handed.

As I said, so far I'm lvl 19, and I feel like the build is starting to come together. The early levels were a little rough, as I wasn't tough enough to stand up to much damage or strong enough to dish it out, but things sorted themselves out by the mid teens.

Having all 3 weapons skills may seem way redundant, but it means I can use anything I find, which is a lot of fun.

My insistence on using the Shellbug helmet (I wanted to find *some* reason to use that ugly thing!) means I need to go through the whole Dawnguard quest, which is sort of a downer IMO. But at least I'll pick up some nice shouts along the way. I think I'll go through the Dawnguard side - I know traditional wisdom says vampire is better for mage types (especially Dunmer), but that just feels gross, and I'm not a fan of the weaknesses.

I haven't yet opened up the dragons, either, but obviously I'll have to do that in order to get the Ebony Blade and to start Dragonborn - working with Neloth will be cool.

So far, I've been occupying myself with side quests - anything that will lead to treasure or power.

By diving into a cave on a whim I found an Orcish Sword of Winnowing - Absorb Magicka 20 pts - which allows me to rush mages with my Ward up and swing away, sustaining the Ward while they futilely drain their Magicka reserves. Then they pull daggers and get kill cammed.

For Shouts, I haven't given it much thought yet. I might play with Drain Vitality and Fire Breath... we'll see.

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So, that was a lot of writing, but how's it all look? Anything I ought to consider in terms of quests, gear, etc?

Looks nice! I'm planning to have a bit similar build on a new game. For my taste your build uses too many skills, but as you surely are aware of the challenges there, just go for it. Having fun is most important and unless you use some mods Skyrim shouldn't be that hard to manage with such all-round characers. I'm planning on having a shield for my mage - just for the sheer fun of shield bashing flaming enemies to death!

I agree about the too many skills thing - my characters have never reached level 50, ever, and almost never reach level 40. So this will be my attempt to see what it's like working up the ladder a bit.