Whenever I hear the word magic in conjunction with The Elder Scrolls, fireballs immediately come to mind. However, the offensive mage class is much more diverse than that. The other five schools of magic, along with Destruction, all offer many combinations, creating many ways of playing the game as a mage.

What are your favourite ... unconventional ... ways of being an offensive mage?

Lothran is your standard fireball casting mage, so nothing special there. In his younger days he trifled a bit with Conjuration but has abandoned that now, and is more into Alchemy to bring down his foes. Something he does very well btw

Illusion is a useful school in battle. To let your enemies believe you′re not even there really gives you the upper hand and Lothran actually uses that in dungeons with great success. But only when he doesn′t want to fight.

Destruction Wizards Fury is my favourite spell
Shock damage against Daedra.

Illusionist. The best way to kill foes is to recruit their friends to do it for you!

Illusion, Conjuration and Restoration. With some creative casting, you'll own. Plus it's very magicka efficient, making it excellent for non-Breton or Altmer characters.

I've got two pure mages - a Breton and an Orc - who focus heavily on destruction. I've got a couple of spellswordish characters who also use mostly destruction. Then there are Maelyn and Clive.

Maelyn is a Dunmer courtesan. She's something like an agent - basically an undercover operative for the Blades - though her cover is.... let's say.... a bit questionable. She's sultry and seductive and manipulative and relies almost exclusively on illusion magic and the assistance of others. On her own, she tends mostly to cast calm and command spells, seeking to avoid fights rather than to win them. When pressed and with no other choice, she'll pull out a bit of trusty destruction magic, but she doesn't care for it that much. She rides everywhere she goes (virtually all of my other characters walk), and tends to deal with confrontations on the road by outrunning her pursuer(s) until she can catch up with one of those kind Imperial soldiers, who are always eager to help her out.

Clive is an Imperial assassin. He's a dissipated, middle-aged alcoholic, from a formerly wealthy family. He's arrogant and proud and flatly refuses to do anything that resembles work. If he had his own way about it, he'd just waste his days away, but the family money is long since gone, so he had to learn to support himself. He fell into the Dark Brotherhood quite easily, since people are really only a means to an end as far as he's concerned anyway, and he has absolutely no qualms about killing them. He does, however, do everything he can to avoid ruffling himself in the process, so he relies heavily on illusion and conjuration magic. Essentially, when necessary, he conjures up the nastiest creature he can and makes himself invisible, then watches in safety and comfort while his creature tears the life from his victim. The most work he might ever do is having to use a bit of restoration or alteration to heal or buff his creature or, if it comes to that, conjuring a second creature if the first one isn't up to the task.

conjuration + restoration + alteration + mysticism = conjuring a Godzilla pet that trashes everything while you keep it pumped up full of health, magicka, and fatigue. Casting shield and spell protection effects on the pet helps a lot at higher levels.

I've recently started a new game and got my new Mage, Raiden, up to Level 6 and already at the Arcane University! I've saved up a lot of Gold from my Alchemy and have kitted him out with his own enchanted outfit and spells. When I encounter Necromancers I Summon a Ghost to Me, cast a shield spell and fire lightning at them, before running up and slicing them up with my Silver Longsword!

The equipment has brought my Magicka up to 348 and boosted my Intelligence up to 81 and my Willpower to 94!

My main Mage, Sabarel uses a combonation of Illusion, Mysticism and Destruction. I use many different combonations of spells from all 3 schools, although I use Conjuration from time to time aswell when I'm outnumbered about 4/5 againest 1. Casting an Invisability spell on myself, picking a rock or an item up off the floor throw it across the room to distract my foes conjuring a Shadow Wraith and then throwing a lighting bolt across the room into the back of their heads. To me nothing else makes me laugh as much. Ok so sometimes it doesn't really work all the time and can be a MASSIVE drain on Magicka but 'Hey I like it.'

The other way I like to play with my Mage is to cast a very heavy shield on myself and use Conjuration to summon myself an ally and use a combo of Illusion and Destruction to pick off my foes one by one.

Of course I am pure Magicka based player I do use Restoration and Alteration aswell however I find that they are more useful as supportive schools with opening chests, shielding myself and healing myself and foes up.

i love some illusion, command humioid is so fun, or frenzy if its a big crowd.

I made a charcter once who used illusion alchemy conjuration restoration markman and sneak, i really only used restoration offensively with absorb health, it was pretty fun.

summoning is pretty fun too, and a good way to distract enemies when they find my frail rouges