Before you say Atronach, no. I have tried. I can't do it.

So I want a mage that can summon some guys to fight for me. Make enemies kill their own buddies. Destroy enemies with a huge explosion of fire! Summon a bow and arrow to pluck enemies from a distance. Summon some armor for my followers to use (or myself maybe). And trick people into becoming my slaves.

What race, birthsign and attributes/skills would you recommend?

I know alchemy is useful for restoring magicka, but what confuses me is that I never know what ingredients to use to make what potion, or even where to get those ingredients.

Also what spells should I seek to do the things listed above?

I saw this in another forum:
"For major skills I only put one spell from will power and intelligence in. Alteration and Alchemy in my case. This allows you to upgrade your other skills in sets of 10 without leveling up assuring you get the +5 bonus in willpower and intelligence. Doing so lets you max out magicka early and keep the game curve down."

What does this mean in simplified terms?

Thanks guys in advance. I love you all equally (j/k you're my favorite).

Race

Either High Elf or Breton. Both races have enhanced skills for every school of magic. Bretons have more resistance to magic, while High Elves have higher bonuses. Your choice!

Birthsign

Mage over Apprentice (due to something discussed later)

Attributes

Doesn't really matter, but probably Willpower and Intelligence.

Skills

Marksman- You mentioned a bow, which makes this a necessity.
Conjuration - You need this for summoning. Doesn't really get great until later ranks, but is AMAZING to have, because you can summon companion creatures and weightless weapons and armor.
Destruction- You need this to use those fire spells.
Mysticism- I mentioned using Mage Birthsign over Apprentice? This is why: with the Mysticism skill, you can use "Soul Trap", which allows you to enchant items with basically anything. What I always do is use "Fortify Magicka" when I enchant robes, rings and amulets, so basically, if you trapped the right souls in the right gems, you turn into a walking Magicka pool. This more than makes up for the Magicka difference between Mage and Apprentice, and maybe even Mage and Atronach. (You can also use this to "Fortify Health", and split both enchantments evenly in everything you enchant).
Illusion- You can use this skill to kind of bend people to your will, via using "Calm" and "Frenzy" effects.
Restoration- A somewhat tedious school to have, but a definite necessity, especially when playing on harder difficulties.
Blade- This is kind of just a placeholder for when you get into situations where you have to get up close and personal.

That's really it. If you have any more questions, feel free to PM me!

How do I even do that?!

You want to avoid the atronach birthsign and it sounds like you want a powerful mage (not a glass cannon). The recommendation that screams to mind here is a Breton born under the mage.

Favored attributes are not important since you are talking an insignificant bonus. Either default to intelligence & willpower or perhaps consider picking two that are important but that you believe you will have trouble improving. For example, if you would like to be able to carry some loot but don't ever plan to use a melee skill, you might pick strength. By similar logic, you could consider endurance.

I'll let others recommend major skills since I pick 'em in a pretty eclectic manner and it just depends so much on how fast and how high you want to level and how important big attribute gains are, etc.

Can anyone tell me (preferably step by step) how I can make custom spells? Like one that does a bunch of damage over a large area at once. Or one that hits everyone in a huge radius and does 1 shock damage and paralyzes for like 500 seconds? I've never been able to figure this out before.

For a pure mage character, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the default Mage Class. People will tell you that Alchemy advances too fast, but a mage can handle it, because that advancement leads to an increase in your Intelligence. I'd suggest that you train Armorer (as a minor skill) both by paid training and by picking up and repairing everything worn by the enemies you kill, even if you discard it; this will improve your endurance, and your health.

I'd second the recommendation of a Breton with the Mage birthsign; this will lead to a foolproof and durable Mage. The difference in Magicka pool between Altmer and Breton is not all that important; you should have adequate magicka for the first few levels, and after that, you will be using Alchemy and Enchantments to fortify it anyway.

I'll concur with this. Nothing wrong with buying a bit of training in order to boost a secondary stat, if you want it, and there aren't any retroactive penalties for failing to max out Intelligence as early as possible. A Breton/Mage will cap out at 300 base Magicka whether they max Intelligence at level 10, or level 30. Sooner is better, but as Glargg said, that's what Alchemy and Enchanting can help with.

There's already a lot of good advice on character builds, so rather than go up against these (as they are very similar to mine), I'll just give you a brief summary.

Have a Breton with the Mage birthsign and follow Shadowed_Hunters Major Skills, although rather than using Marksman I would personally use Alteration, as you already have a combat skill (blade) and a ranged (destruction), plus Marksman is pretty easy to level up. Another plus side is that with alteration you can learn shield spells, which you'll need for my next bit.

I'm wearing as many layers as I can possibly wear, while appearing like a mage! I have robes, a hood, wrist irons, 2 rings, shoes and a necklace. They are all enchanted 4 to increase my magicka by 30 points and 3 of them to shield by 15 points. This gives you a constant "shield" of 30, and boosts your magicka by 120, meaning you can cast much more powerful spells! I also find that if you've decided to complete all the Mages Guild quests, it only makes sense for you to be as powerful as possible!!

I'll drop my Magi build onto here for you to have a look at aswell.

Race - Breton - Good magical resistance for someone who is not used to having armor on. (I picked Breton mainly for the Lore, this was just a bouns.)

Sign - I use the Apprentice sign in order to gimp my Resistances a bit and make it harder for my self but I would suggest the Mage until you are used to playing a Magic based character.

Attributes - I use Personality and Willpower. I take Personality due to my main Magic School being Illusion and Willpower due to Alteration as my second Major.

Skills -
Mercentile - A slow leveling main that will count towards those extra points in Personality, increase the amount of Septims you can earn from the 'normally' low amount of loot you can carry.
Illusion - Frenzy/Calm/Charm and Light spells, my basic fight to fight school. I tie it in with Conjuration
Conjuration - Bound Items when I need it and powerful summons to aid me in combat. Gets good around a skill level of 50.
Alteration - Opening of Locks and Shields. Has a use for nearly everywhere you go.
Restoration - Healing spells and Drain Health spells, works well for both Offensive and Self Magic.
Mysticism - Only normally use for Soul Trap spells could be swaped out for another Skill if you wish to Level Limit yourself.
Blade - I carry a Dagger just incase I need it at any point, plus this skill levels very slow so it acts as a buffer on my level.

You could prehaps swap out Blade and Mysticism for Marksman and Destruction if you ware wanting to use fire based Magicka and Bound Bows. Just remember to have the odd Frost or Shock spell at the same level as your best Fire one just incase you find one of the few Monsters that are Immune to Fire damage.

I leave Alchemy out so that I can level it up quite fast at low levels for several reasons. You can push it up 10 times before you advance a level in order to gain +5 to your Inteligence without hindering how fast you level. I also do this so that I can sell off any and all of the potions that I don't need. I normally just keep Restore Magicka Potions along with a Cure Disease and Restore Skill potion until my Restoration hits 50.

I normally fork out on Leveling Speachcraft 5 times between levels to help with Personality increases aswell as helping Mercentile out. The higher the Speachcraft skill the better Mercentile works. I know it sounds patronising but I've meet people who have played for as long as I have and have never really paid attention to these two skills as they tind to not be used very often.

I wear Robes and with the addition of a few Mods I wear a Cape/Gloves and Shoes along with Necklaces and 2 Rings that I either enchant myself or find lying around. Access to the Mages Guild as soon as you can is something I would suggest so that you have access to Spell Making and Item Enchanting Alters quite early along with the amount of Herbs in the grounds there.

You may wish to rethink your desire for Destruction magic. Yes, it's hilariously fun, but it's also not very efficient magicka-wise.

I find Illusion, Conjuration and Restoration are utterly beastly when used in conjunction. Helena uses these three schools mainly, due to her swearing off Destruction (being a Healer and all). Yes, I know, silly RP reasons, but hey! That's me.

Seriously, create a Mage, and experiment with all manner of spells and such. You'll find many interesting ways of dispatching your enemies. Eventually you'll find a system that works for you.

Personally, I enjoy them all.
Which is why I travel Cyrodiil in the company of two (soon to be three) very different kinds of Mages. The first is Helena Aurelie, by far my favourite. Helena is a Healer, so she uses no direct damage. Instead utilising the afforementioned Restoration (of course), Illusion and Conjuration mainly. She can and does clear Necro-dude dungeons with ease. If you're interested, there's a link to her journal in my sig, it's not regularly updated due to time constraints and stress related issues irl, but I intend for it to be a "guide" (of course, it's her journal, but there'll be details on tactics and such) on how to play a "no direct damage Mage". Which I find incredibly rewarding.

Chani Belavyn, on the other hand, is a Nightblade of Great House Telvanni. She uses Illusion for mind control spells and getting close under Invisibility. She then uses touch based Destruction magic, absorb/drain health on touch (Restoration) or heavily poisoned daggers. This brings her out of Invisibility. Once her target is down (usually within one or two casts) she re-casts invisibility and is off. Paralyse is also a favoured tactic of hers. Why touch based spells only? Because she uses her charm to influence and infiltrate, allowing her to get closer than most others would.

Edit: Sabarel, is that build for Euisa, or for Sabarel? From our conversations, Sabarel seems like the type to be damn good at all the Schools of Magic.

Edit the second: MrPlow, for restore Magicka potions, Steel Blue Entoloma Caps and Flax Seeds are your best friends.
I'm not really the best person to ask about races/birthsigns etc as I roleplay pretty heavily. So "best" doesn't really come into it when I pick.
However, Helena is a Breton Apprentice (negates the magicka resistance, which I like, and, conveniently, her birthsign (or rather the month in which she was born, Sun's Height) is integral to her roleplay.

My favourite birthsign is The Apprentice, mainly for the weakness it gives. But as others have said, a Breton with the Mage birthsign is pretty much a given win in most situations.

Try an Altmer Apprentice if you're feeling REALLY brave. They're so fun to play, but the learning curve is basically a line directly up.

Another alternative is to use a Dunmer Apprentice, as you don't have a ridiculous magicka pool. Plus Dunmer are awesome.

There are a few reasons to put a skill in among the seven major ones. For example, you may want to do it to gain rapid advancement in that skill. Alternatively, you may want to assign seldom used skills as your majors to avoid just this, and control more of the character leveling process. But I really don't see any good reason for putting Alchemy in among The Big Seven. It's simply broken how quickly the skill advances:

1) Go to any guild in any city. Join up, grab the food. Instant alchemical ingredients.

2) But a couple of pieces of alchemy equipment. Fiddle around with the ingredients you have until you get any two that will give you an effect. Then make the potion. Unlike Morrowind (where the success of making a potion was tied to the skill level), in Oblivion potion-making never fails. Just keep churning out more potions, and your level will quickly rise.

3) Those potions? Sell the ones you can't use. At first, you won't get too much for them, but the money adds up. The ones you can use, such as Restore Health/Fatigue/Magicka, are great.

4) When you hit the big skill bump points at 25, 50, 75, and 100, not only will the potions improve greatly in power, but they'll sell for a lot more. Foist off the easiest to make ones on an alchemist in one of the mage guilds, and buy more cheap ingredients from them. Keep doing that.

As I said, the system is really broken. You can raise Intelligence far too quickly if Alchemy is among your Big Seven skills, and you'll make a fortune too easily, in any case.

For a mage, I recommend Conjuration for Intelligence, since it never hurts to have good help in a battle. For Willpower, consider Restoration or Destruction. They both rise very slowly, and it doesn't hurt to pay more attention to them.

But the path to mage mastery is tough in Oblivion. The game tends to reward melee characters who use secondary magery skills with an easier path upwards, than those who rely entirely upon being a mage. So consider adding Blade to your Big Seven for the Strength attribute, Armorer or Heavy Armor for Endurance, Light Armor for Speed (you can mix-match light and heavy armor), Security for Agility, and Illusion for Personality. Then be sure to work Strength and Endurance in most levels, because your opponents? Most of them are getting +5 bumps to those attributes each time you level.

If you're on a PC, there are many mods that can redress the power of the mage (and the mage's magically inclined enemies!), add new spells, provide you with a house with an auto-ingredients sorter, etc. I use http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=12466, and the horribly named by very nice http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=20630 as my character's home.

I disagree with this part of your post. I'm of the opinion that mages are way overpowered in the game, to the point that I generally create intentionally "gimped" characters when playing a mage. The biggest problem that most people have playing a mage is that they tend to over-rely on Destruction and/or Conjuration. Illusion is the most powerful skill in the game; a Journeyman-level Illusionist can hide in the shadows, untouched, while ordering multiple enemies to destroy each other. Then he can Paralyze the remaining survivor, and kill him while he's down.

A mage should never have to engage in melee at all. It's simply unnecessary, given that you can essentially order your enemies to kill each other.

What spell is that?!

Rally or frenzy, it has to be pretty good though...

You have to gain access to the Arcane University and then their is a building (can't remember the name now) on the lawn below with an alter for spell creation.

Chameleon/Invisibility combined with Command Humanoid/Creature or Frenzy.

Although Command spells are safer, as if you Frenzy an enemy, he MAY attack you if you're closest.

I agree completely. :wavey:

Command is the best way to go if you are using Illusion. Illusion magic is hard to master but once you know what you are doing with it, it becomes deadly very quick. I use it alongside Conjuration and normally just Command a creature to stand still and get fireballed down by a Scamp or use it to kill his friends.

Beware though using multiple spells at once can and will cause to you running out of Magicka very quick. I always carry a few Weklyd Stones and a fair few Restore Magicka potions for just that time. Frenzy is best safed for only when you have a large group attacking you or there are two sides facing off againest each other. By frenzying 2 or 3 in a larger group it can lead to interesting results.

Never forget to always have a Shield Spell active when you are in a dungeon aswell just incase those pesky Goblins hide around corners.

Count Lauriel that is indeed Arch-Mage Sabarel's build. You may say its not a conventional Mage build but it works for me. Euisa is more combat based rather then using Magic although she is still a Journeyman in the Mages Guild. Her build is as follows.


Breton
Willpower & Endurance
Blade
Conjuration
Illusion
Alteration
Heavy Armor
Block
Mercentile

When you play a mage your only problem is magicka, there are many ways of getting it. You have welkynd stones from those Ayleid ruins, you have Ayleid magicka pools, you can brew potions that can increase your magicka or restore it, absorb magic can also restore it, with restoration you can increase it, it all depends on how do you play and do you play with mods. You want mage or apprentice as birthsigns because you want a mage, if you are playing vanilla then your best choice is apprentice because the game wont be very difficult, as for the race well everyone told you but its your pick. Luckly they didn't put any weaknesses to physical attacks for those born under the sign of the apprentice. Also the skills are your choice. I honestly don't want to comment any further because I use Supreme Magicka like someone else in this topic and Realistic Leveling.

Rally is useless. Frenzy is best used to get a non-aggressive NPC to attack you, so you can kill him without a bounty.

I was talking about Command, which has versions for creatures and humans. Just "Command on Target" one enemy NPC in a distant group, and he will immediately attack his companions. If you do this from stealth, and cast Invisibility immediately after, you will likely remain undetected. Just weed them down to one survivor, who is likely half-dead, and then finish off that survivor. You can clean out a dungeon without ever being seen.

I didn't mean to imply Sabarel's build isn't a conventional mage. She's Arch-Mage after all! It's just the impression I gathered about her.

I agree completely with your post.

They are both very useful. Take Necromancers or some hostiles, they run away once they see the fight isnt going their way. Try both spells in a Necro or Vampire lair, then drink an invis potion (or cast it) and it's an absolute riot: they can't tell the difference and become rabid-dogs.

Last man standing gets a fishy-stick...MADE OF FIRE.

Well I know what spell I'm gonna suggest Helena learns next is then. Catching those necromancers is a pain.

Mage birthsign and default mage class. I made him yesterday and I've been working through the tedious mage guild recommendations

I'm definitley going to work on gaining my Illusion points. I want to be able to control everything I see!