Morning chaps:):)

I think im going to start again!!!

As a mage this time. I am loving this game so far and thanks for all the advice im getting from here:)

But what is the best race for a mage?

Infact changing this what is a good mage build?

The best mages are usually Breton or Altmer. The latter has the highest amount of Magicka, but are weak to elemental attacks. Bretons have slightly less Magicka (but more so than the other races), and don't have that elemental penalty. But when it comes down to it, it's a matter of your own taste, really. Other races can work fine as Mages too, but those two are the best ones.

As for build, I usually put all the magick schools as my Major skills, but I know the opinions vary here. Some people prefer to put the skills they use a lot not as major skills, so to better control their levelling. I've never bothered doing that, and had great fun regardless. Again, it's a matter of taste. But do keep in mind that it's easy to neglect levelling Endurance as a mage, which will make you end up with a high-level character with very little HP.

In vanilla going for an Altmer or breton as your race gives the most magicka.
Birthsign dependent on how fimiliar you are with the game mechanics and tricks Atronach, mage, apprentice is best.
Skills mages majors level quickly so if that is no issue, and you don't activly seek 5/5/5 or 1 in stats on level up just take the mage class.

Otherwise replace alchemy, conjuration and maybe alteration with weapon or armour skills.

The most godlike in defense is the breton with between 1 and 3 magic resistence items ( mundane ring for 50% otherwise 3 self enchanted pieces at 15 - 20% each ), and some clothes with sigil stoned element shield effects on them.
Take the mage BS as it allows constant magic regen with a small boost to magicka, which means you never stop casting later on.

The Altmer with Atronach + absorb spell enchantments is more a power house, having a ton of magicka to throw down for uber spells.
It requires potions often however for shields, magicka, health, buffs, and effects such as detect life and nighteye to conserve magicka.

Race: Breton
Birthsign: The Mage
Class: Mage

It's pretty clear cut, I think. But there are several ways to go about it. There are three or four Mage related Birthsigns, including Atronach, and Apprentice. Mage is the easiest to play though, which is why I recommended it.

As for Class, there are several Magic oriented classes too, but Mage is the purest one. You could always make a custom class to suit your needs.

Mages are fun to play. You have 4 races that you could select. Those 4 races are Female Argonian, High Elf, Breton, and Dark Elf. I would recommend the Breton out of those 4 as that race gains 50 extra magicka, 50 % resistance to regular magic, and doesn't have the weaknesses that the High Elf has to elemential magic.

Breton
Sign The Mage (Safe sign no drawbacks at all)
+5 Endurance, +5 Luck or +5 Strength
Majors
Destruction
Restoration
Conjuration
Light Armor Or Heavy Armor
Blade
Block
Mysticism

As for build, aside from what is posted already, if you decide to go for a more 'efficient' build and still have enough magic major skills to be considered a Mage for RP, the skills that go up fastest are Conjuration, Alteration, Mysticism, and Illusion, of course Alchemy as well which is well documented. Any combination of those can easily be left as minors and increassed at leisure. So if going Breton I usually put Alteration and Mysticism as minors, and sometimes Alchemy.

An FYI for spells, don't overlook the Command spells, the custom variety are very good. See my sig for an example.

I don't efficiently level.
The most fun has been my mage, and coming up with new and explosive spells to test.
He is an Altmer, born under the Mage
Intelligence and Luck

Destruction
Conjuration
Blade
Marksman
Mysticism
Acrobatics
Restoration

He wears all street clothes enchanted with high-end sigil stones, which not only cancel out his elemental weaknesses, but gives him armor protection that rivals many heavy suits of armor. At level 50, he doesn't need to bring out any weapons other than his fingers of death. Though it is fun to swing a big claymore around.

Alter Apprentice or Altmer Atronach...

everybody plays Breton Mage... its just so conservative.

An Altmer Mage, born under the sign of the Apprentice is the equivalent of a fireman wearing gasoline soaked clothes. If you want a glass cannon, this is surely the one. Since I play dead-is-dead, I haven't used that combination since Daggerfall but it is as deadly now as it was then. I have an Altmer/Mage/Mage that is doing well enough although it's already appearent that her weakness to Magic makes her vulnerable. She has already survived all of the Kvatch quests.

An important point to remember is that any Mage skill you divert to minor will not start at the apprentice level. I say that because as a Mage, you need poisons and a silver or conjured dagger to block and attack. You will need shield potions to protect yourself. You must be at apprentice level in Alchemy to start making poisons and shield potions. IIRC, you will need to be at apprentice level Conjuration to summon. You will need to be at apprentice level Alteration to use shield spells.

Having Alchemy as a major will cause you to level up fairly fast at first. Bear in mind, once Alchemy is maxed out, it will never again effect your leveling. Just practice some non-magic skills to improve between levels. The good news is that as your Alchemy skills improve, so will your poisons and potions. They will protect you and kill your enemies. Poison is ineffective against the undead but they are vulnerable to fire. Also, Alchemy is based on Intelligence and as your Intelligence goes up, you get more magicka.

Avoid armor including shields and you will have a true Mage.

All of the above can be done at novice level. They won't be great, granted, but even novices of alchemy can see the first effect of ingredients, which is enough to make some poisons. You can summon skeletons with a conjuration skill of 5, and there's a 5% shield spell that requires only 5 points in alteration.


FTFY

I dont think that you can summon skeleton at novice level man. You can summon Blade and Helmet, but no creatures.

You need Apprentice (25) skill in Conjuration to summon a pet - skeleton (totally useless in combat), zombie or scamp (must be purchased). A Breton mage specialist with Conjuration as a minor will start with it at 20, which means you'll hit 25 in about 60 seconds of casting Bound Dagger. An altmer doesn't get a Conj boost so it'll take him a few minutes more. Conjuration is the fastest levelling skill in the game and very useful as a minor for raising INT.

Alchemy doesn't take much longer to get to 25, no matter where it starts. It's probably the second fastest levelling skill. Restore magicka potions are the most useful for a mage. You can make them at novice level and the ingredients are common. You can do a lot of other nifty things with alchemy but if it's a major skill doing them will level you very quickly.

There are a few enemies that will reflect your magic spells (ouch!) so a backup weapon skill isn't a bad idea. There are quite a few enemies that can silence you, which is very annoying for a mage so a back up staff or two is also a good idea.

Alteration does level fairly quickly. It's true that Protect (which gives an ac of 5) is available at novice level. Casting it during fights won't do a whole lot in the way of protection but neither does armor at low levels.

Wearing armor weakens your spells. With your armor skilll at 50 your spells are "95% efficient", which sounds better than it is since the penalty is applied to each tick of a damage over time spell and to the duration as well. Real mages don't wear armor. But battlemages do and can be very effective.

Mara

Good advice here. Either Breton of Altmer. Breton for conservative type Altmer for high risk high reward. Pure mage is the strongest character in the game for sure. Id suggest using all schools to keep it fun instead of killing enemies in two spells with destruction. Only xivlai would give you any trouble.

I disagree.

Xivilai's aren't that bad. They just have a nice spell absorption, but imo they're not able to use dangerous magic or use their magic properly at all (like most npc). I'd rather watch out for those liches, resistance against magic, absorption and REFLECT, which killed my altmer mage more often than I can count.

And Bretons are booooring

Can kill almost any enemy in two spells end of story. Can do the first spell while invisible and can detect enemies coming towards them and paralyze at will. Can't beat that. I'm saying in the hands of a player who knows what they are doing not that mage npcs are the strongest npcs.

Ya forgot about liches thanks. I'm jut saying them and Xivlai are the only enemies in vanilla who have a chance of resisting the two spell kill combo. Pure breton mages are boring ya but I play a Breton that's basically like the default spellsword class.

Very true, with undead I spam turn undead spells and use non undead summons and summond / silvered weapons to take them down, it works great for me.
It becomes very easy, Xviilis you can just buff your skills and go toe to toe with, throwing out the odd touch spell.

I found an effective strategy against most regular enemies with my Altmer mage - for my Mage Staff I chose Paralyze effect. So I whack them over the head once with the staff, and they keel over. It only lasts four seconds, but that is enough to spam fire balls at them. More than once the enemy is dead before he's even had the change to get up again.

Angel has no problems with Xivilai. As a master of Alchemy with master level apparatus, her poisons are nuclear fission strength. Her shield potions can boost her protection rating to the max so she can move in and nail them with no fear of the harm they can do to her. Because she is short, she can't run very fast but she will just trot around spoiling any normal weapon attacks until her poison has done it's job. It's actually kind of fun. Like the chase scene in movies.

With the undead, she will power up with a potion or two to keep her Magicka pumped up to the max, summon a Clannfear, and blast away with fire. In those cases she often goes through a fight without any shield protection whatsoever. The exception is a Necromancer's summon. She will turn them with an area spell (in case there's more than one) and then summon her Clannfear to help her take out the Necromancers with claw and poison.

I mentioned shield, and magicka potions but the truth is, her potions are all multipurpose and have at least two effects, sometimes three, and occasionally four so a single potion is all she needs. The same applies to poisons. She has a poison that can damage magicka, damage health, paralyze, and silence; all in one go.