I've been thinking of creating a Mage character, but one thing I wanted to know is, can you create Staves? Is there some way beyond the Enchanting skill to create them?

I feel it necessary to admit that I haven't explored the Enchanting tree at all, I have only played Assassins up until now.

I know from selling a metric butt load of them, that Staves bring in some hefty coin, but can you create them?

Nope.

lies yes you can and I am not sure weather it is dependent upon Enchanting, just look underneath the college of winterhold

No, you can't create staffs. But they aren't all that useful for mages, and are more of a last resort. You'll find a staff that will suit your needs by the time it might be useful in combat.

You cant even enchant them.

I see. Ok. Thanks for the info guys.

Since I haven't played a mage before in Skyrim, and have only lightly fiddled around with magick, is there a good combo of schools that I could focus on? I don't necessarily want to power game, but I don't want to svck balls at it either. lol

You can create 3 staves, summon Flame, Frost, and Storm Atronachs. They are made using the Atronach forge in the College of Winterhold. Not many options though, so basically, no, you can't really make staves.

I usually give Lydia a staff. She will dual wield it with a sword. It can be pretty comical to watch. She'll stop using it when it needs recharging. But the answer to the op is is, you can make a very few, as others have said. As for their uses, non magic users can benefit somewhat from them.

Yes you can create staves don't listen to the idiots who say no. You need a high conjuration though and look under college in the midden.

Illusion and Conjuration could be a good combo, if a bit complicated at first.

Everybody says that after level 40, Destruction's damage goes down the tubes. I don't know, but that's what I've heard. Conjuration and Illusions stay powerful, and have a lot of use.

I'd pick up a Bound Sword spell early, because it can deal a lot of damage in tight areas, and get a good Fury spell. High Elves, which are technically the best mage race, start with a Fury spell. However, Bretons, who many consider as the best race in general (myself not among them), start with a Conjure Familiar spell, which is the basic Conjuration spell, and is fairly powerful.

Staves DO have a use.

The more proficient you are in a given field, the less charges the staff consumes when you use it. Given magic costs a lot of mana and mana regens slowly in combat, a staff in the same school gives you a fallback/spammable attack. (Assuming you arn't playing mega-cheesy and made yourself a set of -100% spell cost pyjamas). Also, my artificer character has no actual magical aptitude, but they are a student of enchantment - and they've crafted enchantments into their armour that reduces charge cost on staves, so i have a set of staves that emulate destruction magic without actually being trained in destruction.

And it's not weak either - I'm level 40 in master difficulty and I use staves almost exclusively as my weapon of choice. (Tricky bit is FINDING staves)