I've been playing as an Argonian for some time on Skyrim and have now reached level 36.

Though I'm beginning to warm to him and don't want to ditch this character, he is still pretty useless when compared with other races I've played as. Yes, he can breathe underwater and sneak around pretty well, but even on level 36 (novice mode) it doesn't take that much to kill him.

I now have a heavy armour skill of about 65 and he has ebony armour etc (improved to epic condition) but occasionally I'll get a nasty shock when he dies unexpectedly easily. Has anyone else had this problem? I myself would advise new players not to be Argonian!

Novice difficulty, decent armour, and you still die?

that makes no sense. in reality racial ability hardly comes into how well a character will survive. In fact the most racial skill I use the most is khajiit nighteye.

I never battlecry as a nord, or bloodrage as an orc... or charm animals as a bosmer... or see any difference in my survival between playing a Breton or an imperial.

You're dying...on novice?

Considering the lack of attributes I doubt it has anything to do with your pick of race. There's absolutely nothing else that separates the races aside from three of them who have resistances.

Maybe it's a bug? Are you sick? Bad mod installation(assuming you're on PC)? How's your Health level?

This.
Which Race you play pretty much just has to do with personal preference and the small bonuses they start with.
It doesn't factor into how strong or durable the character is going to be, that all falls into the hands of the player

Nasty shock? You are referring to a spell, right? In that case your armor doesn't matter because only magic or shock resistance helps. Bretons have 25% resistance to magic but other races are all equal vulnerable to magic. The only solution is to get some resistance enchantments on your gear or to learn to dodge spells. I personally prefer light armor exactly for this reason - it's much easier to dodge spells and other incoming damage when you are able to move faster.

Have you tried enchanting your armour for added protection?

If you're fighting archers, I think there's a bug where the hidden NPC perks meant to multiply damage output (so enemies don't have to use super weapons but aren't drastically reduced in effectiveness by it) multiply the damage of the bow and the arrow, resulting in ludicrously high damage against you.

Funny, argonians have one of the better racial powers and fairly good starting skills.

As a matter of fact, the races seem all too similar most of the time. I mean, at the start they all have nearly identical stats, which has always puzzled me about orcs, by the way. I mean, high elves get an extra 50 magicka, but they can carry exactly the same amount of weight as an orc? I've played argonians a couple of times, and to me, they really seem not much different than any other race except they can breathe underwater. That would be cool, but the game doesn't have very much going on underwater, generally speaking.

Unlike some previous posters, I tend to use racial abilities at least once in a while... Battle Cry is great when you have too many enemies surrounding you, and what is it, command beast works well against critters like sabre cats. In the racial powers contest, I think orcs and Imperials got the bad end of the stick... But, I would think that the average Nord should be able to carry more weight than a Bosmer, eh?

I think the problem may be the user.

Orcs have perhaps the most useful racial ability in the game for any time of melee user. Imperials have basically a calm-spell version of battle cry which ive always found just as useful. If anything its the bosmer that were let down here, as commanding animals isnt really needed later on in the game where many racial abilities and stats become irrelevant.

Not exactly - Orcs have the best racial power, the only one I have ever found useful enough to use more than once.

Racial stats have very little influence on a characters ability and even then it is only aat the very start when all is very easy.

My guess is that you are mixing up your game style too much. As in say heavy armor and sneak whilst levelling up unnecessary points into magicka.

I personally like to go traditional with races as I feel it more fitting (enjoyable) to get into the feel of the races culture and society. Such as I go with a heavy armor clad warrior Nord or a desert raider Redguard.

With this in mind I would specialise an Argonian as a stealthy role that may incorporate magic.

My first thought would be to think of what form of attack to use whether it be melee (sword, axe or club), pure stealth (Dagger & bow) or magic (destruction, Conjuration etc).
Being that I am going light I would then consider whether to go light armor or clothes (alteration mages armor). For this decision i would decide depending on how much magicka I would be building up on and using. No magicka = light armor & High magicka = alteration.

I wonder about the user whose PC is named Fish-Breath feels about this topic?

Like what others are saying, all races tend to be homogenous where it is the player building becomes questioned than race. I have made an Argonian assassin before (whatever Veezra's faction was, Shadow-Scale was it? I cannot remember now) and had not as much issues as the TC is having. As for magicka resistance, look into Alteration for help, as well as enchantment items and/or potions. I do feel it is more of character build than race race itself.