Starting a new character. Got a mind this time to play a mage, focus on almost all magic skills and try to be a real powerful caster. Towards that I pick a high elf for the 50 extra magicka and good starting magic skills. I don't really like the way they look but what ya going to do. I make her look young with short hair then put some heavy scaring on her face and take the black marble eyes. She looks evil enough which is how I think I'll play her but well see. Struck by how tall she is even the first person view is set higher.

So we begin all hell breaks loose and I follow Hadvar into the keep. I got the difficulty set to expert and get through the dungeon without taking many hits. I put on the novice robes and hood along the way. We get outside and I follow Hadvar on down to riverwood taking the mage guardian stone when we pass it. I stay the night in the blacksmiths house with Hadvar and take a 20 point ring of health they offer. In the morning I chop a ton of firewood sell it to Hod then buy a few spells after that I stroll on down to Whiterun but instead of following the main quest I take a carriage up to Winterhold. Keeping in character I want to start the college of Winterhold quest line which I have not done yet.

I arrive in dead of night during a blizzard and duck into the inn. In the morning I make it inside the collage with just 2 gold left after buying firebolt from Faralda for just 30 gold what a steal, I needed it for her to let me inside. Really dig the College I like the look of the place very grand also find all the characters inside interesting. I jump right in take the first class then spend the night before making my way to ruins a short distance away with the rest of the students. So far since Helgen I have only fought 2 wolves so still at level 1 as I enter my first dungeon quest.

I make my way through the story until its time for my first real fights. I get destroyed Fighting draugr as a level 1 mage was to hard so I drop the difficulty down for the rest of the dungeon. I get to my first my boss Jyrik Gauldurson and after a couple try's take him down I get about 1000 gold worth of loot and the awesome staff of Jrik Gauldurson also hit level 2. I get back sell my loot buy some spells and take Brelyna as a follower. Then before I leave I start disenchanting just 3 items I shoot up 3 levels hitting level 3 I guess the mage stone really made it go quick. I wasn't going to take a crafting skill but I thought I'd try it out. Still may not stick with it but got a few levels out of it for now.

I put the difficulty back on expert and do a quick bounty quest to kill a bandit chief at snowpoint Beacon. Together with the mage Brelyna and my shiny new staff he's down in just 6 shots. This has been my fighting style up till now hit them with ranged destruction if they get close I use a one handed weapon with spell in the left hand. I use the other schools a bit but should mix it up more. When I level I raise my magicka So with buffs/blessing I have 265 but it still go's fast especially when I use illusion or alteration. Drawing the weapon take's time so if they get close I always take hits and I can't take that many hits just yet. Can't see surviving with out Brelyna so I take her with me on the colleges 3rd quest "hitting the books" at Fellglow keep.

This dungeon is full of mages I'm a mage and my follower is a mage. The resulting combat is a spectacular display of magic effects flying all over the place. Gets a little confusing at times its a real change of pace from all my earlier characters. With no armor I can really dash around and dodge range attacks pretty well but I miss with my own range attacks about 50% of the time wasting precious magicka. Then partway in I find a third mage as a temp follower and He stays with right to the door of the boss but then go's down leaving just 2 of us to face her. I kill her on the third try but only because I have that staff that does 50 magicka damage. I would say I got about 1500 worth of loot on me now plus what ever reward I get when I turn in.

So that leaves me at level 5 about to hit 6 with 4 perk points saved up. My biggest problem Is how weak I am so I thinking about taking alteration twice and I guess destruction because I use that the most. I like how fast I am with out armor but does anyone know if a shield slows you down? Or affects the mage armor perk? Which I may take. Also should get around to starting the main quest so I can get shouts which I'm missing. Anyways If anyone thinks they know what I should try let me know.

@NFLD Not bad, but use commas my friend! I cringe when reading your sentences. And start with and "I should…", "It gets…". It's easy to write this way (jumping right into the meat of the sentence), but horrible to read. So to conclude; improve your sentence building and construction. You will greatly benefit from it.

Shields are considered part of armor so yes they slow you down

If you find yourself dying often, I would wearing actual armor. It doesn't help your magic skills, but it'll keep you from dying. Later on when you level up, you can get some spells that provide magic armor. Until then, wear normal armor.

@fetchfox: I don't think you get to lecture about the use of commas when 2/3rds of yours are incorrectly used.

@mosespippy: If he/she felt I was reprimanding them I apologize, I only meant it as advice. In my defense, English isn't my first language. And it's always possible the poster meant to write the text in this free flow manner. Interesting read anyway.

Try some conjuration. More minions to distract and soak up damage for you!

I played a high elf mage as my main character. Never wore any armor. Mainly focused on destruction and alteration, and got the mage armor perk. Never used a shield because I was dual casting.

Didn't have much trouble, except with enemy casters, but dueling was fun. I played on the default difficulty.

If you care about typography, reading a userbase post of any length is always an exercise in retinal bleeding, regardless of which language the user claims as his first.