richardjreidii

Honestly, I can't play a mage without Smartcast. I don't use the auto buff/heal etc options, as that feels too cheesy, but spell rings to instantly cast my armor spells or invisibility or what have you (anything but damage spells really), I just love.

Honestly, install Skyrim Redone, which balances magic a lot, and also adds in some extra spells. In addition, accept that as a mage, you can't rely on pure destruction. You need to be able to conjure up some minions to distract the mobs.

Enchanting Awakened - a must have if you want to enjoy enchanting, vs playing the "Time to enchant 120 iron daggers to increase my skill to the next perk" (And i'm not kidding on the number of enchants you have to do). Can't stress that enough, enchanting is boring and immersion breaking otherwise.

Skyrim Redone does an excellent job of reworking the perk trees. The only caveat to this is that if you use the full package, you need to understand that the game becomes *significantly* more difficult. Level 1, 2 wolves, adept? Dicey. 2 Bandits at level 1? Just reload. That being said, I really like the mod, just be aware of *everything* it brings to the table.