Starting a mage character...

[GoldRecord]

Title says it all, anyone care to voice their opinion? I'm looking for a race with good Destruction, Dark Elf has caught my eye so far.

[Striker879]

The only limitation you'll run into with the Dunmer is you will find it difficult to get enough magicka to cast really powerful spells, even once you reach a high level. By using potions and fortify spells, and designing your own spells you can work around this limitation (I always play Dunmers). Another thing to keep in mind to give yourself the biggest bang for your buck is armor will reduce spell effectiveness, even when you are master of light or heavy armor. If you enchant clothing with elemental shield (e.g. frost shield and shock shield) you don't lose spell effectiveness for yourself and elemental shield comes with an armor rating shield effect as well. If you wore six items of clothing, three enchanted with a Transcendent Frost Shield Sigil Stone and three enchanted with a Transcendent Shock Shield Sigil Stone you would get an armor rating of 150% along with 75% frost shield and 75% shock shield. The game will only use a maximum of 85% armor rating no matter what. Coupled with the Dunmer racial ability of 75% resist fire (not quite the same as shield) you have become a tank and still have excellent spell casting.

 

Because I'm such a pack rat, and carry around so much useless stuff, I tend towards using Transcendent Fortify Strength Sigil Stones, which boosts the Dunmer max strength high enough to make the sword play pretty effective in addition to increasing encumbrance. All in all, in my opinion, one of the most versatile races.

[Karasuman]

My vote is Breton (+50 Breton Enhanced Magicka bonus) with the Apprentice birthsign. Normally, Apprentice gives you 100 magicka in exchange for 100% weakness to it, but with the Breton magic defense, it trims it down to 50% weakness off the get-go and the other 50% is easy to make up for with a couple magic resist item/enchants. You'll end up (fairly early on) with a mage that has a ton of Magicka but is no weaker to it than anyone else.

 

Bretons also get a Destruction bonus and start with (I believe) a better Conjuration bonus than anyone else, and Destruction and Conjuration used together are stupid OP and a lot of fun imo.

Edited December 15, 2011 by Karasuman

[Noxz]

I'd say a Breton with the Atronach birthsign. Yes it's gonna be VERY hard at the start but trust me, it's godlike later on.

[justwannaddl]

I'd just pick any race that fits your sense of aesthetics. Magic is affected more on your birthsign and skill level than race. Dunmer isn't a bad choice if you are looking for an early boost though. Atronach is more the preference of power gaming. It is great if you want to go for the 100% absorb magic builds though.

[Balakirev]

Breton or High Elf, with the Apprentice sign. Either way, you'll probably want a companion or two to come along, perhaps Stoker Wolff and Vilja. Both have quests, Vilja is the closest thing to a reallife character in the game, and each can become quite formidable in battle over time. Since mages tend to start slow, they'll form a good buffer.

 

Also consider a magic system addon. My favorites are Supreme Magicka, and Less Annoying Magic Experience. They complement one another very well, and the former even comes with an INI file that lets you tailor how much that's new actually gets added into your game. Definitely makes it more fun to play a mage.

[mclericp]

Breton definitely, with either apprentice sign or astronach, like what the previous 2 people said.

I would bring along a melee companion, or maybe a sanguine rose to summon a demora/or conjuration as meatshield, since mages are kinda underpowered early on.