So, Skyrim's out 11/11/11

[Kevin]

Initially, the mage felt godly, mowing down the hordes in dungeons with impunity. However, as time continued, her power began to wane. When she hit about level 10, I found that her spells just weren't cutting it anymore.

Mages gain power in "steps" other characters gain power more linearly. Picking up firebolt (or the lightning or frost equiv) changes things because you can go at range. Then you get the perk where people get staggered by a dual wield cast and things get easier, but you run into enemies with the AoE spells and fall behind again. Then you get the AoE spells (though don't have the magicka to use them effectively). It's frustrating at times for sure, but I've slogged my way up to 20 with mine and I finally have destruction as my most advanced skill (it wasn't for the longest time even though I used it constantly). A mage can't always be a one trick pony either. I have to use my summons, I have to use my destruction spells, I have to heal, I probably should be using some of the mage armors but I don't. Even then things don't die as quickly because magicka is so limited even with enchants to boost it and perks and chants to lower costs of spells or boost regen. Regen in combat seems to be a little odd too. I'm not sure the chants or the perks work in combat.

I've got a feeling a stealth archer is going to be the most powerful damage dealer in in the game. I'll be making one at some point along with a melee toon of some sort.

They ran into the issue that many games have with spell casters. Scaling just isn't really there, which is why the D3 solution to tie it to weapon damage is a very good idea (and is easy enough to think of as magic requiring something for you to channel it through and the damage is really the limit on what that conduit allows). But the spells have base damages and those don't really seem to ever get modified.

I'm not annoyed by the challenges because the concept that formed in my mind for my girl fits. She is just a regular Breton, probably would have been a shop keep after she got done checking out a bit more of the world. Then things got strange in her life and she is just picking things up as she goes along. Being a Breton she has the natural affinity to magic so that is what she turned to first. But she is learning other things, light armor, shields and maces, she likes maces.

I have plans to make more focused characters later. But I'm not playing multiple toons on my first go through.

But yeah mage is not the easy path.