So, Skyrim's out 11/11/11

[Thenryb]

It's very easy to play a magic user, Thenryb, mostly because it's stupidly overpowered. With only a small amount of effort one can reach -100% magic costs for two schools at a time and perma-stagger / fear / paralyze nigh-on-anything.

There is still the process of getting to that point to contend with. I hated my Breton mages, but the Altmer gal has been nothing but fun. That extra bit of magicka from the start made all the difference. It does no good to say "This will be fun when you're bigger" if it's such an annoyance when little that you don't want to play it. With that being said, give it a try. All you have to lose is a tiny bit of time to see if it's a playstyle that appeals to you or not.

Hmm. Interesting point, Treesh. Earlier, I tried a Breton mage and left her in Bleak Falls Barrow. I would conjure her little familiar and she had almost no magic left for her weak spells. I also raised a zombie but was dead from another drugar before I could get her shield equipped. Most of this is tactical misjudgments but I did find her lack of inherent magic surprising. Anyway, I returned to my archer/assassin shortly thereafter
I was doing some of this just to skill up conjuring but it also appears that a battlemage is well advised to skill up blocking (ugh) so she can do some shield bashing like Kandrathe described. Or maybe just forget the shield and play as a spellsword. I may need to read a good guide if I want to try that stuff. Perhaps dialing down the difficulty would help, also.