Best way to get defense for a mage?

[Rowan]

What would the best way for defense as a mage. Since you don't get any armors that are really good for defense since you use mostly cloth. What way can I stop getting my butt handed to me?

[True American Patriot]

1.stay far away from enemies
2. either use conjuration or companion as meat shield
3. in the long run, invest in either light or heavy armor smithing, and then enchant the armor to suit your specific build
4. wards are useful against magic attacks but im sure you already know that

[mpd1958]

The best way is with mods.

[Lothic]

vanilla skyrim should have alteration spells with armor, so you could try that aswell

[⭐LIyahLIweth⭐]

The difficult of the game change the damage your (Follower)companion will deal and take as well as you. So if you start the game using NOVICE difficult your companion will take 3x damage and deal 0.25x, and you' ll take 0.5 and deal 2x

see the table.

Difficult x Player DmG Dealt x Player Dmg Taken X Follower Dmg Dealt x Follower Dmg Taken

NOVIC................x 2x~0.5x..............X 0.25x~3x

APPRENTICE....x 1.5x~ 0.75x.........X 0.5x~2x

ADEPT...............x 1x~ 1x..................X 0.75x~1.5x

EXPERT............ x 0.75x~ 1.5x..........X 1x~ 1x

MASTER............x 0.5x~ 2x...............X 1.5x~0.75

LEGENDERDY...x 0.25x~ 3x.............X 2x~ 0.5x


So the more difficult the game is the more necessary your follower will be.
With that in mind, a mage required a good tanker as well, YOU CAN'T rely only on your magic in some situations because you won't deal a good damage at the beginning. Look for "Lydia" after beating the first dragon or "Uthgerd the Unbroken" after beating her in a brawl both in Whiterun and other avalibles across the world of skyrim.

And try to level sneaking when you can, only the path that leads to the master skill (100) it will help you to avoid long range and mage enemies or/and you can try to go behind some of them for a good DMG DEALT position or avoid area spells. Summoned monsters will help but it depends how you will build your story. Do not forget Skyrim is a RPG and you can be and do whatever you want to.

[Arasteele]

You may also want to look at perks such as Mage Armor (Alteration, Protection spells like Stoneflesh are twice as strong if not wearing armor (+0.5 per additional rank))
and Avoid Death (Restoration, Once a day, heals 250 points automatically if the caster falls below 10% health) plus one or two other perks in those schools that can help you when playing a pure mage.