Should I steer to magic or weapons?

[Lord Farquad]

Should I become some high-class mage or just brutally murder everybody as a warrior guy

[76561198133591931]

It's a matter of personal preference and play style. There are upsides and downsides to both. A mage can break out a bigger can of whoop a** than a warrior can at low levels. 1-40. On the other hand no mage will ever be able to contend with the damage dealt by a warrior at upper levels. 50-100. As to play style preference...well wariors are up in your face, smash mouth butt kickers. Mages on the other hand do much better with some distance between them and their enemies. So ultimately up to you.

[Mew Vmaxx]

Play both by creating a battle mage build

[Mew Vmaxx]

like i how i did

[Trigger]

some weapon, some magic and then a SHOUT or two

[Mew Vmaxx]

On my account i just have a sword and shield and max out conjuration spells

[wowszer]

Try one then try the other.

[Mirri]

I pretty much went solid warrior, with the occasional spells to change things about a bit. It's pretty much guaranteed that I'll nevet stick with one play-through of any TES game so I'll focus on other things later. I do what I feel like doing at the time.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

I like focusing on a warrior build for the tougher opponents, but when I run around exploring the outside world I like using magic instead of a shield.

I usually get the first perk to reduce destruction by 50% and I torch the cute animals running around to death for their skins for smithing as I explore the world. It is pretty entertaining burning bunnies and goats as they run for their lives.

[Brandybuck]

If all you care about is inflicting damage, then make a warrior. But if you want something interesting then go with the mage. A pure mage build is the most powerful character type in the game. They may not be able to pump out the raw DPS of a warrior, but as mages they won't have to.

Alteration - provides some armor, as well as some nice utility spells.
Conjuration - Instant follower(s), just add magicka.
Destruction - In my opinion, just for mopping up afterwards.
Illusion - Make your enemies dance to your tune. You can clear out an entire dungeon with this.
Restoration - Heal yourself and turn/burn undead.

[zounce]

For me I balance both with just a few spells. Hint:
Bound Weapons (Summonable Gear)

[istvan_v]

Warriors are very powerful with crafting, as smithing, enchanting, and alchemy can all be used to significantly increase weapon damage, and these skills also allow for easily reaching the armor cap even with elven armor, and most spell damage can be resisted as well. However, if you do not craft, and play on the highest difficulty, then melee combat is not as effective.

Destruction magic is not as powerful in terms of maximum DPS, although the difference is smaller without crafting (other than wearing enchanted apparel to reduce the otherwise rather high magicka costs), and dual casting the adept and expert level Fireball and Incinerate spells will deal up to 132 (with a radius of 15 feet) and 198 damage, respectively, not including the "targets on fire take additional damage" bonus. There is also a perk for 100% stagger chance with dual casting. Nevertheless, using destruction on legendary difficulty is most effective with crafting (enchantments for low or zero magicka cost, and potions for higher damage), and it also tends to level up rather slowly.

Illusion does not deal any damage directly, but it is not affected by difficulty, can be leveled up quickly, and high level spells like invisibility and area of effect frenzy/fear/pacify are quite powerful, especially when combined with stealth. You can use dual casting and potions to increase the maximum level of enemies that can be affected by the spells.

Conjuration also becomes relatively more effective at higher difficulty, because the damage scaling weakens your character, but not your summoned or reanimated allies. The apprentice level flame atronach spell that can be bought already at level 1 from court wizards in major cities can be quite useful on legendary difficulty at low levels, even for non-mage characters. Summoned creatures do become relatively weaker as enemies level up, however at level 100 conjuration two dremora lords are still decently powerful, and you can also permanently reanimate strong humanoid NPCs as thralls. Another useful spell is the bound bow (with the mystic binding perk), which is equivalent to an exquisite daedric bow with fast draw speed and daedric arrows, and is one of the better weapons for a pure "no crafting" play style.