Okay, so I am now fed up with my character and now I've played the game for a little while, I'd like to start again with a brand new character.

So, what race do you guys like to go for? I know they each have their own little description, but it doesn't help much in the way of knowing how much Magicka the character could have, etc.

If I'm looking for a character that can do plenty of magic and is also quite sneaky, good at pickpocketing, and is fast, what race should I go for? I like the look of being a Wood Elf, but how good are they at magic?

Hm, I'd say the Wood elf would be your best bet, but I don't know how they are with magic. There sneak is prety fair though.

Each race is in a category: Magic, Combat, Stealth and All Rounder.

Magic:
Breton
High Elf

Combat:
Nord
Redguard
Orc

Stealth:
Woodelf
Khajiit

All Rounder:
Imperial
Dark Elf
Argonian

Breton's are considered the best magic race because High Elves suffer weakness to all magicka, however High Elves do gain a bigger magicka pool at the start especially when mixed with the atronach birthsign

Woodelves are considered the best stealth race because their bonuses in skills give them a better edge than Khajiit, however there is nothing stopping a Khajiit being better

Combat is pretty much personal preference, all of them are good at combat but of course each race is better in a different weapon, orcs = axe, nords = blunt weapons, redguards = blade

All rounders are pretty much neutral, they are good at nothing but not bad at anything either. They fit into any category. Dark Elf being a better match for magic, Imperial better for combat and Argonian better for stealth...then again that is just my opinion and each race still can do better than the others.

Now here comes the hard part. Each race fits into a class but what if you want to have an Orc mage or even a battle-mage?

Again there is nothing stopping a stealth race being a combat and stealth race and so on but more or less as you progress through the game, every race will be good at everything. Meaning your choices will affect the start of the game.

What I mean by this is that if you choose a Woodelf to be a thief, you will find it easy to steal and sneak about but if you choose A woodelf to be a warrior they may find it a problem unless you make it so that your woodelf uses bow and arrows instead of melee weapons

So to get to the point at hand, you want a race that is good at stealth and magic...Pick a Dark Elf as they are an all rounder, they make good thieves/assassins and dabble in playing with magic, destruction especially

Hmm, Wood Elf are good at sneak and ranged but I don't think they are so hot at magic at all... not as bad as Orc or Nord tho. But I guess I don't really know, I don't really use Wood Elf... too ugly =P!

Wood elves are sneaky, fast etc. But not really meant for magic characters... This is just an idea... Choose a wood elf since there fast, sneaky etc then when you pick your birthsign choose the mage or the apprentice they will give you boosts to your magicka (The mage gives you 50 more magicka and i think the apprentice gives you 100 migicka with a weakness to fire,frost,lightning 100%...This would help with the magic problem and since wood elves are already good at running sneaking etc. you could concentrate more on your magic skills first to get them up to par with your other skills... There really isn't a specific race that you can choose because the type of character you want to play (Stealthy/magic) has two very different combinations in it...If your more bothered about stealth than magic go with the wood elf or if you like magic more than stealth i would go with a Breton or high elf...Good Luck.

Thanks for all the advice! It's such a difficult decision, and since my first character was a Dark Elf, and I'm really not that happy with her, I'll think I'll go for something different- I'll probably just be an Argonian and enjoy having a tail!