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1. Dark Elves are arguably the most generalised race in the game. They are perfectly suited for all types of combat which makes them ideal as battlemages. Bear in mind, however, that the race bonuses are only really helpful for the beginning stages of the game. Any race can excell in any class with a little time and effort.

2. IMO, the Atronach's inability to regen magicka is not worth that little bit extra it lets you store. It can be useful for casting bigger spells and avoiding some nasty spell effects but these are nothing that the ample potions/spells/scrolls of fortify magicka and spell absorption cannot provide. Stick with the Mage.

3. You most certainly do not need all six. Just think how much time and magicka (or money) you're gonna have to spend on casting spells to increase all those magic skills just to level-up. You're better off having a bit of a mix of magic/combat/general so that you don't have to constantly work on raising skills. There's not much more annoying than casting a spell that you don't normally use, over and over, just to raise a skill.

Obviously Destruction is the most important. You should choose the rest of the schools by estimating how often you're likely to use them. Alteration is a good one to pick as you'll be using those spells just about every where you go.
Illusion is also quite handy but i find that having a high destruction can make most illusion spells redundant. You'll still need them to help with your thieving forays, though. Restoration is useful for all classes, but if you're a kick ass battlemage, you won't need it that often. Conjuration spells are generally useless if you've got high Destruction. Lastly, Mysticism is a handy school with a wide range of useful spells and is a wise choice for any class.

To summarise: Destruction, Alteration, Mysticism, Illusion. It doesn't really matter what order. The other two schools, Restoration and Conjuration are likely to be redundant skills for a battlemage and therefore a poor choice for major/minor skill selection.

My experiences with a battle mage? Yawn. Hands down, it's the easiest and most boring of all the classes that you can choose from. I totally lost interest in Morrowind for about six weeks after playing as a battlemage. But that's just me. Let us know how it goes. [img]smile.gif[/img]