LOL
He's not talkin to you, Sir Edward- at least I don't think so, he's talkin to me. I use the bow quite effectively, it has quite a bit of reach on it. I've stood on cliffs and shot down across rivers and tagged my prey. I have a soul trap spell I can use, or an enchantment that I lifted off of another blade...but I don't have a huge use for souls right now. You do need them to enchant anything, but I have a couple black soul gems already filled, and a few of the white ones too. There's just so much you can get into, sometimes its hard to find a starting point.
Of course, Sir Edward's way is probably going to be the coolest way to go through the game, if only because its the first game that gives mages their just due...if you're a mage you shouldn't have to carry weaponry or wear armor, I mean, that's the point, right?
Stealth is very useful early on, but as you say, if your purpose is to 'burninate' everything in the room, why sneak up on them to do it? Although you're gonna wanna avoid giants and mammoths for the nonce...they pack a helluva wallop, altho they're no sweat for me now.
LMAO @ TROGDOR
Sir Edward, you know you have to use that name for your character now, and post vids of his exploits!