Good aligned vampires are some of my favorite builds (especially witchhunters--I love the contadictions :D)

I say go with aesthetics. Use the robes in conjunction with Alteration and pick up a ring or necklace of regeneration (I'm always stumbling across jewelry with that effect in my dungeon crawls). Alteration when perked provides plenty of protection, and Illusion + Conjuration + Destruction goes a LONG way to keeping some distance between you and the baddies. Also, I'm always picking up potions, so you can chug a few of those when you find yourself in a bind. 

Granted, I play on Adept, which is forgiving enough to let me make aesthetics and roleplay priority number 1 rather than mechanics. But my answer is always, 'Go with what looks good, feels good, and is fun first... work on mechanics afterwards.' ;D

You can always nab the Apprentice Stone, too. Doubles Weakness to Magicka, but in return you get double the Magicka Regen. That just means you have to be quick on the trigger with your incapacitation spells and rely on your summoned minions for caster enemies, which is really it’s own sort of fun. The Ring of the Erudite from Dawnguard also gives a massive Fortify Magicka 100 as well as a significant Magicka Regen boost. If you want to go even FURTHER, Restoration can give a permanent 50% Magicka Regen boost at the cost of two perk points, which matches the Regen from Apprentice Robes.

Thanks both for your responses :).

I'm definitely sold on going down the Alteration route now.  Even though I play on expert level difficulty, Alteration is a very effective defence for my mage builds, so it should work.  I was planning on using the Ring of the Erudite for the magicka boost.  I'm not sure how much of a magicka regeneration boost it actually provides.  I think that I'll have to rely on Equilibrium and the Restoration perks for that (those two perks equate to Novice Robes).

I am certainly planning on using a wide range of frenzy and calm spells, along with Flame Atronachs and Wrathmen as distractions.  I am also considering using Paralyse, but I often feel that this spell makes the game too easy, but much does depend on magicka regeneration.  The fire branch of Destruction will be my offensive magic.

The Apprentice Stone is an interesting idea.  I feel as though it's way too risky when playing a vampire though.  It makes fighting dragons which breath fire and fire mages far too dangerous to face, even though my character will be a Breton vampire, so is going to have some defence against magic.

If you and your companion are in combat, but you're sneaking and the enemy hasn't detected you yet, can you pickpocket them?

Ah, yeah there's not really a way to transfer from Google Docs, so you'd have to copy it over here and reformat (or if your doing it from a mobile device or console like Chris does, I can just copy it over for you). What I would recommend (if you want to keep it secret) is working on it and then copying the source code over to the Google Doc, that way you can work on it using the site's...unique formatting, and then still have your progress saved whenever you leave the build to do something else.

But yeah, no way to transfer it from the Gdoc and keep all your formatting sadly. 

If you combine both light and heavy armours do both perk trees apply? and are the any reprocautions with combining them?

If you combine both light and heavy armours do both perk trees apply? and are the any reprocautions with combining them?

So some of the perks will take effect, things like Juggernaut and Agile Defender, for example, both would work, but generally speaking, most of them won't work. Custom Fit, Wind Walker, Matching Set, Deft Movement from Light Armour will have no effect when wearing Heavy Armour and Well Fitted, Cushioned, Tower of Strength, Matching Set and Reflect Blows from Heavy Armour will also have no effect if you're wearing Light Armour.

Generally speaking, yeah you can run it but most of the time it's probably going to be more effective to just not run any perks with mixed armor, just because you get a lot less benefit from running Armour Perks 

Ok thanks!