Yeah. Spent 45 minutes earlier trying to get my guy to look right, kept coming out looking like someone from an action film


Khajiit would suggest starting with the older dark haired, bearded Druid/Necromancer looking dude and then clean him up a bit. Make the beard neater, give him a cleaner haircut, take away all the dirt and eye black, set his weight to perhaps a notch or two above the skinniest setting, and make his facial features less pronounced. For clothing, Skyrim has some robes that look like they are more geared for adventurers and if you wear heavy armor boots and gauntlets it'll give you a nice battlemage look (a battlemage/paladin group called the Vigilants of Stendar wear this setup).
The way gear looks isn't the problem(I greatly prefer Skyrim to Oblivion in this regard), it's the face. Between the structure and the skin texture, it's impossible to make him look right. I was trying to bring in a recurring character of mine from Oblivion, Gideon Draconis. He's a something of a mild-mannered academic, far more mage than warrior, but got into mercenary work to cover the costs of his research. Couldn't get anywhere near how he was supposed to look.
I think I'll go for Endar Verano. I've had a couple of Dunmer characters I've tried that came out similar to how he should look.