I went with a brute character second time round. It's really fun! The great swords in Skyrim are really fun and the perks make it badass the higher you get. The only problem I found with that sort of character was there were situations I got steam rolled: enemies that attack hard and fast (owing to the inability to block reliably) and situations where some magic was required.
One of the finishing moves is just awesome though. The character pierces the beasty on the great sword, swings them above their head and hurls them away. =D
Yeah, I'm going to have to rely on Alchemy to be my primary healing source. I'll of course level magic for the sake of gaining levels, but will pay no mind to it in terms of perk allocation. But I notice my worst enemy on any character build is always mages. They're vicious, fast, and kill me very quickly, even with relatively high magic resistance in gear and passive bonuses. Doesn't help that they always seem to be virtually limitless in mana despite electric attacks supposedly draining their magicka supply.