I have some concerns, if you could call it that, after getting the first staff piece. I thought my character was alright but after scrolling through some guides and such, I'm not so sure. I'm worried I messed up my character, in short.

First, what I have:
I have a lvl 10 Redguard Warrior (not sure why I didn't pick Knight tbh) with a full plate set (+10 WIL on Helm and +10STR on R shoulder) plus some really good -AR rings and bracelets etc. So my AR across the board is around -19 with a Tower Shield, -16 without. Decent weapons, I think I have a Mithril Longsword with a Silver one for backup, a Mithril Saber and a Dwarven Mace.

My Strength is 78 and my Agility is 75. My Endurance and my Willpower are 60.

So far I haven't had a lot of trouble with combat, I just bashed everything in the skull until it died and since I recently got +5 to hit I've come to a point where missing is rare, at least on normal mobs. I rarely, if ever, use the Longbow, mostly to deal with trash mobs (Goblins etc.)

Now then, I have a whole bunch of questions.

I haven't encountered any magical enemies or proper Mages/Liches yet. Am I done for when that happens? Should I invest all my further points into Willpower and hope I'll resist the spells? My ring and bracelet have "Wizard Lock". Is that helpful against magic?

Will my hit-happiness run out at some point? As in, will all the Agility in the world not help me and my hits will just glance off more powerful enemies or enemies with magic?

Lastly, Endurance. I haven't leveled it at all but according to guides I should have. I have a feeling leveling will be slower from lvl 10 on, and the bonus isn't retroactive, so should I even bother at this point?

Willpower doesn't do much against enemy spells. The "Wizard Lock" effect won't help at all; its only function is to lock doors, which isn't very useful, so I recommend selling those items.

To deal with enemy spellcasters, the best options for your class are as follows:
1. Get an artifact. Specifically, Auriel's Shield will be very helpful for this purpose, as it gives 100% spell reflection when used, as well as blocking the next 750 damage that you would otherwise take. (To get this benefit, you need to use it as an item.) Just remember to have it repaired regularly, as when an artifact breaks, it disappears from your inventory and you have to do the quest for it again if you want to continue using it. (You can have it repaired at a weapon/armor shop just like any normal piece of equipment.)
2. Get an item (either armor or a shield) that has the Spell Reflection property. When used as an item, it gives you 70% spell reflection, and with your hit points, that *should* be enough to survive. Unlike the solution mentioned above, such armor has incredibly high durability and will not disappear when it breaks; in fact, the durability might be high enough for you to complete the game without ever having to repair it! Just be aware that it isn't 100%, but fortunately, your high HP should allow you to survive.
3. Use potions. The spells that monsters throw at you are all fire or electricity (except for the frost wolves' spell, of course), so potions to resist those elements should help. Humanoid spellcasters have limited SP, so if you can survive a few spells, they become non-threats. The only enemy with infinite SP (as far as I can tell) that the potions can't trivialize is Jagar Tharn himself, there's only one of him, and you won't encounter him until the end of the game. You may run into enemies that can't be hit except by stronger weapons, so you might want to check the stores for an Ebony weapon (as well as an armor or shield piece of Spell Reflection, as I mentioned above). Alternatively, if you strength is high enough, unarmed attacks can be used against such enemies. (One word of warning: If you are playing 1.06 (the floppy version that you could get from Bethesda's website, not the CD version from GOG), an unarmed attack with gauntletes equipped will crash the game.) Or, just get a weapon with the Lifesteal or Firestorm property and use it as an item to attack; said weapons (especially Firestorm ones) take a long time to run out of charges. I would probably pass at this point. If you find that your HP isn't enough for some reason, just do the Auriel's Shield quest and use it when you need the extra health or spell reflection that it gives. (The 750 point shield effect has no time limit, so you could use it, give it to the blacksmith, rest in the tavern until it's repaired, pick it back up, and the shield effect won't have expired.)

Holy shit dude, thanks for your amazing response!

I think Auriel's Shield would be the best option because A) I like the dungeon crawling aspect of the game B) I love progression through gear and C) it objectively seems like the best choice.

About Auriel's Shield... I understand much of Tamriel is procedurally generated and the side quests and dungeons are more or less random. Is there still a way to "quest" for a particular artifact? On the wiki, it says Auriel's Shield is found in a random location in Skyrim, High Rock or Summerset Isles. But it being completely random in such a giant map seems too brutal, even for a 1994 RPG. I was just randomly chatting with people in Winterhold and some NPC mentioned some "fools who went looking for the Staff of Magnus". Does asking around make a quest for a particular artifact spawn, like if I hear someone talking about Auriel's Shield, I'll eventually come to a point where some NPC asks me to fetch it or an item leading to it?

I'm not a dude, but you're welcoke. Yes, asking does make a particular artifact spawn. You need to hear about the artifact by asking about general rumors, go to the particular tavern mentioned, talk to the barkeep, and then you'll be sent to a procedurally generated dungeon. Go to the dungeon, and on the 4th floor, you'll find a map pointing to another dungeon, which you can then visit and find the artifact on the 4th floor.

Some NPCs don't give good rumors, but anyone that does can give artifact quests, and if you keep asking about rumors, you will eventually get the artifact you need mentioned, provided you're not in the wrong region. It is best to choose a region where the artifact can't appear, or just go to Imperial City, where it's possible to get every artifact quest.

You can only get an artifact quest if you don't have an artifact in your inventory, and you can't get artifact quests for artifacts you can't equip (but as a Warrior or Knight, you can use all of them).

To put it another way, here are the steps to getting an artifact:
* Make sure you don't already have an artifact in your inventory.
* Talk to a townsperson, and repeatedly ask about general rumors, until you hear one about the artifact you're looking for. (If the person gives only short rumors, find someone else.)
* Go to the inn mentioned in the rumor, talk to the barkeep, and pay the fee that's asked.
* Go to the dungeon you're directed to, and you'll find a map.
* Go to the dungeon the map points you to, and you'll find the artifact.

Thanks again! Whoops, my bad. Gaming's still mostly a sausagefest where I'm from, RPG gaming more so, and oldschool RPG gaming even more so. Sorry for assuming.

So based on your help, I went into the Imperial City and asked around. Auriel's Shield just would NOT pop up, but I got the Lord's Mail instead, which has Health Regen, Spell Shield and Poison Resistance (or even Cure, I think), and it works wonders. The Regen is very useful and I saved a lot of gold on Health potions. Heck, I don't even have to rest most of the time.

The Lord's Mail works wonders against spellcasting and it's nice because you can repair it really cheap using the 13g exploit.

Thanks again!

You're welcome.

Just be careful not to let it break; artifacts tend to be significantly less durable than expensive conventional equipment.

Speaking of breaking items, I haven't been able to discern this from wikis or the manual. What's the progression (or rather, deterioration) of items? I.e. how do I know it's close to breaking?

So far I've noticed it go like this

New
Almost New
Slightly Used
Used
... then what? I've never let any item get under that.

My Ebony stuff lasts forever and heck even Lord's Mail isn't that fragile, I found it depends on how much you use the active ability (Spell Reflect). Regen lasts forever so I rarely reapply it. I'm just wondering if there's a condition description that is the "oh shit I gotta get outta here" one.

I believe that it goes to Worn after being Used. There *might* be something after warn, but I wouldn't risk it if it's an artifact we're talking about.

When it comes to non-artifact weapons and armor, you can check the number of charges left, which is an indicator of the remaining durability. (The charge count is not typically an accurate count of the number of times you can use it before it breaks, but it is an accurate indicator of the remaining durability.)

Your observation that using the active ability decreases the remaining durability significantly is accurate, and is the main reason you don't want to use the active ability of an artifact too much.

When it comes to weapons, doing more damage will hurt durability more. For example, if you have a high Strength and are using an ordinary Dagger, the Dagger won't last long.

Also, while artifacts disappear when they break, that is not the case with non-artifacts. Non-artifact items can't be equipped once broken, but can still be repaired.

By the way, the durability of store-bought weapons and armor is proportional to the amount you paid for them; negotiating a lower price will result in a less durable item.