Levelling tip

[Michlo]

The biggest tip I can give any newcomers is one to do with leveling your character.

Oblivion has an interesting system which has the mobs (enemies) level up WITH you in order to always give you a challenge.

If you aren't knowledgeable about your character creation, however, this can lead to you leveling very quickly and being faced with powerful enemies before you've become used to your character and / or equipped them well.

So, in a nutshell, when you choose your main skills (the ones your leveling with be based on), choose skills that you won't be using all the time. Not only does this help with the slower leveling skills (such as speechcraft) but will slow how quickly you advance.

Cheers.

[DarkRider]

Nice point! In the beginning I always chose the skills I thought my character would need, only to discover that some skills are harder to level than others. For example, I am not a major looter, I definitely look, but I usually prize gold and anything large I can sell. Without a lot of smaller sales, that makes raising mercantile really difficult. So now, when setting up a character I try to choose the skills that are harder to raise!

It makes absolute sense, but I actually didn't realize that choosing lesser used skills could slow leveling!

Good tip, Mate!

[nanno]

i read that a while ago on the oblivion wiki and it got me really confused lol (dunno why tho)

in OOO its better if you dont however, cause if your most used skills are at like... lvl 5, you couldnt even kill a rat

[Relic]

Yeah, but its wise to choose one or two skills you'll be needing if your racial abilities aren't so high in the required field too.

[nanno]

i allways choose somethin of everything, cause i wanna sneak bash and cast spells

[OldBook]

It's also important to think about the mods you're using when you pick your class and skills.

In some of the Overhaul mods, monsters no longer level with you; You're best off picking skills that you really do need, so you can starl levelling ASAP.

In some of the Magic mods, Magic skills that are less important in vanilla Oblivion (Mysticism, Alteration, Restoration) become incredibly useful thanks to powerful new spells in those schools. You're best off picking your skills to gain early access to those cool spells.

Remember that one magic skill can often cover many areas, especially with mods. Illusion offers both great attack and defense potential; Alchemy can do almost everything that Restoration and Alteration can for your character, as well as providing extra offensive options and a source of income. Once you have access to a spell maker you can get even more complicated.

[HeyYou]

Quote

It's also important to think about the mods you're using when you pick your class and skills.In some of the Overhaul mods, monsters no longer level with you; You're best off picking skills that you really do need, so you can starl levelling ASAP.In some of the Magic mods, Magic skills that are less important in vanilla Oblivion (Mysticism, Alteration, Restoration) become incredibly useful thanks to powerful new spells in those schools. You're best off picking your skills to gain early access to those cool spells.Remember that one magic skill can often cover many areas, especially with mods. Illusion offers both great attack and defense potential; Alchemy can do almost everything that Restoration and Alteration can for your character, as well as providing extra offensive options and a source of income. Once you have access to a spell maker you can get even more complicated.

This is a very valid point..... If you are running mods, that radically alter gameplay, you need to change character skills to work within that framework.

[Nic-V]

I do imagine some newcomers to the game would have problems if they level up too quickly so this is a very good tip indeed!

[ntom]

I would like to know someting.

I have play Oblivion with countless numbers of acounts and have done fine with leveling, but a more recent one to me seems to level really really really REALLY slowly, which is intresting because I use my skills alot. its a mage with the major skills:

Blade

Block

Alteration

Mysticism

Destruction

Restoration

Conjuration

and I often always use my destruction, conjuration and blade a lot, know any reason why it might be so slow? (and I do do a lot of mob hunting)

I have played almost half the amount of time as my other file which is a level 25 so its pretty strange.

[Nic-V]

I would like to know someting.

I have play Oblivion with countless numbers of acounts and have done fine with leveling, but a more recent one to me seems to level really really really REALLY slowly, which is intresting because I use my skills alot. its a mage with the major skills:

Blade

Block

Alteration

Mysticism

Destruction

Restoration

Conjuration

and I often always use my destruction, conjuration and blade a lot, know any reason why it might be so slow? (and I do do a lot of mob hunting)

I have played almost half the amount of time as my other file which is a level 25 so its pretty strange.

You don't use all the spell types that often and that's why lovelling is slow. When I play mage I usually pick only the maigc skills I'll be using CONSTANTLY for major skills. I do use the other magic types but only as minor skills.

[Relic]

Haha, I was guilty of this when I first played!

Saying that though, not levelling at all and facing the same boring enemies over and other grows boring fast. Morrowind And Fallout 3's non-levelled enemies were much better in my opinion, and I do hope Bethesda never reverts to oblivion's style of "difficulty".

[HeyYou]

Haha, I was guilty of this when I first played!

Saying that though, not levelling at all and facing the same boring enemies over and other grows boring fast. Morrowind And Fallout 3's non-levelled enemies were much better in my opinion, and I do hope Bethesda never reverts to oblivion's style of "difficulty".

And that is why I run FCOM.

[Ferryt]

I hate level-based games, whether they're table-top or computer games. Unfortunately, the vast majority of role-playing and FPS games are level-based -- a legacy from the very first such game, Dungeons and Dragons. The industry has actually learned that there are better ways of doing this (enter the most played non-leveled table-top game system, GURPS), but it's a meme that's ingrained into gaming because, I think, of the bragability factor. "Hey, look at my gazillionth-level <fill in character class>! He can kick all your butts and has an awesome Sword of the Gods and he's 100% invisible all the time and ..."

You probably get my drift. I play these games from the perspective of a role-player (as opposed to a hack&slash player) who likes immersion. Oblivion is a game that has enormous potential for both, although the game designers, in apparently targeting an audience in the pre-teen to young teen age groups, dropped the ball as soon as it was passed onto the court in both respects. The fact that it may well have the worst-designed leveling system ever doesn't help, since any kind of level-awareness breaks immersion for me. In spite of this I've tried efficient leveling, rapid leveling, slow leveling, no leveling ... and have, after a number of long conversations on the shortcomings of Oblivion with one of my friends, who I introduced to the game, decided that I'm just not going to concern myself with it at all, once character generation is complete.

I make a list, for each character, of attributes and skills that are 1) vital (just a few), 2) very important (no more than a handful), and 3) secondary. Those which I deem vital are going to be specialties. Those which I think are very important, though, only become primary if they're relatively difficult to train, and then I make a conscious effort to train them whenever I can. I replace those as my primary emphasis with some from the third list that I consider useful, but not essential to my character concept. During play I'll train anything if I get a chance, and I'm not talking about just seeking out trainers for them -- that system is even more flawed than the leveling system, itself. Almost every skill can be trained when you aren't actively exploring or fighting, and some of them can be easily trained even when you are. After character generation is over I really don't even pay much attention to character level, although I'll monitor my skill levels just to make sure I'm not short-changing myself down the road. I just have fun at the game and that means, among other things, not being overly cognizant of the "numbers game" part of playing Oblivion.

Yes, this can result in some difficulties because the game shoves level at you on a number of occasions. The Daedric shrine quests all have level requirements (one of the reasons that if anyone tells you they finished the game at first level, they're either lying or they've modded the game -- even Azura's quest, which is the lowest level one require you to be level 2). There are mods which eliminate the level requirements from these quests, though. The other major place the game screws you over big time is the main quest. Do it at low level and the NPCs who are helping you have a good chance of survival. Wait until higher level, like I did on my first full play through, and the NPCs will drop like flies, leaving you with no help because the game levels up your opposition but not your allies. While Bethesda might have done this on purpose, I consider it a serious game design flaw. Since the only thing that will get me to engage the main quest ever again is a mod that has to interact with it some way, this is no longer an issue to me. I simply don't like the main quest. It's not very interesting and the reward at the end is a set of armor that's not as good as armor you can make yourself, and the guards still treat you like dirt.