Character build

[TStyle]

Hey, i just go the Oblivion game and i wanted to ask for a build.
Id like something between a thief and an archer, someone who sneak and goes all stealth like then shoots at the enemy and if the enemy manages to get close to you you can take him in hand to hand combat with a couple of good swords skills.

so if someone can please tell me the build because im totally new at this and i dont want to make something crappy and then re-do it all over again

[HatofMadness]

Welcome to the Forums and to Oblivion

as for your build,
a good choice would be a Wood Elf
with possibly a Thief birthsign?

major skills:
Sneak
Marksmen
Light Armor
Hand to hand/blade (your preference)
Security
Mysticism
Illusion


im not sure if your interested in magic, but it always helps
tell me what you think


oh and as a pointer, dont be too caught up with your major skills.
while they are important, you can raise Any skill at Any time
major skills just decide which skills start at a higher level

[The Tom]

For a normal thief I can actually advocate choosing the default Thief class. It's good a good range of stealth-oriented skills, though I'd change Speechcraft for Illusion. If you're a new player, this is probably a better option. Just make sure to save before leaving the sewer so you can create a new character at any time without doing the tutorial again.

Thief birthsign, as well, obviously

[Rick Astley]

Khajit make great stealth characters, but I would bother with magic with them. Wood Elf sounds good to me

[Veck]

You'll obviously want to focus on the stealth skills. For skills, I would pick:
Marksman
Blade
Security
Illusion
Sneak
Light Armour
Armourer

This gives you a versatile character with a wide range of attributes in your skills. In the end, chosen birthsigns and attributes are down to personal taste, so pick away!

[KrisCrash]

It depends on how you want to level. If all your favourite skills are also major skills, you'll use them a lot and level really fast. This can have that ol' backlash that you end up being weaker than your levelled enemies.

For instance, if you want to maximize your agility early, put an agility skill in minor skills, train that for extra agility points without causing a level up.

In any case, I highly recommend you assign some of your Major skills to skills you won't really use, to slow down your levelling.

This is what I would perhaps do:
Marksman
Blade (so hand-to-hand is free for training the muscles)
Illusion
Light Armour (but I'd always wear a bit of heavy when in close combat)
Armorer
are all fine in this case, but choose also Restoration and Mysticism/Conjuration instead of Security and Sneak, those will level you too fast, instead, you gain a useful boost in Restoration (annoying skill to push). Sneak levels way too fast.

These are the type of builds I use because I obsess too much over the levelling mechanics.

[Mattbott]

I enhance my sneakin and sniping with poison so even tho alchemy levels too quickly for some players, if you get alchemy instead of one of the other magical skills it is a very useful resource - poisons which can be brilliant for the tailor made first strike (eg silence plus damage magika for mage targets, damage health plus fatigue for fighter targets or -my favourite - paralyse for those fights on mountain sides lol) - you can also access many effects from loads of schools of magic - illusion, restoration and alteration are the obvious ones. The reason i level alchemy up asap is each level of expertise unlocks an extra effect for most ingredients so it gets more useful with skill increases than most skills

With regards to levelling too fast and being pwned by the monsters, rather than adjust the difficulty slider you can also simply decide not to go to sleep for a while. I have a 12th level argonian assassin who has earned exp to level 24 but is still fighting 12th level beasties cos he never levelled up. So al'ls not lost if you go for your most used skills as major ones and bite off more than you can chew

oh, and choose acrobatics as a major skill cos it's very useful for getting up to good sniping positions and takes a long time to level up so you need every bit of help you can get with it

[KrisCrash]

DON'T take alchemy as a major, seriously, it's the worst major out there.

You're allowed to use your minor skills, guys, this isn't Morrowind, you can have Master minor skills.

[TStyle]

thanks for the answers guys, i dont really like magic stuff so this is what i think ill take so far.
sure things
Marksman - i want to use a bow therefor ill take marksmanship.
Blade - use blades in close combat, i chose blade because im guessing if the enemy gets close enough for me to use the blade he is probably badly injured so i wont need a big slow weapon just a swipe or two from the blade should do it.
Light Armor - gotta have armor =) so i went light
Unsure things
Sneak - i see people here arguing about sneak and illusion and stuff, i think i should take sneak because thats the kinda of gameplay i want to have, sneaking stealthly behind the enemy shooting him with a couple of good arrows in the head and if he gets close enough kill him.
Illusion - again like i said i see arguing about it here, will it work ok if ill take both skills?
Armorer - is it useful? wont it be better to take something like alchemy for the poisons? again my main idea is to finish of the monsters before they get close to me so i think maybe poisoning the arrows will do good but what do i know?
Alchemy - already said, poisoning stuff.
Mysticism - bind sounds useful but i dont know ~.~ .
Security - sounds super useful but i thought maybe there are other skills that should take its space.

well thats about it, btw i dont need speed, its like the last thing i need. i need dmg so i thought ill go with agility and strength is that ok?
ill go with the birthsign of a thief (not much competition there...)
and about the race i dont know i thought about dark elves but they have +10spd it might be helpful and they have +5marksman and +10blade so i think ill go with that.

[The Tom]

Marksman blade and light, definitely. Good. Of the others I can definitely recommend Illusion for Chameleon combined with Sneak for ... sneaking. Security is a pretty safe bet, if only for breaking in and out of houses. That's six. As a seventh I can probably say that you have free reign over what you want, as long as it isn't Alchemy or Speechcraft.

Chameleon combined with Sneak is pretty much the best way to sneak around and get in some wonderful damage bonuses from afar. Don't worry too much about choices, though. Remember that if you don't like the combination you can go back to the sewers and edit it until you find something that suits you best.

[TStyle]

Marksman blade and light, definitely. Good. Of the others I can definitely recommend Illusion for Chameleon combined with Sneak for ... sneaking. Security is a pretty safe bet, if only for breaking in and out of houses. That's six. As a seventh I can probably say that you have free reign over what you want, as long as it isn't Alchemy or Speechcraft.

Chameleon combined with Sneak is pretty much the best way to sneak around and get in some wonderful damage bonuses from afar. Don't worry too much about choices, though. Remember that if you don't like the combination you can go back to the sewers and edit it until you find something that suits you best.

thanks, i think ill take armorer, thats also a safe bet, thanks
btw is it good for me to take Strength and Ability + birthsign of thief and go Dark Elf?

[HatofMadness]

^^ yes that works.

remember, its really whatever You want in the end. thats whats so great, there's technically no "wrong way" to create your character.

plus being a dark elf you have the ancestor guardian greater power, that can help you out early on

[dallen68]

Actually, what the OP is describing is a standard Monk.

[The Tom]

Well, I say congratulations for choosing the Monk class and have fun playing. No harm done.

[Mattbott]

monk is cool, enjoy

[Glaedr95]

Security - sounds super useful but i thought maybe there are other skills that should take its space.

DON'T choose security as a major skill. It´s useless when you reach to level 10:

Spoiler:

When you do Nocturnal's Daedric Quest and receive the Skeleton Key. Go to the Wiki for more information.

So DON'T choose it

[The Tom]

...or do what I do and don't use the skeleton key until you're at level 100 security. Seriously, don't try and tell anyone how to play their game. The clue's in the name - it's theirs. You can suggest all you like.

[KrisCrash]

Indeed. Though security isn't the best Agility major, it's not as bad as Sneak.

[Glaedr95]

...or do what I do and don't use the skeleton key until you're at level 100 security. Seriously, don't try and tell anyone how to play their game. The clue's in the name - it's theirs. You can suggest all you like.

Ok for anyone who likes useless things like you do. It's a matter of intelligent roleplay .

[Aces Andre]

...or do what I do and don't use the skeleton key until you're at level 100 security. Seriously, don't try and tell anyone how to play their game. The clue's in the name - it's theirs. You can suggest all you like.

Ok for anyone who likes useless things like you do. It's a matter of intelligent roleplay .

Useless? It's still the only unbreakable lockpick in the game.

[Glaedr95]

...or do what I do and don't use the skeleton key until you're at level 100 security. Seriously, don't try and tell anyone how to play their game. The clue's in the name - it's theirs. You can suggest all you like.

Ok for anyone who likes useless things like you do. It's a matter of intelligent roleplay .

Useless? It's still the only unbreakable lockpick in the game.

Yes that was what I've said. I called useless to the Security Major skill.

[Aces Andre]

Ah I see, my bad.

[Leilah]

Let's keep things friendly, please.

No skill is useless as a major as such, it all depends upon your style of play, and if you choose security as a major and just leave the skeleton key alone until you have 100 in security, it's still useful.

[Glaedr95]

I didn't want to insult anybody, and I'm sorry if I did it in anyway . I just wanted to give my opinion.

On the other hand, you guys must confess: Security Major Skill is, probably, the worst... (just my opinion, don't want to insult )

[The Tom]

I'm afraid I chose Security in every main character I ever had. It's just useful, and I hate consigning it to the depths of minority. Now Alchemy, that's a useless major skill. That and Mysticism, which I don't think I've ever used.