How to fight in Oblivion?

[VigorousPanda]

I recently began playing Oblivion because I know that Skyrim is out very soon so I want to prepare myself for it. I used to play Oblivion a few years back and loved it however, I'm playing at the difficulty between the middle and the max which I guess is just before very hard. Only problem is that I get my ass whooped in fights . Like in the quest where you have to kill Agamir and his bodyguard at the cementary was incredibly difficult. I had to blow every skill and scroll that I had. I used the summon skeleton skill, nordic frost, and woad and made it with very little health O.O. I can easily take one person because my skeleton grabs aggro and I can just smack in the back a hundred times till it dies but when facing 2 strong people is what hurts. Is there any tips being successful in difficult situations and fights?

[Frogmander]

Heal, don't just hack and slash, if you get low-mid hp try to find a safe place to heal, use potions.

[Avron the S'wit]

I'm moving this to the Oblivion subforum for more attention.

If you're getting your butt handed to you in battle, you need to look at a few things:

1) What are your skills? Are your levels decent for fighting based on how you play? What is your strength?
2) Are you healed? Are there no negative effects on your character from a disease or condition?
3) How is your block skill? Do you use it?
4) What condition are your weapons and armor in?

I'm sure you'll get more details from our resident experts, of which I'm not one, but those are my initial thoughts. In the beginning it can be a little tough to kick some booty, but it really depends on your play style, although you should be able to do some damage (although the beginning quest with Agamir can be tough right out of the sewers at level one, if you're not crafty). I usually try to get around the Agamir quest around level 2, and I focus one at a time on either him or his cohort, and I move around the space as opposed to getting trapped and just taking damage. Don't be afraid to move around!

[Lotet]

well, if you've never seriously tried alchemy then now is the time to start. poison doesn't scale with the dificulty slider for some reason. an experienced alchemist who knows where to get his ingredients can easily tag a small group of enemies one at a time with a bow (or sword I guess). then there's the old 'no leveling' trick where you stay at level 1 or whichever level gives you your favourite armour i.e. stop leveling at Lv15 if you love Elven Armour or Lv10 if Orcish armour is you favourite. when you don't level your enemies won't get any stronger but you can still increase your skills. Lv20 for Daedric/Glass, Lv25 for the best Leel Rewards from Quests, Lv30 for Dark Brotherhood best rewards. I'd advise not going past Lv30 since some enemies gain 20 health per level compared to you maximum of 10 per level.

of course Alchemy and Level Capping yourself are really cheap tactics but at least you can put it on the maximum difficulty. with both Player Lv1 and Alchemy 100 the game isn't any challenge though.

[strobacaxi]

I think Avron the S'wit said something really important: Move around

If you get trapped, there's no escape, even if your health is high, you'll have to fight them both at the same time and you can't run from either of them. It's harder to beat them both at the same time in a low level at least

[urthdigger]

One very important thing to keep in mind with Oblivion is that you keep your combat related skills at least up to date regarding your level. If, for example, you have speechcraft and alchemy as majors, and use them a lot and wind up level 10 before training any combat skills... well, you're kinda boned. I'm assuming your mistake wasn't so drastic as that, and will advise you on ways to proceed.

One way to help is to pick one style of combat and stick with it. Pick ONE form of offense (Blade, blunt, marksmanship, destruction... maybe conjuration suits here but it's more support), ONE armor skill (Optional if you go for a playstyle centered around avoiding being hit in the first place), using restoration is a given, and a few support skills that may help you, such as Alteration or Sneak.

Now, I am not recommending you make these majors. That will make them start out higher level, and you'll raise them faster, but as your level raises, so too will the level of the monsters. It is possible to play with the skills you use as majors (My most recent playthrough has done that actually), but just realize that it will stay at least moderately difficult through the whole game. Now, if any of these skills are minors, then you can increase them without increasing the difficulty of the monsters. One valid playstyle is to make your majors all be skills you'll never use: You and the monsters will stay level 1, but your skills will increase and make you way more powerful than them. Of course, that playstyle is a bit TOO easy, kinda like cheating.

Another thing to keep in mind may be doing efficient levelling. This is where you make sure to get 10 skill increases for each of the three skills you intend to raise that level (or 2 skills and raise luck as the third), making sure you ONLY get 10 major skill increases, and that those are your LAST skill increases you do (Once you get 10 major increases, all subsequent increases count for the next level, not the current one). Doing this will ensure you have high stats for your level, and as a side effect will encourage you to raise up your minor skills, so hopefully you'll be able to use those for combat when needed.

---

Really, Oblivion is a flawed game due to the levelling of EVERYTHING. It makes it so the game is too "easy" at some points, by making everything drop high level gear at the end, and not having anyplace too dangerous to go at the beginning. But it also makes the game too hard if you neglect to keep your combat skills up to date.

[MaKo]

I usually find fights hard at lower levels. When gaining enough levels (i.e. attributes) together with skills and equipment, everything start go easier. First about equipment: I trust simple Soul Trap 1s + Absorb Health 10 pts -sword/axe, as it greatly decreases the amount you need to heal yourself. The base weapon should be the best quality you can get, as the heavier weapon you use, the better chances there are to stagger your enemy. Some Reflect Damage is good to have, to make hard-hitting enemies take damage to themselves.

Usually I try to block the strikes, as it gives you an opportunity to retaliation. Moving around is good thing to do, I try to keep the enemies in a line so that there is only one that can hit me.

Spells are good for aiding the battle. For tight situation, touch-delivered area effect 1 sec paralysis is good to have when fighting against multiple enemies. I also usually have one strong touch-delivered spell to make elemental damage, with paralysis to stop the enemies that are vulnerable against paralysis. I used to use summoned creatures as decoys, but I found it hard to avoid hitting my own creatures. The only exception is my witch-style character played with hardest difficulty settings, as she cannot do the damage by herself.

From poisons and potions, paralysis poison is efficient for melee fighter for tight situation. Sometimes I use bow to deliver damage health poison to distant enemy, as it works over the time the enemy approaches me.

What else? I also use restore fatigue potions - or customized "adrenaline" spell - to keep my fatigue high, to maintain the maximum damage made by melee weapon. Boosting Agility does not hurt either, as it decreases the probability getting staggered. As long as your armor skills is not 100, you may want to wear some Feather effect spells, as it can compensate the weight of your armor and make you move faster.

EDIT:

Now, I am not recommending you make these majors. That will make them start out higher level, and you'll raise them faster, but as your level raises, so too will the level of the monsters. It is possible to play with the skills you use as majors (My most recent playthrough has done that actually), but just realize that it will stay at least moderately difficult through the whole game.

I slightly disagree. You can easily have three or even four important skills as your majors, especially (carefully chosen) melee fighting skills for melee fighters. What they do is that you gain levels all the time you get better fighter, so you can boost yourself with attribute development. I usually have Blade, Heavy Armor and Block as my major skills. With that combination, the only thing to pay attention is to buy training to either Blunt or Hand-to-hand as long as Strength is not maximized, and at the beginning watch that Armorer gets enough skill-ups. Later, Block develops so slowly, that it is not a problem anymore (or it is vice versa, you need to buy lessons to Block to keep it developing).

Of course, with that combination you hit your maximum performance somewhere around levels 25-35, but that is usually the levels I am targetting. If you want to reach your maximum performance earlier, you need to have less important skills as your majors.

[Goblin voice]

I've got a three step guide:

1. Block
2. Hit
3. Back off

he he... works every time

[Unionhack]

A good tactic that I find useful when fighting one person is just block-chop-chop. Keep your shield up, wait for them to hit you and get a little stunned, then chop twice and raise up your shield again. Worked wonders for me.

[enyamerT]

...I'm playing at the difficulty between the middle and the max which I guess is just before very hard. ...

I think I found your problem.

Seriously though: if you're going to crank up the difficulty, you really have to level efficiently or you'll eventually get overwhelmed as the NPCs gain power faster than you do.

[exoclipse]

I typically max the difficulty, and I've had no problems, but you really do have to plan ahead. I saw a really good guide that changed how I view the game. Don't have primary skills that level you up quickly (acrobatics, athletics). You probably don't need the extra speed and jumping they give you, and as minor skills, they're much more useful. You can farm those to give you as many +5 agility and speed level ups as you desire. Try to have minor skills for each attribute, and keep skills like alchemy and armorer as minors. With armorer as a minor, you'll level it up very quickly to where it would be as a major, and get a ton of endurance for it. Ditto alchemy, for intelligence.

If you're doing straight up combat, heavy armor is good to have. So is high endurance and strength, obviously, but less obviously, willpower. High magicka regeneration = more healing. Being able to heal as a warrior is non-optional. It's the best way to stay alive.

Also, consider going as a Breton. That resistance to magic is huge, as is the buff to restoration. Bretons are surprisingly tanky.

As far as combat tactics go, keep your shield up unless you see your foe prepare a power attack. If you do, get out of the way, let him miss, and then smack him in the face while he's recovering from the animation. Don't be afraid to run away while healing, and then come back to finish him off. Kill ranged attackers as quickly as possible - they die quickly, especially if you have destruction as a major skill. Read up on the guides on the wiki; there's a lot of good stuff here.

And don't aggro the things that guard the unicorn. They will murder you dead.

[OblivionDuruza]

I find it fairly simple to simply keep enemies on a semi-continuous loop of staggeredness, it can be a little cheap, but I train to raise Blade and Agility for a reason. Don't bother about blocking and power attacking for regular foes, just move about a bit and keep mashing that attack button, well, only when you have to, more considered combat using a refined block, slash, slash, block, back off, fireball, etc. repeat, combo is more stimulating for the brain.

[exoclipse]

That's a way to play I'd never considered. I wouldn't like it, lol.

[OblivionDuruza]

Well, in some ways it's actually more realistic in a way, a master swordsman would aim not to get hit, at least in real life. If you look at the Samurai for instance, they did not favour shields. I do exaggerate on the button mashing, but the key is agility and manoeuvrability. There's no need to be able to take a pounding (i.e. to be a tank) if you never get hit.

There's not much skill involved when combating one enemy, but when you get groups, you have to manoeuvre around them, position them in each others way, and focusing your efforts on one.

When dungeon crawling, I tend to mix bow, blade and magic. The initial contact is normally a sneak attack from afar, followed up by another shot from the bow, or another sneak attack if I can remain undetected (keeping in mind I don't really focus on Sneak as a skill).

I then swap to a blade, fire off a fireball if time permits, and then start having at my foes using above manoeuvring and speed. It can be exhilarating when you don't simply rely on having more health than an opponent, and a well timed backwards or sideways power attack never goes astray to finish them off.

[VigorousPanda]

Wow... so much responses, thank you guys for your help. I will go ahead and take what I've learned into Oblivion!

[Tesknowitall]

When your fighting, always hold the block button. Your character reacts really fast and the npc fighting will stagger away after hitting your shield. Do a hit for hit type of battle. Hit block hit block over and over. Potions are a MUST

[merlinthewizard]

on high difficulties you almost have to level very carefully and it can get very dull very quick

[Tesknowitall]

Ohhhhhh boy, I tried oblivion very hard last night. I tried to fight the Uderfrykt (wrong spelling i think) at level 6, full crusader armour.
Did NOT go well. I Died in 3 hits.

[MaKo]

Ohhhhhh boy, I tried oblivion very hard last night.

Hardest settings need some special strategies. Do not try to make the damage by yourself (it's only 1/6 of normal), use summoned creatures and poisons instead, and you'll be fine.