Your favorite playing style

[Jeff]

I'm currently playing a Dremora (mod). He is a tank, but does use Destruction & Conjuration in fights. He casts a Summons Spell first, to get a meat/bone shield. Then tosses out a Flame Damage Spell, as the enemy closes the gap. Then commences to wittle them to pieces. He actually likes to get in the first blow, then block, waiting for a good Power Attack opening.

[divooneh]

i like the whole thief/assassin type thing

[Dark Spark]

I never knew what made people be theives and mages. Why sneak your frail little body around or run in fear of the big scary problem? Normally I impale it then watch it flail, but that's me... I'm a warrior, for those whom do not know, and take pride in it. ...

Warriors are for visceral gameplay. Rogues are for cerebral gameplay. Mages are for pretty light shows and ridiculously flashy costumes.

Your stand-up combat type of character is all about technique and tactics. They make a problem go away by making the problem soft, squishy, and staining the floorboards.

Your frail sneaker is going to make a problem go away by taking the situation and manipulating it so that there's no problem in the first place— that requires strategy. They don't run in fear, they don't sneak to avoid. They move in order to accomplish their goals by any means available in their flexible repertoire of tricks.

[TheWillOfSithis]

Yeah, as DarkSpark said.
Assassin don't run away and if they do that means they just want to get an advantage over the meat head wielding a 30 pound hammer/sword.

Ofcourse if something gets close to me in melee they are going to have an advantage on me, but why would I let that happen. Though everyone makes mistakes and it may occur, so I'll just look for a higher ground and if it envolves running away so be it but, that doesn't make me a coward. It just makes me smarter than you.

When warriors kill something everyone will know. I guess killing is something to be proud of, but there's really no reason for a killer to be looked up to or have any fame. Just cause something is killed and no one knows, doesn't mean that it never happened

[The Tourist]

My shiny new guy (pictured left just before he made his escape from the sewers) is stealth and magic based, and I've never really played that way properly in either Morrowind or Oblivion (i've never cleared the Thieves or Mages). I handrail (nerdy SOF term.. ) roads and paths, and use a decent detect-life to sneak and keep any oncoming threats visible before they see me. High level conjuration's are a trump-card, or destruct attacks if things get hectic.

With a bow I can usually take most low-level targets down in one, but marksman won't be a key skill until I've got some levels under my belt. I've also complemented that with hand-to-hand, which again won't really kick in against big-bads for a little while.

But I still see the warrior archetype as the real deal.. and they will always be my central, most powerful characters. The truest test of mettle/steel/ebony; close-quarters is about training, strength, and technique. Anything else but toe-to-toe just seems underhand, dishonest even...

Not to get too deep here, but; I guess it relates to the mythic hero archetype being one of individual resolve and power - a bastion of unswerving determination, playing as metaphor for the defiance of truth/good against lies/evil. The hero archetype is symbolic, out there for the people to look up to and turn to. The struggle of the mantle of power also plays a role, adding a layer of 'he's one of us' to the solitary one-man frontline.

Ahem...
Well, I guess that's why I can't shake the Master Chief one man army, it's just too culturally ingrained into my western brain.

(but sneaky sneaks & marksmen/women are generally more involving/fun.. )

edit: oh, and my most loved of all fantasy characters was/is Druss the Legend, from David Gemmell's Legend/Deathwalker/First Chronicles of. And Druss was about as far from sneaky as you could ever get.

[weka]

Warriors are for visceral gameplay. Rogues are for cerebral gameplay. Mages are for pretty light shows and ridiculously flashy costumes....

I think any of them can be for any of your descriptions. No limitations req'd. There are so many options for playing your chars in Ob, that you can make any type of char into any type of game play.

[Virtue Of Apathy]

I played a thief once. I mostly snuck through the shadows looking for girls. I would sneek up grab there ass "nice firm sqeez" then run away. Lucky for me they thought I was picking there pockets.

[Masser]

I play a type of all around warrior. It'd be closest to a spellsword, but less spells, only destruction and restoration. I generally use light armor, except for my first char, Tyr, who was awesome in his daedric armor. I'm playing at 2/3rds difficulty by the way.

[the oblivion freak]

oh well i really love magic!

I mean magic is everything.... armor, weapons, damgae, health, etc...


that is why i use it because it is weight less and all in one, lol.


i love conjuration, your stupid enemies can be fighting your minians and you would just be like a spectator in the arena, LOL, but except you don't make money, you make priceless skills.

[Morwen]

When I first started playing, I was mostly into charging headfirst into battle using a mixture of and destruction magic and blade, but over time I've come to appreciate the fine arts of sneakiness and illusion magic a whole lot more.

[Dark Spark]

Warriors are for visceral gameplay. Rogues are for cerebral gameplay. Mages are for pretty light shows and ridiculously flashy costumes....

I think any of them can be for any of your descriptions. No limitations req'd. There are so many options for playing your chars in Ob, that you can make any type of char into any type of game play.

Yeah, if a Rogue dropped the bow and picked up an L25 Scythe instead (laser-ignited liquid-propellant LMG with a 72-round mag of quadrex and encapsulated phosphorus) then the character can walk straight up from cavern to cavern shouting "Ya' wanna piece of me?!".

Other than that, you will have to consider Warriors the primary, optimized (which means easiest) characters for a quick smash-fest. Rogues position the pieces on the board, then strike hard. It's how they work. It's how they survive.

[Vesna]

Very....poetic.....that part about the chess pieces.

Playing with a warrior (no doubt the easiest thing in the game) gives the game an FPS feel. Just go and mow down anything that moves. Granted, some FPS are not like that, but most are.

[Jeff]

[TheWillOfSithis]

Congratulations Dark Spark You've made my sig.

[weka]

I still disagree. This is what I love about this game, you can have any or even all fighting styles and still play in whatever guise you want. It's just where your imagination takes you.

I'm also surprised about everyone saying the warrior is the easiest to play. There are alot of us around here that go for the one-shot-wonder, and as I've said before, that's poss over vast distances even for a new char. What can be easier than that?

I guess if you're used to games where you kill everything in sight, you prob do have more affinity with the slash and hack kind of thing. I've never been used to that, so actually find the Warrior the worst type to play personally.

[TheWillOfSithis]

I'm also surprised about everyone saying the warrior is the easiest to play. There are alot of us around here that go for the one-shot-wonder, and as I've said before, that's poss over vast distances even for a new char. What can be easier than that?

Yeah, the key word is for a new character. I think that once you get to a certain point that you can no longer do that w/o poisons. And yes even still it's pretty easy.

But, what happens when it fails? You'r stuck in something your not prepared for. Which is ofcourse melee. It's like telling a full warrior to take on a Storm Atronarch with only Magicka. Ofcourse niether is prepared.

A warrior doesn't need to worry about any of this. They just practice their essentals and everything will come. They can take on hordes of enemys, And when it gets hard they just get a better blade and some better armor.

So, my statement is yes, stealth characters do start out easier but, they get significantly harder. While warriors go for easy to easier. And to be honest their all easy compared to A mages early game (Although they do become unstoppable After mastery of a couple of things.)

[DorostheConqueror]

A warrior doesn't need to worry about any of this. They just practice their essentals and everything will come. They can take on hordes of enemys, And when it gets hard they just get a better blade and some better armor.

So, my statement is yes, stealth characters do start out easier but, they get significantly harder. While warriors go for easy to easier. And to be honest their all easy compared to A mages early game (Although they do become unstoppable After mastery of a couple of things.)

Actually, I disagree. Nothing could be further from the truth! At low levels of stealth, stealthy characters are MUCH harder than brute warriors. After all, it's harder to hide, and even when you do pull off a neat disappearing act, you're probably not going to have enough back-stabby or arrow-shooty power to do much. Straight warriors have it easy- plenty of hitpoints, plenty of smashy things, get a nice sword and you can go for hours just mindlessly crushing enemies like so many bugs. All that changes once you get to high levels, however!

High level warriors tend to feel the hurt more, and more, and more. Monsters start knocking you off your feet, leveled creatures shoot up faster than you, healing becomes a nightmare, your hit points drop like a Daedroth's nuts, and let's be honest here, your equipment only improves up until Daedric and Glass. Beyond that, the gap between what you can bring to the fight and what those Gloom Wraiths and Minotaur Lords can do to you just keeps getting wider, and wider, and wider.

But stealth warriors, or stealth magic warriors, after their initial roughness, get the point where they can walk all over the game with nary a care in the world. With 15% Cham-o, I was able to clear the entire Bruma Oblivion Gate, with level 35 monsters, wearing nothing but Black Hand robes and carrying an Ebony bow. I didn't even get hit once; nobody saw me, and if they did it was already too late. Heck, I could have just sauntered up to the Sigil Stone and finished it in moments, but I felt like causing some havoc first! Try playing as a character who can jump on top of a Spider Daedra without her even knowing your there and you'll see what I mean. Then add in a one-shot kill poison-tipped bow or a 500 damage touch spell, and you'll wonder why you ever thought relying on cold steel was a good idea!

I've tried straight warriors before, but just like in D&D, they start strong and wind themselves too quickly. They go from easy to hard to harder to hardest, while mages go in reverse and stealth follow a shallower trajectory similar to mages.

[TheWillOfSithis]

your hit points drop like a Daedroth's nuts

Wow, I had to stop reading for a minute to make sure i read that right.

But, anyway in my expiriences a warrior only gets godly. All that i had to do was, get umbra at lower levels and then about 15 (i think) you can go get gold brand. and for armor, I was racking up so many sigils stones that i had many shield and resist effects. It seemed boring. Then i went to a mage, challenging at first but got even easier than a warrior. Then my final one since has been an assassin and yes it got easier but not much so as a mage or warrior. I also believe that a stealth character does has many more options or "tools" you might say, to kill with, but they need them. Then a mage just can do anything they can do but a*s naked.

Now, I will say yes, it is hard to go up against an xivalli, storm atronarch, and a spider all at once as a warrior but it was merely a challenge. But theres more thing in oblivion that resist poisin than normal weapon. so going up against them as a warrior was much easier than going up against a room full of undead as a stealth oriented character.

[Masser]

My experiences with warriors are generally good,depending on how you use your char. I use a duck and weave policy,dodgerolling my enemies and hittting them in the back. I found it significantly harder to play a stealth char. I can set up the plan,but for whatever reason I'm usually detected, but usually I can fight my way out,and if I can't,I always have some skooma for speed.

[Jeff]

Probably the easiest, and boringest characters I have played, were the Stealth type characters. Maybe because that's what I did for 20 years.

Sneak through a dungeon... Three NPC's... Shoot at one, but miss... It just looks at the arrow at it's feet... Shoot and kill it with next shot... The other two just look around... have a discussion... brew some coffee... Kill the second one... the third sits down for lunch...??? Yup, that AI makes being stealthy really exciting.

The most fun I had, was with an Altmer with Atronach, Battlemage.

The next most fun, was the Orc Pathfinder... Gore-Hack Smash.

My current Dremora Character, may be my new current fav.

[The Tourist]

Amen to that, Jeff.

Two Marauder heavyweights are discussing the latest Imperial gossip in a ruined fort, maybe mulling over an attack in Anvil on Dibella's chapel over a mug of mead. My Breton assassin is hunched in the darkness 15ft away - lets fly at the first of two targets.

[thud! crash... - target 1; down...]
[target 2 looks around briefly as the conversation is interupted by DEATH... ]

"Huh? What was that? Must have been a rat".

[thud! crash... - target 2; down... ]

My Breton stowes her bow, yawns and moves deeper into the layer of dimwits..

With stealth, you could kill one, creep up to the second and dance around them infront of their very eyes - then get bored and stab them in the back. Sure, it's out of character but the AI does its hardest to ruin suspension of disbelief.

[weka]

But you see, to me, you have all just shown what I was trying to say. That for the various styles of fighting, there are a number of diff approaches, which makes some far easier than others for some of us, and the opp for others. (If that makes sense! )

.....After all, it's harder to hide, and even when you do pull off a neat disappearing act, you're probably not going to have enough back-stabby or arrow-shooty power to do much.....

Doros, I've never had a sig, but I might just have to change that! I have arrow-shooty power!!!

...Sneak through a dungeon... Three NPC's... Shoot at one, but miss... It just looks at the arrow at it's feet... Shoot and kill it with next shot... The other two just look around... have a discussion... brew some coffee... Kill the second one... the third sits down for lunch...??? Yup, that AI makes being stealthy really exciting. ....

I have to admit, that does really annoy me. I do try to at least wait till they're not next to each other for at last a vague bit of realism. As I've said before, the main reason I like distance sniping anyhow is cause I don't like the whole killing side, and for that alone, I will prob always stick to it.

...Yeah, the key word is for a new character. I think that once you get to a certain point that you can no longer do that w/o poisons. And yes even still it's pretty easy.

But, what happens when it fails? You'r stuck in something your not prepared for. Which is ofcourse melee.....

Nope, that's when you run backwards!!! I just basically aim for never getting hit! Of course it does happen, but not that often, and alch will always prevail. Plus the one Magic skill that I do use is Restoration. Appart from when I first started and was trying to get the hang of all the controls etc, I've pretty much never died.

[Jeff]

Actually Weka, that was what I was getting at.

Some don't like the Hack and Slash, some don't like the Sneak, some don't like the shoot & dodge mage. That is the great thing about Oblivion, you can play it any way you want.

It is really easy to play a Smart Warrior. You can recon the area, and pick the best approach. You do not have to just charge right in.

Alot depends on your level, your equipment, your enchantments, ect...

When a Warrior see three NPC's in a Cave, he decides who to attack first, the biggest threat. If I have Reflect Damage, then I can pass on the Blade/Blunt. If I have Resist/Reflect/Absorb Magicka, then I can pass on the mage. In most cases, I take out the Archer first, simply because they are more likely to have a Poison. Then the mage, as their damage usually tends to be higher, albite a bit slower. As you are running around swatting the annoying bee's, the Blade is probably not getting to many, if any hits in.

Is there natrual defenses in the cave? Is there a pillare I can move around to get closer to the Archer, and use the pillar to block arrows? Can I put my back to the wall? Is there a Crevace I can knock somone into? Ect... Ect...

So yes, a Warrior can move the pieces around to there best advantage too. ...or rather, move themselves into a better position. No matter what type of character you are playing, you can not actually move a dumb AI.

[Dark Spark]

Actually, what you're stating is what I'm getting at. You're picking and choosing your targets, prioritizing them according to threat level, but in the end you're dealing with each one is the same exact way: get right next to them, then smack them.

When a Rogue player in a Bandit-riddled ruin takes in the lay of the land, he's deciding against shooting the Dog because the strike will alert the Bosmer nearby. He gets in close with a dagger for the silent takedown, then backs away into the shadows. The Redguard is his next mark, but the poison resistance will work against him. Hopping onto the ledge that flanks the doorway, the Rogue avoids the brightly lit center of the room and creeps towards the passageway to right. But the passage is bright, too, so he waits until the Redguard's back is turned before dashing through into the next room. All clear, and its high time to take the bandit one-on-one the best way he knows how: unfairly.

There he waits until the Redguard's wandering patrol pattern takes him a little farther away from the Bosmer bowman, then takes a sniping shot from the darkness of the next room over. The Redguard recovers his footing, draws his mace, and runs over to where the Rogue loosed his shot. But no one's there: the Rogue did a little shoot-n-scoot manuever and cleared from the spot. When the Redguard exclaims "Where are you!", the Rogue answers with an arrow whistling down from the perch he took in the interim.

All that's left is the Bosmer. Now, he can always do the long-distance ripple of Sneak shots. Or he can stand up and have a fun little dance dodging the Wood Elf's arrows. Or he can sneak up and take him on in a melee confrontation (Expert with a longsword versus a Novice with dagger— who'll win this one?). The choice is his, the options are many, and the Rogue can play it any way he deems is best.

When I talked about lining up the pieces before you strike, I am well aware (as should youn all) that, in chess, you move your pieces, not the other fellow's.

[weka]

Actually, what you're stating is what I'm getting at. You're picking and choosing your targets, prioritizing them according to threat level, but in the end you're dealing with each one is the same exact way: get right next to them, then smack them.....

Only dealing with them in exactly the same way as much as you are. Both approaches are talking about using everything in the chars arsenal, based on the current circumstances. The warrior doesn't have ranged attacks but can use the benefits of various offensive defenses, like reflect etc, as well as the local terrain, as does a Marks-based char.

To me you still seem to be v. limited and blinkered in your approach to certain char types.