Is this a good starting character? Let me know

[MadMax06]

Okay, so my friend made a profile for himself on Oblivion (360 version, mind you), and I was wondering if he picked good stats/attributes.

He's a level 2 High Elf, birthsign of Thief, custom class of Master.

Major Skills
Athletics
Blade
Conjuration
Destruction
Mysticism
Light Armor
Sneak

please let me know!

[SaintD]

Okay, so my friend made a profile for himself on Oblivion (360 version, mind you), and I was wondering if he picked good stats/attributes.

He's a level 2 High Elf, birthsign of Thief, custom class of Master.

Major Skills
Athletics
Blade
Conjuration
Destruction
Mysticism
Light Armor
Sneak

please let me know!

What's the focus? (melee, magic or stealth?)

You will most likely run into a problem where you level faster than you get powerfull. By about level 8 enemies will be running you over. If you are a stealth character, don't put athletics and sneak into your primaries. You want to be able to control your leveling to some extent. That way you will get more of the +5 bonuses to stats when you level.

Athletics is almost always a poor choice for primary skills.

It's counter intutitive, but you should not put skills you use a lot into your primaries. A theif character will be sneaking all day long and level up just by sneaking around. Unless you plan on skipping a lot of combat this isn't a viable way to play the game.

-D

[MadMax06]

The focus it seems is a magic-based character

[mandangalow]

Hmmm, well here are my segestions;

1. If the focus is magic add one more magic skill, i would recomend alteration.

2. Choose between heavy armor or armorer as a major. I would recomend armorer A) because light armor is better and B) because youll need to enchant early, so being able to repair enchanted items on the fly will be valuable. Also because you are pretty weak as a mage and can use the endurance bonuses.

3. Take athletics and sneak out. If you want to lvl up athletics run from city to city instead of fast travel. Rufio sleeps for most of the day. come into the inn of ill omen after 6 am tell your friend to get a rubber band and rap it around the movment stick and the far coner of the batttiery pack (only on wirless) shift into sneak next to Rufi and let go. Watch some tv in a while youll master sneak.

now youve freed up two skill you can fill those in. Hope that was helpful!

[GenghisJohn]

Do you think you'll have fun playing that character? If yes, then it's a good character. Spending time worrying about levelling and making sure you get +5 bonuses doesn't help as much as having fun playing the character.

[SaintD]

Do you think you'll have fun playing that character? If yes, then it's a good character. Spending time worrying about levelling and making sure you get +5 bonuses doesn't help as much as having fun playing the character.

Good point, but getting 20 hours into the game and having to start moving the diffuculty slider down because you leveled up just by casting too many "starlight" spells isn't fun either. I am just saying to move skills that you use without trying (athletics) out of the ones that make you level up.

-D

[Zavrith]

Hahaha, yeah, I've been leveling a bit out of control myself. I can get to level 22 right now but I'm only level 15...I make sure I conquer at least one "dungeon" before leveling so that I can get SOME experience with the creatures of that level and gear before I move on. Going from Headless Zombies to Dread Wraiths sounds like a bad plan


A side comment undermining the general idea here so far: you can sneak, or you can run, or you can jump. These are the three modes of transportation in Oblivion via foot power, right? If you had all three in your major skills, wouldn't you level up slower because your movement has to be divided between the three skills? Not saying that that's a good plan to have those three as majors, but I'm just saying that the redundancy of having althetics AND sneak could actually potentially slow down leveling up.

[Hardcore Heathen]

Hahaha, yeah, I've been leveling a bit out of control myself. I can get to level 22 right now but I'm only level 15...I make sure I conquer at least one "dungeon" before leveling so that I can get SOME experience with the creatures of that level and gear before I move on. Going from Headless Zombies to Dread Wraiths sounds like a bad plan


A side comment undermining the general idea here so far: you can sneak, or you can run, or you can jump. These are the three modes of transportation in Oblivion via foot power, right? If you had all three in your major skills, wouldn't you level up slower because your movement has to be divided between the three skills? Not saying that that's a good plan to have those three as majors, but I'm just saying that the redundancy of having althetics AND sneak could actually potentially slow down leveling up.

Wouldn't slow it down, would speed it up. You'd still sneak, jump, and run just as much. You'd just get it counted for towards lvl-up for ALL of them rather than one. Which is why it's a bad idea to put them as majors.

[Vook]

Jumping counts towards both acrobatics and athletics.

One more mode of movement on foot (and head and back and so on - roll. Based on Acrobatics and requires Acrobatics 50+. Fastest of them all, and especially useful for characters with low speed as it doesn't take your speed into account, maintains constant high speed. I got to take over the Black Horse Courier courier on a black horse on the road to Anvil easily using it.

With acrobatics at 50 you gain the ability to "dodge" - jump in given direction while holding block and instead of jumping, you roll. Some blocking like a shield or a sword take lots of time, so it's useless, but if you remove the weapons and use unarmoured block, you can "dodge forward" as soon as previous "dodge" ends. This way you can keep rolling really fast forward, just hold block+forward and keep pressing jump.

The movement is quite jerky (you come to near halt when the roll ends, while the roll itself is very fast) but the average speed is much higher than running, and it sucks your fatigue really fast, but you can keep doing it even with fatigue at zero.

If you don't speed-fortify your horse this is actually the fastest mode of transportation available, more comfortable than a horse and with nearly no disadvantages of horse riding. Three worst disadvantages are: 1) it's slow with a weapon drawn, need to hide the weapon, 2) sucks fatigue - run away from the enemy to safe distance or quaff restore fatigue potion before fight, or you'll poke with your sword like with a toothpick at zero fatigue, 3) journeyman acrobatics (50) needed.

[MadMax06]

Well my friends coming over pretty soon, and we were still at the beginning of the game kinda, and so we decided to just start over and make another character. ill post the stats up in a little bit.

[MadMax06]

Alright, hes still a High Elf, but level 5 this time, major skills are...

Major Skills
Blade
Alteration
Destruction
Illusion
Light Armor
Security
Sneak

Any better?

[Hardcore Heathen]

What are you focusing on? Also, I don't like security as a major because I'm always using lockpicks.

[Gazilida]

What are you focusing on? Also, I don't like security as a major because I'm always using lockpicks.

Yeah, just get the skeleton key and you won't be needing any more securityskill. Waste of majorlevelling too.

[mandangalow]

Alright, hes still a High Elf, but level 5 this time, major skills are...

Major Skills
Blade
Alteration
Destruction
Illusion
Light Armor
Security
Sneak

Any better?

no wants to belive me..... You really need an endurance based skill.

[Hardcore Heathen]

I put armor in as a major skill because its hard to get 10 lvl-ups off of hammers. + you start off that much closer to repairing magical items.

[Vook]

Actually if you spellmake Damage Armour on Self, it isn't all that hard to raise Armourer simultaneously with Destruction.

[mandangalow]

always good advice from Vook.

[Pherdnut]

If you're looking to power-level, or always get the +5s until you've maxed all your stats, here's a few things to consider.

Avoid having two major skills that combo well together. For instance, Restoration moves really slow unless it's being used to heal a lot of damage. I haven't found a faster way to level restoration than by combining it with acrobatics training (i.e. jumping down mountains and hurting yourself).

I don't pick any of the Endurance skills because they combo well with just about anything. Summon stuff, attack it with magic, spam nonattack spells, attack with whatever physical attacks you have that are majors, etc... Since getting hit, blocking, and repairing are all a part of the endurance skills, at least 2/3 level at once. Also, armorer is easy. Pick up every weapon and sword you find from fallen enemies and fix 'em up.

Pick one of the four physical attacks as your preference and major the rest.

Light Armor is much easier to control than athletics and acrobatics. Like Heavy Armor, it's also easy to level while doing other stuff. You can train nonmajor skills while levelling light armor. Whatever your strategy, don't major both armor skills.

If you're power-levelling (i.e. jumping straight to higher levels without even exploring or doing quests) Alchemy is awesome. It levels insanely fast and makes you a quick profit. Don't even bother searching for or stealing ingredients. Just buy everything. Sneak is nice too. Just get behind one of the guards in the Imperial Palace, sneak against the back wall and tie your controller down with a rubber band. Conjuration is also a fast-levelling skill.

[Gazilida]

Actually if you spellmake Damage Armour on Self, it isn't all that hard to raise Armourer simultaneously with Destruction.

That's a great idea! I'll start with it right away