How much should I worry about leveling....

[TheOzzmanDPG]

So, this is my first time really getting into this game and I am currently sitting at level two. I have been reading a lot about the leveling system and about power-leveling for the most "efficient" character possible. right now I am playing as a Battlemage and I am just worried about the leveling. Should I focus on power leveling for a bit just to build the character and build it right, or will just playing the game get me the attributes bonuses i need?

My concern is that for lvl 1 to 2, i only had +2's and +3s in the attribute bonuses. If i don't get 5's across the board, I'm I going to get wasted because things get tougher as things go on?

Also, question about this scenario:

At the time of level up, i have leveled Athletics 11 times and blade 10 with blade being a major skill. I know that i will get +5 in Strength and +5 in Speed, but does this mean that I wasted one level in athletics because i let it get to 11? This just seems like I really need to be focused on exactly what I am doing and what skills have increased. Should I be worried about the one skill level that I missed out on?

I am not looking to have some "Uber/Leet" character, I just want to get through the game. Any suggestions would help. Thanks.

[The Tom]

If you aren't looking for an UB3R 1337 character then no, there's no reason to waste your time on efficient levelling. That's really the only reason I can see that you'll need it. If you've chosen a range of major skills that you'll actually use along your adventures, then your character will end up like mine: +2 or 3 in attributes at every level up but a much more relaxed gaming experience. Efficient levelling is for those that really know what they want, and if you're anything like me you'll just want to have a good time. You won't get smashed by higher-level creatures later in the game. They don't level up that fast and there's always a highly customisable difficulty slider.

[HatofMadness]

So, this is my first time really getting into this game and I am currently sitting at level two. I have been reading a lot about the leveling system and about power-leveling for the most "efficient" character possible. right now I am playing as a Battlemage and I am just worried about the leveling. Should I focus on power leveling for a bit just to build the character and build it right, or will just playing the game get me the attributes bonuses i need?

My concern is that for lvl 1 to 2, i only had +2's and +3s in the attribute bonuses. If i don't get 5's across the board, I'm I going to get wasted because things get tougher as things go on?

Also, question about this scenario:

At the time of level up, i have leveled Athletics 11 times and blade 10 with blade being a major skill. I know that i will get +5 in Strength and +5 in Speed, but does this mean that I wasted one level in athletics because i let it get to 11? This just seems like I really need to be focused on exactly what I am doing and what skills have increased. Should I be worried about the one skill level that I missed out on?

I am not looking to have some "Uber/Leet" character, I just want to get through the game. Any suggestions would help. Thanks.

first, Welcome to Oblivion and to the Forums

as for your questions, technically getting +2 or 3 is inefficient leveling, but its not the end of the world
for you could still play through the game. enemies do get tougher, but depending on your difficulty slider, you should be able to handle them until higher levels.
the problem with enemies leveling with you is that, its fine in the beginning, but your level 30 character will not be MUCH more powerful then a level 40 character, but that level 40 enemy will be twice as touch as a level 30 enemy.

as for your 2nd question. you cant really waste minor skill levels. if blade is your major skill and you raise it by 15, you will level up once, and be halfway through the next level.
as for a minor skill will athletics, its not so much a problem., you will get the +5 for speed, but you wont be wasting anything.
minor skills are great for leveling up with the +5.

i guess to be simple with it, no you didnt no waste that one extra athletic skill, for minor skills can be made up later. major skills can not.


to summarize, controlling your major skills is important, but minor skills, not so much. and dont be so worried about Perfect leveling, it is and can be important, but dont let the leveling system take away from the fun of the game.



..tom has ninja'd me >_>

[Hex Link]

Yea you shouldn't worry to much about leveling.
It really doesnt matter:
-If you always make a perfect level up, you will have to increase difficulty so it wont be too easy.
-If you dont make a perfect level up, u will have to turn the difficulty down so it wont be too hard.
Also its more fun to just play the game! Not worrying about anything, you know

And that 1 Athletic skill is not wasted. You can "waste" about 70 skills per attribute. Which means, that if you would have leveled everything perfect in Speed, not wasting any skill points, always having exactly 10 level-ups, when speed would reach 100 u still would have 70 skill point avaible.
E.g.: you would have:
Speed 100

Athletics 100
Light Armor 100
Acrobatics 30

I hope u understand what i mean^^

Btw what does "ninja'd" mean? I never really knew...

[HatofMadness]

Btw what does "ninja'd" mean? I never really knew...

when your replying to a message and someone else posts the same thing before you click submit

[Andere]

Did you buy or get the game and start it in order to worry about leveling? Most likely not. You got the game in order to enjoy it.

I suggest you do that. Start playing it, and worry about everything else later.

The only extra you may need, in order to get a good start, you can find here

http://www.tesnexus.com/articles/article.php?id=124

Otherwise, just go for it. "The game was pretty much ready when Bethesda released it".

Let it burn, baby. Cheers, pal.

[Jeff]

Leveling is only a small part of the game. Any shortcomings you may come accross from Skills and Attributes, can quickly be corrected with the proper use of Spells, Potions, and Enchanted Gear.

Oblivion is an OPEN game, there are many ways to Play, and thus, many ways to Level. There is no right or wrong way to play, or level.

[KrisCrash]

The only thing I would worry about was getting Endurance up high as soon as possible. The problem with endurance is that "fixing" it later isn't going to fix your health and make it as much as it'd be if your endurance had been high for a long time - if that makes sense?
Getting strength up will always add the same extra damage and carrying ability, improving intelligence will always increase your magicka, but endurance needs time to work to effect your health the most.

You can preserve your health with armour and magic resistances, but fall damage and traps will not be reduced by this (generally) and scales with your level (independently of the difficulty slider too).

Long story short: worry about endurance, you can get it to 100 around lvl 12 or so, other stats ... not so much. You can easily fortify them with enchantments.

If you play a character who depends on many of his or her stats, you may also want to maximize some of them so you can focus on magically fortifying other ones. I play an efficiently levelled character right now, it's been a little bit tedious, but it is enjoyable how powerful and versatile he is, without using a ton of enchantments.

[Jeff]

This "Fixes" low Endurance/Health:

100% Reflect Damage
To get 100+% Reflect Damage and be immune to most physical attacks, you will need the following:

1 Ring of the Iron Fist (gives 33%)
1 Necklace of Swords or Amulet of Axes (both give 33%)
1 Escutcheon of Chorrol (gives up to 35%)
These three items will provide you with 101% Reflect Damage.

...or maybe this Potion: (Alchemy 75 with Noivice Equipment)

Restore Health (4pt, 17s) + Restore Fatigue (9pt, 34s) + Restore Magicka (8pt, 31s)

Take 4, and have constant 12 points restore Heath.

...add to that an Enchanted Weapon with Absorb Health.

[Jeff]

Slight hijack, as this is something that has bothered me since yesterday:

but fall damage and traps will not be reduced by this (generally) and scales with your level (independently of the difficulty slider too).

I have never seen this, and am curious where this is noted/written...???

Acrobatics allows your character to jump higher and fall further (without damage).

This indicates to me that increasing in level, and Acrobatics Skill should actually reduce the ammount of damage you recieve from falls.

The damage taken by a fall also decreases as your skill increases, although the decrease is barely noticeable.

However, what I have noticed, is that as you tend to increase your Acrobatics you also increase your Athletics, so you are jumping higher, and farther. As an example, you are running down a hill, and jump, which carries you down the hill farther, so you have a greater drop, thus more damage. I do not believe that this is due to Fall Damage Scaling with your level. I believe that it has more to due with the formula for Gravity and Damage, and not giving Acrobatics enough damage reductions.

This however, is easily fixed: Don't jump off of Dive Rock.

For Traps: Pay attention, all traps are very easy to identifiy.

[H8Ball]

With higher Acrobatics, you take more damage in the fall because you can jump higher, but the damage reduction on impact is minimal (it doesn't scale with jump height). So yes, it is mainly to do with gravity.

One of my favourite fun ways to increase Acrobatics is to travel right up into the mountains, then play my Mountain Goat mini-game where I "butt" myself all the way down. The object of the game is to get to the bottom purely by jumping, hurting yourself with EVERY jump. You're allowed to move sideways but never climb/jump back up, and the game is over when you jump without hurting yourself or reach the bottom (lowest point where you HAVE to climb/jump back up). Tip: Take plenty of Restore Health potions!

Don't worry too much about "perfect levelling" because there are plenty of potential skill increases to go around, and lots of fun things you can do to "grind" your skills upwards (or in this case "butt" them upwards by going downwards).

Tip: Once you have an attribute maxed out at 100, it's not available for bonuses and its governed skill increases have no further effect on it. Major skills will still drive levelling progress, but Minor skills can be "ground" all the way to 100 in one level if you like.

Hope this helps.

[Necronomicon]

I tried to make one of the "efficent" leveling characters once, but to be honest I found it took the fun out of the game. Even though you'll end up with a super-powerful character, you'll not have much fun recording all the skill increases. So as someone mentioned before, unless you really want an UB3R L33T character, you shouldn't worry about it.

[Andere]

I tried to make one of the "efficent" leveling characters once, but to be honest I found it took the fun out of the game. Even though you'll end up with a super-powerful character, you'll not have much fun recording all the skill increases. So as someone mentioned before, unless you really want an UB3R L33T character, you shouldn't worry about it.

All people get freaks when they practice something long enough. They tune up their hobby, or their profession. It doesn't matter if they're Bankers or Bikers, or whatever. They may even be players... haa!

Play the game, enjoy it. You'll hit a point where you want more... start a new game. And so forth. The definitely wrong way to play the game is to have won it in advance, it's just so wrong... The right way is to do it over and over again, until you finally have it.

Cheerio.

[KrisCrash]

Slight hijack, as this is something that has bothered me since yesterday:

but fall damage and traps will not be reduced by this (generally) and scales with your level (independently of the difficulty slider too).

I have never seen this, and am curious where this is noted/written...???

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Traps
Physical traps usually damage their victims and push them backwards. The damage cannot be Reflected, Absorbed, or Resisted by magical means. The damage dealt by Physical Traps is leveled and is calculated for each actor individually by using its own level. The amount of damage dealt is not affected by the difficulty slider. As with trigger traps, physical traps can be used to a player's advantage to kill groups of enemys.
(interesting typos there)
But yeah: at high levels with low endurance, trap damage can be MASSIVE.
Granted, you can be smart and avoid traps. That's probably what they intended... but sometimes your character is slow or that Dremora pushed him into the spikes.. and those turrets just home in on ya!

Acrobatics allows your character to jump higher and fall further (without damage).

This indicates to me that increasing in level, and Acrobatics Skill should actually reduce the ammount of damage you recieve from falls.

The fall damage reduction provided by Acrobatics is so tiny as to be useless in unmodified Oblivion due to an incorrect game setting FJumpFallSkillMult. At an Acrobatics skill of 100, fall damage is only reduced by 1%.
* PC Only This bug is fixed by the Unofficial Oblivion Patch.
I believe if you jump along flat land, your jump height does NOT contribute to your fall height, it is only that which you fall beyond the initial launch height that is the problem.

This however, is easily fixed: Don't jump off of Dive Rock.

jumping off Dive Rock is fun though. And currently I have enough health to survive it.

High health is super practical. You can argue it is unrealistic or bad from a roleplay perspective to be as tough as an ogre, but for some roleplays it makes sense.

As for 100% reflect damage? I think we've already discussed in a thread whether that sucks the fun out of the game ...

[Mattbott]

dont try anything fancy on your first playthrough

as far as i can remember all of my first characters in TES, fallout, etc had 'mistakes' in them, in other words i chose a skill which i didnt end up using much or the birthsign was silly, etc but it didnt make much difference to the game in the end. You can actually scrap you career as a thief and become a mage in this game so just keep an open mind and have fun