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Im building a character, Im on xbox so leveling is a problem. With this in mind I want to optimize my build to fix this issue.

The character im building is basically a spellsword, He will end up doing/being these things:
.Mainly a heavy armored blunt melee fighter.
.Will use Magic - Restoration, Destruction, illusion spells, Alteration shield spells perhaps.


For the optimum build, Should I be an Orc with the mage bonus, or A breton/High elf with the warrior bonus? (I cant imagine an Orc w/o increased magika would ever be able to use destruction/illusion)

My actual most used skills would be:
Destruction
Restoration
Illusion
Heavy armor
Block
Blunt
Maybe sneak?

Im still between two minds which would be better to select as majors in the game, theres the approach that i selected in the rough run through i just played, where i selected a mix of skills that are slow to level through regular(normal) use, and unused skills, which looked like this:
Major skills:
Athletics (Ensures eventual leveling)
Sneak (This one was a [&@%!] up, i didnt think id be using it and then realised i sometimes want to) Should prob have picked speechcraft or something useless like that instead
Hand to hand (dont use)
Destruction ([&@%!] up, probally should have put blade or something here)
Mercantile (slowly use)
Light armor (dont use)
Block (slowly use)

If i were to re run with this approach the major skills would look like:
Athletics (Ensures eventual leveling)
Marksman (I can use when i want to level)
Hand to hand (dont use)
Speechcraft (Dont use)
Mercantile (slowly use)
Light armor (dont use/I can use when i want to level)
Block (slowly use)


And then theres the approach that has been recommended to me here,
But im not sure what that is. Dark spark and chicken slayer seem to be saying different things.
Chicken is saying Set blunt as major, only use it, dont increase any other major skills per level until it is fully maxed,, and make sure you get your bonuses by increasing minors as neccesary.
I think i could do this, and it makes sense.

Whereas dark spark.. you set blunt and harmor as majors, and then use blade and block to get the bonuses, and then switch to the (now waker) heavy armor and blunt at some point? I dont quite get this tbh.


So following chickens advice of 1 skill of each attribute my character might look like:
Major skills:
Blunt
Sneak
Light armor (Dont use).. or late game levelling.. not sure why id want to level up in late game though tbh?
Block -- Id have to not use it?
Mysticisim -- soul trap only, make sure not more then 1 point per level..
Alteration -- Id have to not use shield spell unless i really need it?, and feather, of course.
Speechcraft (Dont use, there is a charm spell instead)

7 points for blunt, 2-3 for sneak, 0-1 for randome other.
And make sure attribute bonuses go to 5 by spamming other skills before level up.

Am I right?
And bear in mind the character has changed a bit and i want to use destruction, though i can put off using it for a while until willpower bonuses at least become helpful.

If you want to control leveling, NEVER take athletics or acrobatics. It is not hard to ensure you'll level up at a fair pace by simply choosing skills you can easily control, like magic skills for melee focused characters. Your birthsign also makes no sense for your character. Additionally, I would not take mercantile as a major skill, simply because it is absurdly hard to level up with anything but trainers. Light Armor is also a poor choice, if you want to be a heavy armored character, you basically have to do the work to get both armor types to a higher level for no good reason.

As a simple rule, never level up without leveling up an attribute's governing skills at least ten times, so you get a +5 bonus. Simple solution to that issue.

You realise I have Light armor as a major because i wont be using it, right? Also same reason i took mercantile..
Athletics and Acrobatics are slow to level yet will level simply by playing the game, so it would ensure leveling does occur. On the other hand it could by its nature of being uncontrollably cause me to level at unopportune times, im not sure.
My birthsign makes absolute sense. I want to use magic. Base magic for an orc is not high enough to use any sort of magic, magic gained through inteligence increases is not enough. Enhancing equipment with fortify magicka is not available till later game.
If i wanted a different birthsign I would have to choose a different race, breton or high elf.
And the reason i want to keep all magic skills as minors is so i can use them to get +5 to intelligence or willpower each level. Perhaps it is not neccessary to keep them all as minors so, but i am cautious.

I read on the wiki to use one skill from each of the attributes as major skills. Would this in itself solve the issue, or not really?

I understood that, that is still bad reasoning. Also, unless you want to do some really weird play through without merchants, you WILL use mercantilism, it is not a controllable skill due to that.

I would go so far as to say The Mage is on the short list for worst birthsigns in the game, it's right above the greater power birthsigns (entirely worthless) at best. Fifty extra magicka won't be giving you access to much better options for spells. It's better to just improve your magic related skills, then get access to the spells you want. Keeping all of your magic skills as minor is kind of unnecessary, since magic use is very easily controlled, it's a very easy way to level up when you want to. You want a major skill from each attribute to make it very quick to level it up when you want to, see Oblivion:Efficient Leveling. If you really want to finish the game around level twenty, then just stick to skills you can easily control, and you'll be fine.

It's difficult for me to give advice for inefficient play styles, and most "run and gun, play as you like, use magic to help" styles are inefficient because skill leveling is not based on number of kills, but on number of hits. You may not like this advice as you have to work your character into shape.

My philosophy revolves around level enemy danger, the fact that it takes eight levels to take a major skill from 25 to 100 when no other major skills are used, and the practicality/ease of building some skills as majors vs as minors. The game is flawed, so don't worry about role playing your major skill set.

From level 1-7 (pre troll) enemies are less dangerous, so take advantage of imp dungeons it to build skills (number of hits) instead of making quick kills. Level 10 is an important benchmark for tough enemies and good gifts (Will-o-the-Wisps, Malacath's quest, Meridia's quest, Peryites quest, best ring from Harlan's Watch w/ Fighters guild quest.) Level 17 is important for starting the main quest to get Transcencant sigil stones (spider daedra show here.) Level 19 sees Storm Atronachs--the most powerful non-leveled creature--and the most powerful weapons (Hatreds bow and mace from Oblivion World 2.) For many more levels after, the leveled monsters are not so bad and not so numerous as Spider Daedra and Storm Atronachs in the main quest, so I like to have all the weapon damage possible by level 17-19. Max damage = Weapon skill 100, Sneak skill 100, Armorer 75.

The way I build and play a blunt fighter is.
Nord/Orc/Redguard--Warrior or Lady--Combat.

Major skills:
-Blunt--Play for 7-10 points per level until maxed. Hit as much as possible with a weak weapon (iron axe) and use a quest mace (Calliben's Grim Retort from the Unfair Competition quest, Rock Shatter from the Missing Husband quest, Volendrung from Malacath, or a permanent glitch deadric mace from blue stones north and south of Bruma) for tough spots. When monsters get tough enough to need big weapons, you will have the needed skill from building points early against wimps.
-Sneak--Play for 2-3 points per level until Blunt is maxed, and then concentrate on it. You don't need Sneak attacks until enemies get tough, but the 100 perk helps when Orcish and Ebony armor show up on marauders around level 16.
A good leveling rate will result from this play and you will not need to rely on enchanted weapons or spell use for most kills early in the game. Later, the 30% slow effect from one hit of Hatred's Heart mace, plus 100 Sneak skill (and maybe the ring of Kajiit,) will give you 45 seconds of 6x damage shots from a second, unenchanted weapon. You can kill anything from level 19 to end game this way w/o using many soul gems.

[Other major skills (0-2 pts per level, total.)] Do not have more than one skill per attribute if you want to build good bonuses for that attribute.

[Skills for useful Apprentice level spells early on]
Mysticism -- Soul trap spell
Alteration -- Feather spell-play smart and you won't need shield spells-they are really there to help naked mages.
Destruction -- Weakness spells to boost enchanted weapon damage or poison.
[Skills that are easy to spam for late game leveling]
Light Armor, Illusion, Mysticism, Alteration, Acrobatics, Block, Conjuration.
Note that Acrobatics@25 has an advantage for archers as it let you get up on rocks. Jump only when you have too and it does not build more than one point per level, usually much less. It can be spammed by jumping down slopes, taking damage. It is not as useful for a fighter.
Note: If you want high level Illusion or Destruction spells, have these skills as minors and work them hard.
Note:There is not much to be found in locked treasure chests until level 3 or 4, so you can save some skill points by ignoring them.

Minor skills:
Armorer--Buy five lessons per level and play this for five more to make your +5 Endurance bonus and get it to 75 by level 10.
Hand to Hand and Blade--Use as needed (e.g. 5 pts per level) to easily make up the 3-4 Strength points Blunt will miss each level.
Heavy Armor--Spam it up in the tutorial against the goblins, and later, take points/hits as needed to help out Armorer for Endurance points. When Endurance is maxed, spam it to 100 for the weight advantage.
Block--Can go either way as a major or minor depending on if you like to use it (minor) or ignor it (major.)
[Others]
Alchemy-- So many good things you can get from Alchemy. Hard to controll when you use it, can be spammed for Intelligence bonuses.
Athletics - Too difficult to build later for leveling.
Merchantile - Too difficult to controll early and build later for leveling.
Security - Needed for opening locks-uncontrollable.
Restoration--Most difficult Willpower skill to build. Cannot be controlled if you rely on it, needs to be high if you do rely on it, and there are options so it does not have to be used at all (such as wait-rest and potions).
Merchantile--Hard to controll, hard to spam.
Destruction--Uncontrollable if you plan to use it much.
Marksman--It is impossible to work two weapons skills to effective levels as major skills. You can spam this to 25 for the fatigue perk. Lessons will benefit you after that if you want the zoom perk.
Speachcraft--Use this to bring down hammer prices with Thoronir and boost prices for welkynd and varla stones at the Chorrol and Cheydinhall mage guild houses.

You probably want to get the paralyze + damage health spell from the Serpent stone, asap, and the invisibility spell from the Jone stone (10 fame/infame needed.)

Interesting post! Ill have plenty to think about when Im making my next character
Whenever that is.
Though I dont quite get the thing you said about having 45 seconds of 6x dmg bonuses>?

And yeah, I realise it is impossible to use both marksman and blunt/blade if you want to max one of them, the other has to suffer.

My roleplaying approach is to select my preferred skills as my Major skills. In your case, Heavy Armor and Blunt would be made Major skills. The trick is to refrain from using your preferred skills early on in the game and get a little "cross training" with Blade and Block. You now have the freedom to train up for your +5 early on in the game. Then, as your character slowly progresses and outgrows that awkward phase in the teens (Levels 12-20) you can rely solidly on your preferred Skills, your Major Skills, to power-up through the meat of the game playing exactly as you want to.

After all, it'd kinda suck if you wanted to move from Level 39 to 40 and find that you need to go back to a bunch of Skills your never wanted your character to play in the first place.

The problem is though, if you select majors as minors, so that they all start low, It will be very difficult to obtain only the 10 skill increases and no more than the 10 for 3 attributes and only 3 attributes.. I can imagine with everything increasing so easy in early game youll be getting +5s across the board which will leave less room for +5s later on as the skills have already been increased..
In order to avoid this, id have to pick 3 skills, level them 10 times each, and then be ready to level up as soon as this is done. Does this mean Id have to be taking a note of every skill increase i recieve in a level, and then how would i ensure that I am able to level up as soon as i recieve the increases.?
Is this why you recommended having some majors (blunt and heavy armor as majors..?
I previously thought that your primary atk skill and primary defensive armor should never be set as majors..

Ive edited my first post to reflect now what I know i want from this character. Its much more linear now.
It is possible to have both Destruction and blunt as primary modes of fighting right?

I have actually already made this character, but with some mistakes, like i put destruction as a major skill and then realised i cant really use it if i have it as a major.
Also there were some problems with attribute bonues.. I got too much willpower in early game from spamming restoration/alteration spells.
Need to plan that better..

I can see Destruction+Blunt working if you use spells like Weakness to make your target soft, then hit them with an enchanted mace dealing damage exploiting that weakness.

Ok, i think I see how this is supposed to work now.
I want to have some of my most used skills as majors, while leaving others in the same attribute class as minor for attribute points.
Major skills should be set up for attribute increases on level up

So for this character is a blunt focused fighter with destruction as secondary
She will want to increase Strenght, Intelligence, and Endurance initially, and therefore the skills should look like
Blunt (Use)
Heavy armor or Block (Use)
Mysticism (Ignore except for odd soul trapping)
Light armor (ignore)
Marksman (Ignore)
Speechcraft (Ignore)
Mercantile (Ill take the odd increase here and there.. or I could substitute something else in but im not sure what) (Ignore)

I know there is nothing for Willpower there, but that is because I plan on using both Restoration and Destruction throughout the game, even though i wont be increasing willpower until Intelligence is maxed, so therefore I will need alteration to be a minor for when that time comes.

So while playing the game, I will need to keep track of how many skill increases for each of my chosen 3 attributes i have gotten, and make sure i increase the relevant minor increases for the difference before I level up.

How does this sound?

I am right arent i?

Build your character how you want and see how it goes.

If you haven't already, this thread might be worth a read through:
http://forums.uesp.net/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=38710

My advice from that thread still stands:

Best advice actually is to just get stuck in, play the game, make mistakes and learn from them. Then start again with a fine-tuned 2nd character.
I guarantee you that your character concept will not level 100% efficiently. BUT: I also guarantee you that you will learn more about how the game works by sitting down for a few hours and playing the game with this character than you will from pages of forum theory-crafting.

Because I am a little OCD about Oblivion Levelling, I tend to plan ahead which sets of 3 attributes I am going to want +5s in for a given level, and then choose Major / Minor skills that will maximize the ability to get 10 skill points for skills in just those 3 attributes through normal, organic play - and minimize time spent doing things that are purely to optimize the level-up.

That is how I choose Majors. They are there to drive the Levelling process first, and contribute to Attribute bonuses second. Preferably by just playing the game - although a certain amount of grinding always seems to be necessary here and there.

So for each level I choose the 3 attributes that I want to raise, then ask myself:
How can I get 10 skill points for each attribute?
How do I trigger the next level up? And how controllable is it?
What sort of playstyle would I need to do this?
Do the skills in the chosen 3 attributes work together to support this playstyle?
Does this fit the sort of adventuring / quests I would be doing here?
And the choice of Majors comes from thinking through this.

As to what you should choose...
Only you know exactly how you want to play the game.
Only you know exactly how much grinding you are prepared to do for those +5s.
So there's only so far that our advice will go. Sorry.

Play the game for a bit, see what happens, then come back and tell us about it.

"It will be very difficult to obtain only the 10 skill increases and no more than the 10 for 3 attributes and only 3 attributes."

This is the Efficient Leveling falacy, IMO.

The reality is that when you use skills efficiently, you only need to play 2 of the 3. You can waste or ignor the third. I use to play this way...Block (major), Armorer (minor), Heavy Armor (minor). Spam Heavy armor up to 70 in the tutorial against the goblins (give them extra weapons when theirs' break) and then play efficiently (totalling ten points from the 3 skills every level) out in the game. That would get me to 100 Heavy Armor quickly and still get me 100 Endurance. On the other hand, I never use any Restoration points and efficiently play Alteration (major) and Destruction (minor) to get 100 Willpower on +5 bonuses. If I screw up and overplay Destruction+Alteration, I can fall back on Restoration and use a few points.

Those are the extremes of efficient leveling, and neither means only playing ten points out of the three skills each level. Yhings might be different if you have three skills as majors the way most of the game-made characters are.