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I have this question because of the thief birthsign. If it is any good at all then the bonuses available at the start of the game are far greater than raising it later on. It almost seems to good to pass up..

As I understand it the small boost that Luck gives your skills will not take them above 100.

So if you expect to get all your primary adventuring skills up to 100 as you are playing the game then Luck is basically pointless. If, however, you are likely to stop playing before that happens then Luck becomes a little more useful.

Personally, I leave it alone.

If you are doing +5/+5/+5 levelling then the Fortify Attribute you get from Birthsigns is good IF you find levelling the skills for those attributes to be a real pain. If you are planning to get the Attributes to 100 and don't mind the skill grinding to get loads of +5's then a Birthsign with Fortify Attribute is a bit of a waste.

Personally I'd rather spend an extra two levels grinding for +5's than use up my Birthsign just for a couple of free +10's.

YMMV

I like Luck. I don't really have a good reason, but I just like all the little bonuses. A little more damage here, a little less damage taken there, less magicka used here, a little money saved there; not really enough to notice, but I like to think it adds up over time. Plus this way I only have to get two things to +5 instead of three (at least if I remember correctly). Of course, of you're leveling all attributes to 100 it doesn't matter, but if you're thinking of only leveling to something like level 20 then it makes you a little more well rounded.

Basically, Luck is padding for the skills you neglect. Luck will subtly raise any skills below 100 so they are closer to 100. But, as noted earlier, Luck will not increase skills after they finally do reach 100.

Luck kind of sucks. It only increases your skills by about 2 points for every 5 points of Luck over 50.

A Luck stat of 100 would effectively increase all of your skills by 20, but Luck has no effect on skills already at 100.

Since you can only increase Luck by 1 point per level up, by the time you've increased Luck by 5, you'll have likely maxed out whatever skill you were using to train.

And then when you'd actually get to 100 Luck, you'd have maxed everything and thus won't receive any benefits from it.

Luck is next to worthless unless if you are playing a short game (e.g. trying to win in under five levels.) In that case, Luck +15 (Thief birthsign plus custom +5 Luck bonus) will add six points to all skills but Athletics and Acrobatics. Note that Athletics and Acrobatics are skills a thief/assassin type needs, and Luck does not help them.

One Luck point boosts a skill by 0.4 points. If you are using skills, you will raise them so fast a luck bonus won't even be noticed, so why not pick a birthsign like Warrior that boosts your health and carrying capacity by a real/usefull amount, and then go for +5 attribute bonuses each level that continue to help?

I mainly liked luck because it strangely helped me role play my character, and eventually you do get some noticeable benefit which made me at least, feel a bit special

For me the biggest challenge in Oblivion was keeping that 'sweet spot' going and not becoming overpowered so I had tricks to keep the game dangerous past level 20ish, one of which would have been to pile level ups into luck and i rarely increased endurance, preferring the attributes which increased movement and mental fortitude rather than health or damage

For efficient levelers and people who like to see results from their character generating decisions it's probably a bit of a waste of time, and if you don't go for it straight away, you won't reach 100 very easily so the Thief sign is a crucial decision for lucky characters

but if you like having characters which do strange things and have strange things happen to them because you are role playing, Luck is a harmless choice which I found enhanced my experience of the game

Doesn't Luck also determine the random loot you find and other little background things like that? I could have sworn it did. I always seem to find better and more loot with my Lucky characters.

No. luck does not change the loot you find. Luck would be more useful if it increased critical hit chance, like in the Fallout series.

I've leveled two different characters to level 50. One had all the attributes at 100, including Luck. The other one had most attributes at 100, but luck was only around 70. I'm sure there are some benefits to having 100 luck but I really couldn't notice, the impact is so small it's next to useless at higher levels.

But of course, roleplaying a lucky character wouldn't hurt you either.

I think the only other thing Luck affects besides Skills is the chance your team wins in the Arena when gambling (not when you're fighting in the Arena yourself).

*checks the Arena page*

Yup a Luck of 100 gives the fighter you bet on a +30 HP modifier.