I suck so completely at Oblivion.

[Drunkbot]

Pretty much this. The game gets harder as you level up, because your enemies level up with you and do so faster as well (unless you are efficient levelling). You're actually better off not levelling up at all.

That is how I play Oblivion. At level 2.

I refuse to buy into their system!

No, I am not being sarcastic. I enjoy playing Bethesda games in any way that allows me to exploit their system because there are always such obvious things to break. And really, the more I read about Oblivion and how to level "the right way", the less I wanted to have any part of it.

 

[Truth Cake]

My advise? Learn two spells as early as possible: Paralyze and Invisibility, and the game will practically bend over and drop its pants for you, difficulty be damned.

I'm serious, paralyze any enemy and just hack away at them with any melee weapon (I prefer knives and shortswords since they swing MUCH faster than their heavier counterparts, so you can get more hits in before it wears off), then when they get back up, turn yourself invisible and wait for your magic to recover, then repeat. Even if your magic doesn't recover fast enough, you can use the invisibility spell as a quick-escape.