I suck so completely at Oblivion.

[omega 616]

Granted it IS my first Elder Scrolls game, but I'm level 4 now. Just got suspended from the mage's guild for stealing from a member entirely on accident, and playing at 50% difficulty I'm dying more times and ways than I care to count.

Seriously, I wish I was recording this shit so you could all have a great laugh.

I always start off heading straight to the arena, gets you some decent cash, weapons and levels.

Next do whatever you like, I would hold off doing the main story though 'cos shutting down oblivion gates gets you seriously awesome stuff at higher levels. If you do the main story you can't shut down gets yourself.

When you hit level 10 look up how to get the skeleton key, really easy quest that gives you a lock pick that never snaps and raises your kill by about 50 points in lock picking.

Completing the deadric god quests gives awesome stuff, so do them ASAP.

Jump like tigger from whinnie the pooh, it helps a bunch. You can also leve yourself swimming into a wall for hours so you can run faster, which is great for getting around 'cos sometimes it can be a real chore.

I remember my 300 hour save game on that, was the leader of every faction.

 

[chaos order]

try a norde heavy armor spell sword born under the ritual u get a decent daily heal and a minor heal so u can heal on the fly and not burn through ur potions really quickly early on.
thats what i did and now i dont even fight anymore just sneak attack one guy and use the staff of worms on him.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Just run around spamming every minor skill in the game for hours at a time, that should keep you levelled up to the enemies.

Really Todd, what were you guys thinking with that system?

 

[Elamdri]

I try to do Oblivion legit, but I always get too frustrated and just end up giving the game the finger by making a 100% chameleon suit.

 

[ChadSexington]

There's a skooma den (crack den essentially) in Bravil. Find that, kill them, take their skooma and sell it. All up you'll get about two grand for your efforts which is good money for a low level character. Do try not to get caught though. Also if you come across a fort called Fort Wooden Hand I remember it having fantastic loot. There's about twelve Marauders, most of them spread out and couple of chests near the boss which get awesome stuff at higher levels.

Also I found the game easiest with a light armour/blade character with high speed and acrobatics, most characters are slow and if you have a few damage reflecting items you'll be fine.

 

[8bitlove2a03]

Why do I keep seeing people telling this kid to level up as fast as possible by doing things like spamming arena matches, spamming alchemy as a main skill, etc? You people are going to get him so underpowered he won't be able to survive to level 20.

OP, you need to remember that all of your attributes are based on how many times their skills level up individually before you level the character up. If you spammed alchemy for all ten of your major skill increases you'll be able to get +5 to Intelligence on level up, but none of the other attributes will have bonuses. That's because you didn't level any other skills.

Here's my advice to you: make a custom class, specialize it in combat, then make all of your major skills magics. This way you can be a warrior who gets the skill-leveling boost from specializing in combat as well as a host of base spells from each school, but since you'll be using your minor skills instead of your major skills for combat you won't need to worry about the leveling too fast and becoming underpowered. Wearing heavy armor all the time will bring your Endurance up, swords or maces will bring your Strength up, and using alchemy to level up your character will bring up your Intelligence.

Speaking of alchemy, it is the second best way to raise wealth. Take anything that isn't nailed down, steal as much as your karma will allow for without becoming hated, and use every ingredient you find to make potions and poisons. Except mandrake root. That cures diseases just by eating it, so don't waste it. You'll thank me when you're at the very bottom of a dungeon and suddenly contract porphyric hemophilia.

 

[Elamdri]

Granted it IS my first Elder Scrolls game, but I'm level 4 now. Just got suspended from the mage's guild for stealing from a member entirely on accident, and playing at 50% difficulty I'm dying more times and ways than I care to count.

Seriously, I wish I was recording this shit so you could all have a great laugh.

If you're serious about playing Oblivion, you should read this

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Efficient_Leveling

It's a good guide. Mind you, it's kinda...tedious. Just a warning. I keep a notepad by me when I play Oblivion so I can track my skills.

 

[newwiseman]

Just be a warrior and put a paralysis effect on a sword. Cheapest way to breeze the game there is. Once you've explored around and found some stuff start over.

Magic is overrated, because you never have enough mana, and unless you install some custom patches archery without max sneak in insane and enemies will rush your ass before you can get a second shot off. The hardest part of being a warrior is getting used to how close you have to be to your target before an attack will land. Then again I always play first person.

I dicked around in Morrowind, my first tes game, not doing anything, just killing whoever I could for about a week before I started over and actually did quests.

Did the same thing to get used to oblivion and was much better off for it. The biggest benefit was it kept me from running to gamefaqs when I got lost.

I can't wait for Skyrim.

 

[Mackinator]

Don't worry, when Skyrim comes you'll enjoy it so much more, because everyone will be at your level and no one will laugh at your misery

Just turn difficulty down if you're really having trouble

 

[Anti-Robot Man]

Alchemy at high levels is game breakingly good. If you've levelled it up a bit you can go into any shop/inn that sells produce, mix up some restore fatigue potions and sell them straight back. Poisons demolish a lot of enemies (to the point that I stopped using them after a while as it just seemed unfair) and with a decent number of health potions/ones that cure status ailments you are very difficult to kill (and the ones you mix yourself become lighter than the defaults).

I remember the enemy levelling got the better of me for a little while. I was kicking ass, then I hit a new level and ran into a mountain lion which put me to shame - remember if necessary you can run away, though you might run into something worse. Persevere though and by the time you've accumalated high-level quest rewards you're unstoppable. My main character is practically unkillable, though certain enemies like boss-level Goblins have huge health pools so they still take a while to kill.

 

[slavec]

Well, since you are a mage, I would advise to casting low level charm spells until you can buy the invisibility spell. It lets you skip all the tedious and boring combat and allows you to enjoy all the exploration, looting and stealing.

Oh, and ignore the main quest and the oblivion gates for as long as possible. The guild quests are way more fun.

And pick up the wizards fury spell and the skeleton key, they make the game so much easier.

 

[Cridhe]

Maybe I just made a suck character for the game. I'm pretty much starting to find myself leveling up "prematurely" and not being able to kill a damn thing!

What kind of character did you guys play/have the most fun playing? Race/Skills and whatnot?

 

[electric_warrior]

Yeah, turn it down, there's no shame in playing it on less than 50%. Its just more fun on 35% or so.

 

[ryo02]

I turned the difficulty down and enjoyed the exploration may aswell not have been any enemies still loved it.

 

[razing32]

Well , being a mage at first is hard in any RPG (from what I've experienced). Start out as a fighter or at least try using melee or bows at first. Later when you're more comfortable try using spells.
I turned the difficulty down when in Planes of Oblivion to about 20% - some of those mages and demons were just impossible. The alchemy was also a pain to figure out - but hey the world was huge , open and full of neat stuff.

 

[Mooshi-Q]

Never get kicked out of the Mages guild as the mission to rejoin is a pain in the arse.

Hell yeah it is. I did the same thing as the OP and accidentally swiped something from one of the guild halls. I remember having to hunt down extremely rare herbs from all parts of the world. Playing a fantasy adventure game but have to run around the wilderness and pick flowers. ...wait, or was that to cure vampirism? Yeah, have fun when you eventually catch vampire disease. That's a whole nother batch of suck.

 

[Lullabye]

Granted it IS my first Elder Scrolls game, but I'm level 4 now. Just got suspended from the mage's guild for stealing from a member entirely on accident, and playing at 50% difficulty I'm dying more times and ways than I care to count.

Seriously, I wish I was recording this shit so you could all have a great laugh.

I found starting in the arena made a good way to start the game. gave you combat experience, decent amounts of money, and decent equipment to start off.
Luckily I made all my spells that I needed before i got kicked out of the mages guild. That guild is sooo not worth it.....until it teaches you how to make black soul gems.....

 

[TheMagicIndian]

As was said earlier, alchemy is game-breaking at the high levels and high grade equipment. Just to give you an example:

My highest level character I play with on max difficulty and I can still "1-shot" most enemies with just 1 poison vial and an arrow. Some are immune to poison, like atronachs and undead, but most enemies will just wither away from a good poison. And that's just for offense.

The good health potions will completely restore your health after about oh....10 seconds or so of ticking away (depending on your endurance when you started) and will keep ticking away for 32 seconds, iirc. Fatigue potions will keep you topped off and last about a 50 seconds, iirc. Shield potions will max your armor out even if you aren't wearing any.

Never set your alchemy as a main skill if you intend to use it for real and not just as a leveling aid. It's easy as hell to get to 100 with and once you get enough levels, just go around looking for the best tools in stores and mage dungeons. It'll take a while, depending on how lucky you are with the drops but just save right before entering the dungeon and keep reloading until you get the tool you want. Took me about an hour of reloads to get a grandmaster retort out of a boss chest but it's worth it.

Good luck and have fun.

 

[distended]

Granted it IS my first Elder Scrolls game, but I'm level 4 now. Just got suspended from the mage's guild for stealing from a member entirely on accident, and playing at 50% difficulty I'm dying more times and ways than I care to count.

Seriously, I wish I was recording this shit so you could all have a great laugh.

Set all your major skills to be skills that you rarely use. The only challenge left after that is seeing if you can play through the whole game without quitting from boredom.

The same thing happened to me regarding the mage's guild. After hunting around for the requisite herbs to regain admission for about 10 minutes I decided reverting to a save from 3 hours ago would be faster/more fun.

 

[Twad]

Granted it IS my first Elder Scrolls game, but I'm level 4 now. Just got suspended from the mage's guild for stealing from a member entirely on accident, and playing at 50% difficulty I'm dying more times and ways than I care to count.

Seriously, I wish I was recording this shit so you could all have a great laugh.

Oh im not suprised. The design for the player's power progression is seriously broken.

You want to powergame? Check "majors as minors builds" on the net. Avoid leveling up until you can maximise your stat bonuses. make sure to get endurance maxed out as soon as possible (wayyy more HP in the long run). ALso, magic is the most powerfull, usefull and omnipotent thing in the game.

For magic you only need mana as a ressource, access to the mage guild to craft your own spells.. everything else isnt needed (but mana potions).
Lockpick? There is a spell for that (plus its soooo easy to beat manually once you know the trick: listen!)
Charm person/socialise? Cheap and easy with the right spell.
Barter ? Same. Charm them.
Stealth? Invisibility, chameleon and the 100% chameleon trick.
Easy kill? Paralyse 1 sec on touch. They fall, they get back up.. during that time you can hit them 4-5 times. Or just stack magic vulnerability/elemental vulnerability + elemental damage in a single spell and see the ennemies BURN.
Melee weapon? Conjuration. Also your own private army.
Ranged? Your spells are way better than any bow (shock damage work best, its faster and few resist it) plus you can add any effect on your spell for all and any situation, unlimited uses.
Equipment progression? Just upgrade your spells as you level up. If im not mistaken its pretty much linked to your skills, not your character level, so at very low level you can nuke away if you got the mana for it.
Armor? There is a spell for that.. and you just need to re-cast it, no need for repairs.
Need healing? A 1hp/sec (for 120 sec) spell is much cheaper than a 120 hp in a second. Mostly same result.
Need a XYZ skill for a while? Jsut craft/buy the appropriate "fortify X" spell. 1 Sec duration is usually enough (most, if not all menus pause the game, 1 second when paused is more than enough)

I like playing rogues/thieves (with as little magic as i can) in general.. but in oblivion it just doesnt work at all once you get past level 15-20 in "normal" gameplay. Monsters are too strong, your stuff is too weak and cant scratch them. you are also completely dependant on physical gear (wich is tied to your character level). All defeated ennemies look like pincushions at this point, or takes ages to kill. Not fun at all.
The Stealth damage advantage is moot when even a maxed out ranged/melee sneak attack with magic+poison on a sleeping ennemy doesnt even do significant damage anymore.