Oblivion, how is it even playable???

[SantoUno]

Now before you are mislead by the title, let me state that this is not to bash Oblivion in any way, I freaking love it, I bought it along with MW 2, GTA IV, and The Orange Box, and yet for the past week I've been mostly playing Oblivion like 3-6 hours a day. However I really need to speak out on this grave problem that ruined my first time playing Oblivion back then when I had it on the PS3, and right now it is starting to fuck me over again.

Of course I'm talking about the unbalanced leveling system. Back then I was playing a mage class and got it up to lv 22, and what I did was level up every chance I got, and later I found out that this levels up the enemies you encounter, and this is what fucked me over. Despite being lv 22 I got my ass kicked by every enemy I met in caves and ruins.

Later on I expressed this problem in some thread involving Oblivion asking how to get started. Many people pointed out that you must level hold for a while and let bonus points build up so your main attributes gain more points when you level up.

Ok then I thought, this time for my first profile I made this past saturday I was an Orc who specialized in blunt weapons and heavy armor, pretty damn simple right? Well the major skills I picked were Blunt, Armorer, Block, Mercantile, Athletics, Heavy Armor, and Speechcraft, and my birthsign was the Warrior. After doing a couple quests for the Fighters Guild and following the main storyline for a bit I remained at level 1, and everything was going smoothly. Eventually I leveled up to 2, and nothing really changed. I actually killed many rats and wolves quite easily, so everything was just fine. I stayed at level 2 for a long time and everything stayed safe. Eventually I felt that I finally needed to level up some more, I couldn't keep playing at level 2 only, and I read that the higher your level the better things you find in caves and other places, you could potentially earn more gold. Ok so yesterday I finaly went up 2 levels to level 4. I thought to myself "Nothing is going to change dramatically from just two levels right?"

WRONG. The first quest I did at level 4 was for the Fighters Guild to take the Guildmaster's son to a cave and find out what happened to a fellow Fighters guild member. And OMFG the new enemies I immediately encountered were those swamp trolls and big ogres, they fucking ganged up on us in twos and gave us a hard time. Later on in the cave even minotaurs joined in. The trolls weren't that hard but the damn ogres kept killing me. I was shocked over how gaining just two fucking levels changed the bestiary this much.

But it just got worse. The imps now cast deadly lightning bolts and fireballs that dealt massive damage at me and forced me to use up lots of healing potions. However the thing that truly frustrated me was that while I was traveling somewhere with my horse a minotaur came out of nowhere and ambushed us. It wasn't a big problem, but what truly fucked me over is that all of a sudden out of nowhere a fucking unicorn came out. A UNICORN!!!! That stupid thing led my horse away and later killed it. Next thing that happened the unicorn started chasing me down to kill me, and apparently blunt attacks had no effect on it, so I had no choice but to fireball it, but the thing had MASSIVE health. And to truly put me in hell I encountered some imps that were near caves I found kept hitting me with spells WHILE I was running for my life away from the unicorn. I nearly died. I had to use up all my healing items and get the unicorn stuck in a elven ruin entrance to finally lose the damn thing.

So yeah, I went through hell and barely survived. But I still ended up getting my ass kicked. Before I leveled up to 4 I could kill those damn camp thieves who attack you on sight when you approach their camp with ease, but then once I encountered some more those fuckers dealt lots of damage to me, and every time I tried attacking them I kept getting staggered and blocked. I got angry, how can a strength-based character like me be getting staggered by these stupid enemies!?

Enough rambling, I'll show my current stats just so you wonder if I am underpowered or something.

STR: 66
INT: 30
WILL: 50
AGL: 37
SPD: 30
END: 72
PER: 34
LCK: 50

Armorer: 45
Athletics: 46
Block: 45
Blunt: 57
Heavy Armor: 55
Mercantile: 35
Speechcraft: 28

So my question is, how the hell is this game even playable then if this can happen? I just leveled up twice and the game is already becoming too diffucult, what will happen if I level up some more? For those who have played this game and mastered it, did this happen to you?? Were you ever aware this could happen? How do you enjoy the game and avoid this? I would really like some opinions or explanations because now I'm not sure if I can keep enjoying Oblivion if this is going to continue occuring every time I make a new character.

EDIT: For those asking, I'm playing it on the 360.

 

[Citrus]

Turn down the difficulty.

 

[Jekken6]

If you're playing on PC, you should look for mods that change what you don't like.

 

[Andantil]

two things:
1. Oblivion on the console is terrible. Mods are the game's lifeblood, PC version is essential.
2. There is a difficulty slider, you know. At lowest setting, the game is a curbstomp battle in your favor, at the highest it's suicidal.

 

[Herb sewell]

I used it to my advantage by making all the tagged skills stuff I never used so I barely ever leveled yet became a god of destruction against all the level one mooks pitted against me

 

[Superhyperactiveman]

Seriously dude, Oblivion has a difficulty slider. You probably have it too far towards the right, which is basically a suicide hotline. Tune it down and you're be fine...

 

[ma55ter_fett]

I don't know what to say, I only ever played as a warrior in Oblivian so the only advice I can offer is to put loads of points in END, STR, heavy armor, some type of weapon, and swig down health pots like they are liquid crack.

 

[VicunaBlue]

hit `

then type in some of the following: "advlevel", modpca strength 45" or any othe attribute, or "advskill lightarmor 33" or something. this is a last resort, just try turning down the difficulty.

 

[geldonyetich]

Speaking an Oblivion modder, I'm not real impressed with what passes for Bethesda RPG game balance. The appeal of the game is really more about the immersion than the gameplay mechanic.

There's actually only one unicorn [http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Unicorn] in the game in the middle of a special minotaur grove. So it's not really a normal balance situation.

 

[Pimppeter2]

It has a freaking difficulty slider! Its not that hard to do!

Do it one of two ways.

Start it on hard, and progress to easy if you want to end up with an immortal badass

Start on easy and progress to hard, if you want the game to continue to rise in challenge!

Don't jump around randomly on the difficulty setting!

 

[Hayday]

I played it on the hardest difficulty, it wasn't that hard to get down, but I played a melee-caster hybrid so maybe that was why I was OP. Also I hope the next Elder Scrolls doesn't have so much redundant places (i.e. Oblivion Gates).

 

[Hiram88]

1. Don't just hack away. This will make the imps, minotaurs, and ogres see that you are a noob, and they WILL destroy your face.

2. Always have at least to of everything. two different weapons, two armors, and two potions. Always.

3 Hammers are your friends.

4. Really, a fucking unicorn? You're a pussy, dude

5. Play this game with companions. Get someone to follow you around. They make the game that much easier.

6. Turn down the damn difficulty slider!

 

[Shru1kan]

Turn down the difficulty.

This. There's no such thing as trying to be macho on a single player only game.

Granted, on my PC I managed to live through the game on OOO and Very Hard difficulty... but that was back after playing the blasted game for a couple years straight.

Oblivion is like a drug to some, and a repellent to the others. Either love it or hate it. Hope you don't go the way of me, or by what I gather, pimppeter2.

 

[Cain_Zeros]

Yeah, like everyone else said, the difficulty slider is your friend.

 

[ottenni]

Yeah you got really unlucky with the unicorn. The damn thing is part of a Daedric quest. You have to kill it and not be killed by the 4 or 5 minotaurs that are guarding it. Might i suggest going to the arena to level up and get some gold.

 

[theultimateend]

two things:
1. Oblivion on the console is terrible. Mods are the game's lifeblood, PC version is essential.
2. There is a difficulty slider, you know. At lowest setting, the game is a curbstomp battle in your favor, at the highest it's suicidal.

Yeah mods are the difference between me giving Oblivion a 3 or 4 out of 10 and me giving it a 6 or 7.

If you could mod it without making it unstable I'd give it a 9 or 10.

 

[SantoUno]

Turn down the difficulty.

two things:
1. Oblivion on the console is terrible. Mods are the game's lifeblood, PC version is essential.
2. There is a difficulty slider, you know. At lowest setting, the game is a curbstomp battle in your favor, at the highest it's suicidal.

Seriously dude, Oblivion has a difficulty slider. You probably have it too far towards the right, which is basically a suicide hotline. Tune it down and you're be fine...

It has a freaking difficulty slider! Its not that hard to do!

Do it one of two ways.

Start it on hard, and progress to easy if you want to end up with an immortal badass

Start on easy and progress to hard, if you want the game to continue to rise in challenge!

Don't jump around randomly on the difficulty setting!

1. Don't just hack away. This will make the imps, minotaurs, and ogres see that you are a noob, and they WILL destroy your face.

2. Always have at least to of everything. two different weapons, two armors, and two potions. Always.

3 Hammers are your friends.

4. Really, a fucking unicorn? You're a pussy, dude

5. Play this game with companions. Get someone to follow you around. They make the game that much easier.

6. Turn down the damn difficulty slider!

Ok, let me say this: The damn thing is int he fucking middle, default, medium. Are you seriously saying it needs to be lower in order to make the game easier to play?

You all seem to be missing the point, I'm not complaining about difficulty, I'm trying to ask people how do they manage to properly play the game without their character becoming too underpowered when compared to the enemies.

 

[thiosk]

Oblivion has a FAMOUSLY broken leveling system.

Which can be fixed to whatever system you like by modding--er oops!

PS3

sorry about that.

 

[Grimheart]

I accidentaly found that Unicorn and started riding it around for the longest of times. Until i got attacked by a bear. after the Unicorn owned the bear it started attacking me for some stupid reason. My stats were pretty high so i was able to kill the thing without using too many potions. I took the unicorn horn from it and kept it in my inventory. I haven't had trouble with the game and i'm level 24. Just make sure you have the right weapon for the job. I suggest Daedric or enchanted weapons.