Elder Scrolls: Oblvion

Trip42

Finally got a PC able to play this game, and it seems huge, I'm not sure what to do. Anyone got suggestions on specific quest lines that are must do's? any don'ts? I've got this feeling that at any point I could screw myself for the rest of the game, is that true?

harvest

Do the theives guild and dark brotherhood guilds at the very least.

D.T.

One thing you really need to understand before you get too deep into the game is this:

The game difficulty ramps up as you level. This means, the higher level your character is, the stronger the enemies in the game will become. It's not exactly fairly balanced, either - in fact, in a lot of ways, the game punishes you for leveling up too much, unless you're playing one of the purely-combat-based classes, like Warrior or Knight.

There are a few instances in the game where, by design, you are stuck in seemingly insurmountable odds, with very little to defend yourself. If you've leveled too much, and your character development isn't completely focused on combat, you're going to find yourself incredibly frustrated and ready to start over.

So, your options (should you choose a class like Thief, Bard, etc.) are to either regulate your leveling (by using beds very sparsely), or to prepare yourself for a lot of trial and error in finding ways to slip out of hairy situations.

By the way, the game is still quite fun if you hold back on leveling. True, if you've been playing for twelve hours and you haven't leveled past ten, chances are you've seen virtually every type of enemy you ever will (as the game brings in new, nastier monsters as you reach later levels); however, 95% of the enjoyment I've found with this game is in exploration and committing myself to properly roleplaying the character I've made.

To those who've finished the game:

I just repurchased the game for my 360, and son of a bitch... I forgot how godamned tedious the collection tasks are for Martin to be able to open the portal to Camoran's Paradise.

harvest

You can avoid being punished for leveling up by using a mod such as KCAS, nGCD, or AF Leveling.

yalborap

There are basically three ways to play Oblivion.

-Quest junkie. You just make a character as a thing of stats with limbs, then go out and do all or most of the quests. Relatively simple, just start with the main then work your way through the secondaries while getting some sidequests.

-Dungeon crawler. Stats with limbs, dive into the caves and castles of the world for phat lutes.

-Roleplay. Devise a character with their own personality, goals, preferred methods of handling situations, etc. and play them out accordingly. This may include doing some of the quests, or dungeon-crawling, or running a successful alchemy wholesale business to the local markets.

There's nothing wrong with any of these methods, though many people find the third makes the game much more fun.

Shadowfire

As was mentioned, do the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood questlines.

BUT

Do the Fighters and Mages guilds first. They're still fun, but absolutely pale in comparison.

Fort1tude

Not leveling up makes playing a stealth based character much more fun, as ranged sneak attacks tend to 1 hit NPCs

Khavall

I like making a character with entirely controllable main stats that aren't related to what I'll be doing.

So I can always have the +5 to the stats I want when I level, and I can choose when that is.