oblivion character tweaking

Rhino

I'm getting this game in a few days. I've been reading a little bit about it and basically want to try and max as many skills as I can (to have a rogue like characters, lots of skills; lots of stealth).

From what I've read, you want to minimize progress in your 7 major skills so that you can maximize all your other skills and keep gaining levels? On the IRC they told me to take major skills I'll never use (and class birthsign that is anything but speed/agility), that way I'll be slow to progress and then I can maximize all my minor skills?

This guy on IRC said that if I wanted to be a stealthy character to take anything but stealth and max out my strength, heavy armor and all that stuff first. This seems counter-intuitive. but he swears that is how it's setup. He says if I just start pumping my agility and stealth skills first that I'll get stuck at level 43 and won't be able to level any more because all my major skills will be maxed. He says that if I maximize say heavy armor an blunt first that I'll be able to make it to level 58 and can pump up all my "rogue like" skills to 100 since they aren't major skills.

This setup seems kind of backwards. Is this the way it really works? I don't have the game yet.

He also said that I had to keep rolling a 5, 5 and 1 on all my skill rolls during level up.

Spoit

Really, the difficulty sliders are there for a reason, for your first time through, I wouldn't worry about it.

Gaffer

Here's a novel approach.

Play the character the way you want. If you want to rock ass with an orc warrior, do it. You can have almost journeyman skill on start with some combos. IMO once you play a bit you'll see what's fun for you, go for it. Your first toon is a great stepping stone. You'll re-reroll later with a fresh approach anyways. If you're playing PC there are some good mods/extras that people have made that might affect how you choose to play.

The idea behind neutering your early game is to increase your power without raising your level too much. Enemies and loot scale to your level. IMO, it would take longer to to get to good loot and enemies if you play your minor skills as your arsenal. Just take smart majors (I.e. blade or blunt, an armor type, athletics, armorer, block, restoration (for healing) and the game will be fun and you won't get owned either.

Ask if any of this is unclear. Oblivion is the kind of game that has alot of replayability, especially on the PC.

Edit: Spoit also nails it. If things are too hard/easy, change it up. I really don't use this feature, but it's there.

Tube

If you try and max out your character you will have zero fun. If it bothers you, get a mod that always gives you +5 modifiers because min maxing in oblivion is specifically designed to suck balls in order to stop you from doing it.

Scrublet

I notice you're worried about maxing out at level 43. When I finally started seriously attacking the main quest, I think I was in my low or mid 30s. At that point, I was ridiculously overpowered versus the things I was fighting. I had the option of running through Oblivion zones killing everything, or turning on invisibility and running to the end.

Point being, I wouldn't worry about trying to hit 40s or 50s and just have fun playing the game.

Voro

Gaffer wrote: »

The idea behind neutering your early game is to increase your power without raising your level too much. Enemies and loot scale to your level.

Yup, and this is why the Oblivion leveling systems sucks. Enemies aren't scaled to take into account levels you gain by simply making potions or repairing armor. Oh, and whenever you get a snazzy new tier of weapons and armor, the enemies will also have it. Also, listen to Tube. A +5 at level up mod alone will make the game fun and much more balanced. No need to juggle which skills you should or should not be leveling. You'll definitely want some of the heavy duty mods if you want to replay the game w/o the crappy scaling though.

FyreWulff

the enemies scale so you can have a completely open world

if they didn't do it the world would not be completely open like it is

anyway just play the game, it's pretty fun. don't worry about stats crunching

Sir Headless VII

You are talking about Efficient Leveling. Personally that doesn't sound like any fun at all but the link explains it in quite a bit of detail if that is your thing.

ben0207

Scrublet wrote: »

I notice you're worried about maxing out at level 43. When I finally started seriously attacking the main quest, I think I was in my low or mid 30s. At that point, I was ridiculously overpowered versus the things I was fighting. I had the option of running through Oblivion zones killing everything, or turning on invisibility and running to the end.

Point being, I wouldn't worry about trying to hit 40s or 50s and just have fun playing the game.

My char is a Khajjit Bowmage at about level 30, and she is essentially indestructible. When I enter Oblivion gates I walk through the lava to get where I need because my healing and buff spells take almost no mana. I can one shot anything in the game without even trying. Weapons bounce off of me, and spells just either give me mana or hurt the other guy.

And this is vanilla Oblivion on the 360, without caring about min-maxing at all throughout.

RUNN1NGMAN

There is no multiplayer in Oblivion, and the game scales to your level, so I see no reason to min/max or grind at all. Obviously, if you want to use magic, but don't level up magic, the games not going to be fun, but that's why you tag skills in the first place--so that your primary skills (stealth, magic, blades, whatever) is consistently keeping pace with your level, and therefore the enemies out in the world.

Jimmy King

Unless you really want to, don't worry about maxing EVERYTHING out, just as others have said. I beat the main quest while in my 20s and it was easy. I beat Shivering Isles at level 31 and it was stupidly easy - I only hit the final guy like 5 times, the vast majority of his damage came from hitting me and taking it back from all of my reflect damage stuff I had on. By my mid-teens I was almost never worried about dying and at level 31 I'm nearly invincible, have more potions than I know what to do with and never need to use, and have something like 170k gold and nothing to spend it on unless I really want a 5th house.

MichaelLC

Yes, if you want to squeeze every last level out of it, you want to put the skills you will be using for your char. in the Minor set, and all the skills you can control youself (Alcamy, Armorer, Speechcraft, Sneak) in the Major set. That way you can level up whenever you want vs. leveling up because you had to use your weapon.

The key is to not level up until you know you'll get to Lvl25 or so. Ie., need to get 250 points before sleeping.

Honestly, though, the beginning is easy, and really only the teenage stage is awkward (just like real life!) Once you're 20+, all the rewards and enemies are topped out.

MichaelLC

EDIT- Dbl-post: need to raise my Posting stat.

Yar

Yeah, just to echo everyone else -

IIRC you earn your minor skills much mroe slowly. Choosing majors is choosing skills that 1) will advance more quickly with practice, and 2) will determine your level. So yeah, if you want to totally max your character, you can roll it the opposite of intuition, keep your level artificially minimized, and make majors be the skills you don't want as much. Then you use your psuedo-majors merely as a means of controlling levelling and attribute gains to maximum efficiency.

This will make grinding that much more boring and time-consuming. Instead, you can play the game for a normal amount of time, advance that kind of character you want more quickly, and towards the end be total god-like anyway, regardless of the fact that you could have been twice as god-like if you really tried.

It wouldn't hurt to read up a bit on the level system so you can take advantage of some opportunities along the way to maximize it, but really, it's just not necessary. You can eventually be unreasonably powerful at any difficulty setting without even paying attention to your stats by just playing the game.