is it true?

[galraen]

I just downloaded a simple mod which makes skills increase 5x slower (which means I level once for every 5 levels in vanilla oblivion). This gives me a chance to catch-up with the baddies. I get the proper spells, enchantments and equipment when I actually need them and I can actually keep up with the critters and the higher levels aren't quite as difficult. This is especially useful for magical skills, but it takes damn forever to level up combat skills. But that's fine.

The best mod for leveling reward items and spells is theis one. When you reach the appropriate level it upgrades reward items (vanilla game items only). This also works on Sigil Stones, but not if they've been used (use a stone to give a sword +5 fire damage, and it'll always be +5).

This is especially useful for magical skills, but it takes damn forever to level up combat skills.

That sentence completely baffles me. Magical skills are overbalanced in the players favour, assuming they are major skills at start, which of course they should be if you're a mage type character. I once thought the opposite and gave out bad advice on the subject, if you were mislead by me on the subject in the past I apologise profusely.

[sirgalahad1313]

i play with the difficulty slider smack dab in the middle of the scale and try as much as possible to get as close to the 15 skill pts per lvl as i can though a few lvls i got 6 from bad timing(4getting to lvl with 9 class pts in majors((1short of lvling))just as i enter an oblivion gate and lvling after my 1st scampy lol).
at lvl 21 i'm fighting the nastiest of the nasty oblivion critters like storm atronachs, xivilai(sp?), daedroth & those ever annoying daedra spider biatches. just did a fort last night with goblins and wow! they were a hard bunch, especially 3 at a time lol ouch. but i made it. point is, with good gear, lots of healing(potions or spells) i find the game VERY challenging at this point, but not impossible. haven't died .....yet.
if i had to do it all over though, the only thing i'd change is doing more oblivion gates at lower lvl. i had a lot less trouble with flame atronachs, scampies and the clanfear runts at lvl 10 than i do now with the high lvl baddies. fyi i also use a full set of glass armor for those who think that stuff stinks, i'm doing just fine with it.
and as mentioned previously by others, bandit loot is very nice at this lvl though i don't need the cash at this point anymore. i own all houses in game so all the cash i get is for enchantments or the occasional alchy ingredient. have 140k cash and at least that much in weaps/armor sitting in chests all over cyrodiil, so i finally went and d-loaded a manequin mod to display all that nice armor rather than letting it sit in chests.

[Pbbruce]

spoiler maybe

Don't let the enemy leveling thing scare you. it's not that bad, correct me if i'm wrong but an ogre is still an ogre and doesn't level. only humanoids actually level up, daedra don't actually level, but stronger ones show up instead of easier ones. same thing with animals ( bears instead of rats). i'm a level 20 now, finished fighters and mage quests halfway through main quest. don't get me wrong Kvatch was tough but not impossible. the worst part was about level 16-17 when i couldn't find any glass armor, didn't have soul trap, and hadn't enchanted anything yet. the things i've done to help with this is:
get azuras star and several items to soul trap
get good armor and weapons(i mostly use goldbrand and a bow i've enchanted with 5 dam x 3 sec for frost, fire, and shock with 3 sec soultrap)
enchant armor with fortify ability, etc. ( i use strength to carry loot, right now i can carry 715 lbs)
use sneak to maximize damage
attack from long range whenever possible
don't be afraid to run if neccasary

[Fljotsdale]

Hard? Sure, leveling up makes your enemies tougher! Why not? But if you use a bit of common sense in improving your character's attributes, and selecting major skills, it's a piece of cake!
If you choose damn-fool things as your major skills - like alchemy, speechcraft, athletics, mercantile, illusion, etc, then your enemies will wipe the floor with you. In fact you may not make it past level 2.

You should choose major skills that will build up your strength and endurance, regardless of whether you are a fighter, a mage or a stealth class. Useful skills for STR and END are: any weapon, armourer. The rest are up to class type.

It is very helpful, too, to have decent armour. Personally, as early as possible I do the Main Quest so as to get sigil stones to enchant clothing with protective enchantments such as Fire Shield, Frost Shield, Shock Shield, and plain Shield. Use a shirt and pants and shoes. You can't get gloves, so you are stuck with gauntlets, but you can use an enchanted hood (I always enchant hoods with Nighteye) instead of a helmet. And rings and necklets are handy, too. And so are enchanted weapons.

Oblivion is a pretty easy game when you know how.