Oblivion Essential Leveling a Mage

[Obliviot]

Hey guys I have been playing oblivion for years and I noticed that I have never made a successful mage character... ever. I looked up the topic and got a little confused with the essential leveling system... and it seemed to come up again, and again, and again. In all the posts I've found about essential leveling, none of them managed to explain it in a non-confusing way. So I was wondering, does anyone know a way to essential level a mage in a way that doesn't require me to take out a pen and paper to write down every skill level I raise? Even if you don't, do I have to essential level for a mage? I am sorry if this topic was already brought up.

P.S.) Galraen I am you're biggest fan cuz of all you know about oblivion and you always help in every way you can. I am truly amazed. :speech:

Thank you in advance,
ME.

[Bloodstalker]

Thread moved to proper forum.

[galraen]

I'm not sure what you mean by

the essential leveling system

, personally I've always kept a note with pen and paper of skill increases in the skills I'm trying to boost.

For a mage that would, initially, be intelligence and willpower (always keep one skill related to those two as a minor by the way, the obvious one for Intelligence is alchemy).

When it comes to enchanting apparel I tend to go heavy on luck, luck and more luck. Too difficult to raise when leveling, but so important, to anyone, but especially to a mage.

Boosting endurance is easy, but immersion breaking, simply visit bandit camps wearing heavy armour, block like crazy and bang out the resulting dents with an Armourer's hammer.

[Loki[D.d.G]]

Perhaps you should clarify what you mean by the "essential leveling system".

For a mage that would, initially, be intelligence and willpower (always keep one skill related to those two as a minor by the way, the obvious one for Intelligence is alchemy).

Intelligence is perhaps the easiest attribute to raise in the game. To make a powerful mage character, take Conjuration as a minor preferably. Seeing as you can level it up quite fast, it has the highest skill modifier among the lot, you will be casting high level summons in no time. Generally summons can help you tonnes by becoming a meatshield and drawing away enemy fire.

Another essential skill for a mage, IMHO is Illusion. Invisibility can be a real lifesaver in sticky situations. Not to mention, it is probably the most enjoyable magic school to use. With spells like Paralyze, Frenzy, Rally... the effects can be downright hilarious.

@Galraen;
Seems you have become a celebrity on these boards. Nice!

[galraen]

Mm, yeah, it is nice to be appreciated for ones attempts to be helpful, makes up for the brickbats when I'm wrong, which I am far too often, especially with BG2 for some reason.

My preferred mage build is

Destruction, Alteration, Illusion (love demoralize as well as the ones Loki mentioned), Conjuration, Restoration, Mysticism, Blunt (I have a mod which allows staves [but not the reward ones] to be blunt weapons].

Once you have your recommendations or access to Frostcrag Spire, make loads of spells Destruction, Restoration or Altration spell for purposes of which school it belongs to. Then you'll only level up using willpower related skills, there's a five point increase right there, without needing to keep count.

[Loki[D.d.G]]

I wouldn't take Conjuration as a major. It levels way too fast for my liking. But this is purely based on preference, and in this case I would prefer an endurance based skill over Conjuration. Perhaps Armorer or Heavy Armor.

[galraen]

Mix and match Loki, combine Turn Undead with fire damage and you have a destruction spell, combine summon with drain/restore health and you have a restoration spell etc.. You can then use conjuration on it's own to level whenever you want to.

I'm control freak, I like to decide my rate of progression myself.

[Loki[D.d.G]]

Mix and match Loki, combine Turn Undead with fire damage and you have a destruction spell, combine summon with drain/restore health and you have a restoration spell etc.. You can then use conjuration on it's own to level whenever you want to.

Each to his own I suppose. I tend to use Illusion to that end, as I always seem to find some use for one of its many spells. Have a fondness for Invisibility and Frenzy, as you could probably tell from my earlier post.

[Fljotsdale]

Just luuuurve Invisibility!

[galraen]

Each to his own I suppose. I tend to use Illusion to that end, as I always seem to find some use for one of its many spells. Have a fondness for Invisibility and Frenzy, as you could probably tell from my earlier post.

I use Illusion in the same way too, but invisibility I try to avoid as it's as much a game killer as chameleon. Spoiler

Spoiler

X damage on touch/target + Invis on self for Y seconds and it's game over for the monsters all the way.

End of spoiler

[Fljotsdale]

Now, I use Invisibility and Chameleon, and my Sneak skill, to AVOID killing things! I'd like to go through the whole game without killing anything/anyone at all. 'Tisn't possible, cos sometimes a quest demands killing, but if I can avoid it, I do.

[Obliviot]

Essential leveling is making sure you get +5 in each attribute you want to increase.

[Obliviot]

Essential leveling is making sure you get +5 in each attribute you want to increase.

Sorry, its efficient leveling. My mistake.

[Loki[D.d.G]]

You don't necessarily have to obtain a 5 point bonus to any of your attributes on each level up to create a good character. Of course doing so would help, as you can max out attributes much sooner. A key to remember for efficient leveling is that for every major skill increase of 10, you will gain a +5 bonus to the attribute that skill governs on level up. Which equates to 2 skill increases for every 1 point. I'm not quite sure of the exact number of minor skill levels that need to be raised in order to gain the 1 point bonus, but it isn't far off from 2.

Using a pen and paper would be useful to keep track of skill levels and the bonus they would confer upon leveling. It tends to get confusing, especially on protracted level ups.

[galraen]

The table for attribute point gain/related skill level gain is:

Skill increase/Attribute point gain
0/1
1-4/2
5-7/3
8-9/4
10/5

There is a mod out there somewhere that keeps track of skill increases between level ups, but I haven't a clue what it's called. Best place to look is here. As I mentioned before, I always use a pen and paper if I bother at all, usually I just note down current skill levels when I get the level up icon/message, then keeping track is easy.

Note that unlike Morrowind, any skill increases you get after reaching the necessary ten in majors to raise level count towards the next level-up, not the current one.

The difference is that in Morrowind once you reach the point where you can rest to level up, if you find you're short of what you need to gain +5 you can revert to the auto-save. Then go out and train or buy skill increases until you have enough for a +5. That option isn't available in Oblivion, one instance where Oblivion is actually tougher than Morrowind.

[Obliviot]

theres a console command that helps keep track too. Its something like 'showdebugtext 10' and then 'tdt'. I found this out on the elder scrolls wiki pages.

[lifeishell91]

Personally, I prefer not to do all this planning. I've found that it distracts me from actually playing the game. I downloaded two mods: one which makes skills level 4 times slower, and one which increases your magicka pool (it's up to you though) up to tenfold.

That way I can play without worry too much about my magicka and how my skills increase. I would also pick strength and endurance as favoured attributes, and then essentially forget about them for the rest of the game. I'd pick all the magic skills as major skills and just start playing, and have always enjoyed playing with this frame for characters.