Newbie trying to play an effective pure Combat class

[Dunne92]

[NEW QUESTIONS: a) Does turning the levelling slider all the way to the left, thus making the game much much easier, negate the perceived 'need' for efficient levelling? + b) I'm really struggling to make money, which is especially annoying as I can't get the upgrades for Deepscorn Hollow. Now that all three money glitches have been fixed (as far as I know...) what tips would you guys give me for making lots of money?]



I've had Oblivion for about two years now, originally for PC (although I barely ever played; I don't think I ever even bothered going past the starting Sewer part of the questline) but now for Xbox (the PC I have now has an incompatible graphics card).

I've been playing for maybe an hour or two per day for a week now but a lot of that is spent procrastinating, so I'm only level 2. I've made myself a Redguard Combat class very similar to the Warrior class; I'm governed by Strength and Endurance, my Major skills are Acrobatics, Athletics, Blade, Block, Blunt, Heavy Armour and and Light Armour, and I was born under the sign of the Warrior. Even though I'm only level 2 I'm running around with the Blades set of armour on combined with Fin Gleam, and I'm on the step of the main quest where I need to get a Daedric artifact for Martin.

It's struck me though after glancing around at different forums that I may have been playing the game in a completely "wrong" way; as far as I can tell I'm definitely not levelling properly, and I may have gone about my Major skills all wrong. I've pretty much discarded the various guilds/side-quests and just barrelled on with the Main Quest, but I doubt this is the route to success? I'd really appreciate some advice on tactics and strategy for creating and playing a pure Combat class, without much (if any) use of magic, so if anyone would be willing to help me out here, that would be great. I'm willing to start again if I have to; I'm quite a perfectionist, so I'd like to do this as effectively as possible and not go about the game in completely the wrong way!


tl;dr - Pure combat class, how should I go about major/minor skills/the game in general (should I branch out (if so, how?) rather than just do the main quest)?

[Ragin Cajun]

I am assuming the XBox works the same as the PC from a leveling standpoint. I'm not an expert so this is based on what I've gleaned from my posts here.

All classes can melee and wield magic, you determine through your role playing style what you will/won't do. For example, my mage cannot use lockpicks (personal touch) so I rely strictly on the open lock spells I can learn as I progress. You could say limit it to healing spells for yourself or detect life maybe.

Also, leveling...lots of info on that but the rule of thumb for Oblivion seems to be set your character up to level as slowly as possible because you can outlevel the game and your character will not be able to function (happened to me) and you basically have to quit.

The rule of thumb based on my interpretation of what I've read and seen on this topic is:

Major Skills: Put seven skills you WILL NOT USE...EVER. The majors level up faster than the minors so if you will not use magic except for possibly Resto healing spells, then put Destruction, Illusion and those magic types as your major. Then have everything else in minor (yes...this sounds backwards which it is, but that's how the game operates). So you will level slower than normal but this actually helps your character stay viable and let's his skills/damage levels keep pace with his physical level. Remember, monsters and dungeons level up with you so monsters will be the same level you are.

What happened to my guy is I got to like Level 10, but my strength was not going up fast enough so while monsters were doing L10 damage to me, my damage was still equivelent to maybe L2.

[Dunne92]

I was just worried about the point you made, which was that if I carried on with 7 true 'combat' major skills, and used a combat playing style, I would quickly outlevel and run into enemies I'd be unable to kill. Do you think I'll have to remake my character or can I survive as a combat player with combat majors?

[Ragin Cajun]

I'd restart based on my limited knowledge of the game. As I was told when I had to eat my L10 guy, with the majors that "make sense" you just level too fast but your stats don't keep up with your level.

[ParanoidAndroid]

When you play combat you can choose your majors as your most used skills. As long as you level up endurance and strength every time, I don't really notice the leveling problem. If your getting to weak, the easiest fix is to enchant your gear with +strength or +endurance.

Since I play a custom tankmage class I usually start with a destruction over time spell, followed by some sword bashing. The hardest part for me was level 10-14 but after that it got pretty easy. So overleveling seems less of a problem with a combat oriented character.

[galraen]

You can play a character which looks the part you're trying to play, but you need to have some balance. The guides that Ragin Cajun layed out are sound, and following them will give you the less frustrating experience.

If you're a role player and trying to be faithful to the warrior form then you will probably avoid joining the mages guild, so that will mean not having the enchanting options friend Marvin (the ParanoidAndroid ) suggests, although that suggestion is good otherwise. You can eventually use select sigil stones for the purpose as well of course, but unless you're willing to 'cheat' by reloading from the point where you take the stone until you get what you want, it will take a long time.

What is important to do though is to make sure that you have at least one skill related to endurance, agility and strength as minor skills. This enables you to 'top up' prior to gaining a level to ensure maximum additions to those attributes.

For example, I'd suggest leaving Armourer, Light Armour and at least one weapon skill as minors. This means you can purchase 5 skill raises to help top up whichever attribute you want. In the early going I'd strongly recommend Armourer,so you can get to 50, thus enabling repair of magic items, and more importantly gaining 5 on endurance at every level up. You can also practise your minor skills, for instance if you left blunt as a minor you could don light armour and run around the coast beating up mud crabs with a mace/axe. This method is more time consuming and does require a certain amount of book keeping. Another alternative is to have all three endurance skills as majors along with 1 weapon skill you're never going to use and three others you are never going to use. That way you will only level up using endurance based skills, therefore ensuring 5 points in endurance at every level up without having to do the book keeping.

[Dunne92]

I want to make a lightly-armoured Stealth based class that attacks from the shadows using swift bladed attacks.

If I were to make such a class, with Armourer, Blade, Block, Destruction, Light Armour and Marksman as my Majors (so one Major skill of every attribute except for Personality, and two for Endurance), do you think it would be effective?

I hate trying to get my head around a) whether or not to bother trying to level efficiently at all, and if I do choose do so b) the best way to efficiently level (using most used skills as Majors/using least used skills as Majors/using one skill for every attribute as Majors)

[Ragin Cajun]

I want to make a lightly-armoured Stealth based class that attacks from the shadows using swift bladed attacks.

If I were to make such a class, with Armourer, Blade, Block, Destruction, Light Armour and Marksman as my Majors (so one Major skill of every attribute except for Personality, and two for Endurance), do you think it would be effective?

I hate trying to get my head around a) whether or not to bother trying to level efficiently at all, and if I do choose do so b) the best way to efficiently level (using most used skills as Majors/using least used skills as Majors/using one skill for every attribute as Majors)

Welcome to Oblivion.

It's definitely back***wards from what you would normally assume when putting qualities in place.

[dragon wench]

This is just one reason why I'd never play the game on console.. The PC version allows you to fix these annoyances with mods like:
[url="http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=15256"]Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul[/url]
[url="http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=13879"]Realistic Levelling[/url]

And those are just two examples, there are many more mods that address this problem and numerous others.

Honestly... if you can swing it, try to play the game on PC.. mods like the afore-mentioned make a world of difference.

[Ragin Cajun]

This is just one reason why I'd never play the game on console.. The PC version allows you to fix these annoyances with mods like:
[url="http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=15256"]Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul[/url]
[url="http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=13879"]Realistic Levelling[/url]

And those are just two examples, there are many more mods that address this problem and numerous others.

Honestly... if you can swing it, try to play the game on PC.. mods like the afore-mentioned make a world of difference.

Does that make a big difference? I haven't tried a leveling mod yet. I may start a new toon to try it out.

[dragon wench]

Does that make a big difference? I haven't tried a leveling mod yet. I may start a new toon to try it out.

It makes a *huge* difference...
I find Realistic Levelling combined with OOO makes the game much more fun in so many ways. OOO presents you with unpredictable randomness because not everything is the same level as you, some enemies are much higher level and you need to be creative to beat them (or go retreat and try again when you are stronger), while other creatures are lower level or about the same as you. Plus, OOO adds new types of enemies, factions and quests, so it's not the same old, same old all the time.
Previously I used [url="http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=oblivionmods.detail&id=268"]Francesco's Levelled Creatures and Items[/url], but I'm finding I much prefer OOO. (They are both good though, it just depends on you)

Realistic Levelling makes levelling much more natural, and you don't need to counter intuitively choose majors you have no intention of actually mastering.
Read the description at the link for more details.

[ParanoidAndroid]

If you put +3 or more in endurance every level up you don't really notice the leveling problem (for combat oriented chars). As long as you are willing to get the mage's recommendations and be able to enchant your gear spending thousands of gold. It feels really good to build your own class, level quickly and don't have to adjust the difficulty slider down. So you can manage to level without mods and have your most used skills as majors. See it as a challenge!

I also played a healer though, and that's a lot harder to level with a standard class...

Edit: I use all 3 attributes from endurance as my majors to max out endurance level up

[galraen]

I feel I should point out that OOO isn't everyone's cup of tea, definitely not mine. It doesn't fix the levelling problem, just replaces one levelling system with another, and is VERY unbalanced, especially for a starting character. If you use it expect to get trashed on a regular basis just walking down the main road between cities. I find francesco's somewhat better balanced, and still use it occasionally, I threw OOO in the bin some time ago, but even it just imposes its own levelling system over the original.

I agree that playing ion a PC is much preferable to playing on a console, and not just because of the option of all the mods that are available. You also have the console which allows you to overcome the many bugs in the game.

[Dunne92]

B-B-Bump. (Read the new questions please )

[Ragin Cajun]

Never had an issue with money although you can certainly spend it rather quickly.

One way: Any vendor, buy all the herbs they have and then convert to potions and then sell them.

Another: Join the mages guild (for example) and wipe the place out when you are inside each one (only if it shows a white hand...red hand = stealing). You can load up on books, alchemy items and those sell for good money in the early going.

Another: Dungeon Crawl. Hit random dungeons and loot everything (the NPC Partner mods work great here especially as they don't have weight limits..lol).

The money also increases as your level increases. I have started about ten characters but only one made it to like level 8 and that one had about 25k in gold.

Oh, don't buy houses if you have the KOTN expansion with all the free houses like the Wizards Tower and Deepscorn Hollow. That will save lots of money.

[xemnic]

I want to make a lightly-armoured Stealth based class that attacks from the shadows using swift bladed attacks.

If I were to make such a class, with Armourer, Blade, Block, Destruction, Light Armour and Marksman as my Majors (so one Major skill of every attribute except for Personality, and two for Endurance), do you think it would be effective?

I hate trying to get my head around a) whether or not to bother trying to level efficiently at all, and if I do choose do so b) the best way to efficiently level (using most used skills as Majors/using least used skills as Majors/using one skill for every attribute as Majors)

for your characters class, thats a good set of major skills. but you will want to have stealth as a major skill for early on in the game because apprentice level of stealth gives your sneak melee attacks a x6 bonus. mix that with an apprentice level blade skill and also make the class attributes Strength and Agility so they can boost the damage you do with blades and bows. then with the sneak attack bonus you could easily one shot people early on in the game. i also recommend making the character a khajiit and having a birthsign of the thief (with this combination of race, birthsign, and class youll exit the starting dungeon with 65 agil and 45 str)

as far as leveling, with the aformentioned set of major skills youll level just fine. every time you level add points to your class attributes (agil and str, in this case) and youll remain a good melee assassin (also if sneaking up on people becomes too difficult, the high agility will provide for high marksman damage)

something else ill suggest since your going to be a stealth based character, is replacing block with sneak and replacing destruction with alchemy (you wont really need block to much since your stealth youll rely on one shot kills, and alchemy wil serve you better then destruction so you can make poisons to add to your blade or bows) a bow with a damage health poison on it would be devestating coming from your character

hope this helps

[ParanoidAndroid]

for your characters class, thats a good set of major skills. but you will want to have stealth as a major skill for early on in the game because apprentice level of stealth gives your sneak melee attacks a x6 bonus. mix that with an apprentice level blade skill and also make the class attributes Strength and Agility so they can boost the damage you do with blades and bows. then with the sneak attack bonus you could easily one shot people early on in the game. i also recommend making the character a khajiit and having a birthsign of the thief (with this combination of race, birthsign, and class youll exit the starting dungeon with 65 agil and 45 str)

as far as leveling, with the aformentioned set of major skills youll level just fine. every time you level add points to your class attributes (agil and str, in this case) and youll remain a good melee assassin (also if sneaking up on people becomes too difficult, the high agility will provide for high marksman damage)

something else ill suggest since your going to be a stealth based character, is replacing block with sneak and replacing destruction with alchemy (you wont really need block to much since your stealth youll rely on one shot kills, and alchemy wil serve you better then destruction so you can make poisons to add to your blade or bows) a bow with a damage health poison on it would be devestating coming from your character

hope this helps

This sounds pretty good, did anyone try out a build like this?

[galraen]

Never, ever, have sneak as a major skill, that way lies rapid levelling up. Having it as a minor enables you to increase the skill as quickly as you want without the drawback of levelling up to fast. You can start improving it immediately too, head across the water from the start position, hit the road and look for a legion patrol to sneak behind, it's a little tricky t first, but by the time you boost the skill to 15 it's plain sailing. Also as the legionaire will deal with the bandists you encounter it's not a bad way of picking up cash. Eventually the legionaire may get killed too, so you can get his gear, and, if you don't mind using the console (activate it, click on horse, type setownership) you can steal his/her horse.

[xemnic]

Never, ever, have sneak as a major skill, that way lies rapid levelling up. Having it as a minor enables you to increase the skill as quickly as you want without the drawback of levelling up to fast. You can start improving it immediately too, head across the water from the start position, hit the road and look for a legion patrol to sneak behind, it's a little tricky t first, but by the time you boost the skill to 15 it's plain sailing. Also as the legionaire will deal with the bandists you encounter it's not a bad way of picking up cash. Eventually the legionaire may get killed too, so you can get his gear, and, if you don't mind using the console (activate it, click on horse, type setownership) you can steal his/her horse.

your making it sound as though having sneak as a major skill will get someone to hit level 7 within two hours of starting the game lol. having sneak as a major skill isnt that bad, plus the higher the skill is, the longer it takes to level it. as a khajiit with a class specialization in stealth and sneak as a major skill, upon exiting the sewers their sneak skill will be at 35 at the least. with a skill that high itll take quite a lot of sneaking to level it. besides, leveling isnt a bad thing.

[galraen]

Levelling too quickly is a bad thing, unless you spend a lot of time 'training' other skills to get strength and endurance up. It's skill that defines the player's power, apart from hit points, level just improves the monster's power.

Basically sneak is too important to have it as a major, far better to have skills you use a lot as a minor. Crazy? Yes it is, but sadly, badly though out game design has that effect.

If you have a stealth character who has all stealth related skills as majors, you end up with a scrawny weakling who couldn't hit his way out of a wet paper bag, and with so few hit points you have to have the difficulty set low so the mud crabs don't beat up on you. OK, a bit of an exaggeration, but not much.