CHARACTER CLASS HELP

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Sun Mar 24, 2013 3:20 pm

You can increase strength and endurance by up to 5 at every level up, you can only ever increase luck by 1, for that reason alone I go for Thief every time. Although with a mage the agility and speed are also useful as I'd never 'waste' level up points on those attributes.

If you're a fighter why worry about intelligence? The important attribute to get up early is endurance, the others can be done early, mid game or late. Max level is not worth worrying about, I've played the game since it first came out I don't know how many times, and I've never ever had a character get beyond 52nd level, there is no point; by that stage the game is long over, all quest completed, no challenge left. In fact that's true once you get beyond 30th level, the 52nd level character was my 2nd one I think, never gone beyond mid 30s since. First character finished the game at 17th level!

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 8:03 am

I've been running a character based on the suggestion I gave earlier, he's just reached level 9 and looks like this:

Name: Sam Vimes*
Race: Imperial
Class: Watchman (custom) Spec: Speed, Luck
BS: The Thief

Current Attributes:

Strength 80
Intelligence 40
Willpower 30
Agility 80
Speed 55
Endurance 80
Personality 51
Luck 55

So far all level ups except 1 have added 5 to Strength, Agility and Endurance. It was tough going at first, and couldn't be done at 2nd to 3rd as I was stuck in the Kvatch gate with no rational way back to civilisation, and trainers. So for that level up it was 5 on Endurance, 5 on Agility and 1 on luck.
Majors (current level)

Armourer (53) #
Athletics (35) - Guess who sneaks a lot!
Blade (36) - was 35 at start
Heavy Armour (69)
Restoration (31)
Light Armour (30)
Marksman (43) - would use a crossbow, but Bethesda screwed up

Other notable skills:

Block (56)
Blunt (54) - weapon I actually use Elven Axe or enchanted mace, Absorb Health 2 points for ten seconds
Hand-to-Hand 55 (hardly used it, bought skill training to 'top up' for strength)
Security (31)
Sneak (58)

* For anyone who doesn't recognise the name (shame on you

) he's a principal character in Terry Pratchett's Disc World series. I like to give characters names from fiction, occasionally history, to help e keep focussed on role-playing. Sam is an (mostly) honest copper, head of the Watch (police force) in Ankh-Morpork in fact, so no looting containers in the Imperial City for me!

# This was a mistake, really should have been Block as a major, I don't know what I was thinking, I really should have known better. If I'd red my posts elsewhere on this forum I would have known better, only, feeble, excuse is it is over a year since I played.

RVPERTVS · Post by **RVPERTVS** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 2:23 pm

Thanks again for your replies, they´re much appreciated! That character looks interesting, Im thinking about giving it a try.

BTW I´ve just started over with this new character:

RVPERTVS

Class..."WarMage1"
Race... Male Breton
Birthsign...The Warrior
Class... Custom
Specialization.... Combat
Fav. Attributes:St and End

Strength 55
Intelligence 50
Willpower 50
Agility 30
Speed 30
Endurance 45
Personality 40
Luck 50
Health 90
Magicka 150
Fatigue 180
Encumbrance 275

Leveling order intended: End, St & Sp (until 100)

Skills

Armorer 30
Blunt 30
Alteration 30
Illusion 30
Mysticism 35
Light Armor 25
Marksman 25

Athletics 10
Blade 10
Hand-to-Hand 10
Alchemy 10
Conjuration 15
Mysticism 35
Alteration 30
Destruction 5
Restoration 15
Sneak 5
Security 5
Acrobatics 5
Light Armor 25
Armorer 30
Block 10
Heavy Armor 10
Mercantile 5
Speechcraft 5

It´s basically the same type of character but with increased strength and Endurance this time. I changed the Sign (Warrior instead of Lady), Favored attributes (Endurance instead of willpower) and switched sneak for marksmanship as major. I believe this character will get more advantage of the st and end increase, giving up a little willpower at the same time, st and end are more useful for this build IMHO.

On the other hand, do you know where to find Mehrunes’ Razor DLC? I can´t find it in XLive

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 3:53 pm

Oh dear, are you playing it on the XBox? Big mistake if you have a PC you could play it on, if you don't well I guess you're stuck with an inferior game experience.

RVPERTVS · Post by **RVPERTVS** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 4:37 pm

galraen wrote:Oh dear, are you playing it on the XBox? Big mistake if you have a PC you could play it on, if you don't well I guess you're stuck with an inferior game experience.

Well, I dont want to start a flame war but, wasnt the xbox version better rated than the pc version?

Other than better graphics and the option of using the console, why do you think the console offers an inferior experience? I havent been able to find conclusive info on the web.

Personally I dont appreciate crossing my fingers hoping that the game will run fine every time I place a new DVD on the PC.

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 4:37 pm

Hehe, Galraen, that was my exact same reaction too.

As for why the PC version is superior: mods. Nothing more, nothing less.

I've heard plenty of horror stories about consoles too, about activations and red lights of doom. Give me a PC anyday, at least I have a chance on making things work myself there.

Claudius · Post by **Claudius** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 5:58 pm

You can get Oblivion without discs or codes you can get it through steam. You can still use mods.

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 8:10 pm

You can still use mods if you're playing on a PC, and yes that's the main reason the PC beats an X-box, well that and being able to use the console. Same goes for all Bethesda games for that matter.

As for difference in reviews, well a big so what, as we all know reviews are a load of BS anyway, all designed to please the games company in fear of losing advertising revenue. Any doubt about the truth of that was blown away with Gamespot Gate!

RVPERTVS · Post by **RVPERTVS** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 8:55 pm

Thank you guys!

Actually it´s pretty clear to me that the PC could provide a much better gaming experience in general. I wouldn't argue against it. The best games are relased for the PC I know, I do play wargames on the PC, it´s still the main platform for that sort of games and they don´t require much hardware, so it´s very practical.

I was referring to Oblivion in particular though, I mean: is it "that" inferior in the 360? I assumed it´s the same game, the only difference being the console, mods and better graphics. I know is a lot and changes everything etc, but restricting the issue to the "core" game, leaving all the trickery away, is it really that inferior?

I played oblivion on the PC just a couple of times some years ago so I couldn´t tell for sure, I do remember crispier graphics, but other than that I don´t recall gameplay being much superior.

Personally, at this point of my life I chose the 360 just because I got it as an unexpected Christmas present and don´t have the time to spend upgrading and tuning my PC every time a new game comes out (been there already) or to mess with mods, I barely find time to play the game, so the xbx fits my current lifestyle just fine. I know oblivion is a relatively old game, though it´s more than my current desktop PC can handle, it´s used primarily for working and net browsing.

Moreover, it´s nice to know that your game is going to work no matter what.....I remember the frustration every time I tried to run a new game and it didn´t work properly, testing and tuning was very annoying sometimes. It´s also nice to play laying down on my sofa with only a small controller to worry about, even in darkness you won´t miss no hot-key

Im not the committed gamer I used to be so for now Im leaving RPG gaming on the PC to the hardcore crowd

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 10:55 pm

The problem is the vanilla game sucked, without third party mods it isn't really worth playing IMHO.

RVPERTVS · Post by **RVPERTVS** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 11:35 pm

galraen wrote:The problem is the vanilla game sucked, without third party mods it isn't really worth playing IMHO.

Ok, fair enough

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Fri Mar 29, 2013 3:08 am

And Steam Big Screen has everything to be able to play from your sofa, on your PC.

+ What Galraen said.

RVPERTVS · Post by **RVPERTVS** » Sat Jun 15, 2013 10:46 am

Ok, so after a few months playing this game on the 360, I´ve finally purchased the PC version.

Before installing the game, I remember being told that the vanilla version isn´t really worth playing, so I wanted to ask what mods do you recommend installing? I see there are some to choose from.

Another question: at what point do you recommend completing the siege of kvatch quest? what are the advantages/disadvantages of doing this quest before or at level 5? I know that at low levels it´s easy but you get a crappy reward, doing it at high levels could be impossible, so is there any advice to achieve balance between difficulty and reward?

Thanks in advance

Claudius · Post by **Claudius** » Sat Jun 15, 2013 2:22 pm

OOO or fransesca's are good over-all overhauls
There are some mods I forgot name to make leveling not such a chore of making sure you get 5 pts in everything
race rebalancing
LAME (less annoying magic experience)
OOO comes with a lot of things.

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Sat Jun 15, 2013 2:41 pm

The Quest award levelling modtakes care of the problem about when to do quests. I've attached my update which includes Shivering Isles (I think it might include Knights of the Nine stuff and other effects too).

Other mods I wouldn't leave home without:

DLC

Frostcrag (Orrery)
Shivering Isles
Thieves Den
Knights of the Nine (depending on the nature of the PC - Obviously not appropriate for an evil character)

Kvatch rebuilt - several options depending on which DLC you might have
Heart of the Dead
Midas Spells
The Lost Spires
Set essential Actors
Adonnays Elven Weaponry
Bag of Holding
Expanded Hotkeys and Spell Delete v1.0
Grandmaster of Alchemy
HoarfrostCastle
Legendary Abilities
Mage Equipment

Then there's the overhaul Mods. You can chose between Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul and Francesco's or be really daring and try for FCOM which combines those two with Mart's Monster Overhaul; but be warned installing FCOM is not for the faint hearted. Took me several attempts to get it working.

Also there are cosmetic change mods, I don't bother with them personally, but if you search through the threads here you'll find some recommendations by Dragon Wench which covers that.

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Sat Jun 15, 2013 2:43 pm

PS I never could figure out what less annoying magic experience was about; what annoying magic experience?

Claudius · Post by **Claudius** » Sat Jun 15, 2013 3:22 pm

Galraen I don't recall what the author found annoying. There are a lot of cool changes though. Newness is always fun. The mana pool is changed along with the recharge rate a lot totally changed. There are new cool spells if you can figure out what they do. For example a wisp with can be summoned at high level conj as an alterative to starlight illusion spell or whatever. You can summon more things (more content is good) and your summons somewhat scale to your level so if you have 70 conjuration the mudcrab you summon is decent. There are constant effect spells that toggle a buff that also has a penalty. Spells have longer durations like ease of burden and shield. Drain health is nerfed and now you can only buy DH spells and can't spellmake them to gamebreaking power. The DH spells you can buy severely hit your fatigue.

The same author wrote a race rebalancing mod which I found very interesting. I could tell there was a lot of hours spent to gaming to know how to balance just right.

RVPERTVS · Post by **RVPERTVS** » Sat Jun 15, 2013 3:26 pm

Thank you guys! Very helpful advice indeed.

On my second question, about the kvatch quest, how would you complete it without mods? I mean what would be your advice if Im playing the vanilla ver? Im planning to play around with the original version for a couple of weeks before attempting any mods, just to to compare the game on both platforms and get the hold of it.

Thanks in advance

Claudius · Post by **Claudius** » Sat Jun 15, 2013 3:57 pm

Don't worry about high sigil stones. There is like infinite oblivion gates that will open. I am level 3 and planning kvatch at level 5. I think it will be a moderate challenge. I've only played the main quest part way once. All other times I just roam around. If things get too difficult to progress you can always slide the difficulty slider. Of course I hate it when I have to do that.

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Sun Jun 16, 2013 4:48 pm

Strange how some modders complain about how hard it is to play a mage, then nerf Drain Health!

Drain Health soon loses it's impact, it is powerful in the early going but by the time you're 7th level you're better off with something else.

As for Kvatch gate, as long as you've managed your levelling well it's not too tough at any level unless you're using OOO or Francescos. I can't remember playing the game with out mods, would have been when I first bought it when it came out, and can't imagine doing so again; it's such a poor game without mods why bother? Especialy if you've already suffered through the game on the Xbox.