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Hi, so I completed 157 quests in Oblivion (including all the guilds and the main quest) in 255 game days and now I would like to start over with a new character that will give me more hours of gameplay. This is my first RPG so I am not familiar with leveling up and what skills to pick and why, etc.

My wood elf is at level 36 with master skills at Athletics, Security, Sneak and light armor, expert at Armorer and Marksmanship, journeyman in Alchemy. In the minor skills the only Journeyman levels are Blade and Acrobatics all else is novice or apprentice. Did I rely too heavily on my major skills?

It seems I have chosen the skill set that I use all the time and have leveled quickly because of that. My question is: should I select skills that I never used at all the first time through, like Alteration, Mysticism, Conjuration, Illusion, Blunt, heavy armor, hand to hand to be my major skills so that I level up rarely and max out the minor skills quickly to become a formidable character but at a lower level?

I guess when I started out, I thought that leveling up was a desirable thing. Like the higher the level the better off you are, but the fact that enemies level with you seems to throw that out the window.

Sorry if this is obvious to you all but I have played mostly first person shooters for most of my gaming life.

Welcome to RPG's...

Well, Dowaco, welcome to "our world" or RPG's heh heh... Even though you may have already noticed SOME of this, but for the stuff you didn't think about, and for others that read this forum, I hope this helps. For this to be your first RPG, personally, I'd have to say you made an interesting, yet Very good choice. The game is extremmmmely diverse, and you can just about go anywhere, and do anything inside it. You can play the good or bad hero, make any kind of character (that the game allows of course), and whichever route you take, you'll get through it with much satisfaction. One of the great things about this game, factly, is that when you start off, you only choose your race, and appearence. Your job, sign, major/minor skills, and other stuff comes later. It's TOTALLY up to you which TYPE of character you want to make, and with the "Tutorial" in the beginning of the game, it allows you to "dabble" with different skills, etc. Heck, it even *suggests* a premade character type for cryin' out loud! Also, you can decide which type of "predator" you want to be; be it a Ranged or Melee fighter, or one of the more "magical" arts. I, myself, have tried out at least 12 different types of characters, each with thier own special and specific abilities. It just adds up to what works for YOU, and what YOU think will be more of a challenge. For instance, try a Nord Ranger, that specializes in at least Two different magic schools. heh heh.... Well I hope this helps someone out there, and kinda answered your question. hope I didn't get too "long winded", coming from this old fart gamer heh heh... Good luck, and happy hunting!

It's true that it's best not to take to many skills amongst your major skills that make you level up to quickly, but you still need some skills at a certain level to survive your first few encounters.

My advise is: take one melee skill (blade, blunt or unarmed) and one armor skill (light or heavy) as major, just to be sure you have some fighting capability.

Athletics is a very bad skill to take as major skill (since you're using it the whole time and thus it makes you level up far too quickly). Others to avoid are Sneak, Acrobatics, Mercantile and Speechcraft. Though you have more control over them, you will still be using them a bit too much if you want to avoid leveling too quick. And if you're a inveterate potion maker as I am, it's best to leave alchemy as a minor skill too (at a fairly low level it was already my best skill, even when starting out as a minor skill).

I have to say that this is particular to Oblivion though, and one of the clear disadvantages of the game.

[QUOTE=Dowaco] Hi, so I completed 157 quests in Oblivion (including all the guilds and the main quest) in 255 game days and now I would like to start over with a new character that will give me more hours of gameplay. This is my first RPG so I am not familiar with leveling up and what skills to pick and why, etc.

My wood elf is at level 36 with master skills at Athletics, Security, Sneak and light armor, expert at Armorer and Marksmanship, journeyman in Alchemy. In the minor skills the only Journeyman levels are Blade and Acrobatics all else is novice or apprentice. Did I rely too heavily on my major skills?

It seems I have chosen the skill set that I use all the time and have leveled quickly because of that. [/quote]

Considering the amount of stuff you have done, I don't think you leveled particularly fast.


[QUOTE=Dowaco]My question is: should I select skills that I never used at all the first time through, like Alteration, Mysticism, Conjuration, Illusion, Blunt, heavy armor, hand to hand to be my major skills so that I level up rarely and max out the minor skills quickly to become a formidable character but at a lower level? [/quote]

I don't think you need to do that unless you particularly want to. You have obviously got the hang of the game, and seem to have been playing it well.
I once decided to try keeping my main skills as minor - but I got VERY fed up with taking so long to level! You don't find good stuff for AGES, which is infuriating. I ditched that game quite soon.

[QUOTE=Dowaco]I guess when I started out, I thought that leveling up was a desirable thing. Like the higher the level the better off you are, but the fact that enemies level with you seems to throw that out the window.[/quote]

Not ALL enemies level with you. Only top-level enemies in any type. Like Goblin Shaman or Warlords; or critters like Xivilai ot Dremora Valkynaz. But a Rat is just a Rat, and a Clannfear is always just a Clannfear...


[QUOTE=Dowaco]Sorry if this is obvious to you all but I have played mostly first person shooters for most of my gaming life.[/QUOTE]

Shooters... tsk tsk!

Play about with character building. Do whatever takes your fancy. But Sneak is ALWAYS a good skill!

I am personally playing almost exactly the opposite of your character... but I did choose my major skills to correspond to the ones I wanted to role-play just like you.

There is nothing wrong with going down this route... don't let the auto-leveling take away from your Role-Playing. If you want to be an orc with a hammer and big-ass armor... then make one! And don't worry about whether you are creating the "optimal" character.

I think one thing people lose sight of is that you can always adjust the difficulty... I have personally notched mine down a bit as I get higher and higher in my levels (it just started taking to long to get anything done... even as a beatass fighter I had to stand around healing myself after killing _one_ guy). There's nothing wrong with that!

For me, this is a _Role-Playing_ game... meaning that I pick a character and an alignment and try to play out my actions as if I am that person... sometimes that means making less optimal decisions (such as throwing away a _really_ awesome axe because my character is a weapons snob and only uses swords... or not wearing a helmet because my character is claustrophobic ;-)

Be what you want... do what you want... and don't worry about anything else! That's what single-player RPG's are all about!

Friedmud

i am a level 30 something nord warrior and want to achieve top skills in all major and minor skills (not so bothered with magic apart from destruction and restoration).. after achieving expert/master in all major skills (stats like heavy armour 100 (major skill), blade 100 (major skill) etc i switched to light armour , blunt, other minor skills and am now slowly (but surely building these up and am nearly expert in these now .. apart from magic which i dont really use). just stopped sleeping to level up until you have built up minor skills to a decent level.

does anyone feel its cheating to not sleep and level up (i dont mess with the difficulty slant leave it bang in the middle). have not really touched the main quest yet but stopped levelling up as thought the main quest would become unfairly hard? just enjoying exploring locations at the mo.. i could prob sleep and level up by about 10 levels in a row now i think but dont want to make the difficulty impossible?