GameBanshee Forums

Whats the fastest way to level and improve your skills? I'm level 8 and I finished the Dark Brotherhood Quests and thats how I got to level 8. Is there a faster way to level?

Not really. And no offense, but why would you want to level fast? The game already advances you WAY too quick to begin with, and considering that enemies will level with you, I'd think that two or three level up's for an entire faction quest line would be more than enough.

If you really want to level quickly, then you should build a custom class whose main skills are ones which tend to level quickly, or which you can raise through use quickly, like athletics, sneak, restoration, speechcraft, merchant, etc. As Siberys said, though, you really don't want to level quickly. It's really easy to level so quickly that you don't have the equipment or correct skills to deal with the environment. For example, imaging reaching level 15 only to realise that you have no way to deal with creatures that can only be harmed by magic. I lost my first character that way.

Siberys and Lemmus are giving good advice, leveling up quickly in this game is a big mistake.

If, by leveling up, you really mean powering up, then the best way to achieve that is to control you level progression. Unfortunately because of the poor game design in Oblivion, this means not making skills you use frequently major skills.

For example, if you want to make a powerful mage DON'T make destruction a major skill. Obviously as a mage you'll be using destruction spells constantly, making it a major skill means you'll level up too quickly, and the other skills and associated attributes will lag too far behind. Sure you'll be able to create good destruction spells, but not have enough intelligence, and therefore Spell Points to cast them. You'll also not have enough endurance (and therefore hit points) to be able to withstand you opponents attacks. Remember your opponents level up at the same pace that you do, but their skills and hit points are maximised across the board.

So the skills I want to focus on shouldn't be my major skills?

Precisely. You should choose as major skills ones which you can really control the levelling of, like alchemy or armourer. These skills are useful but not necessary, so you can stockpile stuff then train when you want to. This way your core skills are getting raised, but you only gain levels when you want to. Also keep in mind that you can only raise three attributes when you gain a level, so you want to plan ahead which ones you'll raise and focus on connected skills. There's no point in raising 8 different skills 5 levels, then gaining a level and realising that none of the attribute raise bonuses carry over.