Elder Scrolls: Oblivion

[cornellian]

A fighter/mage huh, best of both worlds? Restoration is a great skill, my archer was about 40 when I finished it, but the character I play now, is more like a Sorcerer of D&D, a walking artillery with little heed to self defense wearing only a simple cloak... He (Lluviar-> A high elf) is %75 through the game and I daresay, even now, he has become more powerful than my archer but is much less fun. He sure can kick some serious butt though with Destruction and Alchemy skills already at 100 and conjuration around 60.

With a custom made vulnerability to an element spell cast first (as you wisely do yourself), say vul to fire 100% for 15 secs (Lluviar's Warmest Greetings is mine's name ) , followed by a 5 sec x 75 damage custom fire damage incantation (deservingly named Lluviar's Global Warmer ); I still haven't met any creature that can still stand after I cast. That's also the reason I wondered about melee characters, you see I'm looking for a real challenge, but it seems they aren't very hard neither.

Perhaps a strict assasin RP might do, but then again oblivion isn't really suited for evil characters..

[RedViking]

I think you could have something to do as a "dark side" Character also.
You will get the not very well known (for me) Quests from the Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild. You can play as a well trained Assasin and Thief. I think that will bring the greatest Chalange because you will have problems with the Guards and Imperial Troops also.
Good thing that you can clear your name with the help of the Guild

At Restoration i am level 70 now, and is also usefull when you combine it with destruction spells : you do some damage and you absorb some life or skills
You've got some pretty powerfull spells there, i wouldn't test myself against you

I think after i am finished with all the "normal" Quests. I will give it a try with the Dark Broderhood and the Thieves also
That's a sure way to get to the

[Orfinn]

Cool what you guys have done. I have 3 other characters too, an imperial vampire assassin, one wood elf ranger/thief and a dark elf mage
And I have finished the thieves guild questline, a very rewarding way to go, but not much after you have become guildmaster and got the locked down house as hideout, your fellow thieves can neither take orders from you or recognise you as the Grey Fox. A bit boooring.

BTW I have tried to buy Heal Other spells, but where can I fiind those? Have been at the Anvil mages guild, but couldnt learn any spells like that there.
Any Idea?

[DemonHunter]

BTW I have tried to buy Heal Other spells, but where can I fiind those? Have been at the Anvil mages guild, but couldnt learn any spells like that there.
Any Idea?

you can make your own spells at the universty in the imperial city

[magritte2]

I played the game as an Imperial Agent. I used both marksman and sword and was more or less permanently in sneak mode. This sometimes caused problems as I often forgot and would pickpocket people when I intended to talk to them.

[Orfinn]

BTW I have tried to buy Heal Other spells, but where can I fiind those? Have been at the Anvil mages guild, but couldnt learn any spells like that there.
Any Idea?

you can make your own spells at the universty in the imperial city

Yeah I know that, my mistake in fact. I thought heal other was a separate spell, but realized now if I set it to "touch" instead of "self" in the university, then I can heal others Well, one more recommendation to go.....

@mag

thats a bummer, you better stop looking up on people when talking to them

And welcome to the boards

[cornellian]

Yeah I know that, my mistake in fact. I thought heal other was a separate spell, but realized now if I set it to "touch" instead of "self" in the university, then I can heal others

Not that it helps a lot.. I think NPC characters that might fight along with you have tons of HP but somehow they get extra damage from other NPCs.. A healing spell that would fully heal me in 3 castings does little to NPCs, in fact you need to cast several times to restore half the life of them.. Still, they are essential for certain quests of course..

[Ethric]

Seemed to me that "hp-bar" thing worked very sluggishly in updating often, so that it ws hard to say if the npc\horse was being properly healed or not. Might have something to do with it.

[Orfinn]

Yeah I know that, my mistake in fact. I thought heal other was a separate spell, but realized now if I set it to "touch" instead of "self" in the university, then I can heal others

Not that it helps a lot.. I think NPC characters that might fight along with you have tons of HP but somehow they get extra damage from other NPCs.. A healing spell that would fully heal me in 3 castings does little to NPCs, in fact you need to cast several times to restore half the life of them.. Still, they are essential for certain quests of course..

I'll keep that in mind. Anyway, just waiting an hour outside the danger zone, heals up allies and horses to max hp. So there may not be that useful, the healing spells.

Another thing, it seems it hard to make better spells than those you can buy. They you make either have just a few points lower damage or cost a bit more both in gold and magicka or the duration are shorter. Though I noticed this when I played with my not so magic oriented barbarian. When I was at those altars. A bit frustrating, going through all those recommendations for mostly nothing, even sigil stones can make the weapons and armors bettter than you can do with altars.

[Caradoc]

Well, I finally found a copy for $25 and (after loading Oldblivion) found that it runs pretty good. I've been through the training dungeon and pretty much know how things work, but I wonder whether I'm a horrible marksman because my Marksman skill is only 40 or because I'm doing something wrong. I've caught on to lofting the arrows, but I may lack the motor skill for drawing the bow properly. Will I get better at this or is this skill less useful than I'd hoped? Shooting Rats has been a pain since they dance around and when I raise my head to loft an arrow they come up and bite me.

Also, I put down a save before finalizing my character so any feedback at this point would be most helpful. I made a male Wood Elf special class Buccaneer (Marksman/Blades/LightArmor/Stealth/Security/Mysticism), Agility/Luck, Warrior sign (+10 Strength/Endurance). I ended up with stats all about the same, except Intelligence and Personality which are a little low. Do you foresee any problems?

So far, the game looks pretty good. There certainly are a lot of mods to try.

[Grumpy Old Wizard]

I've caught on to lofting the arrows, but I may lack the motor skill for drawing the bow properly. Will I get better at this or is this skill less useful than I'd hoped? Shooting Rats has been a pain since they dance around and when I raise my head to loft an arrow they come up and bite me.

Also, I put down a save before finalizing my character so any feedback at this point would be most helpful. I made a male Wood Elf special class Buccaneer (Marksman/Blades/LightArmor/Stealth/Security/Mysticism), Agility/Luck, Warrior sign (+10 Strength/Endurance). I ended up with stats all about the same, except Intelligence and Personality which are a little low. Do you foresee any problems?

So far, the game looks pretty good. There certainly are a lot of mods to try.

Looks pretty good Caradoc. You want dex to be high for an archer and luck helps you find better loot. Marksman combined with stealth is quite deadly. Your archer is young yet and will get much better.

I would have chosen the thief birthsign for the bonuses it gives. Here are the stats for my female Kajuit thief/archer/mage at level 13. I worked on getting her endurance up early. Her willpower is damaged, I need to get that healed.

I have increased luck every level and speed is now a priority.



GOW

[Caradoc]

I considered Thief, but I thought I really needed more Strength and Endurance. I figure at some point I'll need to do some serious fighting.

How does Luck work anyway? The manual was really vague. However, I liked the idea of being lucky, so I picked it hoping it would let me find more loot.

And will I ever need to eat and sleep? I went for two days in the dungeon and came out no worse for wear. I'm in town now but all the shops are closed so maybe I need to find an Inn.

Also, what's with all these household items I keep finding? I've a got a pitcher, a spoon, a jug, and several other seemingly useless items. They don't weigh much, but do I need to be carrying them around?

[Grumpy Old Wizard]

How does Luck work anyway? The manual was really vague. However, I liked the idea of being lucky, so I picked it hoping it would let me find more loot.

Luck makes a very big difference in the quality of loot you get.

For treasure chests on a particular dungeon level what matters is your luck when you enter the level.

If you don't mind a little bit of a cheese factor, make a spell that boosts your luck for a couple of seconds before you enter a new dungeon level and you will see a remarkable difference.

And will I ever need to eat and sleep? I went for two days in the dungeon and came out no worse for wear. I'm in town now but all the shops are closed so maybe I need to find an Inn.

The only reason you have to sleep is to gain a level when you have advanced your skills enough to level up.

Eating different things gives you different temporary boosts (or disabilities) and works towards advamcing your alchemy skill.

Also, what's with all these household items I keep finding? I've a got a pitcher, a spoon, a jug, and several other seemingly useless items. They don't weigh much, but do I need to be carrying them around?

They are useless. There is a mod that makes some of the miscellaneors items give a small bonus to a skill or attribute but I had problems with it (it may have been fixed now though) so you may want to stay clear of that. Just sell them or use them to decorate your house.

GOW

[Caradoc]

My house? The lady who sells houses won't even talk to me! I keep all my junk in a barrel outside the armor shop. Maybe I should go buy one of those fancy outfits to impress her. Or perhaps I should find a bath house.

For now, I'm trying to work a quest or two and terrorizing the denizens of the sewers. Making some money on dead rat and crab meat. I've found only one really good chest and it's too hard for me to open. I've found some doors that need keys. I'm hoping to meet a Thief down there.

Best thing that's happened to me is finding a wolf outside the town. I let him bite me a bunch of times and got some points in Light Armor. Eventually I had to kill him so I could rest.

Worst thing about playing is that everything stops when mail comes in. Heroes V and CIV have this problem too, but I don't like to disconnect.

[Lord13]

I start palying Oblivion before 1 week too. It was too expensive
for me and I grab the oportunity that a friend gave it to me for
a couple of months. It is a realy good game but I never prefered
solo RPGs from Party based. Anyway, I am already lvl22 Spellsword
and I like that the game is more difficult than Morrowind(I play it to
normal difficulty thought). The graphicks are realy good even with all
details to low(i have a poor radeon 9800, what can i do? :p). But,
somehow the atmosphere is not so good as was on Morrowind(maybe
because I prefered the "darkest" way of Dark Elven lands). Two things
thought I can't understand yet. First, why they create again a so small
map?? Sometimes they make me angry to find a place. And second I
can't understand why they change the interface, now is more complicated.
I prefered the all-in-one(invetory,stats,maps and atributes on the same screen) that Morrowind had. Anyway, is good to see a game like Oblivion
in our days because seldom you see good RPGs anymore...

[PhoenixReborn]

Can anyone here speak about the knights of the nine pack that is available in stores?

The downloadable stuff seemed like a rip-off to me but here it's all packaged together.

If this is a fun package I could put it on my christmas list. I tried looking at the elder scrolls forum but its tough to wade through the junk threads.

Basically I gave up playing Oblivion after one month of playing intensely. This might re-spark my interest.

[Ethric]

Pity, when first playing Oblivion I was as most people awed by the looks, and enjoyed the gameplay. But then one by one weird design decisions and limitations in gameplay from what I was used to in Morrowind poked through, until I went "meh" and shelved it, never to finish it. Nothing short of a total rebuild of the system would rekindle my interest in it

Much like some other game often mentioned on this board.

[PhoenixReborn]

Pity, when first playing Oblivion I was as most people awed by the looks, and enjoyed the gameplay. But then one by one weird design decisions and limitations in gameplay from what I was used to in Morrowind poked through, until I went "meh" and shelved it, never to finish it. Nothing short of a total rebuild of the system would rekindle my interest in it

Much like some other game often mentioned on this board.

Did you try OOO - Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul? It reputedly puts the Morrowind back into Oblivion. To me though the games already seem nearly identical.

[Ethric]

I looked it up, and it appears promosing. Seems to fix a good few of my gripes, maybe enough to enable me to overlook those it don't. I will give it a go I think, thanks for the tip

As for them seeming nearly ientical, I guess that depends what you otherwise compare to. Compared to say Heroes they are nearly identical, but there are several aspects between them that have changed, and not for the better in many cases.

[arturchix]

Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul is a must. I'm also using several other mods like improved UI, colored world map, illuminated cities at night, tree city of Solace, improved landscapes, natural environments and several other - the game now feels at a higher level.

BTW, after spending about 100 hours in Oblivion and 200 in Morrowind, comparing the both games I tend to think that Morrowind is still better. I mean, Oblivion has no underwater life, no flying creatures, almost no snow, problems to level up, leveled items etc.

The additional content Bethesda is providing is simply pathetic - not that it's bad but they are such minor and unimportant things and they were doing this for free when Morrowind was released. And later Bethesda developed two expansions and it doesn't look like Oblivion will have any.