Hi all - just bought and started playing ES4: Oblivion this last week, it's my first ES series game (playing on Xbox btw). I'm not new to RPG-types, have been playing the Fallout, Mass Effect, Diablo, etc series games for years. Can play shooters/similar like Assassin's Creed no prob. But this game is handing my @$$ to me! I don't know what I'm doing wrong and I'm about to give up out of frustration.

I prefer to play stealth-type/archer characters in general rather than heavy bashers or pure mages. My current character is a Dunmer, birthsign Lady, class Agent, I'm at level 8. My major skills are Illusion, Acrobatics, Marksman, Merc, Security, Sneak & Speechcraft and all are Apprentice-level except Speechcraft which is Journeyman. Athletics & Light Armor minor skills are apprentice-level, everything else is novice. Main powers are Ancestor Guardian, Flare, Soothing Touch (I have Finger of the Mountain but not high enough Magicka to use it yet).

I wear the Arena Light Raiment, use a Silver Bow/Steel Arrow for ranged, Silver Longsword/Iron Shield for close-in. I use block and sometimes throw my opponent off-balance and then counter-strike, but their blows more often get past my blocking (Block skill is at 20, Blade is 24) and if I'm cornered or trapped in a confined space, I'm dead. I try to flare them and heal myself but to use a spell you have to drop your shield and I get nailed. I lost to almost all enemies. (Have made it through 2 fights in the arena, but only by jumping up onto a ledge out of reach of their sword strikes and then picking them off with arrows/Ancestor, so more or less by cheating.) Soothing Touch seems to work on few enemies so that doesn't help me out much. Ancestor is only once per day and only for 60 seconds so that's of limited help.

For example, I cannot even beat a freaking timber wolf! I've had to abandon most quests because if it has close-quarters fighting, I cannot get past it. I quit out of The Killing Field (defeat the goblins with the brothers at the farm outside of Chorrol) because I cannot survive past the last wave of them (both brothers are dead after 2 waves and I don't beat the 3rd wave alone). Quit out of Caught in the Hunt because I cannot beat the 2nd hunter in the tunnels/maze. Quit Ghost Ship of Anvil because i cannot beat the 1st ghost. Etc etc etc. I've read all the hints/tips/wikis for fighting tactics and I thought I'm dong them all correctly but I guess not.

Do I need to kill more rats and level up that way?? Are there easy, non-combat quests i can do to get experience points and gold to buy training?? I'm at a loss. ANY help is appreciated!!

Signed, Dumb and Dunmer (haha)

Why not lower the difficulty? In the options menu?

Are you poisoning your arrows? Develop alchemy. That will help.

Both of the answers above are good. Personally, I find lowering difficulty akin to cheating (for me & my game at least) so I don't do this. Poison is a good place to start, problem is your character may not be interested in going this route.

Just so you know, Oblivion's got an odd system of Majors & Minors that causes the grief you've experienced, sensory_humoncolus. If you use all your Majors, what starts to happen is a lot of the game world around you levels upwards at an incredible pace, and you'll only be able to 'keep up' with this pace if you understand how to 'efficiently' level upwards. There are several ways to combat this problem; two of them are listed above (poison and lowering difficulty).

Me? I prefer to start characters who have Majors which are not going to be used, or which are not going to be used as frequently. I've got an archer for instance whose Majors are Marksmanship, Athletics, Acrobatics, Blade, Destruction, Heavy Armor, and Restoration. In this case, Marksmanship is used most often, but since she doesn't run 100% of the time, Athletics is used infrequently. Restoration and Acrobatics are both slow-leveling skills (she doesn't jump except when she absolutely has to, and Restoration is the slowest-leveling magic school).

In her case, Destruction, Blade, and Heavy Armor never get used. So what is happening with her is she's got only one Major which constantly gets used, 3 which are infrequently used, or level upwards slowly, and 3 which are never used. This causes the entire gameworld around her to move more slowly.

There is also what is known as 'Efficient Leveling", which means you are actively paying attention to your skill bonuses, and then trying your best to get +5 to each skill as it levels upwards. I can't help you with this sort of play, but efficient leveling is well-documented if you're interested.

Neither of those suggestions (lesser used Majors or Efficient Leveling) will help you with where you're at, unfortunately. You'll have to start all over with another character to see results here. I was just trying to explain what's happening in your game, and what can be done to avoid those issues in the future, because I also experienced those same issues 5+ years ago.

Well that's probably part of your problem. There's much better armor you could be using.


Don't feel bad, that's not an easy encounter to beat.


Likewise.

You might have to take a look at how you're levelling up. If you're not getting +5s all around you might be getting weak compared to your opponents. The Oblivion levelling system is rather screwed up that way. You might want to consider holding off on going up a level until you can get all +5s. I'd suggest you use an alternative levelling mod, but since you're on the Xbox that's not an option.

And yes, if you want to play as an Archer type, using poisons will help a lot.