I know nothing about how to make one but i want to make it, if anyone could take the time to give me some help with the best race and good major skills i would greatly appreciate it.
Also, i would rather have a melee build than a spellcaster build, although a mix of two i am fine with.

Glass Cannon? the [censored] is that?

Extremely damaging but very fragile, its best to avoid getting hit with them or kill enemies before they can do any damage, but i cant seem to get a good class.

I'm not sure how you would create a melee based glass cannon. If there is a way to do so I'd like to hear it.

I think the typical glass cannon is a mage or archer type of character with some serious weaknesses. I have a Dunmer Archer character who has purposely never added to endurance and doesn't wear armor. The character is really fun. Acadian is the expert on this type of build however. She could probably give you a better idea of how to build one.

I think the ultimate glass cannon mage would be an Altmer with the Apprentice Birthsign, and again not raising your Endurance. I'm trying a character like this out right now, and I'm making it even harder by purposefully avoiding any Conjuration spells. So far it's a fun character. I just blow up NPCs as fast as possible and run like hell if they are still standing after I drop the nukes.

A glass cannon can be any type of character. Just impose restrictions in how you play, or builds that will leave them vulnerable to attacks. Like wearing no armor, or never raising endurance. Magicians and archers are probably the most often used glass cannons. An Altmer mage with the Apprentice birthsign is an example. That character does not want to get hit! A two-handed melee weapon fighter can be a very challenging glass cannon. You have to use the superiour reach of your weapon to kill your foes, but not get hit in return.

Edit: Chug beat me to most of it.

If you want to be a melee glass canon I'm guessing it'd look something like this..

Alchemy, Blade, Light Armor, Illusion, Sneak, Destruction, Mysticism.

The idea is to use alchemy for major bonuses and potions and especially poison. Mysticism to soul trap and keep enchanted items recharged and destruction for weakness to poison spells. Possibly even abusing spell stacking to do insane poison damage by making several weakness to magic/weakness to poison spells. Of course illusion/Sneak to sneak attack an opponent. An assassin who only uses melee so to speak. Without block you'll be taking most of the blow. You have very little in the way of physical protection other than your light armor. You have no majors that really increase endurance so expect low hp.

Silly me, forgot to mention, im fine with archer builds aswell, and if you think they are more effective im happy to hear some.

Nah, not more effective. Just different styles. All of the above can work equally well with the right enchantments and play style. Everything can be made to work in Oblivion. So don't fret too much and just roll with a concept. See how it plays out.

With a glass cannon an archer build would definitely be easier to play, because it's a lot easier to keep your frail character out of the action and unhurt if they can attack from far away. So in that sense it is more effective, but a melee-based glass cannon would be a lot more challenging and probably more interesting too.

My glass cannon is a mystic archer. She's a Bosmer with mage birthsign. Her majors are marksman, restoration and 5 others that only exist to help her slowly advance to level 20 and no higher.

Some of her cannon comes from: A powerful and well-enchanted bow with lots of skill and agility to use it. Also: mind control spells, poisons, stealth, detect life.

Some of her glass comes from: Can't raise endurance or strength (ever). Doesn't care about armor rating - dresses only for fashion. Will touch no weapon except her bow.

Basic tactics for differing situations look like this:
-Normal: Long range poisoned sneak shot.
-Dispersed crowds: Snipe the farthest first and stay in the shadows. Repeat.
-Tight crowds: Mind control spells to get the crowd to thin itself to one. Snipe the survivor.
-Underwater: Block with bow and cast touch damage spells.
-If cornered: Block with bow and immobilize foe with a spell (command, calm, paralyze…), then open fire with bow.
-If charged: Stop the charge with an illusion spell, then open fire with bow.
-Panic button: Invisibility, slip away and reapproach for the snipe (combining a cheap summon with invisiblity spell makes this both easier and more fun).

To make a glass cannon simply don't raise endurance. This will give you a low health increase every time you level up making you easier to kill, currently I have 150 hp at level 26.
To add a disadvantage and get more magic use the Apprentice birthsign, magic does double damage and you get 100 more in magic pool.
Armor light armor or none. None work just as well as light if you avoid the enemy from hitting you.

Sneak is critical, would even consider it seriously on a pure mage glass cannon.
For blade and bow it's essential.
Now offensive, blade is always nice, 6x sneak attack or a close defence weapon depending on style, however I would say you need a ranged attack, bows are nice, fun to use and with poison a hit is kill. Bows are much easier to do sneak attack with in the beginning.

Magic: depend on play style, you can have no mage skills as major if you want one use
Destruction, if you want a spellsword type of character instead of a thief/ assassin with a bow.
Another bonus, you can use a weakness spell to boost you enchanted sword.
I would select this or archery, however Acadian uses it and archery, no right ansvers.
illusion, Frenzy is always fun, at level 50 you get chameleon and invisibility, now for full use of the frenzy, command, and turn undead spells at high level you have to play without armor, their power makes up for it, three enemies attacks you, frenzy and they attack each other, command and you have an friend as long as the spell last.
Conjuration: very useful but does not have to be as major as it level fast.
Alchemy essential if you use a bow but levels extremely fast and you want to level it to get better potions and as a money source, as a bonus you can get a +5 the first 8 levels.

Other skills; acrobatic is nice, alteration to. other as you feel for it.

I've been trying to come up with a melee glass cannon concept I would like and so far I haven't figured anything out that I think would work well.

I did consider an Altmer Apprentice with maxed out endurance and as much hit point gear as possible. Loads and loads of hit points but he'd take major damage from any spells cast at him.

/shrug... Any other Melee Glass-Cannon ideas out there?

Un-restricted glass cannon build:


Altmer
Apprentice
Stealth
Agility, Intelligence
Illusion
Sneak
Marksmen
Conjuration
Alchemy
Blade
Destruction

Two come to mind. In both cases, the idea is that armor is not necessary and you don't get hit:

1. As SubRosa mentioned, a claymore user. Use speed and range to hit while remaining unhit. Very fast and mobile style of fighting.

2. A one handed blade (no shield) user who uses sneak + poison when possible. When not possible, and someone gets in his face, immobilize them with an illusion spell, then cut them down. For ranged attackers, go invisible and race up behind them for a blade strike.

Ive been experimenting with a ranged one and ive found one that im finding really fun to use -

Wood elf
Thief birthsign
Stealth major
Luck and Agility
Illusion
Marksman
Acrobatics
Stealth
Heavy armour (to stop me leveling)
Speachcraft (spelling?) (to stop me leveling)
Mercantile (to stop me leveling)

I just use my bow and i use alchemy as a minor skill to create damage poisons and also restore health spells (i cheated a little by duplicating reagents)
I wear no armour, just enchanted - robes, hood, shoes, 2 rings and necklace (i have 2 of these with intelligent enchantments to make up for my lack of mana)
I use illusion spells to control my enemies when they get close and also to thin their ranks from afar
The acrobatics is simply to get to good vantage points where i can pick enemies off from a distance or avoid damage.

So far its been working well for me, leveling slowly (level 3 after 4 hours) and the low health hasnt affected me at all.

Melee Glass cannon...

The Build:
Imperial
Stealth
Speed, Agility
Illusion (Calm, Invisible, Paralyze, ect)
Alchemy (Poisons and steriods)
Sneak (Critical Bonuses
Conjuration (Cast a monster to shield+aid in Melee attack)
Athletics (Retreat and fatigue Boost)
Alteration (Shield Buffs)
Restoration (Healing)


Fight Progression/Strategy:

1. Poison your ax
2. Cast Invisibilty
3. Sneak up and land critical Hit + poison
4. Cast Alteration Shield
5. Cast a high endurance melee monster (a zombie for example)
6. Drink at least 3 Restore health potions
7. Paralyze
8. Slash
9. Repeat 7-8 till satisfyied.

Boils down to hitting hard, then buffing yourself and blitzing with aid. This is my best shot at how to play a Glass Melee.

The best race / birthsign that allows for the 'glass' part of the equation is Altmer / Apprentice (if Female, than both Endurance and Strength are at 30).

The build can get interesting if you develop some sort of stealthy dagger-wielding assassin: a Daedric Dagger does 19 damage and has highest speed; Daedric Claymore does 26 damage but is almost half the speed. Oh, and you cannot do the x6 Sneak multiplier with a two-hand weapon (claymore), unless you mod (but hey, you can mod for dual-wield daggers with different enchantments ).

A sneak with dagger 6 * 19 = 114, while power attack with claymore = 2,5 * 26 = 65 ( :rofl: )

If this appeals to you, I'd go like this:

Sneak, Blade, Alchemy (poisons), Illusion, Acrobatics and the other two... who knows, Armorer to keep daggers sharp? Restoration (which btw has a deadly spell effect that works only on Touch, Absorb Health, and can be use as Area of Effect for multiple 'wictims')... Maybe Mysticism to allow you to Detect Life, and not be surprised?

Hehe... NO Armour? yes - caught in the act, use Acrobatics Dodge function or invisibility / Paralyse (Illusion spells).

So... This is not exactly a cannon, but it should be thrilling to approach enemies much more powerful, in a risky situation where you either execute your strategies with precision or suffer the consequences :nuke: bliviongate:.