Hi, there! I've had the game since Saturday, and have played around with one character (a high elf, apprentice healer), but I'd like to start over now with a character I know I can build up well.

In your opinions, what are the strongest race/birthsign/class combinations? Which is best for melee, and which for magic? Which will level up well without causing problems?

Probably the strongest melee race would be an Orc Warrior, but I think Redguard is in general considered the best allround warrior race of them all. So if you want a clean and easy/good build, here are some suggestions:

Warrior:

Race: Redguard
Class: Warrior
Birthsign: The Warrior


Mage:

Race: Breton/Altmer
Class: The Mage
Birthsign: The Mage

Altmer has the most magicka of all races, but are weak to elemental attacks. Bretons have slightly less magicka (but more than the other races) and do not have the elemental weakness. Both things can be adjusted with enchantments/spells/potions, though.

(Those build are only simple suggestions, of course. There are tons of ways to do this).

Good suggestions . . . is the difference between male/female anything to be concerned about, or is it negligible?

There are some differences in start stats, but in my opinion, they aren't big enough to not choose a particular gender if you want to. You can have a look here to read up on the various differences: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Races

Well for the strongest characters it is acutally better to have some of you oft used skills as minors, and never have all three of an important attributes skills as majors, like HA, Block, and Armorer. So generally Warrior preset class is pretty bad, and most people stay away of preset classes, though some of them are quite good if you know how to play.

Breton's have more advantages than the other races, and are, frankly, unbalanced to the uber side. So for a new player they can be good. Here is what I suggest for you.

Breton. - males have higher starting str and end, but it is up to you.
Sign. Warrior/Mage Spec Combat

Athletics
Blade or Blunt
Block
Destruction
Heavy Armor
Marksman- isn't really needed much, but there are some enemies that just stand off and shoot at you so it easy to shoot back and dodge.
Restoration

the rest of the magic skills you can raise easily as minors just by casting low level versions of spells over and over.

This is an all around or hybrid character, if you focus on just a few majors to raise it first, by this I mean you can not use a bow, destruction spells, or heavy armor, and slow those skills down, and focus on say Blade and Restoration, which will slow your leveling and make it primarily based on those two skills and some Block. At the same time you can focus on Conjuration, Alchemy, Alteration, etc...

Okay, some tips on playing this character... train Armorer evey level, it will go up fast, increase your endurance that way so you should get + on End ea level. You can also sneak around with a bow if you like to get a feel for stealth play. Sneak is a minor but will go up pretty fast if you sneak around a lot of enemies. So you can experiement with dif aspects of play and all are tied to your character's persona, becasuse it has all three types (Combat/Stealth/Magic) in majors.

Race: Bosmer.
Class: Assassin.
BS: Thief.

Bump up Sneak fast and its a pretty good combo to learn the game on imo.

The strongest character arguement is all very subjective. The best is a pure mage since once you get into the AU and master destruction you can kill almost anything in the game with two spells. But having that kind of character gets no fun after a while. You could really make whatever you want and use items to get 101% Reflect Damage, 100% Resist Magic and 100% Resist Poison/Disease/Paralysis but that's no fun.

I always go with a Breton spellsword type character which works great for me but it all depends on what style of play you like.

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1117992-zakarius-svedlins-guide-to-character-creation/

I'm not saying that all other character types svck haha, I don't play pure mage because its no fun. I'm saying Mage's have the ability to kill someone in the shortest amount of time and have a lot of other stuff to aid them in staying alive. You are right you can play any type of character and do well. I recommend against the pure mage with two spell kill classes because its no fun and can get old after a while and as previously stated you can get screwed against Xivlai and Liches because you need both spells to work to kill them and Liches and Xivlai have chances of resisting the spells and usually you only have enough magicka in the bank for those 2 spells and then some.

A helpful read, thanks!

Ya I skimmed through it and its pretty good. Acrobatics isn't useless though because at 50 you get my favorite perk in the game..........

I didnt say useless, I said you can easily do without it. Security however I do feel is useless.

Ya but the mini game is pretty fun and its helpful when you don't have a high alteration. I always use it though even as a minor because its so much fun when you get to 50.....

Okay, how off the mark is this? Still trying to find the right balance. How can I improve him?

Name/Class: _______ / Ex-conRace/Gender: Nord / MaleBirthsign: The ThiefSpecialization: CombatAttributes: Speed, EnduranceMajor Skills: Destruction, Illusion, Mercantile, Light Armor,   Blunt, Block, ArmorerHealth/Magicka/Fatigue: 110/60/185Max Level: 50Encumbrance: 250Abilities:  - Frost Damage (daily: 50 pt. Touch)  - Shield (daily: 30 pt. Self for 1 min.)  - Resist Frost (constant: 50 pt. Self)Stats:  INTELLIGENCE-30: Alchemy-5, Mysticism-5, Conjuration-5  WILLPOWER-30: Destruction-25, Alteration-5, Restoration-10  PERSONALITY-30: Illusion-25, Mercantile-25, Speechcraft-5  AGILITY-50: Security-5, Sneak-5, Marksman-5  SPEED-55: Athletics-10, Acrobatics-5, Light Armor-25  STRENGTH-50: Blunt-40, Blade-20, Hand to Hand-10  ENDURANCE-55: Block-35, Armorer-35, Heavy Armor-20  LUCK-60

Sounds good to me, I would take Mercantile off as a main skill, its pretty useless once you up high in level and you can't really control it unless you plan on not making money.

How about sneak, instead? I'm just worried, since I tend to use sneak a lot, that it'll level up too quickly. That's a concern, right?

You can just put one of the magic skills up there or blade/hand to hand if you don't plan on using it. There's nothing that says you must use all 7 major skills in your play.

This is a strong build but it won't be love at first sight. Bretons start out annoyingly weak in combat attributes and skills (minor correcton to above: male Bretons start with 40 STR and 30 SPD. Females start with 30 STR and 40 SPD. Both start with 30 Endurance.) Either way you start with low endurance and low agility, which makes you easily staggered in combat. Female Breton with Warrior sign is a decent compromise and will leave you with plenty of magicka if you're not planning to use destruction spells early. Choosing End and Luck as favored attributes also helps.

There is no natural method of game play that will get you good strength raises unless you really enjoy making a hobby of punching out mudcrabs and rats or summoned skeletons.

Mara

Hmm . . .

Name/Class: Benedikt the Drunk / Ex-ConRace/Gender: Nord / MaleBirthsign: The ThiefSpecialization: CombatAttributes: Endurance, LuckMajor Skills: Destruction, Restoration, Light Armor, Blunt,   Hand to Hand, Block, ArmorerHealth/Magicka/Fatigue: 110/60/185Max Level: 49Encumbrance: 250Abilities:  - Frost Damage (daily: 50 pt. Touch)  - Shield (daily: 30 pt. Self for 1 min.)  - Resist Frost (constant: 50 pt. Self)Stats:  INTELLIGENCE-30: Alchemy-5, Mysticism-5, Conjuration-5  WILLPOWER-30: Destruction-25, Alteration-5, Restoration-30  PERSONALITY-30: Illusion-5, Mercantile-5, Speechcraft-5  AGILITY-50: Security-5, Sneak-5, Marksman-5  SPEED-50: Athletics-10, Acrobatics-5, Light Armor-25  STRENGTH-50: Blunt-40, Blade-20, Hand to Hand-30  ENDURANCE-55: Block-35, Armorer-35, Heavy Armor-20  LUCK-65

Also, do you think Nord is the right choice here?

Sounds good to me. Not sure about race wise, I always go with Bretons no matter what so I'm not the best advice giver on race choices.

Actually, I should have phrased my question differently - I didn't mean strong as in literally high in strength, but just a solid, good character with balanced leveling.

I always do the stupid ways of like punching people continously and letting rats attack me so I'm not the best advice giver. I would just make sure you keep track of your skill increases if you want to make sure you get the best bonuses. Or install mods if you are on PC.

At higher levels, the strongest character in the game is by far a Mage, preferrably Breton, as Altmers are more vulnerable to magic. Bretons have a 50% magic resistance, which helps quite a bit.

Sign: the Mage, or possibly the Atronach, but that removes the magicka regeneration.

Major skills, suggestions:

Destruction (trust me, you'll kill anything)
Illusion
Restoration
Alteration
Conjuration (if you want, it helps a lot to summon daedra on high lvls)
Mysticism (again, if you want. it's good for soul trapping)
Blade/Block/Light armor/Armorer

I wouldn't put Alchemy, it levels very fast and you'll encounter the lvling problem in no time.

Keep track how? Sorry for all the questions, I'm still learning. Hence the "novice" tag on the forum.

If you want 5/5/1 or 5/5/5 bonuses make sure before you get your 10th major that you have 10 skill increases in skills related to the attribute you want the bonuses in.
Check out http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Leveling