Race: Argonian
Birthsign: Theif
Main: Magic
Agility and Intelligence

Majors:

Marksman
Sneak
Alchemy
Light Armor
Conjuration
Destruction
Blade (idk if I should keep blade or replace it with Armorer, Restoration, Mysticism, or illusion >.>)

I was wondering if this would be a viable character in Oblivion?

This character would complete all the guilds.

Any advice on majors? I took sneak instead of illusion because im not using 100% chameleon, that ruins the fun. For my last skill, I still am undecided. Blade would be good if I failed to kill them from a distance, but I might be fine with touch spells and summons? Armorer to repair my weapons/armor? Restoration to heal myself when needed? IDK about mysticism, but I can see how it would help. Im not taking alteration because lockpicking is so easy. illusion can also have some uses (as stated b4 I am not using chameleon) Or should I be thinking of something along the lines of athletics for increased moving speed?

Any advice is welcome!

Do you play vanilla or modded.

If playing vanilla, i would advise agains sneak and alchemy because you may level too fast this way.

Modded it is ok when you use something like nGcd.

IMO, Illusion is a must have. It is a very powerful school that most discard as useless because they think of one spell, chameleon. You do not HAVE to use that spell. I have two characters who rely heavily on illusion and neither one of them have a chameleon spell or variation to their name. Don't even have invisiblity come to think of it.

Your build seems viable to me as is though. In the end, you gotta go with what works for you.

I have been thinking of replacing alchemy with illusion, as alchemy is one of the fastest lvling skills in the game, and I fear I might lvl too fast. I know paralyze is a very good plus to illusion (but I kinda forgot what else u can do with it x_x) Either illusion or mysticism, but I dont think this build needs mysticism (only thing I can think of is soul trap)

Im thinking about picking armorer as my last skill so I can get a head start on it (I can repair my own enchanted gear later on with it) and it wont level too fast, it also is govern by endurance.

Actually any character is viable in Oblivion, including http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1115805-completely-random-character/page__hl__random%20characters one. I'm playing one now, and enjoying it immensely.

Alchemy to me is a role-playing element. Either you prefer to mix, cook, distill, aerate, boil, grind and crush... Whatever... or use magic tomes, scrolls, and incantations to achieve the same effect (mostly). It's simply a matter of how you wish to role-play the game and not dissect game mechanics, or fret about leveling too fast.

Now having said that, I like your build. Stick with blade (or some melee weapon, as it will never fail you when properly maintained) for those unavoidable pinches you will always seem to be caught in. I agree with Ouija as well about Illusion. Drop destruction and add that.


My two pence anyways.

Arcadian, paging Arcadian to Oblivion General.

You beat me to it :glare:

I is confused XD

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/user/419154-acadian/ is a member of the forums and contributes greatly to others with RPG advice.

The Fox and The Count are only obfuscating. Kinda like that salted mystery meat you find in a can.

As a marksman, I never put sneak into my majors. In fact, now that I think of it, not for any characters except thieves. Sneak levels up very fast for me, as I have marksman as a major anyway on all my characters. I sneak in every hole in the ground I explore, and it just levels super fast for me. Only reason I bring it up is because you have Marksman and Sneak, both contributing to the Agility school, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but one you might have to control a bit, to avoid leveling very fast.

I agree with a blade as backup. While my mage certainly can take down several enemies with a bow, before they close to melee range, and can deal massive damage with his spells, he always finds himself in situations where he needs to keep attackers at bay, and swinging a huge claymore around my head gives them pause as they consider this new scary threat.

I even spelt his name wrong, sorry Acadian!
Echoing what Miles said:
Acadian rp's a mystic archer and offers brilliant advice surrounding role play questions or this style of character.

I second the thought about Sneak. If you sneak through the whole tutorial, you're probably close to (or above) Apprentice anyway. I once tried to see how high I could get skills in the tutorial, without being totally disgusted by the grinding. By the time I got Block, Acrobatics, Athletics, Light Armor, and Restoration to all over 25, I had gotten Sneak to 100!

I would never make Sneak a major, unless I was trying to gimp a build.

I can definatly see what you guys are talking about with sneak being easy to lvl up, I forgot you can just sneak anywhere and you will gain exp x_x

And in tight situations touch/paralyze skills will help me survive, would that not be enough?

Welcome to the forums! :icecream:

Argonian (like any race) will work fine. Choose based on looks and image.

Birthsign. You suggest thief - that is a fine choice. For an archer who uses magic, you might consider the mage birthsign IF you are comfortable leveling up your attributes with reasonable effectiveness.

Major skills? Marksman of course. The rest depend on how fast you want to level and how high you want to level. Some archers limit their characters to 30 or below - there is nothing beyond 30 except enemies with more hitpoints. If you take 2 or 3 majors you will never use, you can limit your char to around 30 if you like. Lots of variables in choosing majors. However you build though, I would suggest that your primary killing skill (marksman in this case) go up by at least 3 skill increases for each level that your character increases. This will help your bow keep up with your foes as you both level up. Your character will probably want to use alchemy and sneak alot - they can level very very fast and leave your bow behind if you do so. That is why many archers leave them as minors. My archer relies heavily on illusion, so she keeps that as a minor for the same reason.

As far as roleplaying, you might think about all those guilds. Sure you can do some wild mental gymnastics to justify one character doing every guild, but how realistic is it? Your call - just a thought though. Good luck!

It's more than enough. There are many ways you could get out of that situation, just using illusion.

Good information you gave there !

The only guild im kinda iffy on joining is the fighters guild. The mage guild for making my spells of course and DB/Theif guild for the stealth. And yeah, im making alchemy and sneak minors because of insanely easy leveling. I wont use illusion THAT much, so it will be one of my majors.

Also, do you think I need blade as a major skill?

My archer won't touch any weapon except a bow. Mostly she kills with bow and illusion. It makes you work and be creative. Backing up with a blade is easier and simpler. The only downside to using a blade is exactly that - you use it which slows down your bow leveling. If you use bow and blade both, be very diligent to ensure that both level up nicely.

Illusion as a back up doesn't have quite the conflict. You immobilize with illusion, then kill with bow. 90% of my girl's kills are by bow.

Bow + blade is simpler and safer. If you are going to use blade, it makes a fine major skill and doesn't level up too fast - especially if you try to kill everything you can with your bow.
Bow + magic is more complex and more challenging.
Depends what you want.

Well what I was planning on doing is using my bow for far away, and if/when they get close paralyze them or use a touch skill to finish them off.

Why not just use your bow? Shoot at long range. If they get close, immobilize them (paralize, command, etc), then open fire at close range. Works fine.

The only time I use actual direct damage spells (usually absorb health) is on a touch spell for underwater combat. Block with bow and cast touch spell to kill. If not underwater, use that bow.

Lol. I 'm not trying to tell you how to do it; only that you can do it if you want.

Yes I will do that, but sometimes blasting the enemy with a big spell is just so satisfying

So I know for sure I am getting Marksman, Destruction, illusion, Conjuration, and Light Armor for my majors. For the last 2 I am trying to decide. I was thinking about armoror/mysticism/athletics, but im not totally sure if those would be of any use to me

It all depends on how fast you want to level. If you use Illusion and Command/Frenzy appropriately with a little Conjuration, it doesn't really matter how fast you level or how tough the enemies are because, by and large you don't fight them, they just fight each other. You will need to make good spells like the ones in my signature. However, if you wan't to actually be good at melee then you might want to adjust your major skills accordingly. For instance, armorer as a minor skill can be trained every level and get to 50 very fast, but if you put it as a major it will level you very fast which isn't so good for you.

If you want a more powerful melee character per level leave Illusion and Conjuration as minors and just get low level spells from those schools and cast them a lot when appropriate. If you want a character based on roleplay, then they are fine as major skills. Another idea is to just maybe take one. So for what you are wanting to do a build like this would work very well.

Sign Mage
Spec. Magic

Acrobatics- controllable for the most part.
Blade
Destruction- slow and you don't even have to use it, but can for those 'big spells'
Marksman- slow
Restoration- slow
Speechcraft- very controllable just a slot

In the last slot you could put a lot of stuff. Athletics is not controllable, but pretty slow as is Mercantile. Block is a possibility but not necessary. H2H or Blunt can be good, again just as filler, but with the drawback that you can't just them to increase strength as minors, but you don't need to worry a whole lot about strength. But hey, like I said if you make good spells it doesn't matter one iota what your major skills are.....

Blocking with a bow?! Not good for roleplaying =P

Armorer might be nice as a major. If you repair diligently both your and your opponent's armor, after he's dead of course, you will find that it will help with your Endurance, and ultimately how much more health you get when you level up.

It most certainly is.

If the only weapon you will touch is a bow, what would you do if an enemy is in your face while you are casting a spell to immobilize it so you can resume bow firing?

She has a spell to reinforce her bow when she raises it to block so that the staff of the weapon does not get broken or cracked.

She doesn't block with it often, but when she needs to, it can save her life.

I will most likely take armorer as one of my major skills. Armorer for me has never leveled super fast, it is usually actually quite slow TBH. I have had armorer as a minor skill before, and it svcked. I just fell so far behind and I had to pay lot and lots of gold at the stores to repair my armor (more so enchanted armor), so I think it would be good.

I dont need blade/h2h/blunt because I already have illusion/destruction/conjuration, which will help me with any situation I will run into. When you paralyze/immobilize the enemy, there is no need for those skills.

As you gain athletics by just running places (IIRC) I dont think that would be a good major, as it would randomly level. Acrobatics levels when swimming and jumping (iirc >.>), so that might not be so bad. Mysticism I can see it having its uses, and I dont really see it leveling that quickly, so I am also considering that.