So, I am still fairly nub at Oblivion, having started playing fairly recently. The character I am playing now is a character I LIKE, but I am unsure about her effectiveness considering the need to meta-game your character build for level-scaling of enemies.

Firstly, a break down of my character as she stands now

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Female Redguard
Warrior birthsign
Level 9

Stats

STR 71
INT 40
WIL 36
AGI 40
SPD 40
END 85
PER 40
LCK 50

Major Skills

Armorer 41
Athletics 47
Block 38
Blunt 55
Heavy Armor 58
Alchemy 34
Restoration 38

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As she stands right now, making this character took me four tries of working characters to level 3-4 then deleting them before I got a combo I like. I chose to only use Blunt as a Major skill because it seemed pointless to have Blade along with it since I cant use both, chose Heavy Armor since I planned to wear Heavy armor, Block because I wanted to use a shield/1 hand, Athletics to help me run faster, and armoror alchemy and resto for sustain in dungeons.

My problem is that after playing up to level 9, I only just now found out about the need to metagame; if you don't use attribute-correlated skills ENOUIGH prior to each level-up, you may not get enough points to put into that atribute and, over time, get out-scaled by the enemies. I chose my Major skills based on the premise of "choose skills I will use regularly and that define who my character is (a tanky paladin concept)", but now I am worried I may have screwed myself on metagaming.

Some questions:

1. I tend to get 2-3 points per level on my attributes. Is this sufficient or is it mandatory that I focus my skill use to get 4-5 per level in primary attributes? Is getting only 2-3 points per level hurting me a lot on my STR and END needs?

2. I think one of the wikis said the max each attribute can be is 100 (not considering augmentation from spells gear and enchantments). If each attribute can only be raised to 100 points through leveling up, what can I do once my Endurance gets maxed in 5 levels or so?

3. A question about weapons. Currently using 1-handed maces and shields. 2-handed weapons only give 1 point more damage while costing me 9 armor from my shields. Am I reading it right to interpret this as a bad trade to lose 9 armor while gaining 1 damage?

Thanks for your time.

I would probably left Alchemy and Heavy Armor as minors (and possibly Block).

I normally try to spread out my Majors:

Mysticism (telekinesis/soul trap/detect life)

Alteration (Shield/water breathing/feather)

Restoration

Athletics (unless you are running everywhere it won't level very fast)

Acrobatics (you don't do a lot of jumping do you?)

Blunt

Armorer (the faster to 50 the better, to repair enchanted items)

Wearing Heavy Armor will take damage which will increase the stats for it, use your shield to block rats will increase your block, that will give you 4-5 for endurance.

The only thing that should really level you would be your blunt which means you should get 5s in Strength.

Just my 2 cents worth.

BTW, here is a site to help in creating a character: http://www.linklost.com/occ/

I do run everywhere. I hate walking. XD

1. You can get 100's in all attributes when you are finished maxing your character's levels. This takes some planning and requires a conscious choice on your part, but is not necessary. Any character is playable.

2. Maxing all of your attributes will give you a "perfect" character, but is not a requirement. After you max Endurance, your character will get 10 extra health points with each level up.

3. Larger double handed weapons have a greater chance to stagger your opponent. A staggered opponent doesn't strike back.

Your character is fine. I wouldn't change anything. I would make some general "rules" about skill use, to prevent any imbalance issues...

Only use Alchemy to make the potions and poisons you will actually use. Don't spam it to make potions to sell, because it will make you level too fast. Do it that way, and Alchemy as a Major is fine.

Don't run unless your character has a good reason to be running. This will prevent Athletics from rising too fast.

You might consider pay-training Armorer until it reaches 50. This will push you up a level or two, but then you will be able to repair enchanted gear. It's not necessary to do so, but you will be using enchanted stuff, and it's a pain to have something broken when you're in the middle of nowhere, and no smith in sight to fix it. (And Armorer contributes to Endurance, which will add to your Health.)

On your questions:

1. 3 points should be fine, as long as the attribute is high enough anyway. You have very good Strength and Endurance, the two areas that might be a problem for a warrior type, so I wouldn't worry about getting high level-up multipliers.

2. It's a good thing to max Endurance as early as possible, because that maximizes your potential Health level. The higher your Health, the more pounding you can take in combat.

3. There's a lot of confusion about 1-handed vs. 2-handed weapons. I'd say that a lot of people have it backwards. A 2-handed weapon in Oblivion is best suited to the quick, agile, lightly armored fighter, who can take advantage of its superior reach. That's why the game gives the big 2-handers to the fur-clad bandits. 1-hand weapons tend to do more damage than 2-handers, over time, because their superior speed allows you to hit more often with them. And the Shield helps a lot, especially if you Block with it; blocking with a shield is more effective than blocking with a weapon. (Also, you don't get the big sneak-attack bonuses with a 2-hander.)

I agree with Glargg, your character is fine. You are only level 9 and you have already got your main warrior attributes of strength and endurance at 71 and 85. I'd say your attributes are doing fine for a warrior.

There is absolutely no need to resart your character or anything like that. If you enjoy your character, I'd just stick with it. When your endurance maxes out you can put points into agility (prevents stagger), intelligence (increases magicka) or Luck, any of which would be suitable for a paladin.

At some point if you feel you are getting staggered too much and want to raise your agility more than a point or two, you can do a little sneaking, athough that might be out of character for a palidin. So a better option might be to hunt deer with a bow or pay a trainer to train your character in sneak, marksman or security. But that is totally optional, since you can also raise your agility with potions and enchanted items. Since you have alchemy as a major, I'd probably solve any agility problems with potions. You only need a 50 alchemy skill to make fortify agility potions. EDIT: even better, use a fortify agility spell.

The conjuration school contains turn undead spells, which are perfect for a paladin character. I'd probably avoid the summoning of undead as a paladin. But using conjuration for turning undead can be very paladin like and will give you good intelligence attribute bonuses.

Your build looks fine and there is no need to do anything different from what you are doing. But there is no law against using minor skills, especially where they make sense for your character, like casting turn undead spells from the conjuration school.

As far as one handed vs two handed, the main advantage of two handed is reach. With a two handed weapon, it is easy to take down big strong slow opponents without ever getting hit because of their superior reach. With some speed and agility, you can minimize getting hit from faster opponents as well.

Thanks again for all the info folks. I cam into TES from Skyrim, but backtracking to Oblivions is a lot of fun. It's very classic RPG (I am even sort of hoping TES Online or even the eventual TES6 will return to the Stats system. I really like it for playstyle-customizing so far). Just asking again to clarify, but stats max at 100, yes? So when I hit 100 attribute points from level-ups, only enchanted gear and potions buff it beyond that?

Correct. You cannot increase attributes past 100 through normal leveling. However there are a few ways to permanently increase attributes beyond 100, like I would not worry about that though. 100 in any attribute is usually plenty. Increases over 100 don't always have full effect either. For instance, strength over 100 increases carrying capacity but not damage with weapons.

Also on a related topic, there is little point in fortifying skills above 100 since it has no affect at all for most skills. Only acrobatics and athletics provide additional benefit beyond 100.