I am new to Oblivion. I played Morrowind several times over the years (since 2001) dumping over 500 hours total into it. Love that game!

So I finally got around to having enough time to play Oblivion.

I started the way I played Morrowind (Im playing a Dark Elf... wonder why hehe).... I am specializing with sneaking and bow and arrow. I am level 8 (About 12 hours in). The problem is, the game is sooooooooooooo freaking hard now... and after reading some posts it looks like I messed up by leveling too fast? Who had the bright idea of making it so that you can mess up the game by playing it?

Every time Ive been getting +2 or +3 to my skills. Ive been putting points into my primary skills. Right now a lot of things 1 or 2 shot me.. for example the ghosts on the boat in Anvil for the globe quest... I had to use a pathing exploit where they cant pass through a door to kill them. It takes 40+ arrows (im not exaggerating at all) to kill them using silver bow and silver arrows. How do I make it so that if I sneak up to someone and 1 shot them, or at worst 2 shot them with an arrow... i mean if someone snuck up on someone else in real life.. it will not take more than an arrow or 2 to take them down.... Even if these ghosts see me I should be able to 3-4 shot them...

So thats the main problem...

Another problem I have is... I need to get my Mysticism up... but every spell i can buy requires it to be at 25 already... im at 10... how do I raise it? Seems like a chicken and an egg problem.

And another problem is that... since I specialize in sneaking and bow/arrow.. i need to know if the person ahead is an enemy or friendly... is there any way to do that without revealing myself, coming up to them and seeing if they attack me or not?

edit - I have GOTY version on 360.. so it has Knights of the Nine and Shivering Isles too...

+2 or +3 to your attributes should do you well enough to get by on levels. I recommend using Cyrodiil's resources available at your disposal like buying, making, and carrying health potions. Poisons should help out with your archery (maybe Captain Archer A.K.A. Acadian can give you more details with poisons) and if your sneak is no yet at 50+, try sneaking barefoot. It might be cheap, but if your character's on the verge of death, try jumping on to a rock or high place out of the reach of your enemy.

For mysticism, try the Minor Life Detection spell. You should be able to buy the spell in the IC Market District I believe (Mystic Emporium or Edgar's Discount Spells).

A telekinesis spell can help you identify people from the distance the spell is rated for. You don't even need to cast the spell, although the name of the enemy will only pop up at very brief intervals while pointing your crosshair at them.

2 and 3 is about average for level ups, maybe you need to power level armorer or block to get more health during level ups. Also whats your actual archery skill? At level 8 i imagine its around 50ish or higher?

And the difficulty slider, you probably want to lower it if your playing an archer character, not alot, but maybe a few notches, that way your stealth shots will actually kill things

I really want to avoid lowering difficulty...

My archery and sneak are around 50...

Question.... is 100 the cap for skills? If I got to 50 so fast.. once i get 100... is that it? IM basically doing max damage Ill ever do?

Lower it to easy (difficulty slider) until you feel like you've got to grasps with the game. I played the game for 200 hours before I set it to medium because I had so much fun with the game.

A decent poison on a stealth archery shot, at normal difficulty, will generally take down an enemy that's not immune to poison. A good bow will do more damage, and an enchanted bow is even better, of course. Remember that Argonians and most undead are immune to poison.

My archer-type characters usually gravitate to a shock-enchanted bow. Very few enemies are immune to shock. You'll find enchanted bows in loot occasionally, or enemies equipped with them. Always check dropped bows and other weapons after you kill their previous owners.

so is there no way to re-balance the difficulty? Like by not leveling or something?

I agree with this. I always feel like messing with the diff slider is akin to cheating. Even though it's a single-player game, with nobody around to judge me, it still feels like a cheaty move. My games are always at default (OB or Skyrim).

You've got a lot of questions here, and I'm only gonna answer the first one, in a roundabout way. Since you're on 360, if you ever make another character, make sure to put Major skills that aren't going to be used very often. Or set Major skills that level up more slowly. Either of these moves will create a game in which you can just play it, without worrying about all the numbers so much.

Marksmanship, Restoration, and Acrobatics level up very slowly, for instance. Most of the magic skills, on the other hand, level up super-quick. Alchemy is also one which levels up really fast, assuming you get in the habit of making dozens of useless potions over and over.

that will actually work, although i don't see how thats anybetter than changing the difficulty slider. 100 is the skill cap, but your agility figures into a small part of archery damage. The game isn't really balanced for a sneak-thief, i'd turn the difficulty down just a smidge, but its your call

Yes, 100 is the cap for simply leveling attributes and skills. However you can still use a fortify spell to artificially increase them temporarily or use enchantments for constant effect while equipped.

As mentioned, use all resources you can, potions, poisons, enchantments, spells, etc. Don't forget to keep your gear in tip top shape since it can degrade with use in Oblivion.
If you increase your endurance attribute, you will gain more health per level up.

But if I dont level on purpose... once all of my major skills are at 100.. there will be no way to level any further? And the gear and drops are all level based? So I could be stuck at like level 10 maxed out and never see better loot?

no? You'll still be able to level up you'll just have to sleep alot to get all of them in, and you won't get any attribute points except for the first level up, not reccomended.

jesus.. who came up with this system? Did they not stop and look at it and then exclaim "THIS IS TERRIBLE!" at any point during the development process.