How many players have tried Chars they would normally never play ? Personally I have always played the Tank. Heavy armor, and 2 handed weapons, and normally an Orc. But while waiting for 1.4 tp come out I decided to replay Oblivion as a Dark Elf Battle Mage Assassin.

Magic

Willpower/Intelligence

7 Major

Blade
Block
Light Armor
Sneak
Conjuration
Destruction
Restoration

So far so good, I had a bow that I had to get rid of in order to insure I use the spells. But I have been thinking about the Char and the build and I think this one is going to work well. But I am willing to revamp as well should a member who plays this type of Char tell me this build bites !!! I am still only a LVL 2.

I tried a pure Mage once. I couldn't do it. A little too far outside my comfort zone.

Thats why I am trying a battle mage. Because like you a pure mage would be to much, magika wears off and it requires running shoes. And hittin something on the run is something I have never been good at !! I am a flat footed fighter.

I also find pure mage to be outside my usual comfort zone. However, I do have a Breton mage named Raven. I enjoy following her adventures a great deal. It's been quite a while since I followed Raven's adventures, but now that I'm back to Oblivion that will change. At my core I've always been a heavy armor melee player first, and an archer second, so learning to run around in clothing rather than armor and picking spells rather than swing weapons is an adjustment for me. I'm glad this frontier still exists for me to master, because it means I still have a lot more to look forward to with this game.

As for your question about your build, I think that would be good, but I'm still coming "back up to speed" on builds in this game. I'd almost forgotten the sort of thinking that goes into Oblivion builds until I started playing again the other night. My Silver Knight, Maia, has three majors which she uses all the time: blade, heavy armor, and restoration. Her other four majors are skills she will either use much later in her career, or perhaps never. I did this to make leveling slow and deliberate. I enjoy the journey and I prefer changes in Maia's world to be slow and gradual. I also find the "some majors as minors" approach helps to remove the need for "skill-watching." Maia doesn't always get all +5's when she levels up, but close enough. She's level 11 now and her strength is 95 and her endurance is 92 and her speed is over 70. For what she does and who she is, she's growing in the right way.

So, as long as your build allows you to play in a way that works for your mage, at whatever pace you prefer, then I think it's almost impossible to have a bad build. After all, it is not a crime to nudge the difficulty slider to the left if things get dicey at certain points. I will admit that I am the sort of player that leaves the slider on default middle, but if I fell in love with a build that simply wouldn't work on default I would definitely slide it left.

I eased into playing a pure mage by first playing http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v90/subrosa_florens/oblivion/Oblivion204.jpg: a battle-conjurer. She wore armor, used a mace, conjured skeletons, and oh yes, used destruction and alteration magic. After testing the waters with her and getting used to it, I did a pure mage: with no armor, no summons to hide behind, and a dagger just for blocking with. I found that it was much easier then I expected, and I like that kind of character a great deal.

What is outside of my comfort zone is an illusionist. I tried it once, with idea of specializing in command, invisibility, frenzy, etc... I did not like it at all, because it was just too easy.

That's weird. I was pretty psyched to play a pure mage first time I tried it with high elf female Igodah Go^Pe. Although it was challenging at the beginning when her spell casting was weak, she eventually got to be too strong for any enemy she faced. After she became too strong, I could only play her game for maybe an hour or 2 at a time. Eventually I would start getting bored pwning everyone in her path.

I've always vowed I'd never try an orc or either beastfolk, but I'm getting more and more tempted to try a khajiit in Skyrim. A khajiit bandit. The idea is appealing to me.

The illusionist SubRosa mentions could be possible for me in Oblivion, but I'd never be able to pull it off in Skyrim...not playing with a dead is dead rule especially. I do wanna do a druid in Skyrim, though!

That's a good idea, and sounds somewhat similar to what DozeDog is undertaking right now. Also, I really like that picture of Saya. I look at the picture and it makes me wonder what she's thinking.

Khajiits are really fun to play. I had R'isa in Oblivion, and she was so intriguing. Very strong willed. Whether this was just her personality or the fact she was a khajiit I shall never know. She was my first dead is dead, so you can guess what happened.
I haven't tried one in Skyrim yet, but I've got a few characters on the go.

I'd never played a heavy-armour and blunt weapon specialist before- the idea of a pure close quarters combat type scared me a little. But it's turning out magnificently with http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l528/Lady-Mara-2/Skarsgard1.jpg. I haven't yet felt the urge to switch to a sword.

I can't use bows very well, so I guess that will be my next challenge when I return to Cyrodiil on a more permanent basis.

I played tanky all rounders for a long time in Oblivion, then a couple years ago tried a no-melee mystic archer stuck at base endurance. She's become a 'perma character' and I could never go back to touching things like swords and such. It is not hard to back up a bow with basically one school of magic. Illusion works great, conjuration is also excellent. Even restoration works well. Obviously, destruction could do the trick as well.

I did my Orc through Skyrim, and he slaughtered everything in his path, he did not die during the 160hrs I played him. So I did a light armored Nord assassin with a bow, and loved the sneak, and the bow, but the game isn;t working ? After 20 hrs I still had not seen a dragon. So I decided to tinker back in Oblivion with a dark Elf with magick as a primary weapon, and see if it was as fun, and if so, make a new char for Skyrim when 1.4 comes out. So far so good !!!

I've played all manner of characters. I am playing a pure mage currently, however the bonus of this character is that he is an Altmer Apprentice. So I've got serious weaknesses to overcome. If I have no elemental shields up, I'm a one-shot kill. Definitely outside my comfort zone, though one of the most exhilarating plays in recent memory.

Thats what I am talkin about !! Kinda fun !!

That's true, Big Daddy. I've never really experimented with "bad" Starsign / race / class combos, not purposely anyways. I usually go with whatever race and Starsign will suit my character best in a role play sense. I always go with custom classes, too

Oh, that's a really good one, actually! I've never, ever chosen one of Oblivion's standard classes. That would def be outside my comfort zone, since I purposely choose Majors my character isn't gonna use very often. If I were to purposely make a character who used all 7 of his or her Majors all the time (so the game levels super-quick) I'd be so far outisde my comfort zone, I'd rage-quit the game probably. :curse:

That's funny, I've been thinking the same thing. The way Khajiit are presented in Skyrim inspires a lot of roleplying ideas for me, more so than in Morrowind or Oblivion.

@Wyrd. Dude, I've go this GREAT idea for a bandit in Skyrim. He (it's gonna be a "he") will literally find some sort of roadside dwelling. Maybe a cottage or a camp. He'll murder its inhabitants, then he will do nothing for a while but just live there.

This dwelling's gonna be pretty near a road. I've noticed some of Sky's roads are busier than Cyrodiil's. So this bandit will literally just lurk behind a rock or something. He'll wait for NPC's to walk by. When a weaker NPC strolls by, the bandit will then STRIKE!

During the time he's waiting, I'm gonna just be sitting here, catching up on some reading or cruising these forums! Filling time until an NPC walks by. The bandit will occasionally go hunting, or into one of Skyrim's smaller towns to do some pickpocketing. He'll be one of my characters who probably won't do much dungeon diving (what's the point for him, if there's such easy pickin's on the roads? Lol)

I always wanted to make a bandit in Cyrodiil, but this roleplay would not work in vanillla Oblivion, simply because its roads aren't very populated. I'd wind up waiting forever before someone walks by.

I also tried playing as a bandit in Oblivion, did not work.... It did in Skyrim and it was extremely fun, my home was a abandoned shack that was out in the open (did not have a loading screen to enter), and it was near a river, kinda hidden...oh that was fun.

As for the topic, well I will always play as mages, so playing anything that gets up close and personal is WAY out of my comfort zone, Jericho was my first warrior and he stuck , I can't seem to play mages anymore! Hahah, the race that is out of my comfort zone will have to be the Altmer, Argonian and Khajiit, as much as a love those beast races playing as them feels of. As for the Altmer, they always feel so high and mighty, and well smart, and i'm not exactly the sharpest pencil

Yea, know what I mean, kp? The bandit..the traditional bandit who waits in ambush, is a much stronger roleplay in vanilla TES: V. Cool, I'm psyched others have managed this same idea.

The race outside my comfort zone (the one I'll never play) is the orc. I was against playing Argonians, too, for a long time, but I think I will someday make a lizardman in Cyrodiil one of these days after all my other ideas are long extant. This lizardman will probably dwell in IC's sewers....murdering with his bare claws, and running into the sewers to escape. Ooohhhh, such fun.

But an orc? Never ever will I play an orc. My comfort zone here goes way back to my dice and paper days, when playing an orc was something nobody did, unless he or she wanted to be riduculed and not trusted by "civilized" society.

..And yes, I know Cyrodiil's orcs are supposed to be somewhat "civilized". I've never been able to go there. Though Jericho is okay in my book.

The only thing I am totally uncomfortable with is the assassin role regardless of the character build. I've play TES since Daggerfall and expect I've had between 50 and 100 characters. Not one of them has been an assassin. Many of my Daggerfall characters antagonized the Dark Brotherhood into vendettas just to have a chance to kill one when they would send another assassin.

There is something simply too repulsive in the concept of coldly killing for money that prevents me from wanting to do it even if it means missing some part of the game. It's easy to take a life. What's hard is the long, crushing years of patience and labor to nurture a life into full blossom. When Severus Snape finished his second Arena combat, He walked out in disgust declaring that he was not a butcher. He never entered the arena again in over 700 hours of gameplay.

As far as character builds, I had never played a character as a pure mage until Angel. All her predecessors that used magic had always carried a shield, sword and often wore armor of some sort. I realize now that that was a carryover from Morrowind. I was definitely uncomfortable with Angel and for a while, I didn't expect her to survive for long. Angel has never worn armor of any kind, never carried a shield (except as loot), and only used a blade weapon to deliver her poisons and to block.

Same here. Tried it and couldn't make do without adding the use of war axes in the mix.

Ah, but it sounds like you have delved into the bounty hunter side of assassinating then; to get the wanted crooks on posters. Isn't it easier to assassinate crooks in stealth than trying to take them down face-to-face with all the collateral damage that can ensue?

The only way to get at assassins in Daggerfall was to flush them out into the open by acting as bait. As best I recall, there was never any collateral damage. The city guards would totally ignore the fighting as long as you didn't start it.

Actually, the main motivation on the part of my characters was the excellent loot assassins always carried.

I make lots of different characters for two reasons. First, I like to play out imaginary stories with strange and different people. And second (and to the topic here) I like to push myself out of whatever comfort zones I've fallen into.

So I end up with a pacifist mage who cannot bring herself to kill anything...another mage who uses only conjuration...another who can only equip items freely given to her...a Wild Elf archer who is so shy and backward that she cannot enter a city or converse with other people...my current main character, Etta, who suffers from what can only be post-traumatic stress disorder, and who is constantly at war with her own violent impulses...and a project waiting in the wings: a crazy witch named WabbaJill.

All of these characters would be so much easier to play if they weren't limited, and so much less fun.

My pure mage born under the Apprentice is way outside my comfort zone. Way outside. I am not great at aiming Destruction spells, so two imps can become a major battle. I think part of it is the specific character, too. This guy does not want to leave his books and go into some stinking ruin by himself. It does make me look for new solutions, since the battlemage and stealthy archer approaches don’t work out well for him. (Unless we’re working on his Restoration skills. )

Yes. I feel the same way about my character. He does a lot of studies at the U, including advanced studies at guild halls. And going down a hole in the ground is the last thing he wants to do. At least for the first 14 levels or so. He's just finally got the confidence up now at level 18 to freely dungeon dive. And definitely a change in tactics. I've played countless archers, and coming up with a new set of tactics is fun. Most anything that uses magic freaks me out these days. Other characters would shrug off a fireball, but my mage dies instantly. On another note: epic death last night, slinging fireballs down a narrow hallway against a Vampire Spellsword, our fireballs passed each other in the hallway and killed both of us at the same time.

LOL~ It's why I love the Orc Race strictly rogues !!! The Shunned ones, but some of the most efficient killers in the game !!

Might I recommend a http://tes.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=36623 to go with that Witch?

BTW, is Jack her brother?