So I am somewhat new player to Oblivion, and am about 10 hours in with my custom class.

I realized that I am only level 2, and that I really don't understand the leveling system. I wish I didn't make a custom class, and I still don't even understand the leveling system; even after spending hours reading UESP pages. I just am so confused by it.

I don't want to have to restart the game completely, but it seems like that is what I have to do now. The leveling system is so complex and now I was enjoying the game and having fun and have to restart because it is completely unfriendly to noobs.

I am so pissed off right now, because I just wasted 10 hours of my life and I still don't even understand the leveling system so even if I were to restart, I wouldn't know how to do it then either.

This game seemed so good, and then I realized this load of crap was happening. *Sigh*, I should have just waited for Skyrim and avoided this game instead of deciding to buy it in preparation for Skyrim. Now it has given me no amount of fun, but instead a level of frustration that should never be possible from a game.

Actually, if you're "only" level 2, 10 hours into the game, you're doing something right. You don't want to level up fast in this game. Leveling up makes your enemies harder, because the world difficulty scales up with your level, so the "leveling problem" only applies if your character level is advancing too fast for your skill improvements to keep up.

Just use the skills that you actually need, and possibly invest in some extra Armorer training; that particular skill becomes much more valuable if/when you get it to 50 (so you can repair enchanted items.) For most (non-mage) characters, the most important attribute to increase at level-up is Endurance, because it determines your Health level.

Here's how it works: every time you level up, the entire world levels up with you. Bandits get stronger, and at certain milestone levels, their equipment is improved, as well. This system is global, which means every time you level up, everyone else who is meant to challenge you levels up with you, along with all their equipment, but at the same time, the treasure you can find will increase, as well.

Now, to make the point, this system is disastrously flawed. Equipment updates are global for every single enemy in the game world, which means eventually Bandits will ONLY wear the very best gear available in the game and you will ONLY encounter the very strongest creatures in the game, and you can ONLY find the very best treasure, whereas at level 2, you will ONLY see the complete opposite of that. The trouble stems from all of the Bandits and whatnot getting specifically combat oriented buffs every level, whereas that is often not the case for the player. If you level up too fast in this game, your character will quickly be outclassed by the monsters and you will have a very hard time playing this game. To put it bluntly, this leveling system actually punishes the player character for getting better.

Essentially, the leveling system strongly discourages specialization. Jack-of-all-trades characters are the ones that do best in this game, because they are the ones who get the most skill levels and earn the highest attribute multipliers.

By leveling system do you mean the way your character levels up or the leveling of the creatures, NPCs, and loot?

Your class is composed out of 7 major skills. Each time you increase a major skill you get a leveling point. When you have 10 leveling points you level up. The attribute multipliers aren't that simple to explain, but the more often you increase a skill governed by an attribute the higher the multiplier will be. The highest possible multiplier is 5x and you get that if you get 10 increases in skills governed by that attribute.

So if I start to level faster because I'm running around spamming spells to get skill-ups, should I stop that? How do I know I'm not leveling TOO fast?

1) The problem is not leveling up to fast per se. The same enemies will spawn regardless of whether you needed 2 hours or 20 hours to reach level 3. The problem is leveling up on the wrong skills. What you need to do is pick 3 of your major skills that are somehow helpful in combat and then get most of your leveling up out of them for the first 20 or so levels. Like for example you could decide to go the more magical route and focus on Conjuration, Destruction, and Restoration and you would generally avoid using Blade, Block, Light Armor, and Illusion until you've built up conjuration to 100 and Destruction and Restoration to 75.

2) In the long run it doesn't really matter that much. With Alchemy and the overpowered enchanted loot that will be popping up around level 25 you can become godlike and invincible no matter what your actual stats are. Focused leveling is there just to make the transition through your teen levels easier. The teen levels are gnerally conisdered to be the hardest part of the game because it's at that point that some really ansty critters start spawning and amny players still have udnerdeveloped fighting skills.

Well right now I am still level 5, and I can't even win fights against Scamps. They hit me for like a fifth of my hp each hit.

Man, what did I do...

Before I can give you further advice there are a few things I need to know. How high exactly are all your major skills? What race and birthsign did you pick? Do you prefer fighting with magic or with a weapon? Which of your major skills are most fun to use? Are you playing on PC or on one of the cosnoles?

This basically. Don't put non combat skills on majors like Alchemy, Mercantile, Sneak because it will screw you up.

Actually, putting non-combats on majors is a fairly popular technique by players looking to get every last ounce of efficiency out of leveling in this game.

The trick is to make your major skills into skills you can easily control (alteration, mysticism, sneak, security, speechcraft, etc), leaving all of your combat skills as minors. You exit the tutorial dungeon, power-train whatever skills you want to get +5 Strength, Endurance, and whatever other attribute you want you want at level-up, and then do it again for the next level. If you pick either blade or blunt, you can have it up to a decent rank for your character while maintaining maximum efficiency by level 3. And low leveled skills increase pretty fast, too.

The trick is keeping your character low leveled for as long as possible, while getting your minor skills as high as you can. Minor skills do not contribute to your level progress, only your level-up attribute multipliers. Doing this essentially exploits the leveling system in this game to prevent it from spawning higher leveled creatures even though your character clearly outclasses the ones he is fighting at the time.

This is yet another reason why I wholeheartedly agree with you that this leveling system is incredibly frustrating. I shouldn't need to use excel spreadsheets to get the maximum enjoyment out of a game. I only like to do that for simulators.

That's the underleveling trick, but you'll face pitiful crap like imps and rats. You don't also get high level stuff like glass armors and daedric weapons.

@OP If you're in the pc, download a mod that fixes the problem.

What mod? And I don't like downloading mods to change the game from how it was meant to be on my first playthrough... but this is almost unbearable.

I'm lvl 5 now, here's my class...

"Spellblade" Willpower, Strength
-Blade
-Block
-Light Armor
-Destruction
-Restoration
-Illusion
-Conjuration

I'm trying to stick to things like Blade, Destro, and Resto as my 3 ones I'm raising the most. But I feel like as soon as I hit 5 the game has got INCREDIBLY harder. I almost lose fights against Scamps.

At level 6 Dwarven equipment will start appearing so you can get a better sword. Also don't forget to buy better spells, the ones you start with are rather weak. The Mages Guild in Skingrad specializes in Destruction and the one in Anvil specializes in Restoration.

And put some points into Endurance. You could buy some training in Armorer or wear some Heavy Armor to achieve that.

You are correct that the TES IV: Oblivion leveling system is confusing and frustrating. (it's nearly the same system as in Morrowind, btw).



You'll know your may be leveling too fast if your attribute bonus in important attributes are small (2 or less). If you're not getting some 3s or 4s you may be leveling too fast.

What attributes are important somewhat depends on your character. Endurance is typically important because it gives you health points.

For a melee character Strength is important, for a bow and arrow and sneaky character agility is important. For a mage willpower (assuming a non-Atronach) and intelligence is important.

You get better attribute bonuses by increase BOTH major and minor skills associated with that attribute. For example, if Blade is a major with Hand to Hand and Blunt as a minor, you get a better bonus if you in addition to your blade you also punch or bash things every once in a while. That is somewhat counter-intuitive. Also counter-intuitive is that it is bad to put all skills of a single attribute as majors.

One other thing about leveling, it is good to focus on one kill skill rather than leveling several evenly. For example it might be best to focus on a skill like Blade (just as an example) rather than evenly increase Blade, Marksmanship, and Destruction.

It's a great game, but the leveling system stinks. Hopefully it will improve in Skyrim.

One last thing. If you're on the PC I recommend getting a mod that changes the leveling system. In particular I recommend: http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=14065

with that mod much of what I said above it not applicable, and leveling is smooth, natural, and intuitive.

I also recommend the OOO overhaul mod (it's huge) which makes many gameplay changes but in particular it reduces level scaling to something much more reasonable (though it can make gameplay harder, particularly for lower level characters)

Zorph, you may want to try to think of this first play-through as a learning experience.

Speaking for myself (and maybe this applies to you, too) a lot of times I get overwhelmed with games that are new to me because I want my first character to be strong and almost perfect and I don't want to make mistakes and waste time. But one thing I've learned is that in every big rpg I've played, including Oblivion, my first character is really my "figuring things out for the first time, the hard way" character.

A few things that help a lot in the early going:

Endurance is tied to your hit points, so it is important. If you wear heavy armor, use repair hammers on everything you find that is damaged (plus repair your own armor), and use a shield (to block) you will raise your endurance faster. That is because Endurance governs the heavy armor, armorer, and block skills.

In melee combat you can "dance" with your opponent and really diminish incoming melee damage. You do this by timing your lunges (pushing the left stick towards your enemy and pressing attack) and then pulling back on the left stick so as to pull back out of the enemy's melee range. As you get better at the melee dance you will find yourself taking a lot less damage in melee combat.

As for spellcasters, you can physically dodge a lot of their spells, and you will get better at that over time.

Mostly, though, I do suggest to think of this first play-through as a learning experience. Most Oblivion players end up making several, if not many, characters over time. Nothing wrong with that at all.