Greetings,

I'm playing as an Altmer Mage (plus Atronach), and I noticed that I cannot increase my attributes as planned (INT+5/WIL+5/PER+5 and/or INT+5/WIL+5) when leveling up. Aye, I already read UESP's wiki on "Efficient Leveling", but even so I don't get it. Here is my problem:



Well, these are my current major skill level's advances:

ALCH: 2
CONJ: 3
MYST: 0
-
ALTE: 2
DEST: 5
REST: 0
-
ILLU: 1

According to the game, I have just one major skill level up until my character level up, but regardless of which skill I choose, I still getting low Attributes bonuses (like INT+3/WIL+2). Also, the sum of major skills combined already passed 10. So my question is: is my game bugged or I haven't learned how to do an efficient leveling? If it is just ignorance on leveling rules, what should I do to level up my character as mentioned above?

Thanks in advance for reading. :cryvaultboy:

Using the premade Mage class, what's happening is exactly the best you can do. All of your skills governed by both Intelligence and Willpower are Majors, so you have no minor skills under those attributes to add leveling points.

In order to level efficiently, one must use a custom class where at least one skill governed by each attribute is a Minor skill, which can be raised without counting against the 10 Major Skill increases. In creating a mage-type character, you'd create a custom class with perhaps Alchemy and Restoration (for instance) as Minors, substituting some other little-used skills (perhaps Blunt and Heavy Armor) in their place as majors. Then you raise those Minor skills to add to your INT and WIL.)

Having said that, a Mage is still a quite playable build, and those +2 or +3 raises will probably still work out okay for this character.

bad info, bad Tristan!

Thank you for clarifying it, glargg.

So, in other words, the Mage class was designed to not allow an efficient leveling of its own Major skills. How marvelous! :sadvaultboy:




Wat.

Well, I'd say that Bethesda intentionally imbalanced all the default classes, so that when they were played, they'd actually turn out different results over time. Weaker but different. In other words, it's the way the game is "supposed to be." (They made "perfection" difficult to attain.)

"Efficient leveling" is a way of overcoming the built-in limitations of the pre-made classes, but it's not a perfect solution, since characters tend to all end up very similar, and it really goes against role-playing.

If you're on a PC, you can use one of the "improved" leveling mods.

Yeah, I definitely agree that most characters do end up quite similar. If it's your first time playing, my advice to you would be to not worry about efficient levelling. Enjoy the role-playing aspect of the game and explore the tonnes of quests and side quests. Discover the world of The Elder Scrolls before trying to master it. My first character was an Imperial warrior, definitely not the most efficient character available. But it was this character that made me love Oblivion and play through multiple times

That's exactly what I thought after creating this thread.
But thanks anyway for reinforcing it.

If you've already increased your Major Skills 10 times and are ready for level up, you cannot contribute anymore skill gains toward your attributes for that level. After you're ready to level up, any skill increases will count toward the next level.
Also, Alchemy, Mysticism, and Conjuration are all governed by the Intelligence attribute. By the list you showed above, you only have 5 skill increases contributing toward the Intelligence attribute multiplier at level up (which will translate to a +2 attribute modifier toward Intelligence at level up). You need 10 skill increases within the skills governed by Intelligence to get a +5 attribute multiplier at level up. You have to get those 10 Intelligence skills increases to happen before you increase 10 of your Major Skills. The same idea goes for any attribute. Alteration, Destruction, and Restoration are governed by the Willpower attribute. According to your list above, you only have 7 skill increases contributing toward Willpower, which will translate to a +3 modifier toward the Willpower attribute at level up. I hope you're getting the picture.

1-5 skill increases within a governing attribute set will get you a +2 attribute modifier at level up.
6-7 will get you +3.
8-9 will get you +4.
10 will get you +5.

Blade, Blunt, Hand-to-Hand are governed by Strength
Alchemy, Conjuration, Mysticism are governed by Intelligence
Alteration, Restoration, Destruction are governed by Willpower
Marksman, Sneak, Security are governed by Agility
Athletics, Acrobatics, Light Armor are governed by Speed
Armorer, Heavy Armor, Block are governed by Endurance.
Mercantile, Speechcraft, Illusion are governed by Personality.
You can't get attribute modifiers for Luck.