Ok, im new to this game, and the number of skills and races along with all their advantages and disadvantages have bamboozled me totally anyway, i've been skimming through a few online character builds, and ive gone with
Specialization: Stealth
Attributes:Strength, Intelligence
Skills: Block, Blade, Light Armor, Alchemy, Destruction, Illusion, Sneak
Race: Dark Elf
Gender: Male
Birth Sign: Thief

So if my major skills have blade and destruction in them, does this mean i shouldnt use bow weapons? Also, should i wear heavy armour?

The focus of this build, apparently, is to become invisible and start walloping others; does this mean i should start training illusion like mad for the invisibility?

Should i just wander around, or should i purposely start leveling up a certain skill?

Also, the world is extremely big(i've never played this kind of rpg before), and seems like in order to get spells i have to traverse quite a fair number of places (including wierd stuff like joining the mages guild which i have totally no idea how to; where is it anyway?)

Welcome, have a http://images.uesp.net//c/c4/Fishystick.jpg

Since this is your first playthough, I'd advise you to wander around the world and discover lots of new things without worrying about character build first of all. That character sounds fine though, I'd be happy with that if it were a character of mine. You can use any skills you want, even if they aren't 'majors', but with magic the better spells are only available once you've trained them up a little bit.

In answer to your other question- the world is big, which is a good thing. Of course you can fast travel between cities, but this way you miss things. Much better to travel around and discover places so you can come back to them later if you want.

There's a mages guild hall in each city, except the Imperial City, which is home to the Arcane University. You won't be able to access the arcane university until you advance in rank within the mages guild.
In a similar vein, there's a fighters guild hall in each city, except the Imperial City.

You can join any guild you like. I don't want to spoil things too much, but the more 'secretive' guilds will require you to perform certain tasks before you attract their attention.

Sorry if all this is confusing, it can be a lot to take in and it's very exciting when I see someone who has never played Oblivion before. I'm sure you'll have lots of fun! Feel free to ask any more questions you might have. :foodndrink:

Use any skill you want. At any time. The focus of the Elder Scrolls series on on freedom of choice. This isn't Dungeons and Dragons, where you're locked into rigid classes and pre-defined roles. Play the way you want.

Should you wear heavy armor? That's up to you. Until your character is Journeyman in Sneak the weight of his armor will affect his ability to sneak undetected. Because of this most people will tell you to wear light armor. But, again, it's up to you. You can wear heavy armor if that's how you're roleplaying your character. Many of us like to create characters that go against "type." The real beauty of the Elder Scrolls games, to me, is that they allow us to do this.




Again, up to you. Oblivion isn't a linear game like, say, Dragon Age or a first-person shooter. You can do pretty much what you want, whenever you want. Since you're new to the game you might want to try the main quest. Doing the main quest will give you a sense of direction, if you're feeling lost. You'll also probably be interested in joining the Thieves Guild, I imagine. Those two guild questlines alone should keep you busy for a few days.

Most of us purposely avoid leveling up our skills in a mechanical fashion. I'd say most of us just try to play naturally. If we're roleplaying our characters will most likely tell us what to do. If you plan to roleplay, listen to your character.




There are Mages Guild in all of the major towns across Cyrodiil. In addition there is an Arcane University in the Imperial City.

Here is an informative web site with much information about the game: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Oblivion You'll probably want to bookmark it. You'll be returning to it often.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:How_to_Level

http://linklost.com/occ/

The above links will help greatly with anything related to leveling in Oblivion, the 1st link explains the aspects of leveling, and the 2nd link is a Character creator. The character creator is useful so you can 'settle' on a particular character build. The UESP website in the 1st link is a great resource for anything Oblivion-related.

As for your character build, it is OK I think, but I would personally make a few tweaks. I don't care very much for 'efficient' leveling, I just like to play the game without paying attention to leveling. If you are playing non-modded Oblivion, magic levels somewhat slowly compared to other skills, unless you are constantly spamming spells, so I would maybe switch your specialization to Magic. Combat and armor skills level quickly, in my personal experience, and stealth related skills are not far behind in leveling speed. Use the character creator to make a 'Balanced' character, the starting Attributes, in my opinion, are not particularly important, as you level up rather fast in Non-modded Oblivion, so attributes will level out quickly if you play your cards right. Last piece of advice I can give: Have fun!

Stealth is a good Specialization, since for me at least I have a hard time leveling up those skills since I don't use them much.

I would strongly take Sneak, Block and Alchemy out of major skills because you will be using them alot, and level up too fast. What happened to me, is I leveled to level 10 really fast but only had my weapons skill around level 4 because of sneaking, alchemy and for me healing alot. So for you I can see sneaking, alchemy and blocking leveling you up to quickly. Since you level up, enimies become harder, but your weapon skills might not be up to par then. I love Sneaking around and using a Bow. For me, I find it hard to level up marksman so I have that as a major skill as well as Blade. DO NOT take Atheletics or Acrobatics as a Major Skill either since they will REALLY Level you up real fast. Those can be kept as minors as well.

I wouldn't use the Thief sign because you will always be able to increase your attributes later. Unless you really need your +10 Luck, I wouldn't take it. Since you have Destruction as a major skill I am assuming you want to cast lots of destructive spells, so maybe thaking the Mage or at least the Apprenitice sign instead.

This is a great build for a first time play through. By that I mean play for about 8-12 hours, get a hang of the game, how it works, what doesn't work and then go ahead and make a new charcter.

Also next time if you have not done so, when you make a new character, before you leave the sewers, make a save, and KEEP IT, NEVER DELETE IT, so this way when you want to restart again, you can just load up from that game and change what ever you want then.

If you want to play something a little easier than a Dunmer (Dark Elf) Try a Breton since their speical ability is to absorb 50% of magika thrown at your way.

Hope this helps.

You can use whichever skill whenever you want. Only thing might be, you'll notice that blade and destruction do more damage, and light armor will protect you better at the start since those are your major skills and higher to start with as a result.

Yes, increasing illusion could get you there sooner.

I find that concentrating solely on training & leveling your character takes away from the enjoyment of just playing the game. So, I would suggest wandering around to get a feel for the game & enjoy it better, until you decide where you want to take your character.

Mages Guild still sell spells and give training during regular business hours without having to join the guild. However, if you want access to some of the higher end services that are behind locked doors, you'll need to join and advance through the ranks.

Ok, thanks for the answers

although now im really zonked out by the levelling system; it says on the wiki that "Your character qualifies for an increase in character level after improving any combination of major Skills by a total of 10 points." and "How many minor skills you have increased during this time does not influence when you level."

Lets say i want to have a +5 attribute for endurance, intelligence, and willpower.
Major Skills: Blade, Blunt, Hand-to-Hand, Sneak, Armorer, Heavy Armor, and Mercantile

So i increase block by 10, destruction by 10, and conjuration by 10, thus i qualify for the +5 attribute in endurance(block) intelligence(destruction) and willpower(conjuration)
In order to level, i increase the blade (strength) and sneak (agility) skill by 5.

Which of my attributes would have the +5 bonus? o.O

Trust me on this one, forget about the X5 bonus. It makes the game really easy and boring after a while. I will try and explain the best I can.

So your Major Skills are Blade, Blunt hand to hand Sneak Armorer Heavy Armour and Mercantile. Why you would take that many combat attacks is beyond me, unless you are using it as an example.

Blade=str
Blunt=str
H2H=str
Sneak=agi
Armourer=end
Heavy Armour=end
Mercantile=per

Ok, first of all, for you to level up, you need to level up 10 times one of your 7 major stats. This can be one stat 10 times, or any combination of the 7 which in most cases what happens. Usually this will give you anywhere 2X-5X bonuses to distribute. I hardly see a 1X but it is possible. So for now let us say you have used Blade Blunt and H2H alot.

So when you level up any combination of Blade, Blunt or H2H 10 times you will get a 5X modifier. Lets say you wan to get a 5X for Sneak. To get a 5X modifier of Sneak you will need to level it 10 times as well since it's the only agi in your main stats. That is if you only use your main stats. So you can still use Sneak and say you leveled it up 4X. So it was level 25 to 29 now. So if you slept and leveld up, you will only get a 4X. But if you also use Marksman or security, your minor stats and leveled them up more than once, that will be 10 times agility was leveled up and you will get a 5X bonus then.

So to get a 5X bonus in anything, anything in that field. Look http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Skills, and you will see what needs to be leveled up 10X or any combination of 10. So if you want to get a 5X in Willpower lets say, even though it is not in your Major Skills you will have to level alteration, descrution or restoration 10 times or any combination to get the 5X bonus. Remember even though you leveled them up 10 times you will not level up because they are Not your major skills. You will then have to wait till you leveled up your 10 Major Skills before you level up and then get the 5X bonus for Willpower.

I hope this makes sense to you, I am not good at explaining things.

So by your example, yes you are correct.

Oh darn i mistyped; what i meant to say was if i had increased destruction, block, conjuration, and blade all by 10 (which means i can get 5X in willpower, endurance, intelligence AND strength) Do i get to choose which 3 of the 4 attributes i get a 5X bonus in?

If i level up conjuration and alchemy, which are both in intelligence, the maximum i can get is 5X for intelligence?
Because im leaning toward a pure mage character; thus i should NOT be using my frequently used skills as my major skills right? ( Basically i wanna use all the types of magic all the time )

Example: Blade, Hand-to-Hand, Conjuration, Sneak, Acrobatics, Armorer, and Mercantile

So theoretically i'll train up conjuration by 10, block by 10, and some willpower skill by a combination of 10 to get my 5X for endurance intelligence and willpower yea?

Sorry for all the questions -.- because all this seems to affect the character greatly in later parts of the game.

Correct & correct. Mind you that you have to increase those skills for the attribute bonuses before you're character is ready to level up (before major skills are increased for the 10th time). Any increases after your character is ready for level up, will count toward the next level.

Thanks, finally cleared over the levelling part

Last question, would Blade, Blunt, Hand-to-Hand, Armorer, Block, Heavy Armor, and Mercantile be good if i want bonus attributes to endurance intelligence and willpower? Because i find im quite lacking in spells if i dont major in one of the magic schools