What I do know is that I shouldn't pick the skills I use the most as my major so I can get the +5 attributes. But what im wondering is how should I level up the minor skills that I want? For example if I wanted Int and Willpower to be the main attributes I level, what steps would I need to take to assure I get +5 for those. Also, since im already making a thread, what would be a good third attribute for a pure mage centering around destruction/conjuration? Thank you for your help.

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

Read. Enjoy.

Thanks.

For the third attribute, I'd usually suggest you choose between Strength (to carry more loot) or Endurance (to raise your health = hit points). Speed, Agility etc. are all less beneficial to a pure mage than they would be to other classes. Personality is not much use to any non-evil character, as Fame tends to swamp its effect on disposition, and you can use spells to do the same things.

Some people put +1 in Luck every time and only go for the two +5's. Luck benefits everything a bit.

ALWAYS go for luck!

*you can level up luck only +1 per level, so if you do not want to suffer the effect of having it all maxed out at level 40, but your luck still low... better start leveling luck every level
*I'd say endurance is a MUST HAVE to, (since endurance will increase your health growth, the faster you upgrade your endurance, the higher your final health will be

so basicly
*pick luck every level
*pick +5 endurance every level, till it's 100. after endurance is 100, pick any +5 skill you like
*third skill you can randomly pick, just any +5 skill will do

I'm not sure if Luck is really all that important, since it doesn't affect what loot you get (according to the wiki), nor does it give you a critical hit bonus as it does in Fallout. The impact on skills is nice I suppose, but it's not that big of a bonus until your luck starts getting quite high, which takes a while at a maximum of +1 per level. And by that time, it's quite possible that many of your skills are already high on their own, and Luck's bonus doesn't increase them beyond the cap of 100. All that said, I still often go with the 5/5/1 method simply because it's less tedious than 5/5/5. Getting 30 skillups every single level can become kind of a drag after a while, cutting that down to 20 makes it a bit less annoying, in my opinion.

As far as what attributes to choose; I always take Endurance early on. There's no long-term drawback to waiting a while before increasing Willpower, Intelligence, etc...but the longer you wait to bump up your Endurance, the lower your total health will be later on. I also like getting some Strength increases somewhat frequently, since carry capacity can be a real drag sometimes (though you may be able to cover for this somewhat with Alteration spells). So to answer your question, I'd be going with Endurance and Luck every level until Endurance hit 100, and having the third slot filled with Willpower, Intelligence, and possibly the occasional Strength or Agility increase (low Agility will mean that you get staggered constantly when hit, once beyond the early portion of the game). If you accidentally over-level some skills here and there, skipping the Endurance gain every now and then won't make a huge impact, but I certainly wouldn't ignore it entirely. Some enemies can do quite a lot of damage, and you don't want to end up dying every time you get staggered, paralyzed, or otherwise become unable to heal for a couple of seconds.

The problem with Luck is that it benefits the character most when it's at its lowest level and benefits the character least when its at its highest level. By the time we are able to raise Luck a significant amount it is less important in the success or failure of our character's actions than skills. From a meta-gaming perspective it doesn't seem worth it. I think those points would be more effectively spent on other Attributes.

But I don't look at these questions from a meta-gaming perspective. I look at these questions from a roleplaying perspective. It makes no roleplaying sense for a character to become mystically luckier as he or she ages, for no apparent reason. I can only think of one justification, from a roleplaying standpoint. One could hypothesize that a devotee of a particular Divine who continues to regularly worship that Divine throughout the course of the game, without wavering, might gain favor with that Divine, which the Divine might possibly bestow in the form of Luck. But I think that doesn't apply to most of the characters most of us make. Frankly, I can't come up with a good roleplaying justification for raising Luck for most of my characters.

I am one of those that always puts 1 to Luck. Yes you never see it, but it helps a bit. So those few extra in health from Endurance wouldn't be needed because it went to health. Also when you can just wait 1 hour and get full health back is it really needed?

I just find at higher levels it is better to have higher Luck than lower luck.

I honestly don't think I've ever raised Luck once *shrugs*. I played around with the thief birth sign that gives that +10 to luck once for a test of sorts. It made a pretty big difference in lower levels vs a character that didn't have it. As far as combat/skills went anyway. Did nothing for loot as is often claimed.

I'm kind of like Pseron Wyrd in that regard, if it doesn't make RP sense, then I just don't take it. But for those who like to max stuff out, I still am not convinced it's actually worth anything except at lower levels. I think if I was going to go for the min/max stuff, I'd be looking for a +5 elsewhere.

Luck affects everything, it DOES affect loot.
in random crates (the few littercrates) it slightly improves your change on getting the better items.

but you will notice it has the most effect when doing things like fighting, picking a lock, sneaking and such... higher luck really boosts such things.
4 luck = +1 to ALL skills
so having luck at 100 is like having +25 to every skilltype.

I'd say thats still very much usefull even at higher levels.

Well I not gonna argue with ya ! People should do as they see fit. There is much written on this so can easily be researched and let people decide for themselves. :shrug: