Hello! I hope you're all doing well today.

Anyway, I am a level 12 character, and my question is a totally newbie one, How do I get stronger weapons, and what weapon is the strongest? I have no idea what spell enchanting something on a weapon is or whatever, and why that works. Could someone here teach me how to do that? Basically, if anyone could help me out in this area, that'd be great.Oh, and by the way: How come the enemies seem to be at the same strength they used to be at even though I've leveled up some?

Thanks for all the help, it is appreciated!

You can find better weapons and armor in shops, but they will start appearing sooner in the hands of the bad guys. Bandits or Marauder dungeons are your best choices when you are looking for new gear. Bandits wear light armor, and Marauders wear heavy. They all use the same assortment of weapons though.

If you are playing a warrior type character, enchanting your weapons and armor is a necessity as you reach higher levels. The only way to do this in the vanilla game is to join the Mages Guild and complete the Arcane University recommendation quests. Once you have access to the Arcane U, you can use their spellmaking and enchantment altars. Or you can get the Frostcrag Spire dlc, which also has the same, and does not require you to join the guild. Once at an altar, you put your item on it, then a filled soul gem. This is the complicated part. You can buy empty or filled soul gems from merchants, usually the Mages Guild alchemists in every city has a few for sale. If you have an empty one, you have to cast a soul trap spell on a victim, and then kill them while it is in effect. Their soul is then svcked into the gem. The stronger the soul, the stronger your enchantment will be. Note that soul gems come in varying grades, and you need one at least as high as the level of the soul you are trying to trap.

Because of this many people do the Azura Daedric quest, as the reward is a reusable soul gem (the normal ones are destroyed after you use them to enchant with). Most people also usually add a 1 second soul trap effect on their weapon enchantments, at the end of the other effects they pick.

SubRosa is correct, you will not last long against foes at higher levels unless you enchant your gear. However do not fear about buying a DLC or joining the Mages guild. Once closing an Oblivion Gate, you will be rewarded with a Sigil Stone. This too can have powerful effects on your weapon if used to enchant it. And an unlimited recharging source is, as stated above, the infinite Soul Gem you receive from the Deadric Quest.

For higher levelled weapons, just kill bandits. They level up with you, and if you're dungeon diving you will also find random loot in the chests and very good loot in the boss chests!

Also check the Daedric quests, their rewards are really nice.

For the most powerful weapon, you should look for a person called Umbra. Her sword is the most powerful-est (and the sword's also called Umbra) in the game, being a 1 handed with an enchantment to steal souls (Soul tap). Its part of a Daedric quest, however you can find and kill her and take her sword before starting the quest, and the sword will have a weight value of 0!

Level 12-17 are extremely hard. 20+ is god mode. Enemies level with you in this game. To enchant, get a filled soul gem and go to the arcane university chironasium.

But it's better to do the quest and not kill Umbra before if you don't want to commit an assault or murder. A good Katana (given by Jauffre) enchanted with only 5 points in Fire damage (or else) will be sufficient until you find strongest weapons in loots or quests.

First of all, thanks for all the help to those that replied! It's appreciated!

Secondly, I have another question, and it's about what you wrote. I leveled myself to level 12, and now I'm worried. I thought the stronger I got in terms of levels, the easier it would be. What should I do now? Is there any type of cheat where I can be invincible? Oh, and what's the best level to be at? Thanks for all the help everyone!

Don't cheat! Please. There is no need. Just start enchanting items and you'll be strong enough. Or low down the difficulty level. You will find many enchanted items giving you more strength, more endurance, etc. You can check UESP and see how to create your 100 chameleon suit. Sigil stones will give you Fortify health to put on your cuirass or gauntlets etc. Check also the items like reflect damage or spells and the ones that will protect you.
Work on your strength and endurance, restoration and conjuration. Summon a skeleton or another creature to make diversion. They will fight with you. :wink_smile:

Ah and the best level for me is 20. I can start important quests that will bring me Umbra and Goldbrand which is a famous blade. And at level 20 I have increased my strength and endurance to high level as well as my blade. So I almost feel invincible. You'll see.

Did you go to Nocturnal to get the skeleton key that opens any door? Check at which level you can start it.

Thanks for the help! I really like this game, but I wouldn;t mind cheating if it helps.... Anyway, I am a newbie, so sorry if this is a basic question, but what is enchanting and how do I do it? What's UESP? And how long do the different things like Sigil Stones and stuff like that last? It sounds like way too much work to get this done when I can cheat and still see pretty much everything before Skyrim comes out, but I do appreciate all your help and will try my best to work with it.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Enchanting from the http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Main_Page of course.

Basically the whole point of leveling up and also where Beth failed miserably imo :facepalm:

Your character doesn't necessarily get strong as he/she levels in this game. That's level scaling which a lot of people don't like. There are mods to reduce the effect of level scaling. It was put in by Bethesda, apparently in reaction to complaints in Morrowind saying enemies got too easy. So by scaling enemies to your character, it keeps the game challenging. But as implemented the game can get tougher as you increase your level.

You can counter this by enchanting, and also by getting good points in some key attributes. In particular Endurance (which will increase health) and the Attribute of your main "kill skill" (eg Strength for melee, Agility for Bows, Intelligence/Willpower for magic).

I play with the OOO mod which reduces level scaling, so I'm may not know about the "best" level. Basically it seems to me that the 10-20 levels are toughest. But at very high levels some enemies (like Goblin Warlords for example) get insane amounts of health and are very tedious to kill - without mods. If you are on the PC I recommend the OOO and nGCD mods to improve the game play.

I'm level 13 now and this is also my first playthrough of Oblivion. UESP is the main wiki for the Elder Scrolls and one thing I suggest you do is go on there and read their http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:First_Time_Players. There are a lot of very useful points in there.
Enchanting is using either Sigil Stones or an Altar of Enchanting to implant an effect in either a weapon or armour(eg: +5 fire damage or water breathing). An Altar of Enchanting is not needed to implant a Sigil Stone, but the effects you gain are limited to what that stone can do. With an Altar of Enchanting and a filled Soul Gem you can implant any spell that you have learned into a weapon or armour for a cost. Effects in armour are permanent and their power is affected by the size of the soul, but the effects for weapons are limited by the chosen power of the effect and the size of the soul.
I know its all really confusing, but stick with it and if you get hopelessly confused use the wiki. One tip that I suggest you do is make sure that the attribute you level up the fastest is Endurance. The health gain you get each level is affected by your overall Endurance so it pays off in the long run and from what I hear it's needed in the later levels.

The problem with getting too powerful a weapon too soon is that your skills may suffer as a result. Skills are advanced for each hit on an enemy and has nothing to do with the damage you do. So a poweful weapon means fewer hits and slower skill levelling. Even if you want to play a character that uses big beefy two handed weapons keep an iron dagger or axe to train up your skill with. Keep the big hitter and power attacks for the really tough fights and just keep flailing at them.

For a warrior type character use your block skill as much as you can (right mouse button on PC) and don't be afraid to use a little foot work. Against opponents with slow but powerful attacks slide in close, get a couple of hacks in then back off before he can land one on you. Be sure to use the armorer skill to keep your weapons in top shape and repair the gear you take off of the bad guys (even at low levels when it's worthless and you'll probably just dump it back on the corpse) so you'll level that skill up faster as well.

For an archer type you can either kite your enemies (shot at them while you're running backwards) or use stealth to get in that x4 sneak attack. Poisons made with Alchemy skill can really help here.

As a spell caster get used to running away a lot so don't neglect your Athletics skill and Speed attribute. Either scoot and shoot like the archer or tag the bad guys with a long lasting damage over time spell. You'll have to custom make these at the Magician's guild but they'll use less mana than a big flashy spell. If you want to get maximum use of your single hit spells make a custom 100% weakness to damage of choice spell that lasts for 5 seconds or so. Cast that then follow up with a damage spell for that element. Alternatively you can study up on the natural weaknesses different critters have and be ready with a variety of spells to use on them. Also, at Level 12, you may not be too high level yet to get some use out of a 100 point for 1 second Drain Health spell as a low mana finisher. Drain Health reduces the target's health for the duration of the spell (it's restored once the spell wears off) but if the critters hit points are below 100 points from other damage you've done it will kill them outright.

I think Oblivions leveling system is brilliant. Its easy in the start, then it gets more difficult as you (like an old school game) but then it reaches a point where your so strong that you do get to be a Demi-god and walk around killing everything.

In response to OP second question, Just carry extra Restore health for those levels and wait 1hr a lot. The fastest way to immortality is to get expert conjuration and journymen-Invisibillity. Simply summon a strong creature then go invisible, rinse and repeat.

but at level 20ish youll start getting all kinds of mega enchanted stuff, like weapons that do 60dmg and armor that resists poisons and paralysis and so on, the random loot is plentiful and radically overpowered at that stage in the game, it makes your character build almost irrelevant at that point. Hell I have an orc at level 18 that is basically immune to magic and still has hearty disease and poison resistance along with obscene endurance. He basically walks around unchallenged by anything.

That was weird