I really find training up skills a lot of fun, but doing this can take the challenge out of a game. This is my first char. She is level 25, level 100 in alchemy and conjuration, and 76 in destruction. All my other major skills are over 50, and I am improving minor ones. I can jump a little.

I am doing the Mage's Guild quests, there are Oblivion gates everywhere. I like to do Daedric quests too, and what about Shivering Isle and Knights, what level is perhaps best? Can I push my levels more (beyond level 25)? Should I try not to level now?

This game rocks.

Assuming this is vanilla, enemies will get harder as you level up more. There really isn't a point that you should stop leveling. It's more are you satisfied with your character's stats?

For me, I just let it come as it does. That doesn't work for some folks. I don't believe I ever really "train" anything. If my character doesn't know one side of an armor from another, she's not likely to know what the heck to do with a repair hammer. Know what I mean? But that style doesn't fit everyone so I pretty much think you have to decide on your own what works for you.

As far as levels and going somewhere, I couldn't tell you. What my characters and I do is if something looks interesting, we go check it out. We seem to quickly find out if it's too much for us. Then we run, remember our difficulties at that particular place and come back later when we've learned a few things.

Hope that helps you

Just remember that because of Oblivion's awful level scaling system, it's almost impossible to be OP. Monsters will continue levelling up well beyond your skill enhancements doing you any further good. The game gets harder (or more repetitive, at least) the further on you go.

That's why I usually restart my characters when they start hitting the upper levels. I generally find the lower levels to be more fun - less hacking at a goblin warlord for 10 minutes because it's got 30 levels worth of health buffs.

I do that as well. This method of playing really prevents some OP issues because when you level up you generally don't get 5's or even 4's.

I also intentionally limit my character's skill in some areas to prevent her from becoming really over powered.

That's the funny thing about Oblivion, it punishes you for leveling up :shrug: Which is why i've found love for Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul, it rewards you for leveling up by making high level dungeons survivable and their high-level loot obtainable.

Thank you, helpful answer. Those undead Akavari last night took a Dremora Lord 2 or 3 minutes a piece to kill, not too bad, even fun, but can relate to scaling now.

I will keep on training but for the 10 minute bosses, then and play another character on attrition later. Thanks for the comments.




I did a web search after seeing OOO mentioned in a post. That is the only mod I've bookmarked. In the past for Morrowind I loved GCD and MCA. Oblivion with OOO seems to recapitulate some of those ideals. Tho this run is vanilla.

Balancing lethality and vulnerability in your character can be a challenge. Here's what has worked for me -

Buffy’s kind of a character of extremes. Some skills and attributes she masters, while some she ignores. Some skills, we selectively RP. The best example of this is destruction; she is a whiz at drain speed and weakness to poison, but is terrible at calling forth fire, ice and lightning. Another RP limitation is alchemy; her almost exclusive focus on deadly poisons has left her quite unskilled at helpful potion making.

We like her doing big damage, but insist on giving her foes the same advantage. To facilitate this, we cap her at level 20 (by picking some ‘never touch’ major skills). Her damage is maxed there, but her foes are not hitpoint tanks. We add to her fragility by keeping her endurance permanently at 30 and she pretty naturally dresses only for fashion, so her armor class is often single digits. One consideration when it comes to capping her at level 20 is that she obviously has fewer levels to work on attributes. We deal with that by ignoring ones that aren’t important to her (strength, endurance, luck for example) and efficiently leveling the ones that are (intelligence, agility, willpower for example).

We’re very happy with the results. Buffy is a glass cannon mystic archer. She can strike like a dragon or crumple like a butterfly.

Mid-twenties is a nice comfortable place to let your character stagnate and stop leveling. All the possible enemies have started to spawn, so you're not missing any part of the game, and the loot makes it possible to survive comfortably against them, without hitting boredom by having no challenge. Higher levels just make each battle take longer, without adding anything else.

This is where you can start experimenting with things like leaving all your armor at home, so you can carry more loot. Or potions, or whatever your character normally couldn't do without at lower levels. You set yourself challenges, like collecting all the Goblin tribal totems by stealth alone. Whatever keeps the game fun.