So with Skyrim being out, but not being able to afford it atm, I have gone back to playing Oblivion to freshen up on TES lol. Admittedly, I would prefer to get back into Morrowind but my old laptop barely handles it even with the FPSoptimizer. That being said, I have always had mixed feelings about efficient leveling. I have never wanted a character with every skill and attribute maxed (I prefer to roleplay and only build the skills that character would use). But of course with the level scaling I also want to not be totally under-powered, while still leveling as high as I can. After playing around with major skills, I have yet to find a happy medium. What I'm trying to make is a guy who is stealthy, uses a bow and arrows (although I might use blade here and there, havent decided yet), uses alchemy mainly for poison, and wears light armor. I want him to be able to level up without a whole lot of planning or spamming major skills chosen only to control my leveling. Does anybody have any tips/ideas for me? I know that i probably shouldnt choose EVERYTHING I want as a major skill, but I want him to be specialized without having to stop leveling at a considerably low level. Haha In my head his makes a whole lot of sense, although on paper it seems convoluted. Thanks for the help/suggestions!

EDIT: forgot to mention, this is on XBOX GOTY edition, so no mods

Forgive me if I missed some information. Text walls....

Anyways, what I did is called Minors for Majors. Use Major skills that won't level up so fast. If your character is a fighter, put like 4 magic spells in his Majors that he'll rarely use, if ever. Now the remaining 3 Majors can be stuff he may use occasionally like Acrobatics and Atheletics.

This sounds like cheating the game (and I would agree that it kinda is cheating if you look at it a certain way) but it is what got me enjoying Oblivion for years. :tes: Initially, I could't take the game's leveling, the glass-wearing bandits and stuff like that. :rolleyes: It wasn't that the game got more challenging, it's that it seemed fake to me. :shrug:

But in your case, you can try Minors for Majors if you want to just roleplay without so much pressure on how you level up your character. You can make a character who levels up super-slow, or make one that will level up faster and more consistently, but won't necessarily level into the teens.

Hope. This. Helps.

level scaling isn't that big of a deal until your past level 25 or so, especially with a stealth character. Attributes are not that important, agility slightly raises bow damage, i think the difference between 0 and 100 is like 20% damage, so most of the attributes aren't that big of a deal. i know it sounds dumb but leveling past that 25 wall really doesn't make your character any stronger, a slight boost in health while your enimies are more likely to wield glass and deadric and the mosnters just get massive pool of health.

I would just play to have fun, don't stress the stats so much, you'll probably be doing one shot stealth attacks all the way through the game.

And alchemy makes a good major if you don't spam it, since you plan on using poisons i would recommend keeping it a minor

Never had any problems with leveling or scaling in Morrowind or Oblivion. True once you got past level 30 or so i was pretty invincible but by that point i had finished the main quest and all the major guild quests so it wasn't any bid deal.

I liked being able to pick my perks or major and minor skills and level them up how i chose. I liked being able clear out a fort and not have a stupidly overpowered enemy one shot me in the very last chamber when i was a low level, meaning i have to go away and level up in combat about 10 levels before coming back to finish them off.

Don't even get me started on Skyrims perk system.It is horrible.

Thanks for all the input I like the minors for majors idea. Seems like a great idea, especially with athletics/acrobatics as major skills so that i will level somewhat fluidly while still giving myself enough time to build up the skills I will actually be using. I'm toying with the idea of also choosing blade as a major since i will only really use it when an enemy is up-close and the arrows arent cutting it. The reason I really dislike efficient leveling is because a) I'm not looking to make a character who is beast at everything and B) if i were to use it for my specialized characters, I wouldn't be able to level far into the teens [if at all]

I don't have a problem with the perk system yet, but I know a lot of people do. I am missing STATS though. :thumbsdown: Strength, Intelligence, etc., they shoulda never cut this part. You guys are gonna hear me complain about missing Skyrim STATS a lot, I fear, during the next several years. :facepalm: I apologize in advance.




Blade would level your game up a little faster, which is fine. Actually, Acrobatics and Athletics level up really slowly, even if you run and jump a lot. So if you add Blade (and actually use it) you'd have a character who levels up quicker than any of my characters, but won't wind up in Mario World within a week or so.

I make four of my 7 majors, be my majors. The rest are never touched. As a result, I max level at 30. Done.
Marksman
Restoration
Acrobatics
Illusion

I also use Blade, Conjuration and Alteration.

edit: I use Alchemy as well, but only as I need it, rather than as I want it. The result is that Alchemy leveling slows to a crawl.

The new system wouldn't be half as bad if only they had fiddled around with the major/minor skills & attributes and kept them in. If we could chose how to level instead of every damned thing counting to my level, it would be better. Level 50 is easily achievable in Skyrim at practically no effort. Oblivion i worked my ass off to get to level 25 and at that level the stats i wanted upgraded were considerably. I always focused on melee, heavy armour etc but now in Skyrim my biggest stat is my speechcraft as it keeps jumping by stupid levels evertime i sell my loot. I just feel Bethesda thought 'well the Morrowind and Oblivion system isn't working, instead of tweaking how about we scrap the whole thing?'. I could also live with the perks side of it if only i could chose the perks that i really want to chose, not having to pick others i will never use or dont want simply to make others on the 'tree' that i do want available

So true. They could have perfected the attributes system, more or less, Instead they chose to delete it. I don't have a major prob with perks or the way leveling occurs in Skyrim personally. I'm not missing Major/Minor skills and how they influence the game and I'm not missing Oblivion's leveling system at all. But attributes? That I am missing.



I like watching my character grow and change on a spreadsheet, what can I say :shrug: Definately a reason to fire Oblivion back up every now and then. Reason #17 so far. Lol.