So, new character. Rodrigo, my Altmer Apprentice is still going strong, so no worries there. I just have a hankering for something more down-to-earth rather than a pure mage all the time.
I've made an Imperial. He is still in the sewere.
And let me just say that the flyby intro for Oblivion rocks my world (except for crazy-giant-walking-guy in one of the quarters) and sometimes I start a new game just to see this, then quit.

What's funny is that these days, if I can't come up with a reasonable backstory, I don't make the character. Here is the bare bones: defeated in battle. Prisoner. Slavery. Sold around the land. I'm skipping the prison bit, and assuming a slave sold to the Arena, HOWEVER I do not want to advance the quest line too much, as I would like to remain more anonymous.

What do you guys think is a good stopping point for the Arena Quest Line?
How useful is this Star of the West?

Three majors is the desired build, I will do four if it is legitimately justifiable. The majors need to be justified by the story.
I've got Blade so far.....
I think magic is out. I'm on the fence about that fact that everyone has a basic healing spell.
I will increase his strength a bit, though not much...
I feel like I should increase his endurance as he is a warrior class, however I do not want to go overboard; I'm basically looking for a glass-cannon-melee character with a three or four major restriction. Preferably three majors, so the character caps at level 20. With four majors, my character will cap at level 30.

TLDR: Read the post please.

I can't help you with the caps & Majors stuff. Just wanted to say I'm looking forward to whatever you come up with.

I agree....sometimes it's cool to start a game that's more melee-oriented. It's a totally different experience from the pure mage! Weapons/melee combat gets the adrenaline going, and keeps it going! Wheras sometimes with the pure mage, things can cool off for the player mid-battle, especially if the mage is a high-level one. ...The battle is going on, the enemy is dealing with summoned creatures while the mage is invisible, while the player (me) is kickin' back, having a good chuckle.
.

Ok, I worked it out.
Imperial, Sign of the Atronach
Agility and Endurance
Blade
Restoration
Speechcraft
No magic save Restoration and the turn undead part of Conjuration.
I think that Endurance should cap at 50, currently 45, at level one. Am playing with the difficulty slider at about 65 percent, which feels about right to me.

Yes, most of my characters tend to be either pure mages or hybrid mages. Except for my current other character who is an Altmer Apprentice pure mage, and is receiving the beat down of his life, most other mages pretty much own the land. Using fewer majors guarantees that I have a real chance of dying at any given point, as well as a lowered endurance.
What's funny is that all this planning is still just a part of the creation of a backstory. Just a gentle nudge, and then let the character decide how he progresses.

It would be interesting to know why you picked Imperial. Just curious

I don′t know about the Arena as it has been quite some time since my own character went through it all, but either Bloodletter or Myrmidon could be good places to stop, avoiding fame to rise too high.

I looked it up. Sounds like Myrmidon it is. Nine fights to gain his freedom. And I chose Imperial for a warrior with no major bonus. Plus, my older character looks pretty awesome, as I've given his face a decidedly eastern feel to it; goes well with the ronin mentality, though he is not a ronin by any means, serving a master as a swordsman is big in this guy's background.

FFS. So my character died in the Arena against the two Bosmer sisters. (All characters are Dead is Dead except for my squishy mage)
Level 3. My mistake.... tried to get cute in dispatching the sisters with a little absorb health, when I should of just dodged and whacked them.

I started a new character. Same exact stats. Feels like a good build, in fact a really good build. Try, try, try again!

Wow.

Wow. That was quick! Good thing Senior Cinco just bumped up the Dead is Dead thread!

I've done the Arena fully or partially 3x now. The trick is to get your character into some easier real-world experience first. Let him or her do some bandit raids, some imp dungeons, etc. I think jumping straight into the Arena that quickly is akin to PC-suicide.
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Unfortunately he is a slave. He cannot leave the island. Once he got past Pit Bull status, he was allowed to roam the island, and not just the city. He must survive nine Arena appearances before he is set free. So, the only real-world experience is at the two popular caves on the island. Perhaps I will sword and board it for a bit in the Arena, instead of straight up claymore action.

Don't forget the sewers! Lots of fun to be had down there.

They can take his life, but they can never take his freedom!!! *feeling like Mel Gibson*

Heh, seriously sorry that he died and never got the chance to be free

Hmmm. Sewers sounds good.

Birth Sign : Warrior
Specialization : Combat
Attribute : Strength and Endurance
Class : Customized Knight

Major Skills : Acrobatic, Athletic, Blade, Block, Marksman, Mercantile, Speech craft
Minor Skills for training : Heavy Armor, Armorer, Hand To Hand, Blunt, Sneak, Restoration, Illusion

Focused attribute for each level up : Strength +5, Agility +5 and Endurance +5
Aim : Get 100 strength, 70 to 100 Agility and 100 Endurance as early as possible

(Birth Sign Warrior give +10 Strength and +10 Endurance, favorite attribute give +5 each, so an Imperial get 55 Strength and 55 Endurance at level 1)

This way you can make a role-playing Imperial, it is because the Imperial is well known merchant, sweet talker and they favor warrior class.

Heavy Armor as minor prevent you to level up so fast, and it also secure +5 Endurance in each level up, believe me. In combat if you wear heavy armor and have it as major skill you will surprise to level up so fast and not get +5 Endurance.

Sneak training is for +5 Agility, and sometimes sneak attack with bow is better than run through enemies

Illusion is for +5 Personality whenever you want it, You may use Mercantile and Speech Craft, but in early game it is not advisable, do Mercantile and Speech Craft a bit later after your character is strong. Illusion make your character "shiny" and illuminated in dark places.

Acrobatic and Athletic saved for later game to increase speed and fancy movement, so don't jump and running too much early on, ride a horse or fast travel

Yes the sewers!

For some reason when I hear the name "Rodrigo", I just imagine a sixy guy that always walks in slow motion, but seeing that he is a slave, I doubt that will happen
Appearance wise...he would probably be rather rugged, probably missing a finger or two.
But yea I would recommend sword and board in the arena, Claymore is nice, but it swings rather slow giving your opponent more times to bash your face in

Build for you or for me? If it's for me thanks, but I've fielded some 16ish characters, and am now in the realm of choosing three majors only... I'm tired of being overpowered.


Actually Rodrigo is the name of my Altmer Apprentice, who is alive and well, level 19. I created a new character away from magic, as the past four characters or so have been heavy if not full into magic.
The new character's name is In Ha Sok.

In means man, or humanity
Ha means the lotus
Sok means stone

exactly what I was thinking. ...

And as a slave, it could even make a bit of sense. Those swers are nasty. It could make for an interesting roleplay that he's been deemed to clean out the riff raff down there.

Basically, I know you're trying to roleplay a slave and i think it's really cool. But going into the Arena with hardly any experience is pretty harsh. I always go in there with some sort of experience.

Something....

Sewers turned into a life saver for the second character. Found four, count 'em four!, weak healing potions, which carried him through two fights. So thanks!! Lol, he was beaten to within an inch of his life each time too. Thank goodness for those potions. I didn't go sword and board.... my reasoning being that the only two weapons that you find in the Bloodworks are hammers and claymores. So he went with a claymore; being a slave, no weapons and all....
As for the roleplay thing:
I wanted a former slave mentality, with someone who has won his freedom, thrust out into the open world, and he is lost. A blank slate if you will, with those mental restrictions. Then he can tell the story within those limitations. I hope it's good.

Good to know. .

I had a character 2 years ago who basically lived in the sewers for vast portions of time! She had to, since she usually had a bounty. 80% of her game was spent in the sewers, jail, and her home (Lorkmir's place in the Elven Gardens District}, which happens to be a free house.

But ya, it's totally possible to live in them, or just use them as a source of income.

Also don't get lost in them!
They are freaking huge, from what I last recall, heh, and a perfect place for a slave actually, don't think they would enjoy actually being around people, and they would find a place to retreat to make their life more bearable.

Well I really hope you have fun with this character!