Hi,

Well I'mj reaching that point again. I've played the start of oblivion quite a few times now. The furthest I've got is level 25 where everything I met required 30+ hits from my strongest spell (as a mage to kill). So I thought I'd try something else and I've been using francesco;s for the last while. But now my 2 main characters levels 8 and 11 just seem to die no matter what. Unless I'm missing something. A typical example is running from the imperial city to the road opposite on the east, last time as a level 11 I met 3 big cats (one twice) and died 3 times. They are too fast to outrun even with everything unequipped, they take about 20 hits + to kill with my dwaven short sword and I take about 3 hits from them (when blocking with my dwarven shield and wearing full legion armour) to die. There is no escape, I can't even avoid them sneaking as they're too perceptive. The only way I can deal with things of this kink of level is to find somewhere where ever I happen to be where they can't reach me and cast my one distance spell (weak fireball) about 60 times.

I have been using Realistic Leveling so I've probably not been Efficiently leveling up, does anyone have any advice.

I'm seeing a few things --

Main thing is, it really sounds to me like you've increased the difficulty, either with one or more mods, or by increasing the slider yourself, or both.

Realistic Leveling removes the need to worry about Efficient Leveling, so you're fine there. However, that leaves the skills you've been using, and how often you've been using them -- for example, if you're having difficulties while sneaking in heavy armour, it could be related to a mod that changes how Sneak is used or detected, or just because your Sneak skill just too low to move silently in heavy armour?

Jumping out of reach is one very effective way to avoid getting hit, but it's best for when you're mainly using ranged attacks rather than melee, or need to take a break to drink some potions.

When you use magic to attack, do you work on the related skills (i.e. Destruction), how often do you buy new spells, and do you make your own custom spells? As for that starter fire spell, that's one of the weakest spells in the game, so at level 11 it's definitely going to take quite a few to kill something. At the very least, buy something stronger for situations like that.

If by "legion armor" you're talking about what the Imperial Soldiers who ride between towns wear, that's about the same as steel armor, and by 10 you should start finding Dwarven and Orcish upgrades.

IIRC a short sword and a long sword do have different reaches, so a larger and heavier weapon can also keep things at a distance, plus it should do a little more damage. Adding an enchantment can help as well.

Do you run everywhere? If so, start walking. That gives you a better chances to spot enemies, instead of running past one and into another. Casting Detect Life will be a big help in knowing what's nearby.

firstly, your not alone. cats just start appearing around lv 11-12, so you are going to be relatively weak and they will seem to have super powers compared to you, but all is not lost.
one 'cheat' is to tweek the game difficulty slider to easy, just for the encounter. another is to get good at alchemy and mix ingredients for a weak invisibility potion - that'l give you around 15 seconds to escape, and importantly, potions are instant unlike the weaker invisi spell, which takes valuable time to cast. don't bother with low level chameleon spells - you'll still be seen. tactics: don't run! unless already at the limits of the cats detection range - you'll already know they can catch you from behind. so face them down - use health potions like water, don't wait until your health is low cos they will stagger you which prevents you controling you char. block with weapon or shield and use poison to deplete thier health. .get good at the illusion skill (expert) and you can use paralyse/immobilise to take them out of action before they strike. get good at sneak and you'll increase you chance of non-detection. in the mean time - whilst getting those impotant skills up, avoid travel where you know they hang out. on the subject of travel - you can always get around by 'fast travel' that bypasses all out of town encounters. also, if you must walk the path, try hanging out with a passing legion soldier as a body guard. alteration skills will allow you to cast shield spells to boost your armour rating for a while.
using a combination of some or all of this advice will make your meetings with those big pussies more......survivable. Rick

Make sure your difficultly level in the options menu is set to the middle (default). If it is to the right of center you will take extra damage and do less damage. If you have no issue with it you can turn down the difficulty to ease combat. Just move the slider to the left.

For default difficulty You simply cannot expect to survive without using all the tricks in the book. Use homemade shield potions to add extra protection to armor which breaks down during a fight. Magical shield don't. They just time out. You'll need an Alchemy skill level of 25 or above to make them.

Don't even go out on the road with worn armor and carry enough hammers to repair it immediately after fighting.

Summon help. Even a skeleton can take some of the heat off while you are healing or casting destruction spells. Use restore potions instead of healing spells during combat.

If you depend on destruction spells, you really need to be using something more potent than a Weak Fireball by the time you are level 8. Something with a 40 damage will serve.

Never turn your back on a mountain lion. Not even to run.

Perhaps the most important is poisons. By level 8 you should be able to brew up a poison that can do major damage to a mountain lion. Remember, You can poison a weapon more than once during a fight and the second poison accelerates the rate of damage. Three poisons will end any fight very quickly.

These are just some basics but there's enough here to get you through, However, there's much more such as learning the strengths and weaknesses of your opponents, spell chaining (aka spell stacking), enchantments, etc.

Don't feel too bad. I lost several early characters before I started to catch on about what it takes to survive.

I'm probably making things hard on myself with my mods. I've Francesco's with LAME, Running Revised, and Realistic Leveling.

I like running revised but it doesn't effect the creatures or NPC's so a cat feels like a freight train in comparison to you. Dodging beyond using a piece of scenery as a barrier to run round, just wont work as you are alway in their reach. Even using scenery wont last long as you'll fatigue and they wont.

I'm a spellsword so LAME should advantage me over a cat but it really doesn't do much good when it takes at least 10 hits at near max MP usage to kill one. Also I'm way to lowly to get custom spells. The other issue is LAME stops you from drinking too many potions so that option's out the window.

I've contracted vamparism by accident so I'm casting permanent life detect and night vision while walking but by the time I can see a baddy they've already spotted me (may be a graphics draw distance issue), and if they see you they can charge you down with no chance of escape. (I've possibly messed up realistic leveling with vamipism since I leveled up 2-3 times in quick succession after I got it.

I'm trying the NPC buddy system since I made the first post buy he got annihilated by an imp (the grey kind).

Thanks for the advice will let know how got on.

To make custom spells, just join the Mages Guild and do the recommendation quests to gain access to the Arcane Uni in the IC, where you can access the spellmaking altars. There aren't any requirements for any of that, and you can make Novice level spells that can be more effective than what you can buy.

Since you're a vampire, are you feeding often to avoid sun damage? That may also be causing excess health loss, if these fights have been during the day.

For future reference, head south of Bravil and pick some mandrake root. If you're hit with a disease (including Porphyric Hemophilia from vampires), you can eat a root and cure it right away -- and after fighting vampires, always check to see if your fatigue has been damaged; if it has, you've caught their disease. Another option is to always pray at the main altar in a chapel after fights.

You're using a shortsword? I like those too but consider a longer blade. With a short sword it can be harder to sneak in hits without taking some yourself.
A bit of reach can make up for the weight of the weapon when you are parrying (stepping out of range from a incoming hit) and make it easier to counter.
Also use terrain to your advantage train up acrobatics and use rocks and stuff to stay out of the way of things that are faster and stronger than you till you get stronger. Hop up on a bolder and magic/archery can make quick work of some stuff. Other things will be able to get at you but you can always jump off and back on to buy some time.
Use the right spell for what you're fighting some things are more resistant to fire or frost but weaker to shock the little bit of extra damage adds up if you have mana problems.

That and I love conjuration, if something is attacking your summon it isn't attacking you and buys some extra time to get damage in.

Legion armor is not worth it, only the cuirass has a better armor rating than iron and it has the added benefit of looking a lot cooler one of my favorite looking things in the game. Other than that I think the rest is the same except it weighs more which will make you slower than if you wear iron.

Whack, whack, command creature, heal up, rinse, repeat.

Maybe try disabling Running Revised, at least for the time being. Also check which components of Fran's you're using. I haven't played it in a while, but I seem to remember there being one .esp whose sole purpose is to increase the number of monsters out there. Might be another candidate for (temporary) disabling, at least while you're getting a handle on things.

I'm not sure what you mean by being too lowly for custom spells, but if you're a spellsword and don't have access to the Arcane University yet, I'd move that to the top of your list of priorities.

Alleystria,

Yep I reckon that's the one to go. I like it in principle but it makes the play to imbalanced with only you affected. Once I get my head around the mods i might see about merging it with the NPC stuff from Realistic fatigue.

I'm sure it takes more than level 10 to make it round all the cities o get the mages missions, at least at the rate I level up.

Been trying to make it round the nibenay basin for the last few of hours, dying a lot, just got into a fight that the legion jumped in to rescue me and I hit one by mistake and they dragged me back to Cheydinhal, thak god I'm saving every 60 seconds.

Level has nothing to do with it. Visit a city, join the Mages Guild, do the recommendation quest, then go to the next city and do the next quest. It can be done right out of the sewers.

Still sounds to me like the difficulty's been turned up somehow, either in Options or by a mod.