A friend of mine just got Oblivion for the XBOX 360, and he is really frustrated with the standard encumbrance values, limiting his ability to carry much loot back from dungeons. Is there any easy-to-obtain strength gear available early on, or any other tips for raising his encumbrance other than pumping strength each level? He knows about efficient leveling, I'm mainly looking for anything out of the ordinary that he can do in the vanilla game.
Thanks!
As others have said, feather spells work well. As well as rings. Feather potions tend to run out at the most inopportune time, so I usually don't rely on potions unless it's one that I've made.
Fortify Strength Spells and Gear.
You can get the basic fortify strength spell pretty early.
Also:
The dungeon will not reset for three days. So, move all loot to the chest closest to the door. Make multiple trips if need be. Take all, becoming overencumbered. Repair as much as possible. Cast all spells and put on either rings or gear. Put all loot you can't carry in chest again. Mark location. Get out and sell gear. Don't forget to get more repair hammers. Go back to hole in ground. Grab gear. Go back to store. You/he will become insanely rich in very little time. Now, all that said, my characters only take what THEY themselves find interesting or useful. My mage, has no idea that that daedric mace is worth a lot of money; he's never touched one in his life. It's heavy and ugly, and I'm not carrying it. (I'm trying to limit my money intake these days on my characters. This is one of many options for me.)