Hey guys! I just got Oblivion, and I've been playing it for a few hours, but decided to do a new Character as the first one just could not survive anywhere (He was level 5 and died to ANYTHING, difficulty was normal).
So I want to create a new Character who would be kind of a hybrid, using blunt weapons and spells to defeat his foes.
I was thinking:
Race: Imperial
Starsign: The Lady
Class: Dragon Templar (which is:
Blunt
Block
Restoration
Heavy Armour
Athletics
Illusion
Mysticism
I don't have armourer because it costs so little to repair armour in shops so I find little use for it

I also like blunt more than blade
Any tips where to get good heavy armour or good maces & axes to use for the first few levels so that I stand a chance for the 2 sisters in the Arena (which I died to like 10 times with my first character... GRR REVANGE!)
If you keep your difficulty slider in the middle, the whole game can be made EZ-mode by taking advantage of the numerous oversights in the game.
For example, if you can get yourself through the mage guild part up to getting into the arcane university, then you can make spells that cast 1 mana and cast them repeatedly until you get to 100. This assumes you didn't pick atronach as your birth symbol.
Sneak is similar, you just go to any place, hit the sneak button and auto-walk into the wall.
Note, for these, you have to hit the confirmation every 25 points when it tells you what you have gained for becoming an apprentice, journeyman, expert and master. 90% of the skills in the game can be abused similarly. Some of my favorites are alteration, illusion and conjuration, which all improve very quickly if you chose a magic specialization during your character creation process.
Something else to keep in mind is the level system. If you are not experienced with leveling, it will benefit you greatly not to level at all. I have a level 1 character who is the grand champion of the arena and has a bunch of other titles. The less you level, the less the game scales everything up. This makes a 20+ damage spell a one-hit killer on half the monsters/npcs. Make that a 70 damage spell and you are pretty much unstoppable. So, basically, level slowly and carefully or pay the price.
Also, I do not agree with the previous posts about the birth signs. If you are a true power player, you need the extra luck to help you get to 100 in all of your stats later. Otherwise it takes 50 levels. Any birth sign is fine except atronach, unless you are a masochist. You can get similar powers quite easily later in the game, if you really want/need them. In Morrowind, it was a different story, however.