I heard somewhere that, because of ridiculous level scaling in OB, its better to just rush through the main quest while leveling up as little as possible. To some extent, I agree (except one or two of the vampires in Azura's quest were still hard). But now I've hit a road block. Even with a dai-katana enchanted with fire, he doesn't die quickly enough. And he absorb magic most of the time.

Try using a regular (non-enchanted) weapon. His reflect and absorption just means that if you use magic, you feed him. Dagger, up close and personal is nice, as you can get many whacks in. I personally use a claymore, as it is quite fun to watch your enemies go flying through the air when doing the expert power move with a claymore. If it's enchanted with fire, your enemies catch on fire... but I digress. Buff myself with shield if I'm a warrior, and spell absorption/reflect potions if I'm a mage. He should go down fairly easily with non-enchanted weapons. There is always the difficulty slider, which you can use mid-combat if you so choose.

Edit: My characters level up as the game intended. My new character is level 5, and can one-hit kill anything while sneaking with a bow. I just practice my killing skill. There is a huge debate about leveling in Oblivion, I don't power level myself, and every character I've fielded has been very successful in what I had hoped for them. I'd just play and level up as normal. The only reason you don't level in Oblivion, according to many people here, imho, is that you are not successfully practicing your kill skill, and need to learn the combat/game system better. Problems come with power gaming. It is quite easy to screw up your character by having him get weaker as you go higher in levels.

Some people don't level up, because it's a part of their roleplay (the availability of certain weapons and armor, for example)

hitting him with non-enchanted weapons takes too long

Just get your destruction skill to 100 then take him out with a spell

Poison of Fire Damage on your weapon. He has no defense against this, and is weak to fire.

I once went through the main quest as fast as possible. It really is so much easier when you only have to deal with stunted scamps and lower leveled Daedra.

Exactly what I was referring to in my earlier post. Thanks for the example.

I would recommend this as well as beefing yourself up w/potions and powers gained from magical stones. You can only gain 1 power from a Doom Stone, yet you can aquire all Heaven Stone powers if the total sum of your infamy and fame exceed each specific Heaven Stone's requirement. You should have at least 18 pts of renown (fame+infamy), so you can at least get the Jone Stone power. Furthermore, try to get Bound weaponry and armor from the Rune Stones. However, they only last a limited amount of time, so you're limited to the closest one to the Cloud Ruler Temple--unless of course, you can damage the weaponry and armor (hit an enemy and be hit back), repair them, and then drop them until the power expires, making the Bound items last indefinitely. Some consider this cheating!


You could also use bows as their physical damage isn't reflected.
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Magical_Stones

this is great advice and all, but most of it requires time-consuming preparation (especially the suggestion about raising destruction to 100...seriously???). I'm more interested in knowing what people who finished the MQ in as little time and with as few resources as possible did to get past Camoran . And without using obvious cheats/exploits; I'm already aware that it is possible to trick-jump over the door to the Temple of the One and access an alternate door that takes you to the interior portion, post-invasion.

It's been a while, but I seem to recall that when Fortja (basically a Nord Battlemage) did it at level 2, she just hacked at him with her fire-enchanted katana, and self-healed. She had very high strength and endurance, though, because she was under-leveled. She would have been equipped with some enchanted heavy armor, a couple of reflect rings (probably the Vipereye), but nothing very spectacular.

I came back with more regular potions of healing and used my fire-enchanted dai-katana. And I found out that I could kill Raven and Ruma Camoran very easily before speaking to Mankar, leaving me some time to fight him alone, and I got him this time.

In my opinion, this goes against the Role Playing part of the game. You need to develop the abilities to fight, to defend, to be the Hero of the Civilisation of Tamriel. Being at level 2 means you are just a "noob". You should be wiped out by just about all in the region of Paradise at level 2. Though some may try to have done the main quest at the lowest level possible, you are fighting the creatures of a God, a Daedric God. This should be scaled to requiring some significant character development. The original Arena game (Elder Scrolls 1) required serious character development as you progressed through the main quest. You needed to develop fighting skiils, weapon technology and experience levels. At level 2, you should have been roasted over a very slow fire and fed to the Xivilai.

I killed him with a shock staff and the Snow Flare spell. (destruction spell)