There have been plenty of good ideas regarding skill changes in these threads, but as of yet I haven't seen an attempt to put them into the game practically, so I thought I'd give it a go. It's just a first attempt and I'm sure there are probably many issues with it, but here is what I have so far. What do you think?

Things marked with * are those that have not been implemented in any game in the series as far as I am aware.
I do not take credit for most of the ideas implemented here, this is just my attempt at organising it into a workable system.

Skill (What it governs)

Short blade (Daggers and shortswords)
Long Blade (Longswords and claymores)
Blunt (Maces, hammers, polehammers)
Axe (Axes, picks*, halberds)
Staff (spears, polearms and battlestaves*)
Hand to hand (Kicking*, punching, fist weapons)
Marksmen (Bows, throwing weapons)
Block (Blocks, parries*, reversals*)
Armorer (Fixing and creating weapons/armour*)
Athletics (Speed of running, rate at which fatigue decreases, sprinting*)
Acrobatics (Jumping, dodgeroll/moves)
Climbing* (All climbing actions*)
Sneak (Sneaking, sneak damage)
Security (Lockpicking, pickpocketing)
Charisma* (Speechcraft, mercantile)
Alchemy (Potions, food, explosives*)
Restoration (Restoration spells)
Conjuration (Conjuration spells)
Illusion (Illusion spells)
Mysticism (Mysticism spells)
Destruction (Destruction spells)
Enchanting (Enchanting items)
Crafter* (Fixing and creating clothing and non-metal items*)


Character type (What skills it covers)

Combat (Long blade, blunt, axe, staff, block, armorer, Crafter, athletics)
Stealth (Sneak, security, climbing, marksman, acrobatics, hand to hand, short blade, charisma)
Magic (Illusion, conjuration, destruction, alteration, mysticism, restration, alchemy, enchant)

I still haven't figured out how to organise them by attributes, so any help with that would be wonderful. I also would appreciate any criticisms and/or queries regarding this system and will hopefully be able to answer questions.

You pretty much described Morrowinds skill set

I doubt a skill like climbing would ever be a separate skill. Combine it with acrobatics. And yeah this is basically morrowind with some new hypothetical features, like explosives.

No I didn't. Morrowind did not have climbing, charisma (had the 2 skills it's made of though) and crafter, and it also had 4 armour related skills as well, which I've removed because I think they're unnecessary. I also would probably have kept axe in blunt except I needed a 24th skill to make it fit. Also, there are changes to be noted in the list, some features have not been in the game at all before, as noted by the asterisks. But I realise it is mostly similar to previous games, and I think this makes sense. If it ain't broke, why fix it. I've tried to fix what was broken while retaining what I thought worked well.

Daggerfall had climbing.

Yeah DF had climbing, and it was awesome.

I had considered this, but I think it would be overpowering to have these skills govern it entirely, especially considering there are individual skills for each type of weapon (here and in the other games mostly). If you think about it, climbing would involve, at least how I want it, ledge grabbing, sliding along and lifting from, wall-running, wall-jumping, grabbing poles, vaulting etc. and to put all that under acrobatics as well as your jumping, rolls and dodge moves (a system I think should be more than it was in Oblivion) it becomes a very overpowered skill IMO.

I said pretty much like Morrowind not completely

Short blade (Daggers and shortswords) Morrowind
Long Blade (Longswords and claymores) Morrowind
Blunt (Maces and hammers) Morrowind
Axe (Axes, picks*) Morrowind
Staff (spears, polearms and battlestaves*) Morrowind except called spears
Hand to hand (Kicking*, punching, fist weapons) Morrowind
Marksmen (Bows, throwing weapons) Morrowind
Block (Blocks, parries*, reversals*) Morrowind
Armorer (Fixing and creating weapons/armour*) Morrowind
Athletics (Speed of running, rate at which fatigue decreases, sprinting*) Morrowind
Acrobatics (Jumping, dodgeroll/moves) Morrowind
Climbing* (All climbing actions*)
Sneak (Sneaking, sneak damage) Morrowind
Security (Lockpicking, pickpocketing) Morrowind
Charisma* (Speechcraft, mercantile)
Alchemy (Potions, food, explosives*) Morrowind
Restoration (Restoration spells) Morrowind
Conjuration (Conjuration spells) Morrowind
Illusion (Illusion spells) Morrowind
Mysticism (Mysticism spells) Morrowind
Destruction (Destruction spells) Morrowind
Enchanting (Enchanting items) Morrowind
Crafter* (Fixing and creating clothing and non-metal items*)

I think this generally looks like some kind of mix of the Daggerfall and Morrowind skillset, with some skills left out, and some additions.

My mistake then. Haven'te played Daggerfall.

Yes, I know, but as I've said, many things worked well anyway. You could also say Oblivion's skillset was just Morrowinds skillset with some things taken out. It doesn't necessarily make it a bad thing (although IMO it was not really as good as MWs), since it is part of the same series and just an attempt to refine it.

Oblivions skils
Blade - 2 Morrowind skills
Blunt - 2 Morrowind skills
Hand to Hand - Morrowind
Armorer - Morrowind
Block - Morrowind
Heavy Armor - Morrowind
Athletics - Morrowind
Acrobatics - Morrowind
Light Armor - Morrowind
Security - Morrowind
Sneak - Morrowind
Marksman - Morrowind
Mercantile - Morrowind
Speechcraft - Morrowind
Illusion - Morrowind
Alchemy - Morrowind
Conjuration - Morrowind
Mysticism - Morrowind
Alteration - Morrowind
Destruction - Morrowind
Restoration - Morrowind

I'd like to keep the armor skills, and get back the medium armor skill from Morrowind.

That could fit in quite nicely if we slightly adjusted the armour ratings so that light included cloth armour, which I reckon should have an armour rating as it still protects you to a degree, and that would take it up to 27 skills, which is divisible by 3, but I don't think that armour should be a skill, because it doesn't involve active decisions of any kind, and the only realistic thing about getting skilled in armour is how well you move in it, and the rest is up to the armour itself IRL anyway.

pretty good list. like you said its similiar to morrowind, which had a better skillset than oblivion's.


just add halberds into axes , and fist weapons into hand to hand.

I thought I put fist weapons in hand to hand.

Hlberds, I'm not sure. They are pretty long, like spear weapons, but I suppose axes would probably be better. Then those polearm warhammers should probably belong in blunt as well. I'll edit it.

I'll take a crack at dividing them into attributes.

Strength - Long Blade, Blunt, Axe, Marksman
Agility - Sneak, Short blade, Acrobatics, Security
Endurance - Staff, Block, Armorer, Climbing,
Speed - Athletics, Hand to Hand (maybe)
Personality - Charisma, Crafter
Intelligence - Conjuration, Alchemy, Illusion
Willpower - Destruction, Mysticism, Restoration, Enchanting