Now that I haven't played Skyrim in a while, I think i can go back to Oblivion without being frustrated at the graphics. However, I'm not going to play a normal playthrough where I use a cstom class with min/max attitude. Instead, I'll pick one of the starting classes and use a birthsign that fits them. To compensate for any lack of power that class might have, I'll be using a breton for the 50% magic resistance, no matter what class I've chosen.

Another rule of mine is: Don't use enchanting to boost your armor rating (shield) elemental resistance. In addition, spell-making only allowed to combine a 100% copy of two spells I know. (for example, if I want to make a fire spell with soul trap, I could combine the 8 damage spell and the 20 second soul trap spell, if I know them both).

Too many non-combat skills will, naturally, make the character less powerful. In addition, having blade, blunt and h2h at the same time as major skills is far from ideal for great difficulties.


Basically, I need a rough estimate of just how hard a difficulty you can tackle with each starting class. http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Classes
Here's an expanded list, of all classes (can be created with custom character creation): http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:NPC_Classes


http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Birthsigns

Stealth: Lover, Serpent, Shadow, Thief, Steed.
Combat: Lady, Lord, Tower, Warrior.
Magic: Apprentice, Atronarch, Mage, Ritual.



-Acrobat- Stealth
-Agent-Stealth
-Assassin- Stealth
-Bard- Stealth
-Monk- Stealth
-Pilgrim- Stealth
-Thief- Stealth

-Archer- Combat
-Barbarian- Combat
-Crusader- Combat
-Knight- Combat
-Rogue- Combat
-Scout- Combat
-Warrior- Combat

-Battlemage- Magic
-Healer- Magic
-Mage- Magic
-Nightblade- Magic
-Sorcerer- Magic
-Spellsword- Magic
-Witchhunter- Magic





Here's a rough estimate of the difficulty. (50 is the default difficulty in oblivion, 1 is all the way to left and 100 is all the way to the right):

-Acrobat- Stealth --- : Thief --- 60
-Agent-Stealth --- : Shadow --- 47
-Assassin- Stealth --- : Serpent --- 59
-Bard- Stealth --- : Lover --- 59
-Monk- Stealth --- : Steed --- 48
-Pilgrim- Stealth --- : Lover --- 59
-Thief- Stealth --- : Thief --- 48

-Archer- Combat --- : Lady --- 59
-Barbarian- Combat --- : Warrior --- 58
-Crusader- Combat --- : Lord --- 57
-Knight- Combat --- : Warrior --- 60
-Rogue- Combat --- : Lady --- 59
-Scout- Combat --- : Tower --- 59
-Warrior- Combat --- : Warrior --- 60

-Battlemage- Magic --- : Mage --- 58
-Healer- Magic --- : Atronarch --- 51
-Mage- Magic --- : Mage --- 50
-Nightblade- Magic --- : Apprentice --- 62
-Sorcerer- Magic --- : Apprentice --- 56
-Spellsword- Magic --- : Mage --- 64
-Witchhunter- Magic --- : Ritual --- 47

I too came back to Oblivion after playing Skyrim. I loved magic in Skyrim so I thought I'd make a mage and compare the Mages Guild quests to the College of Winterhold quests. For Liriele, I chose a stock Breton race, the pre-made Mage class and the Mage Birthsign. Liriele ended up not doing any Enchanting or Spellmaking. She wore street clothes or robes and didn't use any shield spells so she had 0 armor. She also didn't use any physical weapons.

I'm afraid I can't answer your question about difficulty. I always play on default difficulty. But I can say that Liriele didn't have much trouble surviving at default difficulty. I think I could probably have bumped it up a bit and she would have still been fine.