So, after a lengthy hiatus, I am going back into Oblivion. This will be my first modded playthrough. I started modding Oblivion last summer, spent many hours learning how to install mods and extensively testing a load order with well over 100 mods, etc. My test character made it to something like level 20, but I never really roleplayed him. I was just testing the game.

I eventually got a little burned out on all that, started modding Morrowind (much easier than Oblivion) and played Morrowind for a while, then took a break from TES entirely to play Fallen Enchantress Legendary Heros for the past four months.

Now I am getting the itch to play Oblivion again, thanks to the folks on this forum’s continual enthusiasm and thanks to the updates for a number of mods, including Better Cities, Unique Landscapes, Masker’s Oblivion Overhaul, Hotkey Pro, Camping, Better Dungeons, Snus Dungeons, Fighters Guild Quests, Guild Advancement, etc., all of which have had significant upgrades since I installed my load order last summer. It's amazing how many mods are still being significantly improved eight years after Oblivion was released.

So, I am redoing my load order, getting rid of a few things I don’t need and adding a few more I do need and upgrading everything to current versions for what will be my first modded playthrough of something other than a test character.

I am having trouble deciding on what type of character to play, I love playing pure mages, but I have played a ton of them. I love Khajiit but sneak characters don’t hold my interest for too long, so I am thinking of maybe doing a sword and board character. I have not played one of those much, but with Symphony of Violence, I really like the way Oblivion melee combat now sounds.

I want to incorporate some magic, since I just really like magic. But I don’t want to become a Jack of all trades. My only other sword and board character was Appellas Sulineaus, who was an Imperial Knight of the Pelinal Whitestrake variety with The Ritual birthsign, who specialized in Restoration magic and turning undead in addition to his melee skills. That gave him a roleplay reason to use certain types of magic and no real reason to use other types of magic, and I really liked the character. Don’t want to do that character again, through and I don’t even have KOTN installed on my PC.

If anyone has any suggestions for any roleplaying ideas about how to incorporate magic into a melee fighters repertoire without letting the magic dominate too much, let me know.

I am not really looking for build advice, since I think I got that covered, plus I am using a bunch of mods that changes the typical advice about builds, such as Realistic Levelling (changes character levelling), COBL Balanced Races (changes racial stats and birthsigns), Maskar’s Oblivion Overhaul (changes world levelling/scaling). So vanilla build advice would not apply anyway.

I am looking for roleplay advice for how to stay interested in the character and have an internally consistent philosophy for using magic to a limited but significant degree for a melee character. Why does he use magic? If he is skilled at magic, why doesn’t he just abandoned weapons and armor entirely and go pure mage, since magic is where the true power lies? That’s why most of my characters go pure mage, but I want this character to be different. I need legitimate roleplay based answers to these questions to create the character I am looking for.

Of if you just want to share your own experiences with similar characters and staying interested in the same character for a long period. I tend to be ADD with my characters, hopping from this one to that one, so I am going to try to build more of a commitment to just a single character this time. Help me do that.

Have you tried a Redguard melee fighter under the Atronacht birth sign? I have recently retired one at level 34 as he was so powerful that when he entered anywhere where baddies were they all would practically drop dead with fear. He was that good. He used magic as and when he felt like it, or situation called for it. But he was mostly a melee fighter. When he did use magic, it hit hard. The birthsign also gave him protection and topped up the magic if he was up against a magic user. He used magic to give himself that extra edge. I must admit that having got him to the point where he was almost invincible I got bored with him! He wore heavy armour.

Or, how about a Breton spellslinger and melee fighter? They dont need any justification for using close combat magic, it's in their blood. Also heavy armour. Frankly, you cant lose out with one of these.

My third favourite is the Dark Elf. Like the Redguard he uses magic as and when called for. A melee fighter with atitude and destruction magic under the Atronach birthsign. He uses magic because like the Breton it is so much part of him. I have a Dark Elf running like this at the moment. Another heavy Armour user.

I have thought of (though I haven't done it) a character who could only use once-a-day powers - race, doomstone etc - not regular spells. (For one thing I forget they're even there most of the time, be interesting to have to rely on them in extremis.) In fiction, magic is often depicted as not at all as routine as in OB, it can be quite exhausting and subject to all sorts of limitations, like summoned beings who just won't turn up if you try to call them too often. That might simulate it some. Perhaps there aren't enough such powers easily available to make it interesting, though - but the general idea is that any given spell cannot be cast more than once a day.

Atronach is not a bad idea, since the stunted magicka will mean that he needs to rely on weapons most of the time or carry around a ton of potions, which I don't like to do.

What I would really like to come up with is some sort of believable personality quirk of the character that would let them use some magic but not so much that they abandon their weapons to devote themselves fully to magical pursuits. My last Xbox character focused on bound weapons/armor and used them exclusively (no physical weapons) and had a very self reliant philosophy. I could do that again, but I'd like to do something different and use physical weapons (eventually enchanted) and armor.

That's not a bad idea, especially since unlike spells, the powers are unaffected by wearing armor. But you are right, there are not that many of them.

Well, one option would be to use Destruction only to cast on-touch Weakness to spells in melee, and use a weapon enchanted (or poisoned) to take advantage of the weakness effect. And then rely on Alchemy for healing potions and poisons.

You could limit it to just one element, perhaps one your character is resistant to - such as a Dunmer only using fire-based swords or bows, and weakness to fire spells, or a Nord using frost, or Argonian using poisons. And then those things that are resistant become your most feared adversaries or big challenges.

I played a Nord for a while who carried a big Elven longsword enchanted with a frost-damage Sigil Stone, and would cast Weakness to Frost 100% for 7 seconds in combat. If something was resistant to Frost he had much longer fights. Even when he later gained access to better (Glass, Daedric) weapons he held onto that frost sword. Though after a while he also carried a Silver shortsword enchanted with Shock damage.

So that's a suggestion - pick an elemental theme and run with that.

I've been going through a similar precess. I've come back to Oblivion too. That alchemy thread a couple of weeks ago got me wanting to play a non-Alchemy mage. But I keep fiddling with mods, adding some, taking some away, resolving conflicts, ect. I'm sure you know exactly what I'm talking about!

I've gone through about four of five false starts while I refine my mod list and then start again, and again. I think *fingers crossed* I have finally got everything just about the way I want it now. I've played Amaryis for 11 hours now (level 6) and I think finally everything feels right so far. So I feel your pain, as far as having ADD and trying to get a game started.

I'm kind of moving in the opposite direction though, so I don't know if I can offer any good advice. In my case, I usually play melee characters and Amaryis is one of my first mages.

A long time ago I played a Breton character who, due to family trauma, wanted desperately to deny her magical heritage. Over the course of her game she gradually came to see the wisdom of accepting a small amount of magic into her life. She was travelling with a pet wolf and the constant anxiety about keeping this wolf alive made her resort to healing magic. That "broke the ice" with this character. She began to use other spells: shield, water breathing, life detection, restore fatigue, telekinesis, ect. She continued to exclusively use physical weapons and armor for combat. She only used spells that did not compete with her physical combat abilities. Magic, for her, was an auxilliary, or back-up, to what she was already doing. It worked well with that character and fitted into her story pretty nicely in the end.

I don't know if this helps at all. It's all I can come up with at the moment. Good luck with your character. It sounds like it will be a very fun game.