In Morrowind, you could stack the affects of infinite potions, and intelligence actually had an effect on your potions. So, make a bunch of fortify intelligence potions, then start making the potions you REALLY wanted. Restore Health 1500 points for 10000 seconds.... etc. The altered that in Oblivion, and Intelligence has zero effect on how potent your potions are. Which is a bummer as far as I am concerned.

But, potions that restore health/magika, or damage attributes (poisons), or do numerous other terrible things to them, and wonderful things for you....... Now, add in a few mods..... Alchemy Advanced for instance...... and things get a LOT more interesting.

So, I'm playing Oblivion again, first time was on PS3, now on PC.
I want to play the game "vanilla" first and then add mods. Anyway. I decided beforehand not to power level, my character is a modified assassin. The problem is that my character is getting a bit weak already and I really don't know how to use alchemy properly. Do you have any tips or hints on how to use alchemy early game? What ingredients should I gather, what potions should I make?
I will rely on stealth, marksmanship, alchemy and illusion spells throughout the game. Please help a noob. =)

I play a similar type of character (mystic archer). It can be a little tough at low levels. Your combo of employing stealth, marksman, alchemy and illusion to survive will work well (as capabilities, not major skills); make sure and include lots of detect life to avoid surprises. You'll want to gain access to spellmaking altars so you can craft good illusion spells to control minds effectively. Try to enjure that your markman skill goes up at least three times for each level your character advances so you can try to keep damage on par with your growing enemies.

As far as alchemy goes, at low levels you kind of need to stick with simple damage health and restore health poisons/potions. Don't forget that you can have up to four active on your foe (or you) at the same time.

Here is a great resource for alchemy in general: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Alchemy

And here is a great place to figure out good recipes: http://www.uesp.net/oblivion/alchemy/alc_calc.php

Thank you so much!

Early on, the most valuable alchemy ingredients for the assassin (in my opinion, anyway) are the ones with a Damage Health effect. That would be things like Wisp Stalk, Stinkhorn, Nightshade, Peony, Lotus Seeds, etc. Those poisons work over time, and get stronger as your Alchemy goes up. I hotkey a stack of Damage Health poisons, and apply them to weapons. Often I can hit an opponent with one dagger thrust or one bowshot, and then back-pedal away from them until they fall over and die.

When you get Alchemy to 50, you can start using Tinder Polypore and Wormwood (collect both in the mountains between Bruma and Cheydinhal) to make an invisibility potion.

When your Alchemy is high enough, you can start brewing the poisons with multiple effects, which do multiple simultaneous damage.

I like alchemy for the fact its simple to level up and get points for INT increase for power leveling

besides that I ocasionly use it for making triple dmg poisons which can really cripple enemies if it hits epecilly with weakness to poison stacking

I haven't read all the posts, but here's my two cents in a fast replay:

It levels faster than you think if you just take all the ingredients you find and instead of selling them you make all the potions you can make and then sell them to cash in some nice amounts of gold. Also what you cannot use for potions either keep for later use or eat. ( it will grow your skill )

My last character is lvl 3 and is over 25 skill in alchemy and it started with 10 skill points, and I barely even tried. I predict that at about level 6 I'll have my alchemy at 50 with just stuff I pick up on my way through journeys. Also important thing to know is that there are merchants that sell ingredients that are very useful for restore health or damage health, and the caves are full with 2 types of mushrooms, one that has restore health and one that has damage health, each the first in line effects. You'll get the patter for the ingredients and it'll just seem effortless after a short while.

Alchemy is great for 3 reasons:
1. It's a great money making trade!
2. It's allows for "on the road" and cheap access to restore health and damage health as well as other potions.
3. It's the best way to increase your intelligence.

It's a fairly quick to way to level up at the start of the game, and a good way to make money too.

I like alchemy in any game that has it. It's also my most used profession in World of Warcraft. However in Oblivion and Morrowind I try to hold back a bit on it because it's so ridiculously unbalanced at higher levels.