Hello, my name is Magickman12 and I am an Obliviaddict. I have other games that I've bought but never even played more than an hour on like Dragon Age and Witcher, because I keep going back to ESIV. With that said, you can bet I've played just a little. I've had three PC's all of whom I've taken all the way until the upper stratosphere of levels. Now, I am on my fourth and I started a new way of playing that I thought I'd share.
I always wanted a better death-handling system, but you just can't mod something that will be reliable in this respect. I finally came up with something that I didn't even need to mod. Whenever my PC dies and I have to load the last save, I use the console to showbirthsignmenu and I randomly pick a new new birthsign. Note you can do this without having to worry about your skill levels being set. Then, depending on what birthsign comes up, I play according to that sign. So, if it a warrior, she acts like a warrior, or a mage, she acts like a mage. This makes playing very refreshing with just one PC. Once, my latest female PC got the Lady birthsign so I roleplayed her as more of a noble person who didn't wander into dungeons, but she died when curiousity got the better of her while taking a little walk with her ladies-in-waiting.
It would be better if you could change classes with the console but that resets your skills, even with the special method of making a new save without closing the console and pressing Done. To get around this, I made some extra birthsigns that I could substitute for classes, and these also give her some varied abilities.
I also make a penalty for dying. Each death takes off 5 skill points and one attribute point, randomly picked. I use the console player.setav command for this. This makes you be VERY careful about what you make your character do, especially at higher difficulties.
So, try it out. It takes a littel work after every death, but so the more reason to avoid getting your character in too dangerous of places.

Welcome here MagicMan12. Have a fish stick. Or fishy stick. Something like that.

Sticky fish? :shrug:

Might want to throw this into the suggestion topics, maybe?
And Fishy Sticks are old school, Miaq's all about the Skooma Shakes now. How else does he run that damn fast?

I've never tried this. Does the game actually pick a different birthsign each time or do you have to randomize it yourself?

This is an interesting concept. I'm tempted to give it a try in the future.

It does sound neat. I could never do it, tho. I get too obsessive about forming new characters. I don't think I could just randomly have a go at it.

Very interesting idea.

Do you find that you change your combat style very differently with each death?
And what about items? Do you throw your weapons and armor in the bin for a whole new set?

I randomize the birthsign myself in different ways. Just close your eyes and point to the birthsign menu, whatever comes up, there you are.
I do modify my combat tactics with each birthsign. With the Lady birthsign, I avoided combat as much as possible and let my companions/bodyguards do the killin'. With the Shadow birthsign, I wait in the darkness and shoot a poison arrow. With the Warrior, I hack and slash.
I have a Bag of Holding so I am acquiring different suits for different signs. Heavy armor, mage robe, noble outfit, shrouded armor. I also have different suits for different climates, ie. fur armor for cold mountains. Different weapons are also stored for different "personalities".
I also join and work with whatever guild might be applicable. When my PC was the Mage birthsign, she joined the Mages' Guild and did some of its quests. Now she is the Shadow birthsign and has joined the Dark Brotherhood, having no current interest in all that magic stuff. She began as the Thief birthsign, aslo randomly picked, and did burglaries and knocked people out with the blackjack courtesy of the Thieves' Goods mod.
This PC has only died 4 times and I am about 12 game days into play. If your careful with your PC and don't make them do things you prolly wouldn't do in real life without plenty of help, then you won't have to change him/her too much.

Just some added thoughts on this. My PC's home will depend upon what birthsign she is at the time ie, the Lady would stay at Rosethorn Hall, the Mage would be at Frostcrag, the Lord would be at Castle Seaview, etc. Now I will have a reason for owning so many houses.
The current birthsign also determines what partners I have; different ones will help me on different guild quests.
It also determines her daily routine outside of adventuring. If she is working under the Apprentice, then she practices her spells in her guild hall or reads a book. If the warrior, she practices her combat skills. She also starts off each morning doing jumping-jacks (just jumping, really) to limber up and increase the ol' Athletics skill. If the Lady, she'll read a book or buy clothes.
She levels up her marksmanship with practice targets if she is the Strider birthsign--both the birthsign and the ability to level up requires mods.
Furthermore, her diet depends upon her birhtsign. If she is of some combat birthsign, she will hunt and eat lots of meat. If she is the Lady or the Monk (modded sign), then she is vegetarian. I could go on and on about the different ways I am able to play just one character.
I apologize for going on and on about this but this has totally refreshed Oblivion for me and it is very fun with whole new dimensions of role-playing available after every death.

This sounds like a great way to roleplay. I often try and insert characters from my own fiction into games such as TES, as it can help me really get into their head (Plus is a lot of fun!) - on Morrowind I was playing a rather lazy, "demi-God" I've been knocking around on paper for a little, and found using the console as a tool for him to exert his control over the universe to be a lot of fun (He found great delight in saving the falling Wood Elf, walking on up and having a chat with him as he sat suspended in the air before helping him down, and had a fist-fight with Dagoth Ur for kicks.), but didn't find as much joy in using the console in Oblivion. However, the idea of this reincarnation-like feature is pretty damn interesting, and I might use that next time I boot up.

I just wanted to update this topic. I am still playing this way and enjoying it IMMENSELY. I have the freedom of roleplaying different characters without sacrificing levelling or completed quests. I play a character until he/she dies ten times and then I switch races and classes as detailed above. Once that is done, I redirect the whole purpose of the character to her new class. If I am an assassin, I do assassin quests. If a warrior, I try to advance in the Fighters Guild. My current PC is a Xivilai Battlemage who is doing the Kvatch mod where she rebuilds the city and she is doing this out of guilt for what her brethren did. Before that, she was a wood elf rogue who spent most her time thieving. If I really like a particular PC, then I make extra certain she doesn't do anything exceptionally dangerous, even if it means going out with an army of companions.
I select my mods based on the type of character I am currently playing, so the rogue PC had a lot of thief-oriented mods. The warrior had Deadly Reflex and Adrenalin-Fueled Combat. The mage had Supreme Magicka and other spell mods. Sure I lose some of the perks to these mods when I deactivate them, but that is the price for dying.
Each character has rules like only the assassin will use poisons. Any non-spellcasting class has to have the Sorcery's Toll mod activated because spell-casting should be dangerous to them. Only the mage could make her own spells. Only warriors get DR and AFC perks. The battlemage gets to use Arcane Infusion mod to make weapons enchanted with currently equipped spell. Only thieves can make their own lockpicks with the Lockpick mod. In my personal hunger mod, the elven druid was a vegetarian because meat made her sick, but the Xivilai has to eat twice as much of everything. That's just to name a few.
It's an awesome way to play.

I remember you. Yea, it's always cool to have a game that lets you RP just as you wish. I have my own system, too.

Hey, the birthsign man is back. I remember this topic!

Great to hear that things are going well with the idea. I always did want to try it. The trouble is that some of us play for 400 hours without our character dying!