It's the first time I am playing Oblivion. It took me some time to install FCOM and to make it work, but I am more than pleased. The world seems immense and it's all just perfect. But..

I've been playing for almost two days; I explored Sideways Cave, since I just bumped into them while going from prison to Imperial City. I finished the first part of the quest Septim placed on me - I gave away Amulet of the Kings. I finished two different quests in Imperial City and cleared Sewers (everything accessible, but not Sunken Sewers). Also finished couple of quests in Chorrol, including big Canvas the Castle quest. I have joined both Fighter and Mages guilds, since I am playing some sort of Battle Mage who uses both destruction spells and a weapon with a shield.

So, all in all, that's quite a lot of work included - and I am just half way to level 2! The thing is, I am also aware that leveling won't make me much stronger - especially level 2 won't do much difference.

Is my progress about right? Am I doing something wrong? What sort of things I am supposed to do at such low level? I'd really enjoy some fighting, but usually, when I go out of big cities looking for trouble - I find trouble. Serious trouble.

Talk to me, guys!

When I created my character, I deliberately choose Major Skills that would not level quickly. For me, fast leveling makes the game too difficult to enjoy. To the point, my character is 90+ game days into it. He is just now becoming Level 8. Completed over 20 quests and closed 4 Oblivion Gates. How fast you level is a personal preference. There is no "too slow" or "too fast" when being comparitive. Just have fun is the important thing.

I agree and I completely understand that. The cry for help was actually based on lack of fighting... being that weak, I can't engage it most of the encounters and that's where I'd like to hear some suggestions.

Which parts of offering the biggest array of fighting possibilities which I could actually handle?

I don't use FCOM, OOO, or MMM, or any other heavy game altering mods, so I can't answer that intelligently. Normally, I would say just go out and explore caves, ruins, and forts...and save right before entering them. There is plenty of fighting out there, but not getting slaughtered because of FCOM or another mod I can't help you with.

I don't use FCOM, so can't really help.

I would think that big overhauls are really designed for folks that are intimately familiar with the game, know it cold and want to embrace some major changes and challenges.

The beauty of vanilla is that there is so very much help available. With the big mods, it is assumed you fully understand what they do and how to deal with them. Detailed help is harder to come by - as you can see.

It's ok now, I realized combat is just one part of the whole experience; as soon as I got used to that, immersion became stronger.

I have a question regarding leveling. I am ready to advance to level 2, but I'd only get +2 in my major attributes. Is it possible to wait for couple of days, for skills to progress some more, and then decide to level, so I'd get +5?

Don′t worry about playing wrong or right or you won′t enjoy the game. Play it as you like is my best advice, and don′t concern too much about leveling and progress.

By the way, welcome and have a http://images.uesp.net//c/c4/Fishystick.jpg

Just remember that increasing your Skills makes you more capable, increasing Level makes your enemies more capable with vanilla Oblivion. Overhaul mods may change that, so that the enemy level is dependent on location, instead of the player's level, or they may change the formula for when you level up, but the Skill increases stay beneficial in any of the schemes. If you want to be a better swordsman, use your sword a lot. If you want to be a better Mage, cast lots of spells.

I don't think any overhauls change the way the skills increase, so it's generally the number of times you use a skill that matters, rather than the damage you caused (or repaired). If you're not getting slaughtered, then using a weak weapon or spell and taking longer can increase your skills more, so just make sure you have your survival strategy worked out and go enjoy the adventures.

I decided to play the same character through just the main quest with the only changes being where I decided to place the difficulty slider. With the slider set midways I finished the quest at level 6.8. With the slider full left(easiest) I was at level 4.2. The difference was how much effort it took to dispatch each opponent. You can train a skill that is not a major skill to bring yourself a guaranteed +5 attribute boost, especially if you set the tweaks in the bashed patch to allow more training sessions per level. I try to stick to one +5 for one attribute per level, adding the next highest attribute gain for my second pick, and add one point to luck.