Hey everyone. So I've been wanting to get back into oblivion again, and I want to start up a new character that will keep me motivated to play for 50 Levels and hundreds of hours even though I've done most things in the game. I play on 360 so modding opportunity to extend the game life are limited. I do own all official DLC however. One thing I thought that would be helpful is to role play my new character heavily. Again, with no mods easier said than done. I'm looking for input on what roleplaying ideas I can incorporate to make him more interesting, fun, increase my play time, etc. I'm tentatively going to try playing dead is dead, but with his undead background I might be able to figure out a way around that if I die before getting bored with the character.

Here's my build. It's a custom class designed for efficient leveling. He is almost a pure mage, but has no problem falling back upon his many weapons skills to kill his enemies.

High Elf - Ragnarok
Class: Ancient
Specialization:
- Magic
Attributes:
- Intelligence
- Willpower
Major Skills:
- Mercantile
- Speechcraft
- Heavy Armor
- Hand to Hand
- Blade
- Blunt
- Marksman
Birthsign:
- Atronach

Description:
- Having aged hundreds of years Ancients have become skilled in
all forms of combat.

Bio:
- Ragnorak was born to the name of Andil Sinyaramen in his
homeland of the Summerset Isles several generations ago.
He lived an average life for a time until tragedy struck.
One night necromancers struck his homestead, slaughtering
his family, and abducting him. Raised by necromancers
Andil's life was not a pleasant one. He was tortured
malnourished and lived in fear. Life was, however, not
without its benefits.

Andil was gifted unnatural long life due to the sorceries
of the necromancers. He was also gifted with the magical
knowledge of his captors. Over the years Andil forgot his
own name and he went simply by Ragnarok.

Life dragged on in this manner for centuries, until one
fateful date the Imperial Legion raided the necromancers lair
killing and capturing many of captors, including Ragnarok,
and threw them all into the Imperial prison...

Roleplaying Restrictions:
- Play as a Vampire to sustain long life
- No fast traveling
- Actively seek out necromancers and undead for vengeance


That's it so far. Any suggestions?

Wow you have really thought this guy out! Impressive!

Well, first of all you will need to get Vampirised. Youtube link here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpoRyokBQeA.
Will teach you how to become a vamp.

For necromantic revenge, join Mages Guild and gain admittance to Arcane Uni, follow the quests to defeat Necros, or wander the countryside -- they're everywhere in mid-game.

No fast travelling? Sounds fun until you feel like travelling from Anvil to Chorrol late one night. Try only fast travelling when you own a horse, or when you get admitted to AU, make a dummy spell named travel -- Make sure it Damages a Stat, so that it can't heal unless you pray somewhere.

Major skills are all over the place, not sure Mercantile fits his background to be honest -- did he barter with the necros or something?? Other than that it's ok.

Think over you're character more, work out what he would do in a given situation, and just try different styles of play.

Dead is Dead is good, but I do it only after level 5 -- when you have tougher enemies and a better spell than "Flare".

Hope you enjoy

Not sure if I mentioned it in the opening post, but you're right, the major skills are all over the place. I Intentionally picked skills that I'll have to work at to level up. For example, i have no intention of wearing heavy armor with this character, until i summon a weak creature and let it beat on me because i want to level. That way my constant casting of spells won't level me up faster than I desire

What you want is counter-productive. Best roleplaying chars are ones that have skills from their murky pasts.

Efficient levelling characters are designed to exploit (in my opinion) a levelling mathematical equation, and as such, ruin your experience by trying to increase minor skills, major skills, etc etc.
You end up focusing on that and not your character.

make a decision. If you want maxiumum fun, go with a story, go with skills from your character's bios. If you want to level up quickly and bash skulls with elven maces, then go with a efficient character.

That's one of the many variations to roleplaying preferences though. My characters always walk unless they need to run, and if I fast travel, it's when the trip will be uneventful, like when I've gone back and forth between a town and a nearby dungeon several times. It's just another personal choice. For me, walking from Anvil to Chorrol can be an adventure in itself, even if I stick to the road.

Try to in your early days of vampirism to hunt animals and act like your feeding by getting close to the body and crouching. Your character might not willingly want to be one and tries to fight these urges. but if you wanna go fullout evil bloodsvcking beast, get the vile lair plugout if not already available, very helpful if you dont mind the walk.

One slight change I would make is not to focus on reaching level 50.

Most people who RP deliberately keep their level low and focus on what the character is doing at each moment, and not on things like levelling.
Remember that all levelled items will be at their maximum at 35, and all items / enemies will be available at 22.

Using the Atronach birthsign is fun. Good luck with that!!

I am using a RP Dark Elf at the moment. He is a collector of ancient antiquities, and has a fondness for women and wine.

Try coming up with personal preferences to help round out the very good story background that you have come up with.
And don't forget the simple things like eating, washing clothes, etc. It is all important to RP.

If at some point you find yourself getting bored, remember, it is your character that is bored. Go to them and ask them what would excite them. When I did that with Severus, his answer was "I want to explore the whole map." It was an epic trip that took us through the entire coastal region. up through the forests, into the farthest corners of the mountains, and east and south again into the very tips of the marsh regions. As any undiscovered ruin appeared on his sixth sense, he would search it out adding it's location to his map. At level 25 Sarrah (my pure mage) answered 'I want to become a warrior and wear Daedric Armor." What happened after that was pure magic.
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/862718-angel-the-fan-fiction/page__view__findpost__p__15177406

My Argonian 'Witch' character is doomed to a very, very, very high level as her major skills started so low - she's already reached her stage where her skills are sufficiently 'spread out' that she is becoming weaker every level. As she's a dead-is-dead character though, from an RP persepective it adds an element of narrative to her story as there is a 'rising tide'; life can only get more dangerous and the fights harder!

Think what he / she would wear or use as a weapon, and spells.
My modded Khajiit warrior / mage wears what is mentioned as traditional gear for a Khajiit warrior. so light armour in the style of elven / mithral or whatever mod items that fit.
Weapons single edged blades, but rarely a katana. Scimitar's, elven short swords, cutlass.. so on.

And not to mention roleplay your feelings, my character has a house in LLeyawiin and just to get to know the residents I talked to the Plotius family.. where they made bigoted remarks about my race I may be a goodish character but as from a desert clan very pridefull I enraged them and let the towns guards hack them to pieces.
But your character hates necromancers, but they are the only "family" he knew, and practices similar arts. So he / she should dislike the legion as much for destroying his new home like the necromancers did before.

It's just funny that my char is a witchhunter. Lvl 51 by the way

to be honest, with 4 different combat skills you will get destroyed.

These are the things I employ to help me immerse myself...

.only carry what you would realistically be able to carry ie 1 set of armour, 1 sword, a bow, a few potions... I cannot enjoy the game if I have 5 sets of armour in my inventory.

.do not use the local map in caves.. having to memorise the corridors and chambers is much better.. being lost in a tomb is a very awesome feeling.

.do not repair anywhere outside a town... banging your sword with a hammer without an anvil will do far from repair it.

.do not dive into water in full armour, walk around water. But if I come across a small rowboat I imagine I use it.

.stealth ALWAYS. Even a hardcoe warrior would use suprise as a tactical advantage.

.only light a torch when you come across a flame source ie campfire.

.If a weapon/armour breaks in the wild I drop it. Awesome feeling being chased by a group of gnarls in dementia with no curaiss and low health.

.dont sleep in camps, they belong to someone and they would nay appreciate you being there when they find you asleep in their bed.

.bath in streams after a heavy dungeon crawl.

.do not obsessively search the corpses of EVERYTHING. Goblins would have nothing to offer an imperial soldier when you think about it.

.as above, I find the continued accumulation of loot/gold more a 'game' mechanic than living another life.

.balance adventuring with relaxing in towns, reading some books, going for a meal/beer at an inn.

.take food on long trips in the wild.

.carry only a mortar and pestle, the other alchemical tools cannot be carried in your backpack.

.the wise adventurer will always head out at first light.

.the wise adventurer will always camp on the top of forts when he can.

.no fast travel (bar getting around the IC)

.report many things to the town guards.. bandit just killed a travelling NPC? let the guards know about it. Give a silent prayer for the deceased.

.upon exploring a cave, I shoot the door with 3 arrows when I exit, letting other ranger's know it is clean.

.I DO allow myself fast travel if I come across a patrolling guard, I imagine he gives me a ride to town.

.always carry a dagger, regardless of weather i use it. Its the last resort tool.

.Turn the brightness down on your TV so you need a torch in a cave.

Howling Cave Necromancers did for her. Level 15 death - trapped in a corner by Dread Zombies, burdened then had my strength lowered by a faded wraith - spamming potions only prolonged the end.

Howling Cave Necromancers did for her. Level 15 death - trapped in a corner by Dread Zombies, burdened then had my strength lowered by a faded wraith - spamming potions only prolonged the end.

I came up with some new restrictions for ragnarok. Thought that since he's a vampire and fire is pretty much the bane of his existence he won't carry torches and won't cast fire spells. He also does most quests when magic or magic artifacts are related. but while exploring caves if it is just a random bandit or marauder cave he leaves them be or quitely scouts using chamelon/invisibility to ignore the bandits. the only creatures he actively wants to kill are the undead/ necromancers

I actually redid his class before making him, because the original was a little too slow to level for me. I want to control it but not have it take forever. so it's now: Blade, hand to hand, alteration, destruction, light armor, mercantile, speechcraft.