Guys, there's one thing that has ever surprised me in playing Oblivion: it seems that, while using brutal force is always helpful, this is not true for the use of magics or other effects!!! And, If it is normal that with a low Destruction you can't be dangerous when you cast a fire ball, I don't explain why I have the impression that I can't change enemy status (for changing the status I mean silencing the monster, making it weaker and so on).

For example:

1) I have linked a silence potion with my blade, than I have hit a mage. After that, the mage could still use a spell of healing or the red spell that drains health. How is it possible?!

2) I don't find a lot of difference between the damage that a spell can inflict on my character BEFORE the use of a magic that should reduce the Destruction of the enemy, and the damage that the same spell of the same monster can inflict AFTER the use...

3) One day, I tried to defeat the leader of the Skyrim bandits, but I was not very strong: infact, when I hit this enemy with my blade, his health reduced in a very insignificant manner. So I decided to use a bottle of skooma (you know that skooma increases your strenght A LOT!) and then I gave him another hit: nothing changed! But, damnation, I had increased the strenght of a lot of points!!!!!!!!

I hope this is not a problem related to my installation of Oblivion and Oscuro... in other words, I would really like that the game is ok and that there's a logical explanation for everything.

Thanks.

I can't be 100% sure what the problem is, but I can make some reasonable guesses based on what I know about the game.

1) It is possible that the mage you were fighting has certain spells as lesser powers which I believe are immune to the silence effect. However it does seem odd that it would be set up like that.

2) Reducing an enemies Destruction skill level will not decrease the damage any of their Destruction spells can inflict, rather it increases the magicka cost of those spells due to skill level being directly related to the magicka cost for casting. It might be possible to reduce their skill to such a low level that they could no longer cast their more powerful spells, but I don't know that for sure.

3) The leader of the Skyrim bandits is probably a pretty tough enemy and thus will have a lot of health, so any damage done will seem like a tiny amount. Also note that skill level is more important than strength when it comes to damage with Blade weapons.