I wonder what would have to be sacrificed though to get spells in the game properly again though. I would give a lot for a few choice spells from Oblivion for my cleric like character.
Nothing. There's nothing that would need to be removed...unless they want to "balance" it out by trashing what the physical abilities are able to get away with.
I think it's a good thing that I never finished Oblivion. It bored me to tears for the most part, yet after slogging through 100+ hours in this game, all I can think is "uh yeah, the aesthetics and Archery is nice...everything else is pretty much a backstep". I never finished Oblivion, but the complete lack of real character customization is mind-boggling bad in this game. Going to install Warcry/MMM/OOO/Frans etc with the best texture packs and leveling mods and give it another shot. At least I'll be able to play the caster, I want to play. I also never went overboard with the mass insta kill or perma invis type stuff either. I always knew how to moderate myself, but I still had around 20x more choice than I do now.
The only thing that I was really looking forward to in this game was:
1. Improved combat (it has, but not enough to matter one bit)
2. Perks/improved leveling system. This isn't really that much better. It's much worse in some ways, better in others.
The only thing this game truly does better than Oblivion is aesthetics. It's truly outstanding in this game...but I want a little gameplay to go with my eyecandy. One could argue about the scaled leveling and the loot lists, but it's awful in both games. Who cares if in Oblivion you see a bandit in glass armor? In this game I get 5g and a gem for opening a master lock and can also create gear that eclipses anything I can possibly find. Loot is dull, dull, dull in both games (without mods).
The CK can't get here soon enough.