Hello and a happy new year to ya all.

Im a big fan of Fallout, mass effect, and elder scrolls. Even though im the crappiest RPG player ever, who have only really completed Mass effect, since its more of an action game, i enjoy almost anything that comes out under the name of bethseda studios or related.

Just bought a new copy of oblivion since my old was lost and I would like to ask you a few questions to improve my gameplay.

Last time i tried playing theif/ranger and other typical classes like mage or some kind of priest summoner. But every time i reached around lvl 5 or such.. the gameplay became very very dull, and you needed atleast 10 arrows to the head to bring pretty much anything down.. yes, it is an rpg but not an Jrpg wich i get the feeling of when you attack the same mob with same attack 10-20 times to even get half their HP down.

This is how i remember oblivion and is the reason why i havent been able to complete this awesome game.

Is there any patches that prevents this? if you understand what my problem is and perhaps got an solution or explanation that would be gratefull, thank you!

I presume you are on PC then, you should check out http://www.tesnexus.com/ for mods that'll fix just about everything in the game.
Oblivion has level scaling, now I don't really know how this works, but the world levels with you, which is loot and enemies. So, for the game to be easier, you should stay at low levels. I think you may be looking for a mod that removes (or dumbs down) level scaling, just put 'level scaling' in the search bar, and you should find some decent results. I don't know of any Marksman mods, but ask around enough, and someone will.
Welcome to the forums and have a http://images.uesp.net//c/c4/Fishystick.jpg
Good Hunting!

In case you are not playing on PC you can underlevel. You make a custom class and put in 0-2 skills you actually intend to use and 5-7 skills that you will never use.

It sounds like your problem is the leveling system that Oblivion uses. Read all there is to know about it http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Leveling. Basically, the the problem with the system is that if you take skills you regularly use as all 7 of your majors, you will level up too quickly. That dooms you to low attribute bonuses when you level. The monsters get more powerful when you level, but you are not getting the same power. So you quickly get where you found yourself, putting a dozen arrows in a goblin, and it still will not go down.

There are several ways around this. First, do not use the pre-generated classes. Always go with a custom class. Underleveling as Dragatus mentioned works well. Instead of taking skills you will use as all of your majors, only take about 3 you will always use, 3 you will never use, and perhaps one you will sometimes use. Also never take more than one skill that affects a particular attribute. So for example do not take Blade, Blunt, and Hand-to-Hand (since all affect Strength) all as majors. Just take one, and leave the others as minors.

Another way to 'fix' the leveling system (but it changes a big game mechanic, and it's up to your taste if that's what you prefer) is to install a mod called Oblivion XP. By default, as outlined by the other posts, the leveling system works so that 10 improved major skills level you up. But you need to advance your minor skills too to get better stat multipliers once you level (if you don't understand this, the link that was posted earlier explains it in-depth). So basically you have two extremes: either you create a class with all the major skills that you intend on using (for example marksman, sneak, illlusion, blade, etc for the character you described) or you create a character that has a set of major skills that you will be hardly using.

The advantage of the former is that you start out strong, your character can do what you want it to do quite well, and the first few levels you are strong. The disadvantage is, like you concluded, that your level-up-multipliers will be low, and your character gets weaker once you progress more in the game.

The advantage of the latter is that every time you do level (which will not be often), you get high multipliers, so your character becomes stronger as you progress through the game. The disadvantage is slow leveling, having to pay a lot of attention to HOW you level, and not being very strong in the first few levels of the game.

In my opinion, both options are far from ideal and usually ruin the game experience for me. Oblivion XP works very different. I recently installed it myself, and it fixes the described problems, because you don't level up by using your skills anymore, instead you get experience for a lot of things you do (killing, finishing quests, creating potions, etc.). Once you level, you get a certain amount of points that you can spend to improve your stats, and another pool of points to increase your skills. That way, you can create a character with exactly the major skills that you intend on using most, and you can improve those stats manually once you level. I've been playing with this mod for a couple of days now, and so far I absolutely love it! Your character is strong from the start and can remain strong while you progress through the game.

Another thing you should realize, is that the type of character you described should always aim to kill enemies in one or a few shots. Just shooting a bow is not enough for this: you need to be in sneak mode, to gain a x3 (or x6 for blade) damage bonus, you need to poison your arrows, and enchant your bow/blade. If you consistently do this, you will still be able to kill enemies off at higher levels with only a few shots. Of course, some enemies are just too strong for this. In this case, you can resort to other measures. For example, shoot an arrow at someone, then cast invisibility so the enemy does not see you, then shoot again, invisi again, etc.

Also you can summon creatures to your aid, or when you are up against multiple enemies, command one enemy to attack his friends, leaving you to kill off the survivors once they all killed eachother (invisibility/chameleon is once again a great help to remain unnoticed while they kill eachother). So to sum up, it's definetly possible to kill enemies without having to pierce them with 20 arrows, but it takes a bit of creativity and some handy spells/poisons/enchantments.

Thanks for all the replies.

Hopefully I will be able to start enjoying the world of oblivion again

You may have already tried this but did you check the difficulty level in the gameplay options?

Maybe you should try Deadly Reflex.

EDIT: if you choose to try it, expect it to be a little :chaos: BLOODY :chaos: