This is a question of personal opinion. Personally I think that the 50 pts of bonus magic. 50% resist magic and a 50% shield greater power with no weakness other than lowered endurance, agility and speed is a bit overpowered. Don't get me wrong, I love to play the breton race, but they seem to have the superior racial abilities. Am I the only one who have noticed this?
P.S: Don't start a flamewar about the races here please. The moderators are suspicius enough about threads with the races as topic. Thank you.
Edit: I mean whem you have reached a decently high lvl the naturally low attributes won't matter since they can easily be worked around.

This is one of the reasons I use the mod Race Balancing Project on my PC.
Bretons are very easy to turn into powerful Mages and Warriors because of thier natural resistances, I quit playing Bretons for a while (two years) because they became too easy at higher levels.
I like a race with a weakness that has to be worked around. Vanilla Bretons need to be gimped to make them enjoyable for long playthroughs.

Tdroid, you are not at all the first to hold that opinion.

I pick race based only on looks and image as the game is plenty easy anyway. If however I was to pick race based on pure effectiveness/efficiency, especially at higher levels, it would be Breton. Eventually all the attributes you deem important get maxed and with only one ring the Breton becomes immune to magic attack. Of course, nothing says you have to boost their magic resistance. I don't consider the shield power to be uber as it is a once a day thing.

Back when I used to play Warriors I always picked Breton. I still think Bretons make the best Warriors. Later when I began to play Mages I'd pick Bretons for those too.

I have switched to modded races in a desperate, last-ditch attempt to force myself to play something besides Bretons.

This is exactly why I play Altmer, the weakness to elemental magic is a defining point of the race and how you have to play them.

I insist that after Master level Alchemy every race in the game is equally effective. The diferences between races in the end game are very negligible.

I didn't think I was the first one The high resistance is more or less impossible to match: Only the Orcs comes close with their 25%. At higher lvls it is not that hard too manage that, but in the middle lvls it is way harder and in the start of the game it is imvaluable against other mages.
I agree that the Dragon Skin greater power is not an uber thing, however it is an expert(or master, I don't remember) lvl shield spell that will turn almost every fight on low-middle lvls and it is still usefull on higher lvls in a tight spot.
The Bretons I have made lately never use any item that boost magic resistance and I find it much more fun too play.

From a purely min/max perspective, they might appear OP'd, but you don't see a lot of "just make a Breton" advice being given around here. It seems like the other races still enjoy their share of popularity.

I do like Bretons, and I play one right now; I like them for hybrid classes that use a fair amount of magic in concert with other combat skills. The magic resistance certainly is nice, but it's never been the defining factor in why I choose a race to do this or that. I still picked other races for more "pure" builds, and would continue to do so going forward.

As for the problem of that certain item that makes the Breton 100% magic immune after putting it on, I have a simple solution: Never put it on. It seems you cottoned on to that. It's not the race that's broken IMO, it's the item.

Hypothetically speaking An Altmer Apprentice would be the most powerful character in the end game in a one vs one scenario of top level characters.

Isn't "Altmer Apprentice" another word for "Highly Flammable Content"? : P

Highly flammable, a very good conductor, and it has an extremely low internal body temperature

I would definitely say that Bretons are overpowered. Altmer get a bonus of 100 to their magicka, and a 25% weakness to elemental magic. It seems to be that with their bonus of 50 to magicka, Bretons ought to get a comparable weakness, like 12% to elemental magic, as well. Or keep their 50% resistance to magicka, but with a penalty of 100 to their magicka. I like the idea of the latter, as it defines them as a magically null race, resistant to it, and no good at it themselves.

We already have a race like that - the Orcs.

Besides, you'd have to throw out the lore about Bretons having elf blood to give them nullified magicka. (True, Orcs are elves too, but corrupted to a completely new form)

It all depends how you play. You can consciously control your strategy to avoid combat/getting hit when playing a frail High Elf, for example. I think all the races have something to reccommend them. Also, saying that Bretons are the best when maxed out (assuming they are - all opinion) ignores the fact that you don't max stats in Oblivion for quite a while. At low levels, for example, I think the Redguard Adrenaline Rush is rather overpowered as a special ability. +50 to several stats/skills for a minute? OK it's a once-a-day power, but I rarely do more than one dungeon run every game day anyway.

Yeah at level 1 you can't beat a decently armed and armored Redguard in single combat. They're simply beast. Unlike the Orc special ability, the Redguard's Adrenaline Rush has no drawbacks except for its relatively short duration.

"All others can make way", indeed.

Hmm..*turns around slowly, switches xbox on, ... Makes a Breton warrior*

In the end game you can enchant stuff to counter the elemental weaknesses, or absorb spells. Thus negating the altmer weaknesses. In the endgame every race is nearly equally effective.

Yeah, they're probably a bit overpowered.

I agree, they are overpowered. Which is partly why my Breton, Helena, is born under The Apprentice.

Most people are on the edge whether making warrior breton and mage (both are pretty effective)

A spellsword Breton is the most powerful thing ever

And if he can summon a bear, you'd might as well kiss your mama.

You do know the Bretons magic resist nullifys the Apprentice weakness to magic right?

The Breton 50% resistance to magic does not nullify the Apprentice 100% weakness to magic; rather it halves it, producing a character with 50% weakness to magic.

Since it appears Count Lauriel's intent is to play a Breton that is more vulnerable than normal, this solution accomplishes that nicely.

While the Altmer Apprentice may be considered as good stock for the ultimate glass cannon, a Breton Apprentice is an enjoyably fragile character, if that is what one seeks.

I once met a Breton who was more vulnerable than normal. His mama never loved him, and he got hooked on Skooma. But he had tiger blood and adonis DNA. They didn't realize they were dealing with a warlock.

Not to mention a rock star from Masser. :wink_smile: