So since getting the game in 2006 pretty quickly after it came out, I have struggled sticking with a character. Sometimes, it hasn't been my fault, but yea, I just can't seem to stay with one character.

My first character was a re-creation of my Morrowind character. My Morrowind character is quite possibly my favorite character that I've ever played in an RPG, single player or multi. I got so wrapped up in the world, that it felt like what happened to my character was actually happening to me, and I actually felt my character -change- over the course of my Morrowind playthrough. It was a really good experience, and I wanted to continue on with that character so I re-created him.

He was inspired by some of my favorite characters at the time, kind of a blend of Gambit, Solid Snake, 47 (Hitman), and Legolas. He was a custom stealth archer-thief-assassin / mage class. Short Blade, Light Armor, Security, Sneak, Marksman | IIllusion, Conjuration, Mercantile, Speechcraft, Alchemy. In Oblivion, he was Blade, Light Armor, Security, Sneak, Illusion, Conjuration, Marksman. However, this playthru of Oblivion was on a really outdated computer that wasn't really up to par with Oblivion. I could play - on extremely low settings, and after awhile, it was just time to put the computer out of it's memory. I upgraded to a big, beefy laptop.

I decided it was time to create a new character, and retire my Morrowind character, and let him just exist as my Morrowind character and move on to the next one. My favorite abilities in fantasy RPG's is always summoning creatures. Necromancers are my favorite types of classes to play, and I have a huge history of it. Magic: The Gathering card game, I played a reanimator deck, Diablo 2 I always played Necro's, in EverQuest, I created a Necro as my secondary character that became my first, in Morrowind I had to include Conjuration even though it didn't really fit a theme of my character, I just had to have it, in WarCraft 3 I always played as Undead, and when I got into Warhammer tabletop, I began collecting and playing Vampire Counts. So I decided to make a character that pretty much focused on being a summoner. However - I don't know if it was my build, or what, but the character didn't exactly work out for me and I had to retire him.

That's when I got into my deepest Oblivion character (the character I've gotten furthest in the main quest with), a Dark Elf dark mage / light warrior. I focused on Blade, Light Armor, Destruction, Conjuration, and I honestly don't remember the other skills I took. But essentially I was a light combat, dark mage DPS'ing summoner. Fun character. Worked out pretty well for me, until I ended up having to do a system reboot on my laptop and lost all my save files. *sigh*

So I ended up stopping for a bit, because well, I just wasn't into the mood to go back and redo everything I had already done. So I took an Oblivion hiatus. Did randomly try to create some characters here and there, but never stuck with them. Finally, after my laptop eventually blew up, I rebought the game for X-Box 360. Now, I had a new vision for my character. I had been playing Warhammer: Age of Reckoning, and my character was a Chaos Chosen. For the first time ever, I was playing a tank character, not some type of ranged or mage character. And I was thoroughly enjoying being a character that could get right up in the face of danger and just go to town. So I decided I wanted to take that route with my Oblivion character. Heavy Armor and 2 handed swords, along with Conjuration magic of course, so summon my minions. I had really come across a particular RP for my "mage" characters, thanks to a secondary character I was creating in Morrowind - Conjuration, Mysticism, and Enchant, and the RP being that of a dark mage who completely controlled and manipulated souls to his will, summoning spirits from other realms to do his will, or stealing souls to fuel his arcane lust for power. I know soul trapping and such isn't exactly frowned upon in Elder Scrolls games, but the idea of stealing a creatures soul to use for magic items seems pretty dark to me. So I liked the Conjuration / Mysticism / Enchant combo of mage powers for my characters. Of course, Enchant isn't a skill in Oblivion, but hey, the idea still remains.

And now this is where I am stuck, yet again. I have created this character a thousand times, and each time I do, I think of a new idea or a new twist to put on him. As of now, the latest version is Blade, Heavy Armor, Conjuration, Mysticism, Alteration, Marksman, Sneak. I've fallen in love with the Sneak / Marksman playstyle in Oblivion, and continue to use it, even with a Heavy Armored tank. I use Alteration for Shield spells (one of my favorite lines of spells in Morrowind / Oblivion). But I've re-created this character so many times because I've tried to decide whether or not I want Destruction magic to be part of the character build or not. And now that I've decided that I would prefer Alteration over Destruction, yet another idea has come to mind - fuse my dark mage with my Morrowind class and make a dark mage stealth archer assassin. The skills would be Blade, Light Armor, Marksman, Sneak, Conjuration, Mysticism, Illusion. And the concept of this character is now rather appealing to me as well.

So I'm wondering, is there anyone else out there who's just as indecisive about characters as I am? Or am I just incredibly OCD?

Yeah, I always struggled to maintain interest in a character. Normally around 150 hours is the point that I say 'time for a new one.'
The worst part is that I have to go through the horrible recommendation quests (again!) and that makes me feel pretty low and lethargic.....

This time I am enjoying my efficient levelled character and would not dream of starting another. Finally I'll get way past 400 hours. Yippee!!

Restarting characters is pretty common here on the forum. Just ask Zak. :laugh:

This gets asked a lot. So, no, you're not the only one.

Personally, I don't consider it a problem. I don't see the attraction to playing just one character. I take exception to those players - and they are out there - who think we're doing something wrong if we create a lot of characters. I say we aren't. I have made more characters than I can count since Oblivion came out - and I'm happy doing so. I don't think it's a practice that needs to be "fixed." I don't let anybody tell me how to play and I don't judge how I play by how others play. If they want to create one character and play it for years, good for them. That approach doesn't appeal to me.

I think a lot of players feel they have to stick with one character because they think it's expected of them. They think they're "supposed" to stick with one character. They think they're doing something wrong if they don't play the way other people play. I think that's the wrong attitude.

The only question each of us has to answer when we play a game is this: are we having fun? If the answer is yes, then we ought to continue what we're doing - whatever that may be. If the answer is no, then we ought to think about figuring out what we're doing that isn't fun - and stop doing it. Now I find it interesting that in all that text you just wrote above you did not tell us whether you're having fun or not creating new characters. Are you? If you're enjoying the process of creating new characters then I see no reason to stop it. I play many, many characters to level 8 or 10 or 12 and start a new one - and I enjoy it. The early levels of most games are the most fun to me.

But if you're not enjoying this, then you'll want to try another approach. You might try gpstr's http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1115805-completely-random-character/page__view__findpost__p__16383709 approach. If you cannot make a decision let The Fates make it for you. Vow to accept whatever character you wind up with. You may be surprised. This approach can be strangely liberating, especially for people who have trouble making up their minds.

The only thing that I don't enjoy about it is that I'd actually like to finish the main quest at some point.

I'm one of those people who typically likes one "main" character that I play through and "finish" the game with. The character that is "mine" and defines my experience with the game. Whether that be Morrowind or Oblivion, or other RPG's, or MMO's, I like to have "my" character that is my definitive character of that game.

I love creating secondary characters, and trying to play through the game in different ways and such, but I'm having a really hard time coming up with that "definitive" character for Oblivion. Or at least sticking with it.

It's a very fun character. Sneaking around dungeons, using Mysticism to "track" my "prey", getting the drop on them with that first strike, and then duking it out with my big claymore, heavy armor, shield spells, and a nice undead minion by my side. I'm enjoying it greatly.

BUT, that said, I am rather OCD in life, and RPG's are no exception to that. When I create a character, I like my 7 skills to be the skills that make up my character, and I don't particularly like to drift too far outside of those skills in terms of skills that I will use. So if it's a minor skill, I tend to avoid it. Because that's not what my character does. I think that's one thing I really liked about Morrowind - actually taking skills as part of your class actually made a difference, because while you COULD eventually learn and max out as many skills as you wanted, if it wasn't one of your class skills, they were so low that they were essentially useless (at least in the really early goings). It actually mattered what skills you selected. Oblivion, not so much. An actual character building strategy is to select skills you -WON'T- use so that you can control leveling up.

So that said - there are more than 7 skills that I really want to utilize on this character. I really like Block, even tho I don't use a shield. I like Destruction magic. I do question how I can justfiy through RP purposes being a heavy armored tank that sneaks around in the shadows picking people off with a bow and arrow, and have thought of dropping sneak and marksman for RP purposes, but I greatly enjoy the gameplay mechanics of sneaking around and firing an arrow into a bandits head. So then I just tell myself that hey, it's MY character, if I want to be a hulking tank that sneaks around in the shadows and summons a bunch of undead spirits, well so be it. It's MY character I can do what I want.

So I am constantly recreating the same character over and over again because everytime I create him, I decide on another element I want to incorporate into the playstyle, or take out, or what have you. I just created him again tonight, and I'm hoping I can finally stick with it.

So yea, I do enjoy creating new characters and playing around with them, but at the same time, I like to have that "definitive" main character for the game as well. In Morrowind, it was my stealthy assassin thief. No matter how many other Morrowind characters I make, in *MY* Elder Scrolls world, the Nerevarine is that character. And I'd like to have that character in Oblivion also. That no matter how many other characters I make, in my Elder Scrolls world, my Champion of Cyrodiil is a specific character.

Yea, I still use the first character I ever made. I've made others after him, but I still use him as my main.

I'm sure many people on here have restartitis. Or have had. I for one used to restart daily.

The key is, as Pseron Wyrd said, have fun. I found my way to make this game enjoyable was roleplaying and travelling with my Healer as she goes about her business in Cyrodiil. In the last two days I've played more Oblivion than (I think) I have before in such a short space of time. This followed a restart of said Healer.

But, not everyone is for roleplaying. Do you do it?
I have a veritable sea of RP ideas floating around in my head. I'd be willing to share if you're still stuck.

If not, why not create an Imperial Knight or Crusader to do the Main Quest.

For my first couple years with the game, I played loads of characters, often restarting them for refinements. I had a blast working through what each of the skills could really do and how all the questlines worked. Restarting is exciting and it didn't bother me a bit. Every single character went through the full tutorial, as that is where I learn there nature and it never gets old for me.

Then a couple years ago, I met my current character and have stuck with her ever since.

Its all good. That is, don't worry about restarting over. There is nothing 'better' about sticking with one character. If that is meant to happen, it can't really be forced.

I've beaten the main quest twice. Every since then I've been making new characters everyday. I still play my main Argonian Warlord Char, but I am constently trying out new builds and ideas.

Oh yes, I roleplay

Currently, my roleplay is that of an arcane warrior, who once was a member of the Imperial armies. Being born under the sign of The Atronach, he was already in tune with magical energies, but he didn't know how to truly utilize it. He eventually came across a dark mage who was willing to teach him, and as such, he abandoned his duties to the Empire to apprentice under the mage. While the arcane arts that he was taught weren't inherently dark in their nature, how he was taught to use them was. Learning how to summon spirits from other realms to fight alongside him, and learning to harvest the souls of creatures in this world, and use the pure essence of those souls and turn them into arcane energy. He learned how to sense the essence of souls, and as such was able to detect souls within proximity. This made him very dangerous, and he learned to develop stealth skills as well to aid him in combat, using his new arcane powers to surprise his prey and attack them unexpectedly. The power began to corrupt him, and a once loyal servant to the Empire was now becoming a danger.

However, his birthsign, which was his greatest strength, was also his greatest weakness. His power was limited, and he eventually reached that limit. He was not satisfied. Having gained the power that he had only made him lust for more. He began to torture the mage looking for answers on how to achieve even greater power, until finally the mage revealed his knowledge of the Welkynd Stones to him. The mage took him to an ancient Aylied Ruin where they came across a slew of Welkynd Stones. He could feel the energy radiating from the stones as he held them in his hands. Finally, he absorbed their energy, and he felt renewed. He felt his power come back, the limits now broken. He set off, but not before one last display of his growing power, leaving the mage a bloody mess deep in the ruins.

He then scoured Cyrodiil in search of Aylied Ruins trying to find as many Welkynd Stones as he could to fuel his lust for power. However, after weeks without finding any stones, he was captured by Imperial troops who had been searching for him. He was tossed in jail for abandoning his duties to the Empire. For years he sat in his cell, his powers dwindling but his lust growing. But he was becoming weak, and unable to resist. He eventually just succumbed to the disappointment.

Without explanation, he was taken from his cell and placed in a new cell in the Imperial City Prison. Shortly after awakening in his new cell, guards came through, escorting the Emperor. It was revealed to him that the Emperor was fleeing assassins. The Emperor recognized him from his dreams. Due to the circumstances, he was able to escape the prison, but not before being asked by the Emperor for one last duty. Still loyal in his heart to the Empire, he agreed. However, temptation is strong. His first sight upon exiting the sewers was an Aylied Ruin across the water. Now, torn between his duty to the Empire, and his lust for power, the question is, will he be able to utilize his powers for the greater good, or will he succumb once again to the corrupting nature of power and the lust that resides within?

Class: Summoner
Birthsign: The Atronach
Specialization: Combat
Attributes: Strength, Endurance
Major Skills: Blade, Heavy Armor, Conjuration, Mysticism, Alteration, Marksman, Sneak

I do take my games to completion but I also find that it's the building of the character and the early journey that I enjoy the most. It's challenging and I try to do things in a different order and in different ways with different skills so that's always interesting. Last year I had my best ending ever on Oblivion and I don't know if I can do it again but I'll try.

My restartitis is legendary bro.

I think its best when you just want to beat the game for the sake of beating it (Ive only done it all once). Just forget about roleplaying and purely play the game. Thats way you dont have a roleplay that you get disatisfied with.

Secondly confine yourself to one of the 3 pure builds (Warrior Mage or Thief). This is a psychology trick. If you limit yourself to 3 choices you have a 1/3 chance to be satisfied with what you get as opposed to the near infinite setups oblivion allows for. Basically the more choices we are given, the more choices we are likely to be unsatisfied with.

I've only beaten the main quest once with a Dunmer Male that I wasn't really attached too. I can keep the same character for hours but it will eventually get old.

I have only completed it once, i am trying now to make a character (after expercience) and do everthing with him, i might make one tonight

I completed everything except the main quest and any of the expansions/DLC.

I am up to nearly twenty characters in my year and half of playing Oblivion. I do not suffer from restartitis. I play a character until their story has been told. Then it is time to move on and try someone else. I do not see it as a problem, or a failing. One thing I like about Oblivion are the many possibilities in creating a character. For example, after all this time I am only now playing an Atronach for the first time. Quite a change from my other characters!

I firstly played about half the mainquest on xbox360, restarted my character after learning how the levelling worked and i knew i could do a better job.. then my xbox died so i bought a PS3, i completed the mainquest on that with the same character build

then bought another xbox as i wanted all the dlc, so played through again, this time closing 55 gates before the end, and then did SI, then KotN and then everything else

then built a new a character, a dedicated magic female and a male stealth character (the characters before were all heavy combat, long sword and shield)

i wanted to experience the game with the 3 main play styles, but i havent bothered do much of the mainquest with anything but a fighter

i still play with all three from time to time

on the PC its a pure mod game

I've played on and off since release, and have only made 6 characters in that time - sorta. Sometimes I'll restart a character concept after a little while if I wish to tweak things, but usually only once or twice, then I'll stick with the build. My current character, however, is on her third restart, and the last iteration was actually well into her 40s. Part of the problem was that I picked her back up after not playing for more than a year, another issue was that she was an efficient leveling concept whose major skills did *not* reflect how she approached things.

I'm not slamming efficient leveling, not at all - I'm going to do it again, actually, but the non-major major skills dealie wasn't sitting right with me. I prefer it when a character's majors really are their majors too, so I'm going to work within that construct this time around.

Try different races. I had the same problem, I would always choose either a kahjjit or a dark elf with my sneak set up. I ended up with...14 different characters?? So I took a break, changed my skills, and this time, chose an imperial. 30 hours in, still enjoying it :3

Forgot to plug myself, so yeah refer to the guide in my signature. It might spark something for you.

I used to play more characters than I can imagine, as I liked to explore what different races/classes could/couldnt do.

But since I have become more familiar with the game and what it offers, I spent sometime working on a character I could truly have a bond with, and my Redguard Lissa was born.

As long as you're having fun and enjoying your game even.though you would like a 'main' character, it will happen in time.

Nope. I have probably started 100+ characters since i got the game in 2007. I think very few actually keep one character for an extremely long time.

I think the problem that im facing really goes back to my alteration vs destruction thread. The game gives you 7 choices for major skills, but there is really no penalty to using a skill outside of your majors. In Morrowind there was at least the failure mechanic so if you were bad at something, sure you could become good but it was difficulty as you'd often fail at skills you were good at. But in Oblivion there really is no difference between a major and minor skill except whether it levels you up or not.

Playstule wise, the skills I use are blade, heavy armor, conjuration, mysticism, alteration, sneak, marksman, destruction, and block, and the struggle is finding which of those 7 truly define the character and which ones dont. I have the concept and rp of my character down pat, and I enjoy it. Its just like I said trying to figure out what determines a major or minor in my mind via gameplay mechanics and rp purposes

Although I have made loads of characters, I always maintain my Orc Warrior, Khajiit Assassin, and Breton Mage. They're pures, because it seems like whenever I try to make a hybrid character they always svck.

This is for me. I cannot begin with another character, not after everything Lothran and I have gone through together.

I actually http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1136462-characters-at-your-disposal/page__view__findpost__p__16624643__fromsearch__1 about this

OP, I think you're simply trying to squeeze your character into too small of a box, and it's an arbitrary box. Just because Bethesda decided on 7 major skills, doesn't mean you MUST define your character that way.

Sure, I prefer to use major skills that define how a character interfaces with the game world as well, but 7 is never enough.

One thing you might consider, if it doesn't hurt your RP considerations too badly, is to split your specialty off. I'm looking at your list of skills; there are 3 Combat, 4 Magic, 2 Stealth. Obviously there's a bias towards magic here. Perhaps try something like... include the 4 magic and 2 Stealth skills among your majors, but choose a Combat specialty. Or, include the 3 Combat and 2 Stealth skills among your majors, then specialize in Magic. Or have the 3 Combat and 4 Magic skills as majors, then specialize in Stealth. What you accomplish by doing this, in effect, is to create a set of intermediate skills. Any minor skill that's still part of your specialty will increase in level at a faster clip than the ones that aren't, so in that respect, they're really more "intermediate" than minor. They will start lowish, but benefit very well from use, and help feed your stat increases between levels.

Dark mage stealth archer assassin... Gosh, that actually sounds like *my* character, but she has a somewhat different approach. She also has a split-off specialty, as I described, in order to help her reach her goals.