One of my pet peeves in this game... I wish the game would give you the choice. One example is when you get to 25 in blade skill, you power strike goes from a swift downward chop, to a cumbersome horizontal slash, and yes it does more damage, but doesn't have the same feeling of impact. Im also not a fan of the increase in jump height as acrobatics go up, which svcks cos its impossible to avoid. By level 20 ish Its practically moon gravity.

You don't have a power attack below 25 in Blade. Perhaps you mean 50?

In any case, your power attack is tied to your movement. If you're standing still, you get the Standing attack. If you're moving from side to side, you get the Sidestep attack, etc.

If jump height really bothers you, you can take it as a minor skill and don't specilize in stealth and don't jump unless you really need to jump. It will level very slowly under those circumstances.

You can also reduce it by wearing some clothing or armor with a drain acrobatics enchant, although this uses up your enchant slots.

The game does not let you stop a skill from raising if you use the skill but the game does give you a lot of choices as to when and how fast those skills get levelled.

As I understand it, the OP is not talking about how fast skills rise, he is talking about the fact that in Oblivion we are not given a choice of perks. In Oblivion all characters are automatically assigned four perks per skill. They are mandatory: all characters get them whether the perk makes sense for that character or not. I think the OP is saying he would like the freedom to be able to choose whether or not his character accepts a perk.

exactly

But the acrobatics perks have nothing to do with jump height. None of the acrobatics perks give you "moon gravity" -- that is directly governed by the skill itself.

I don't understand your complaint about the acrobatics perks.

But you get those perks at certain skill levels, 25, 50, 75, 100. So, while you will eventually get all four perks if you play the character long enough and continue using the skill in question, you can significantly delay getting the perks depending on how you build and play the character.

Turija, I don't think you understand the idea yet. It's not about delaying perks, it's about choosing perks. The OP wants to be able to refuse to accept a perk if it does not suit his character.

I think basically what he is saying is he wants Skyrim's more sophisticated perk system where we are able to choose perks that reflect our roleplaying...or to choose not to have any perks at all.

I think what he doesn't like is being forced to accept four fixed perks which are always forced on every character who uses a skill, whether those perks suit that character or not. At the very least, I think, he would like the option to refuse a perk if it doesn't suit a character.

No. I completely understand what he is saying, but the fact of the matter is you cannot choose perks in Oblivion. So, I am offering a solution to the problem that is allowed by the game mechanics. If you slow down your skill leveling, you will delay getting the unwanted perks.

As far as the Oblivion perks vs Skyrim perks debate, I actually prefer Oblivion's static perks because I feel like it lets the character develop more naturally without having to make a bunch of artificial choices every time you level up. If I could change one thing about Oblivion leveling it would be to eliminate the attribute choice on level up so all the changes to character stats happened in the background.

EDIT: I also have not heard an example of a perk that did not suit a particular character. The OP complained about the animations for the blade perks, but that doesn't seem particularly character dependent.

He also complained about acrobatics jump height but that has nothing to do with perks.

at least for acrobatics you can SetAv those to 5 again. Seeing my tank spritely hop about in ebony is not what I imagine either, but then being stuck at a cub is a little too oafish

Jumping from roof to roof in Bruma in a full set of Imperial Guard armor has always brought me a chuckle, I can imagine one bad step and you fall in a families dinner!

*Puts guard helmet*

"Everything alright here, I see." *wipes mash potatoes from boot*

"Take care citizen."

But I see where the OP is coming from, especially for the skills that level up on their "own".

Just because one is given one of these perks, that doesn't mean one has to use them. My Phoebe character's Blade skill is at Expert, but she doesn't often use the Power Attack associated with that skill level. It involves holding the attack key while moving backwards, and it doesn't really seem to work well with the shortswords and katanas she favors. (She steps out of range and misses.) She does use the Journeyman attack, which is the side-stepping slash.

Likewise, you don't have to jump up in the air if you don't want to. I find the high-level acrobatics is really fun when I'm playing a Bosmer, but not so much for Orcs and Nords. And it seems totally appropriate for Khajiits. Unless you jump around a lot, Acrobatics levels really slowly, so I don't see a problem.