I have this idea of a marksman who uses summoned creatures to fight with him and illusion to control or stop melee attackers... but the last part does not seem to work well. First, the charm spell you get only affects up to lvl 2 mobs, which is very low and Illusion seems hard to lvl (like restoration). Is illusion worth it for the play style that I want ?

I want to enjoy myself and not have to grind this skill just to be able to learn a higher lvl to make it useful...

Basically, it's a dark elf with the following

Major skills
marksman
sneak
conjuration
restoration
illusion
security
athletics

with Apprentice birth-sign

Any build will work, some are more challenging than others. Alchemy solves all problems.

Go now young padowan.

My archer won't touch melee. She backs herself up with illusion and it works very, very well. In fact, if there is more than one enemy around, she commands them to kill each other. She repeats until there is only one wounded survivor, then shoots him. She could also command him to stand still so he is easier to hit or even make him run away if she doesn't want to waste an arrow. Illusion is such an effective back up for an archer, that my no-melee archer never runs and she never shoots while stepping backwards. She simply immobilizes her foes and opens fire with her bow.

Command creature / command humanoid are her most useful effects for back up.

Illusion mind control effects are somewhat complex to fully optimize, but well worth it.

If fighting underwater where her bow works poorly, she uses the bow to block and kills with a combo paralyze/absorb health on touch spell.

You mentioned conjuration. Although not necessary, my character confesses a weakness for a combo spell that summons a clannfear while turning her invisible. She is quite taken by the concept that to a foe it appears a tiny wood elf has just turned into a very pissed off clannfear.

I would visit the link below and do lots of digging into the available sublinks on the mind control effects. You want to learn all about spell effectiveness and magnitude vs enemy level etc. Illusion is a magnificent skill, but not as simple as slingin' fireballs.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Magical_Effects#Illusion

It is hard to get a feel on how much Oblivion you have played, but make sure that you complete the recommendation quests and enter the Uni.

The enchant & spellmaking altar is where the real power of game is at. Most spells in the game are quite low level, the key is to spend time to custom make both weapons and spells. Destruction & illusion are very powerful when you make up your own spells. Use Azura's star to capture the souls.

Grinding is part and parcel of the levelling in Oblivion. Try a role play character and the repeated action does not seem so bad.

My personal feel is never to take Apprentice birthsign with a Dunmer. You hurt the fire resistance for no reason at all. Take the Mage birthsign and enchant the extra 50 magicka that you lose.
I normally pick Apprentice with a Redguard character, that way the weakness to magic is offset by a higher hit point fighter build.

Illusion *is* a magnificent skill, so much so, that I started giving my sneaky characters some sort of magical affinity via choosing races and birthsigns attuned for magic use. Dunmer Apprentice will work fine, but needs to be careful, since magic will really sting with that birthsign, even fire. As WW says, consider The Mage. 250 Magicka + an equipment boost or 2 ought to be fine.

Anywho... it's not that hard to get Illusion up to a good skill level. Just takes some regular use and patience. In fact, it increases 5x faster than Restoration does cast per cast, but it tends not to get used quite as much as, say, a healing spell. Remember to use it whenever it can be helpful... Night-eye whenever entering a dark dungeon, Invisibility or Chameleon (once you can get them at skill level 50) in order to help get into position for a sneak attack, or stay concealed. Paralyze, if you've backstabbed something but it's not quite dead. Look through the link Acadian provided for some in-depth re: the Command spells, since there is a bit of intricacy to their use.

Anyway, build looks ok, though I'd personally drop Security and Athletics as majors.

I'd personally drop Athletics, as it's impossible to control your levelling with it, but I'm not going to offer levelling advice as there are many different ways, and I use but one.

I like your Dunmer + Apprentice, although, I like it for the weakness it provides a character. If that's what you were going for, great. If not, you could make do with the Mage birthsign, as Illusion/Conjuration based magic is rather efficient.

Illusion hard to level? Just spam cast Starlight, and it'll shoot up. That is, if you don't care about levelling.

Other than that, there is plenty of excellent advice above, that I won't bother with repeating.

Edit: I just wanted to say what I think about Illusion/Conjuration and Restoration. They're fantastic. My Healer uses those schools mainly (along with Mysticism and Alteration for utilities), and gets by fine. You can summon a helper, buff said helper, and then turn invisible while your helper rips everyone apart thanks to their super health/strength/shield/whatever.

Stick with it, and you may find that you don't even need to use Marksman anymore :thumbsup:

Maybe I would drop athletics for armourer for repairing your equipment.

Thanks for the help

I have looked it up, and some good spells will be available when I leave the Imperial city, I just need to be patient !!!

I took Apprentice for the gain vs difficulty, it adds challenge to the game for me

I will drop athletics and maybe take Speechcraft for the RP aspect of it

Good point. I confess that if Buffy runs out of arrows, clearing a dungeon with illusion and conjuration is easy without her precious bow. If, on the other hand, she had loads of arrows and no magic, she would struggle.

What is the backstory of Buffy ?

She maintains a journal, linked in our signature, but the short version of her backstory is:

Buffy is a Bosmeri Mystic Archer. Orphaned by the age of twelve, the citizens of Bravil raised her. She is active with her guild of mages and a graduate of the Arcane University. Although her magical specialty is illusion, her passion is the bow (her's is called Slayer). Her birthday is Rains Hand, the 19th, 3E 415 under the sign of the Mage. She likes Tamika's wine, waterfalls, her precious black mare Superian, and visiting her many friends throughout Cyrodiil.

She travels intertwined with the spirit of an old ethereal paladin named Acadian who sometimes offers advice. Sometimes she listens. Acadian was a sky warrior, and is older than Nirn itself.

Buffy and Acadian are inseperable, and freely cross planes between worlds together. Although Buffy considers Acadian a guide or mentor, it is unclear who learns more from whom.

:wavey: