This is a reposted and final version of my character creation guide. It was designed primarily to aid beginners in character design and to help veterans make difficult decisions. It also addresses the leveling system. I will link people to this everytime I read a thread requesting creation tips.

Introduction:
Hail good people of Cyrodil, and welcome to my character building guide. Just a few quick words before you dive in. I have played the game with many different character types, and that is why I feel that I know what is effective and what is not. If you can do it better, or don't like me stop here. I have 100% immunity to flame so you'd be wasting your time anyway. For those of you who want help, or just enjoy reading about Oblivion It is my hope that this guide will be helpful to you or at the very least mildly entertaining. I apologise in advance for spelling errors, and this guide does owe a big thank you to the http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Oblivion. However I think my approach is unique and different from the Wiki. The ideas here will help you build an effective character to your specifications.

Reverse Building:
This a term I have coined to explain how I plan and build my characters. I call it reverse building because when I plan a character I begin with the skills I want, and derive the Attributes, Specialization, and Race from the initial skills. In other words I build in the reverse order from the way the game presents itself.

Considerations:
Before you start to build you need to decide on a general idea of your character. Keep in mind however that over time, any character can be effective and do anything, if a small elf wacking around with a giant hammer appeals to you, or a spell-slinging orc, it can be done. Aesthetic appeal is as good of reason as any to choose a character. If you read this guide in its entirety, you will be armed well enough to overcome any kinds of weakness, that is a promise I can make to you so don't worry.

Types of Characters:
What I have done here is color coded the three main character types. I will then color code the Pure Builds suggested by the game to make it easier to visualize where your skills are coming from. This will make more since as you go along.
Warriors: These characters rely on having a lot of hit points while bringing a lot offensive power at Melee Range.
Thieves: These characters rely on stealth, and try to avoid a fight altogether either by sneaking past a foe, or by surprise attacking an unsuspecting enemy and killing the enemy before it has time to react.
Mages: These characters rely on magical abilities to survive they are generally weak but able to bring massive amounts of offense from a distance.
Hybrids: These characters come from mixing two or three of the above types. Most characters are hybrids, but lean strongly to one or two the above types.
Roleplaying: These characters are designed around a story that the creator of the character has predesignated.
Gimps: A gimp is a character built in a way to be as ineffective as possible. People do this usually for role playing reasons or for challenge. Its usually achived by giving the characters boosts in non-combative skills such as speachcraft and merchantile.
Power Builds: These are characters that are built to be as powerful as possible in the endgame. I wont go into that here because you really need to play through the game before trying to power build. There are better sources than myself to discuss power building. Also see Efficient Leveling.

In Depth Warrior:
The Warrior classes generally offer the simplest game-play. Advantages include the ability to carry a lot of loot, high hit-points make them difficult to kill, and they don't have to rely on spells much. If you want to simply run into dungeons and smash or slash your way through this is the build for you. Drawbacks include low initial speed, and general lack of magical ability, also the warrior skills in this game do not radically change game-play, and thus this style of play can grow boring for those seeking a deeper experience. Increasing Endurance as rapidly as possible is very important.

In Depth Thieves:
Success with a thief character is dependent on the players ability to choose his or her battles. They can be great fun, and very lethal, but you will have to accept running, or sneaking past an enemy as opposed to fighting it to be a valid style of game play. If you try to take out every enemy with this kind of character you may have a tough time on your hands. However if you get satisfaction out of one shot kills, and out smarting your opposition, this can be an extremely fun type. Most thief characters use bow and arrow, however others use melee weapons as they have higher multipliers for critical hits.

In Depth Mage:
Mage builds are very versatile and can be the most powerful builds in the game, however they also require the most finesse and patients. They have a way to deal with anything they encounter, but you will need to take the time to understand how spells work and you will have to take the time to gather those spells. Mages also tend to begin the game a bit weak. Generally players are either heavily in to magic and create pure mages, or are not and choose to just dabble in it to round out there characters, still others forgo it altogether.

What about Hybrids and Roleplay Characters?:
These builds vary too widely to create an in-depth guide. If you want to make one, you will be able to do so effectively, just keep reading and it will become obvious what to do. However here are some common Hybrids:

The Mystic Archer
The mystic archer obviously uses the bow and arrow as a weapon of choice, however they usually exchange Sneak for Illusion and light armor for conjuration or mysticism. Its a Mage-Stealth Hybrid.

The Battle Mage
This is actually a Warrior build that uses Magic as a supplement for Battle. For example, a Mage would generally use Alteration for its ease burden spells, but a battle Mage would use Alteration for shield buffs. A mage would use Conjuration to summon monsters, a Battlemage would use it to summon weapons and armor, ect. Naturally it is a Warrior-Mage Hybrid.

The Hitman
This isn't one that you will hear about on the board very often, I use it to describe a Stealth character that favors blade or blunts instead or Archery. Its a very loose Stealth-Warrior Hybrid.

Skills:
Skills are the individual abilities your character can Master in the game you get too choose 7 of these to use as Major skills. Skills have 5 milestone levels each; 5-Novice, 25-Apprentice, 50-Journeymen, 75-Expert, 100-Master. Your Major skills with start at the Apprentice level but may be even higher than 25 depending on racial bonuses, more on those later. Major Skills also dictate how your character levels. Ill explain the leveling system much later, and yes it is weird, but dont let it influence how you build your character. You cant make a broken character if you know what your doing, and if you keep reading you will know EXACTLY what your doing. I promise it isn't that big of a deal, REALLY I PROMISE. Relax, and lets look at those skills in-depth. If you want to get through all the technical stuff and just roll I've included my own short advice section at the end of each group jump to it and you wont make a bad character.

Core Builds and Fillers:
As you read about these skills it will become obvious that certain character types have obvious decisions. Like an Archer would obviously choose Marksmen and Sneak. Overtime youll find the skills that are obvious to you, I call these core builds. Then you will find a few skills that you use just to pick 7 these are what I call filler skills.

Melee Skills:
Blade-Damage dealt with Daggers, Long and Short Swords, Claymores, Katanas, and Cutlasses.
Novice-Basic Power attack (hold attack button for slow attack that deals 2.5 times normal damage)
Apprentice-Power Attack does 3 times normal damage
Journeyman-Spinning Power attack (Hold direction then press and hold attack, deals 2.5times normal damage and has 5% to disarm your enemy)
Expert-Backwards Power attack (Hold backward then press and hold attack, deals 2.5 times normal damage and has 5% chance to knock down your enemy)
Master-Forward Power attack (Hold forward then press and hold atttack, deals 2.5 times normal damage, and has 5% chance to paralyze your enemy.
Blunt-Works exactly the same as Blade, but uses clubs, maces, axes, and hammers instead of blades.
Hand to Hand-Barefist Attacks damage enemy health and fatigue, the drawback is short range and inability to block enemy weapons. Level milestones are identical to Blade and Blunt
My advice: Its generally a good idea to choose Blade or Blunt as a major so you have an inclose attack. Blades are a little faster than Blunts whereas Blunts do a little more damage than Blades. Hand to Hand is an odd ability take it as a major if you find you like it, but I recommend dabbling in it while keeping it as a minor skill the only reason you may want it as a major is for a conjuring mage who's availible weapons is dependent on what you can conjure (See Magical Schools-Conjuration further down).

Armor Skills:
Heavy Armor-determines protection provided by plate armor.
Novice-Heavy Armor degrades at 150%
Apprentice-Heavy Armor degrades at normal rate
Journeyman-Heavy Armor degrades at 50%
Expert-Heavy Armor only encumbers 50%
Master-Heavy Armor does not encumber
Light Armor-The same as Heavy Armor but levels slightly different in the following ways
Expert-Light Armor does not encumber
Master-Light Armor provides increased protection
No Armor-Not an in game skill, but mages may choose robes or everyday clothes because armor decreases spell effectiveness.
My advice: You cant go wrong here pick one or pick both, or pick none. A warrior might want the heavy to protect him, or might want the light to be able to move faster and carry more loot, a mage is the only type that might want to avoid armor, but even a mage can benefit from the types of armor. This one is preference as far as choosing a major skill.

Movement Skills:
Athletics-How quickly your character can run and swim, also how fast your fatigue meter regenerates.
Novice-regenerates fatigue slowly when running
Apprentice-fatigue regenerates 25% faster when running
Journeyman-fatigue regenerates 50% faster when running
Expert-fatigue regenerates 75% faster when running
Master--No fatigue regeneration penalty when running
Acrobatics-How high you can jump and how far you can fall without taking damage
Novice-Cannot attack in mid-air
Apprentice-Can perform Non-power attacks while in midair
Journeyman-Gains the ability to dodge and roll and perform power attacks in midair.
Expert-50% less fatigue cost when jumping
Master-Gains ability to jump off the surface of water
Sneak-How well you can move undetected, deal critical damage, and successfully pick pocket
Novice-Undetected melee attacks deal *4 damage undetected archery attacks deal *2 damage
Apprentice-Undetected melee attacks deal *6 damage undetected archery attacks deal *3 damage
Journeyman-Light footwear and heavy footwear are equally effective for sneaking
Expert-Running is as effective as walking to remain undetected
Master-Undetected attacks ignore enemy armor
My advice: Sneak is helpful to any build except a pure mage (Staff and fireballs dont get critical bonuses) but not if you don't use remember to use it. Athletics is how fast you move, but if you sneak all the time you probably wont use this, there are horses in the game and a quick travel feature. Acrobatics is completely unnecessary but your character may simply want it. You should take one of these AT LEAST based on how you plan to play. An archer should pretty much always take sneak.

Projectile Skills:
Marksmen-Damage done by bow and arrow
Novice-Loses Fatigue when knocking an arrow
Apprentice-Does not lose fatigue when knocking an arrow
Journeyman-Can Zoom by holding Block with a knocked arrow
Expert-Arrows have 5% chance to knock down and opponent
Master-Arrows have a 5% to paralyze an opponent.
Destruction-determines power, level, and magicka cost of Destruction spells
Milestones-Magical Abilities are grouped in game depending on Skill so as you get better at a given magical school you can cast better spells. In this case you could cast stronger fireballs, lightning, frost, and other effects.
Staffs: Another that doesn't appear in the game as a major, but you could forgo the above skills and rely on the staves you pick up from enemies. However these staffs do not appear very often until you are fairly deep into the game.
My advice: Its a headache to go through this game on melee alone. Pick one of these. Marksmen is greatly helped by taking sneak as well. Destruction doesnt need support, and can be the best offense in the game, but if your a warrior build, you wont have the power to cast effective destruction. SOOO pick at least one depending on your character. A pure archer can take Sneak for critical attacks, destruction for weakness to poison spells, and Markmen for general archery for a wicked combo. You can skip the ranged attacks, and still be OK, but it will test your patients so I strongly recommend taking one.

Magical Schools:
Milestone Explanation-Magical Abilities are grouped in game depending on Skill so as you hit each milestone you will gain access to the corresponding level of spells.
Illusion-Allows you to control and command NPC dispositions, cast light, cast silence, go invisible, and see in the dark.
Conjuration-Allows you to summon armor, weapons, and creatures, and make undead enemies run away.
Mysticism-Allows you to detect enemies around corners, dispel enemy effects, and cast soul traping (souls are trapped in soul gems to charge enchanted weapons)
Alteration-Allows you to breath in and walk on water, Carry additional items, Burden enemies, and cast Shields.
Destruction-See above in Ranged Skills
Restoration-Allows you to heal yourself and cast different attribute buffs.
My advice: Magical skills are useful to every build. Choose them as majors based on which one's effects you think will benefit your character the most. Its OK to also choose none of them, because you can always learn what ones you want in game. I like to use them as fillers to my core builds.

Social Skills:
Mercantile-How good of deals you can get when buying and selling items
Novice-Worn Items sell for less than repaired items
Apprentice-Worn and mint items sell for the same price
Journeyman-Can sell goods to any vendor (Example: Can sell Armor to an Alchemy dealer)
Expert-Can invest money in shops (the shops will have more items)
Master-Every merchant has an extra 500 gold to buy your items with, and you can also barter at 100/100 Meaning you can actually sell things at full price.
Speechcraft-Your ability to raise NPC dispositions and get quest information.
Novice-Can Bribe peope with coins to raise disposition
Apprentice-You can rotate the emotions wheel in the disposition mini-game (consult the wiki if you need to)
Journeyman-NPC disposition falls slower overtime in mini game.
Expert-NPC reaction to hate emotion is not as severe
Master-Bribing an NPC costs half as much.
My advice: Neither of these is essential. Mercantile is slow to level and possibly worth making a major skill because of this, if you use the haggle bar when bartering you can make this a decent major. Speechraft on the other hand levels incredibly fast. I have to strongly recommend keeping it a minor skill because it builds so quick you can get it to 25 with minimal dedication. Take it as a Major only after you have a feel for it in game and want to roleplay.

Support Skills:
Armorer-Your ability to repair armor with repair hammers
Novice-Cannot repair magic items
Apprentice-Repair hammers last twice as long
Journeyman-Can repair magic items
Expert-Can repair Items and make them better (increase up to 125% condition)
Master-Never breaks a repair hammer (you can just carry one hammer for the rest of the game)
Alchemy-Your ability to make potions.
Milestones-You start with 1 effect per ingredient, and as you hit each milestone level you gain access to another effect, at master level you can choose effects and make single ingredient potions and poisons.
Block-Your ability to effectively block attacks
Novice-You will lose fatigue while holding your shield up.
Apprentice-No longer fatigued when holding shield up.
Journeyman-Shield or weapon is not damaged by Blocking and Hand to Hand blocking can cause enemies to recoil
Expert: Blocking with a shield can knockback enemies (25% chance)
Master: Blocking with a shield has a %5 chance of disarming an enemy
My advice: I love Armorer as a Major because it levels reasonably slow, I use it all the time, and if you start it as at apprentice you will be able to repair enchanted weapons and armor faster, obviously a pure mage with a staff would not have any use for it though.As much as a I love Armorer as a Major, I love alchemy as a minor. Alchemy is in my opinion the most important skill in the game. I forgo it as a major so that I can use it as much as I want without it affecting my level. It can buff your poor abilities, strengthen your weapons, cure diseases, sell for profit, restore life, restore magicka, make shields, and all kinds of stuff.Block I leave as a minor but if you want it instead of Armorer thats fine too.

Security is useless because you can unlock any door at anytime regardless of your level in the skill, or you can use alteration which also provides other effects. Its not that its a bad Major, its just that it isnt particularly good either. Its milestones keep the latches on the lock up even when you break a pick (consult wiki if you need too).

Attributes: The game says that attributes govern skills... but its really the other way around. Think of it like this, Attributes are a broad range of skills and they provide perks of their own. The more you use skills associated with an attribute the faster you will increase that attribute.
Example: Endurance is associated with Heavy Armor, Armorer, and Block so the more you use those 3 skills the higher you will be allowed to increase endurance when you level up.
Another Bonus is that you get +5 to the 3 skills of the attributes you select, you can select 2 preferred attributes for 6 total +5 increases.

In Depth Attributes:
Agility: Adds to your total fatigue, damage with Bow and arrow, and ability to stay steady in melee combat.
Endurance: Adds to you total fatigue, and how much extra life you gain when you level up.
Intelligence: Adds to your total Magicak reserve
Luck: You get an small all-around boost to every skill (you cant see it in the numbers though)
Personality: Raises NPC's starting Disposition
Speed: Allows you to move faster
Strength: Allows you to carry more and do more damage with melee weapons
Willpower: Adds to fatigue and how fast fatigue and magicka regenerate
Note: I didnt include governed skills because you can see that in the game, and also at this awesome link: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Skills
My advice: Use the above table and take the two attributes that govern the most of your skills. Or take one of the 2 and Endurance. Endurance is the most important Attribute to increase early because it exponentially effects your life. Use luck only if coupled with the thief sign. +5 to Luck on its own doesn't do much, but +15 does.

Birthsigns-Your character is born under a set of stars you get to select. They each do very different things the game explains each one. What you need to know is that only a handful are worthwhile outside of roleplay:
Warrior, Lady, Steed-These provide Attribute bonuses to the attributes we just talked about so pick one if you want more of that attribute.
Mage-gives you plus 50 magicka with no drawback
Apprentice-gives you plus 100 magicka but also 100 weakness to magicka
Atronach-is very special. You get 150 added to your magicka but you have to use potions, and absorption to gain back magicka.
Lord-Use this if your playing a completely non-magic character and want an excellent heal spell you can cast as much as you want.
Thief-Provides a boost to Speed Agility and Luck. If you take it take luck as an attribute as well. Otherwise pick the Steed.
Others-Every other Birthsign provides powers that you can gain better versions of later in the game.
My advice: The Birthsign is not that radical of a gameplay change except in the case of the Apprentice and the Atronach. Try them out or play it safe. You cant make a bad selection here even if you pick one I didnt discuss.

Specialization choice: Whichever Specialization you take will cause its associated skills to go up 5 levels and also increase more rapidly. If you follow the color coding:
Combat: Will cause this effect for every skill Ive highlighted in Red.
Stealth: Will cause this effect for every skill Ive highlighted in Green
Magic: Will cause this effect for every skill Ive highlighted in Blue.
My Advise: Personally I look at all my skills and see which one I have the most of and pick it as my Specialization. However you could also decide to use it to balance your character, and pick the Mage for your Warrior for example when making a hybrid. Still, Lastly it is worth noting that Thief contains 2 movement skills and mercantile which is extremely slow to level. All in all you cant make a bad pick here, I just like to pick the one that matches my character the most for consistancy. The key is, like everything else to understand what each one does. The color coding should make it easier to visualize.

Races-Well this is what kind of man or mer you are in the game. Lets take an in depth look. Honestly though you can just pick the one you like. I keep emphasizing this because even though its been said countless times, we still see a lot of character creation threads. “In the end every character can do everything.” Pick what you want to look like, and how you want to get there, but if your playing a pure warrior and decide to take up Magic, its OK.

Lore: Lore is the backstory for each race and you can find all that info right here:
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Races This guide will talk about the races from a gameplay standpoint, so use that link if you want to know what each race is like in the world as far as personality and history (roleplayers). Ill keep it brief because I dont want to sway you a specific way.

Naming your character: You can name your character anything you like, but the NPCs have diferent name styles for each race. Ive included these next to the Races for those who value roleplay devices. Also check this out: http://www.silgrad.com/oblivion/rangen/

Warrior Races:
Imperial-Social Warrior (First and Last Name typically ancient Roman origin {Zakarius Svedlin})
Nord-Heavy Warrior (Single Name of Norse origin {Hrothgar} and optional descriptive {Hrothgar the Brutal})
Orc-Blunt oriented Warrior (First Name, gender Prefix, Family Name {Malog gro-Balog (gra- if female orc}, one NPC is called Mezoga the Orc)
Redguard-Versatile Warrior (Single name of African-American Nature {Dion} one NPC is called Trayvon the Redguard)

Thief Races:
Argonian-Balanced Thief (Hist Language Name {Webaum-Na} or descriptive phrase {Hides His Heart} )
Bosmer-Pure Archery Thief (Single Name of Tolkien Nature {Gilgondragon})
Khajiit-Acrobatic Thief with infinite ability to see in the dark (Arabic Styled Names {S'krivva} one is called Mai'q the Liar)

Mage Races:
Altmer-Fragile Mage (25% Weakness to all Elemental Magic) with huge Magicka Boost (200) (Generally a fairly long single name {Camalda})
Breton-Conservative Mage with Magicka Boost (100) and Resistance to Magicka (50) (Single or First and Last Name of French Origin {Francious Mortierre})

The Most Balanced Race:
Dunmer-They have rounded bonuses and can be converted to almost anything. (Dunmer have a deep naming system that has to do with houses they came from and you should consult the lore section for naming suggestions)

Leveling System: Oblivion has an unorthodox leveling system, in theory it keeps the game balanced by upgrading your enemies along with your character. However it doesnt always work out that way. In a basic since, using major skills will make you level up faster, and not using them will slow your leveling. However if you understand the game, you can always compensate. This is why you shouldn't worry about it, and create what you like.
Common Leveling Problems: :facepalm:
There are 3 main reasons why this can happen.
1. Centralized Majors: If you pick all 3 Skills for an Attribute as Major skills. You cant raise that Attribute without leveling its OK if you focus on just one of the 3 but if you use all three you will have underpowered skills.
Example. A Character with 100 Blade is stronger than a character with 30 Blade, 30 Blunt, and 30 Hand to Hand, but they would be fighting the same difficulty of Monster.
2. Non-Combative Majors: In theory you could take a Major like Alchemy or Speechcraft and level up several times without building any combative skill or endurance, however the Monsters will and you'll be at a huge disadvantage in combat.
3. Not enough Endurance: Endurance governs how much life you gain when you level up. If you don't increase endurance you will have a lot less life than the monsters you face.
Countering Leveling Problems: :goodjob:
Leveling Style Fixes
1. Majors as Minors-Some people put the skills they want to use most often as minors that way they can use their favorite skills without being concerned about leveling. The drawback is that if you dont level its difficult to get money and obtain the better weapons, horses, houses, ect. that come with leveling.
2. Efficient Leveling-You do this by keeping track of how many increases youve gotten on minor skills, then doing a major to level up with the maximum bonus for the attribute. For a guide on this again refer to the Wiki.
3. Endurance-If you increase endurance early on and as fast as possible you will get the maximum health gains between levels. This makes you if nothing else, very hard to kill.
4. Balanced Leveling-This is what I do, I choose my favorite skill of the three governed by each attribute. That way I can balance all my skills while still having my favorites as majors.
Game Play Fixes
1. Alchemy-As stated earlier alchemy gives you access to all kinds of effects and can counter almost any shortcomings your character has, just think about what you need and make or buy the proper potion or poison.
Invisibility and Conjuration-When your invisible you cant be attacked. Summon something to fight for you then go invisible. Rinse and Repeat. Your pretty much invincible.
2. Enchantment-If your low on life, enchant your armor, necklaces, and rings, with effects such as fortify health or fortify endurance. It may also be a good Idea to fortify your main attacking skill.
3. Balance Grinding-Go work on skills your character isn't good at by fighting smaller enemies like mudcrabs, rats, and the like then go take on the baddies your having issues with.
When All Else Fails
There is absolutely nothing wrong with sliding down the difficulty bar. Bethesda put it in the game to counter the leveling problems. You can now roleplay your social alchemy salesmen with out worry Oblivion is a roleplaying game, not a competitive game, there is no shame in sliding it down.

FINAL WORDS: YOU SEE YOU CAN MAKE ANYTHING YOU WANT, AND IF YOU RUN INTO TROUBLE, THERE IS ALWAYS A WAY TO FIX IT. YOU CAN NOT MAKE A BROKEN CHARACTER SO GO CRAZY AND HAVE FUN! IN THE END THAT IS WHAT THE OBLIVION EXPERIENCE IS ABOUT.

My Character:

Name: Zakarius Svedlin
Race/Lore appropriate variation of my real name.

Race: Imperial
I chalk Race selection up to cosmetics. Plus I like the social skills boost, I'll explain why later.

Age: 22 (all the way down, then back up just before major face change)
Physical Description: Copper Windblown Hair at full length. Pale Skin (lighten a few shades), Green eyes. Everything else default.
Thats my actual age and looks good in game. The rest is just to make him look reasonably like myself.

Birthsign: Atronach
I truthfully do think that this is the best Birthsign in the game for my gameplay style. Imperials have low willpower but it doesn't matter much under the atronach. It gives me a huge Magicka boost and added defense, plus my alchemy heavy play style makes Stunted magicka a non-point.

Custom Class (Bard Picture): Alchemist (BEST IN ALL OF CYRODIL, and probably Skyrim)
Alchemy defines my play style, and it's what Im also known on these forums for.

Specialization: Magic
Magic is the only specialization that I use every single skill in frequently.

Attributes: Luck, Personality
Luck because I tend to level oddly with speechcraft and alchemy majors, and the global help Luck provides is really nice. I also dislike leveling gimmicks, leveling luck is simple, just +1 each level. Personality works with the initial boosts of the Imperial race and trickles down to my bartering skills. Plus gives quicker access to unique dialogue, which I enjoy.

Skills: Alchemy, Armorer, Conjuration, Destruction, Illusion, Mecantile, Speechcraft

Alchemy is the best skill in the game, providing buffs, health, magicka, and access to effects from all other schools except conjuration and destruction

Armorer benifits all weapons and armors in the game without committing to any of them specifically, I can use whatever I like whenever I find it.

Conjuration is in my opinion the coolest skill in the game. I love making full suits of bound armor (Custom spell, not glitch) and summoning weapons and creatures. Its also one only 2 schools whose effects are not included in alchemy.

Destruction is considered the best offense in the game, and its not provided via alchemy, so I take it as a skill.

Illusion is also very cool and I just like the boost to it. Invisibility is a nice trick to have up the sleeve, and as an Atronach I cant abuse it to the point of game breaking quite as easily.

Mercantile Works with the Racial and Attribute boosts to give me better deals early in the game when money is hard to come by. It also a skill that levels incredibly slow and benifits a character at any level, the boost is very welcome and in congruency with the social boosts.

Speechcraft for a lot of the same reasons I choose Mercantile (they work together). Special dialogue at higher levels is a perk.

Very, very nice and effective, thank you for this :clap: .

Although finding out I'm a roleplaying gimp whose cross class style is not up there, hurts my single feeling.

Yes, I agree: there can be too much of a pondering about leveling stuff! It likely can be as much a game spoiler as miss-happy settings are. So just go on playing and have the experience! .. because I noticed there is always something good for something bad.

Just as a side note, I find a lot of points in your document arguable, for instance you could have mentioned that there is an element of choice in upgrading a character's Attributes and they don't follow automatically the upgrading of skills. Thus saying "Attributes are governed by Skills" is difficult while the opposite, Attributes governing Skills, is in some cases just a matter of arithmetic calculation.

I also always had the impression it was skills that governed attributes... Truly, a Strength of 100 has a direct impact on damage dealt, but has the same 'impact' on your blades skill of say 50 as if you had Strength 40. You do not get anything more, skillwise.

This is even more obvious with Sneak and Agility - try to even find the word 'Agility' in the Sneak session of the UESP... not one hit.

What I was getting at with that statement is that the Skills you use determine how much points you can add to the Attribute, so its your use of skills that governs how much you can raise the attribute.

This is probably a really stupid question, but when do you chose your skills? I've only been playing a short time, and I have a number of skills that I can upgrade after resting when I level up, but I don't remember actually picking them.

You mean the message that says something like, "Congradulations you are now an Expert of Mysticism. You can now cast Expert level spells?"

If you do mean that, than you still have to buy them from people, you can just use them now.

In character creation, you chose your major/minor skills and your two favored attributes. When you level up, you can level the attributes you want to. Your skills level up as you use them.

Very good description, only two comments, a battlemage should be a mage wearing heavy armor but use magic as main weapon.
Personally I find sneak pretty useful for a pure mage probably more useful than for typical melee fighter, yes you does not get a sneak attack bonus but you has to have a pretty decent sneak to do melee sneak attacks anyway.
Main benefit of sneak for non archers at lower levels is that you can prepare for battle and choose then to fight.

You probably didnt read everything (SHAME) but way back in the sewer you are offered several class options and the choice to create your own class. You probably picked a default class and had your skills auto-assigned.

Hey really like the guide, glad I found this.

I do have one question, that last remark on the end of the guide you said that I could just slide down the difficulty bar.

Will that really fix the leveling problems I ran into the last time I played? i.e. Super Goblins and Super Bears that cant be killed. Not fix fix per say, but rather just make the game more balanced feeling at higher levels.

I mean a lot of people use the efficient leveling thing or the majors as minors, but honestly I don't really want to put that much work into it, I'd rather just be able to play like I normally did a while back. Have fun and play the game.

If you slide that difficulty slide all the way down, you will deal *6 damage to your opponent and they will deal 1/6 to you. You should be able to handle it. I personally prefer Alchemy fix though.

You might even find it too easy, but yes tweaking the slider will eventually lead to a balanced experience.

Thanks for all the info, I actually haven't played Oblivion very much for a while because of the issues with super enemies I ran into, but now I feel a little more confident that if push comes to shove I can keep the game from beating me over the head.

you should be good to go man, PM me if I can help.

I agree with a lot of this. But i think if you can handle and balance out your major nad minor skills you can put your skills you will use the most as majors. Also, alchemy can be a bad way to level, but i have found one way that it can be used even if leveled somewhat fast, just apply your high level poisons to your weapons it will allow more damage. But other than those 2 opinions i love your guide and great job! Mind if i steal it :poke: ?

You can also drink a bunch of restore store health and have pretty much infinite health over time.
You can fortify Strength Endurance, or whatever you want up to 100 temporarily
You can go invisible.
You can WIN TEH GAME with Alchemy.

Okay, this is something I've been thinking about for a while now, but I could really never figure out completly.

I'm trying to create a kind of hybrid class, of Magic and Combat, and I'm trying to use a High Elf for it since that's my personal preference.

I mean, I'll choose Combat as Specialization, since Altmer comes with a lot of bonus's to magic already. In addition I make the choice of Strength and Intelligence. Atronach birth sign to go with this to give me plenty of magicka.

My main skills are Alchemy (to create potions to help with stunted magicka), Blade, Block, Destruction, Mysticism, Restoration, and Light Armor. Initially I went with heavy but encumbrance became an annoyance so I'm going to switch to light I think.

Essentially what I think I'm falling into is a jack of all trades master of none kind of thing. I do have a bit of an issue with my blade skill, it doesn't level very much so I may need to take that into a kind of a training and kill a bunch of everscamps with a dagger or something.

My concern is also Strength and Endurance, Magicka doesn't seem to be too much of one because with an Altmer in addition to a Atronoch brith sign I have 360 just starting out.

I suppose I could just as easily go out and enchant some things to try and take care of it a little but I was wondering if anyone knew anything about creating a decent hybrid class?

I will PM you with my suggested build.

Bravo! IMHO, the best post on this subject. Very clear and to the point without a lot of mumbo-jumbo. I like the way you referred the reader to the wiki to obtain any needed mumbo-jumbo. Anyone needing a little guidence to character creation should read this.

Thank You.

This guide is a great resource for old and new players alike.

Alot of no BS, easy to understand advice.

It should be stickyed somewhere.

Thanks for this Zakarius, this has come in handy more than once. :thumbsup:

It sure has. In fact, I just used it last night in building another character. I've only really played one character since getting Oblivion. I've created others, but never played any of them more than an hour or so after leaving the sewers.

De-lurkin' to say that this guide is excellent- not just for players who need help coming up with a good character, but people who need help coming up with a character, period! I am so indecisive, so this guide provides a great starting point.

Ah, thank you very much, Zakarius!
This guide is very helpful for a newbie like me. ^_^


Heh, when I started my very first Oblivion game a few months ago, I had a character with both Blunt and Blade (AND destruction and marksman) as part of my major skills. :blush: I wasn't sure at the time if I was supposed to be prepared to wield a blade or an axe or a bow and arrow anytime I go exploring. I think I may have been trying to do a jack-of-all trades at the time.

After trying out some characters, I noticed that I tend to like throwing fireballs and shock spells at people from a distance and then hacking with a melee weapon if they get too close. So, would that be a battlemage build?

I'm still trying to learn the magic enchantment, spellmaking, and alchemy systems to help with making myself stronger. (Oh, my character is a female High Elf with The Lady birthsign, in case you are wondering).