Issues with leveling in Oblivion

[coldmeat]

So the Oblivion thread started recently got me to reinstall it and play it again while waiting for Skyrim. I created a class that I've never played before, it's pretty close to the same as the WitchHunter preset class. I'm playing as a conjurer/archer. I basically sneak and get criticals with my bow, then when they rush I summon a skeleton to take the heat off me while I finish them with my bow. It's probably not a good class but I'm having fun with it.

I'll outline it here:

Breton
Mage

Major skills:
Athletics
Conjuration
Illusion
Marksman
Destruction
Light Armor
Sneak

I know now that Destruction and Illusion were probably poor choices since I don't use either of them regularly. But that's kind of where my confusion starts. The more I read about classes and leveling in Oblivion, the more I see that you shouldn't choose your most used skills as major skills, because it would be easy to overlevel.

I've only reached level 3 by now. I'm trying to get into the mages guild right away, and I'm at Anvil and they want me to sleep to get my recommendation. So I figured I would have to level up, so I'll try to get +5/+5/+5 in Int/Will/Agility. Right now I have +4 Agility, +2 Int and +2 Willpower, but I can't seem to increase Intelligence or Willpower. I just leveled my alteration skill (governed by Willpower) 5 times, yet it hasn't increased from +2 when I go to sleep.

Anybody know why?

 

[Ross Ridge]

... and they want me to sleep to get my recommendation. So I figured I would have to level up, so I'll try to get +5/+5/+5 in Int/Will/Agility. Right now I have +4 Agility, +2 Int and +2 Willpower, but I can't seem to increase Intelligence or Willpower. I just leveled my alteration skill (governed by Willpower) 5 times, yet it hasn't increased from +2 when I go to sleep.

Anybody know why?

I think it's too late. Once your eligable to level up, your stat bonuses are fixed.

 

[thespyder]

Well, as you have already guessed, your stat up's are governed by use of skills tied to those stats. I am guessing that you do a lot of running around, which is why your Agility goes up.

If you want to increase your INT or WIL, pick a skill that is tied to them and just spend a couple of days doing that. Cast spells for no reason other than to up your skill. Call it practice and keep at it. Once you are sick and tired of doing it, you are about half way there. Do it some more and then rest.

As you apparently already know, the level system in the game is horrible. And the monsters auto-level with you, so if you aren't focusing on increasing useful ability combos, you will end up being horribly out classed in very short order. Good luck.

 

[coldmeat]

I think it's too late. Once your eligable to level up, your stat bonuses are fixed.

Ok I think I get it a little more now.

So that's why you don't really want the skills you use a lot as major skills, because you can then only level them to a sum of 10 before you are forced to level. If I had left marksman and conjuration as minor skills, I could level them more than just a couple times each level, and be in a better position compared to my enemies.

 

[coldmeat]

So basically i should have chose then major skills:

Mysticism
Alchemy
sneak
restoration
Acrobatics
alteration (?)
not sure what the last one would be


All of those major skills would apply to attributes that I would want to level (Intelligence, Willpower, Agility and Speed) but since I don't use them regularly, I would have more control, rather than having skills like marksman and conjuration and athletics which all level up during the regular course of playing the game.

 

[Daverino]

This is the major reason I gave up on Oblivion. Playing the game the way you think it should be played gimps your skills and then everything around you levels up as well so you get weaker instead of stronger as the game goes on.

I know there are a ton of mods out there to get around it, but after a while, I couldn't bring myself to care.

 

[coldmeat]

Well, as you have already guessed, your stat up's are governed by use of skills tied to those stats. I am guessing that you do a lot of running around, which is why your Agility goes up.

running increases athletics, and athletics in under Speed. It's marksman, sneak, and security that are under agility and I use all 3 pretty regularly.

If you want to increase your INT or WIL, pick a skill that is tied to them and just spend a couple of days doing that. Cast spells for no reason other than to up your skill. Call it practice and keep at it. Once you are sick and tired of doing it, you are about half way there. Do it some more and then rest.

That's what I have been doing. I have low level restoration and alteration spells that I just spam whenever I remember.

 

[Scooby Doo]

Restoration spells have a slower leveling speed than the others.

 

[coldmeat]

Well I think I gimped myself by choosing the wrong major skills. Whatever, I'm not having a hard time or anything.

Anyway I just finished a quest where I had to go to jail, but I broke out and at the end of the quest no longer had a bounty, but all of my stuff was still in the evidence chest. The only way for me to get my stuff back now is to steal it, so now all my stuff is "stolen". Kind of annoying.

 

[shortylickens]

Restoration spells have a slower leveling speed than the others.

You actually have to have available hit points to heal for it to count. Just like shooting fireballs at a tree wont increase your destruction skill.

 

[coldmeat]

You actually have to have available hit points to heal for it to count. Just like shooting fireballs at a tree wont increase your destruction skill.

I just cast "minor respite" which is a restore fatigue spell and it works fine. If I'm trying to level destruction, I made a fire spell that damages myself.

 

[modestninja]

I just cast "minor respite" which is a restore fatigue spell and it works fine. If I'm trying to level destruction, I made a fire spell that damages myself.

Why don't you download one of the mods that fixes the leveling system? It's been a while since I played the game, so I don't remember any names, but the one I used made the game much more enjoyable for me.

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

I would put skills I don't use as your main skills and then the ones you actually use as minor skills. That way you can ensure you get +5 stat bonuses every level up.

That is how I played my first character and by the time I was done with the character it pretty much owned everything easily.

 

[Fallen Kell]

Well I think I gimped myself by choosing the wrong major skills. Whatever, I'm not having a hard time or anything.

You will. The enemies you fight level assuming you gained at least a +4 in every attribute. In 3 or 4 more levels doing what you are doing, you will be completely destroyed by them.

 

[coldmeat]

You will. The enemies you fight level assuming you gained at least a +4 in every attribute. In 3 or 4 more levels doing what you are doing, you will be completely destroyed by them.

What do you mean "in 3 or 4 more levels", you don't even know what level I am at. I could be lvl 2, I could be lvl 20.

 

[Ross Ridge]

What do you mean "in 3 or 4 more levels", you don't even know what level I am at. I could be lvl 2, I could be lvl 20.

You did say you were level 3 in your original post. It seems unlikely that you've reached level 20 in the meantime.

 

[coldmeat]

You did say you were level 3 in your original post. It seems unlikely that you've reached level 20 in the meantime.

you assume I have a life

 

[shortylickens]

What do you mean "in 3 or 4 more levels", you don't even know what level I am at. I could be lvl 2, I could be lvl 20.

Dont matter.
At any given level if you dont get max stat points (+5 in three) then you are behind the power curve and eventually will be stomped by powerful monsters.
Unless you do like me and add items in game that give HUGE bonuses, like +15 each to str, agl, end. And even then you'd need multiples of those items. I got one character with a grand total of +50 to everything just from rings and greaves.

 

[modestninja]

I found the mod I was talking about:

Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul
http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=15256

You might want to read about it and what else you need to install to make it work, but it makes the game way more challenging and enjoyable.

I also remember there being an unofficial community patch that fixes most of the remaining bugs in the game that is definitely a must have.

 

[Red Storm]

Moral of the story: Bethesda games almost always require a good deal of community mod work before they can be considered good. Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3, they are all pretty mediocre on their own without mods.

 

[coldmeat]

I found the mod I was talking about:

Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul
http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=15256

You might want to read about it and what else you need to install to make it work, but it makes the game way more challenging and enjoyable.

I also remember there being an unofficial community patch that fixes most of the remaining bugs in the game that is definitely a must have.

I tried that the last time I played Oblivion. I can't remember why but I preferred the vanilla leveling system (as broken as it is) over it and switched back.

 

[Scooby Doo]

You actually have to have available hit points to heal for it to count. Just like shooting fireballs at a tree wont increase your destruction skill.

I think this is true for restoration (can't remember offhand anymore), I know it's true for destruction. Also mercantile skill is kinda broken too. You only get a skill point for each group transaction (i.e. sell 100 arrows at once you get 1 point). There's a mod that reverts that back to morrowind's method.

For the levelling I'd just recommend using a levelling replacer like ngcd. That way you don't have to worry about getting that extra +5 to spend when levelling, it's all done for you.

 

[shortylickens]

Moral of the story: Bethesda games almost always require a good deal of community mod work before they can be considered good. Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3, they are all pretty mediocre on their own without mods.

Pretty much. Luckily they include modding tools and its easy to use plugins. Just place in your directory and use either the official launcher or Mod Manager to activate stuff.
And because of the Nexus sites we can all access each other work and give encouragement to make more.