UESP Forums

Rather than ask "What do you think of my build? I thought I would ask "What do you think when you make your own build?" So, what is your strategy with your custom builds and how does it fit with your playing strategy (cheating, grinding, all natural, random skill use, planned skill use, etc.)
I have been playing "mostly natural" (point building from actual game play) with no help from guild benefits (custom weapons etc) or sigil stones. I am only using Deadric artifacts and gear from non guild quests.
I just plugged my favorite custom "efficient play" build into the OCP character planer and it suggested raising attributes (gameplay) in an order that makes absolutely no sense to me. I think its strategy is concerned with taking all attributes to 100 instead of helping defeat enemies. The two strategies most people know about from the wiki pages are the "All Major skill" and "No Major Skill" leveling strategies, but these don't really help gameplay either. IMO

One Major Skill for each Attribute, that skill being a reflection of the character's true nature. Want a character who uses a sword? I choose Blade as the skill that builds Strength.

Early on in the character's life I'll have them use blunt weapons and fists most of the time, to build a +5 in Strength. Later in the game, when everything is comfortably built up, you can then focus on the skills which make your character tick in order to level-up.

Generally, I take racial bonuses into consideration and choose major skills that don't receive any increases and aren't necessary for normal gameplay. This gives me full control over when I level up and allows me to reach the maximum level (53) without using jail time.

Before I started using retroactive health mods, I would also always choose the Lady birthsign and endurance as a main attribute to achieve 100 endurance as quickly as possible to maximize health.

I do pretty much the same thing but without the mod. I especially like to have Mercantile and Speechcraft as major skills, use them to level but ignore the +5 to Personality. I find Personality a dump stat like Charisma was in Fallout/NV (where I would choose 5-5-7-1-6-8-8 ).

Tedious skill grinding to get +5 Str, End, and Spd for at least the first ten levels or so. Major skills allocated so that characters cap out around level 30 to prevent super outleveling everything (OOO mod), and so that some world/story bosses will always be a higher relative level.

After Endurance is maxed and the character starts to feel strong in melee combat, skill grinding tapers off and gameplay transitions to natural exploration and questing.

It takes 7.5 levels to raise a major skill from 25 to 100, so three major skills can be maxed out by level 23. The game does not significantly change after level 25 other than leveled creatures gaining more hit points.

So, to counter the "leveling problem" I play three major skills: weapon skill, defensive skill, helper skill (Blade, Block, Illusion) (Marksman, Sneak, Alchemy) (Conjuration, Sneak, Destruction/Alchemy). I always max out the weapon skill before starting the 2nd and 3rd skills. The last four major skills are rare-use or not-needed button tapping skills used to level up easily after the first three skills are maxed out. My Strength and Endurance skills are all minor skills when possible to make them easier to play for attribute bonuses.
I do not build Speed until later because with high Endurance I do not have to wear armor, and without armor, I move fast enough to dodge or outrun everything. Plus, my goal is to kill, not to run from.
I can level naturally by fitting my play to my skills so I do not have to do any artificial grinding. And I do not have to spend much if any time worrying about attribute bonuses. If I want +5 Strength, I just fight through a dungeon or two using the three minor skills until they add up to 10 and then I start using my main weapon again. If I buy 5 lessons in Armorer right before I go to sleep, I start the next level with 5 points towards endurance for the next level. I can easily make up the other 5 points with blocking, repair, or by wearing heavy armor for a short time.




Bmy primary weapon skill first (9 -10 levels to max), my defensive skill second (starting after teh weapon skill is at max) and then my helpwer skill

My 'Build Strategy' for Oblivion is pretty much just about me trying to find a way to 'manage' the way the game does levelling so that I can maximise the time I spend doing something vaguely related to playing the game whilst minimising the amount (or at least the tediousness) of any grinding.

My last 4 or so characters used 3 Major skills and maxed out in the mid-20s. That gave me plenty of time to get key attributes to 100 (or above...) and the game still has a nice variety to the enemy spawns there.

I plan which 3 attributes I'm going to be +5ing several levels in advance and decide on a play style which will trigger a level-up just as all 3 attributes get their 10 skill points - while minimising the use of skills belonging to other attributes I might want to +5 later on.

So basically the 3 Major skills I'll be driving levelling off and the 4 I'll be avoiding are chosen specifically to make the level-by-level +5ing as smooth and grind-free as possible. (At least that is the idea... )

The plan for my next character is 2 Major skills and to house-rule 'No +5ing for Endurance'.

Power leveling is first thing i regret learning in Oblivion. It's similar to getin online first time and getting exposed to PROPER way of playing.
As for what my aims where, aside of mods for better combat i like to custom fit my characters with spells and effects.
Played Atronach one time and then i experimented a loot with spells until i found exploit that basically rolls around fortify effect never leaving you with negative stats (aka positive zero). Then i used it to role play with summoning complete set of armor and adding burning or cored effects on self for visuals, all sort of thematic spells i envisioned on characters. Most of this is before i got to mods so there were no easy way to do things for me then.

I never forget Oblivion as it was my first 3D game, not even knowing how to save scam then. I remember getting chased by guards and discovering mini games of lockpicking and when i talked to NPC that if i make them like me enough they gonna fight those darn guards for me so i can get a chance to escape... Entering the water in wander and trying to figure where are the limits to this madness...
I must say compared to skyrim at least you jump more to level acrobatics and not just sneak entire game. Oblivion is way more forgiving game from what i remember so you really can't go wrong, it's just how you wanna spend your time honestly.

That all said i'm no innocence when i come to power leveling as finding the limits in all things is also very very fun so aside of what i mentioned, limits are most definitive number one on my list as every exploration should be.

I sort of tried "maximum efficiency leveling" in Oblivion and Morrowind, where you carefully plan out your major and minor skills ahead of time, then keep careful track of how many times you've improved a given skill before leveling up in order to get the greatest possible increases in whichever attributes you're currently focusing on.

But it gets really tedious really fast, so I usually end up creating a character of an existing class and then just improve the attributes I'm focusing on at any given time by however many points I've earned in them.

I do try to level up at least two of the attributes in a particular order, with the third attribute being either Luck or whichever of the other attributes has the greatest possible number of points.