UESP Forums

My search fu isn’t so good. Really not understanding how to build and level the character I want. I’m happy to read how, but haven’t found a good guide. The leveling page only confuses me, utube vids aren’t helping either. Just not getting how to actually get to what I want in a character.

When guides say “level this skill 1st, then save you major skill till xyz” that makes no sense to me. I’ve played plenty of rpgs, pNp d&d, Skyrim, DDO etc, but the leveling and character planning here really has me stumped. Plus the actual physical steps to get a skill upped when I want it upped..
I’m just lost.

Would appreciate being pointed at an in depth step by step example to get me going

Welcome, Belgarim!

Oblivion has a unique leveling system. As you level your character up, your opponent NPCs level up too. So NPC fighter types or magic users concentrate on specific skills while your character may level a broad range of skills. By mid-level for your character, the NPCs may be very strong. So some advice is to make the skills you want for your character to be miscellaneous skills and not major skills that level your character up. You could even play most of the game at first level with misc. skills at 100. The NPCs are still first level too, but are then very weak against you. A mix is also possible, where your character stays at say, level 15, with most of the skills you use at 100. However, I just grind all of my major skills to 100 and then play. The NPCs can't be stronger than 100 at their skills, so you fight equals. The choice is yours.

You improve a skill by using it. So if you buy a lot of cheap food items and make potions, your alchemy skill improves. You might summon a skeleton and use it as a "punching bag" to improve combat skills. Once you have improved major skills a total of 10 times, you can rest and your character will increase one level.

Each skill is related to an attribute, like Wisdom or Personality. When you improve a skill you get points that you may add to that attribute. The catch is that you can only improve at most 3 attributes for each level up for your character. You can also only improve an attribute by a max of 5 points per level. So you might increase skills that are related to 3 different attributes each time you want to level up and train them so that you get 5 points to improve each of those 3 attributes. You can plan ahead and then end up with 100 for each attribute by the time you max out your characters level. It sounds complicated, but I find it fairly easy.

Of course, you can play the game and have lots of fun and never worry about any of this. You may want to do that for a while, just to see how the game and your character develop. Good luck!

I almost forgot. When your character levels up, you get one tenth of your Constitution in hit points. So most players level up constitution to 100 ASAP.

I’m slowly getting it, but it’s still not translating into how I actually PLAY the game. For example, on uesp, in the section re increasing skills, under Endurance, the example given is to create a disintegrate armor spell or use an enchanted disintegrate armor ring, then grind repairs to level up. Weellllll, that spell and that ring won’t b around for a long time, which seems to negate the advice to raise End ASAP... you see? Same goes for nearly alllll the advice on uesp. Oh it’s just a simple matter of defeating this godlike being, then installing such n such mod, then discover actual magic powers, then go back in time, save your game while simultaneously .... aaaaargh!!

I’m disappointed that exp and leveling is so counter intuitive.

Belgarim
What kind of character do you want ? What do you want your character to be good at ?

Well, I think I want what anyone wants... A sack of hp, infinite carrying capacity, one hit kills with my sword, impenetrable armor, flawless but unnecessary self healing, and the ability to open every door and chest in the game. Nothing too op you understand, just yer basic Demi god.

Ok. High hp. High strength. Sword and board, heavy armor, locks, self heal via spell or self made pots. ...

But... I don’t suppose any of that matters since a properly leveled toon (do we say toon here?) will eventually have 100s in everything by endgame...

So here’s the problem, or EXAMPLE I should say, which im seeing today. I’m out of the sewer and completed exactly one quest inside Imperial City. Due to just walking the sewer and the couple blocks between Thoronirs place and his grave robbing buddy’s, plus getting hit by piddly rats, my Spd has 9 skillups under it: 5 in Light and 4 in Athletics. Stir and End are at 2 and 1. I wisely went the “skills I don’t use as Major” build method Sooooo.... I’m in no danger of leveling accidentally (since Acro is my Major in Speed and its at a happy zero) but I’m VERY likely to over level Ath and Light before I can get anywhere near 10s in Str or End. For End I need to do way more repairing than I can afford, for Str I need way more H2H than I’m likely to find standing still in the Garden district....

You see? So even though my controllable skills are ones I don’t use, it feels like I’m going to leak any amount of skill points before I even learn how to physically do the activities I need to do when I’m ready to intentionally level my desired Attributes. Is anyone following me? As a green newb with the Amulet of Jean-Luc still in my pocket, what do I do to get comfortably set up and ready to play at will, level at will, with limited resources?

Make sense?

Edit: I have played another toon “naturally” to level 6, but after reading about “the lvlng problem” I decided to start over.

Okay, after reading a bit more a picture is forming. Perhaps I don’t care that Ath and Light are going to leak, because Acro is my intentional leveler, and it’s skillups, when I decide to perform them, will be enough to bring Spd to 100 when the time comes.

Is that right?

So I can just continue to play normally for now, and then start grinding my Majors under Str and End when I DO have the resources?

Oh and it might be helpful to y’all if I post my character.

Name/Class: Belgarim / Tempest
Race/Gender: Breton / Male
Birthsign: The Warrior
Specialization: Combat
Attributes: Strength, Endurance
Major Skills: Mysticism, Alteration, Illusion, Marksman,
Acrobatics, Hand to Hand, Armorer

Health/Magicka/Fatigue: 90/150/180
Max Level: 50.5
Encumbrance: 275

Abilities:
- Resist Magicka (constant: 50 pt. Self)
- Shield (daily: 50 pt. Self for 1 min.)

Stats:
INTELLIGENCE-50: Alchemy-10, Mysticism-35, Conjuration-15
WILLPOWER-50: Destruction-5, Alteration-30, Restoration-15
PERSONALITY-40: Illusion-30, Mercantile-5, Speechcraft-5
AGILITY-30: Security-5, Sneak-5, Marksman-25
SPEED-30: Athletics-10, Acrobatics-25, Light Armor-5
STRENGTH-55: Blunt-10, Blade-10, Hand to Hand-30
ENDURANCE-45: Block-10, Armorer-30, Heavy Armor-10
LUCK-50

Can I tell you about my latest character (toon) ? Maybe you can use some of the ideas I had with it. Breton male Apprentice star Combat specialty. Strength & Endurance Armorer, Block, Blunt, Hand to Hand, Heavy Armor, Mercantile, Speechcraft. I would train Blade +5 and grind it another 5. I leveled Destruction 10 per level but restoration would work well too. Then I would level up using Armorer. I did the Mazoga quest right after delivering the amulet so I could get the White Stallion Lodge as a place to live. I had 10 iron bows and only a few hammers so I would shoot the target in the lodge one time with each bow. Step outside and repair 5 times, then inside and repair 5 more. If the hammer broke, I reloaded.Leveling both Destruction and Blade are easily done by attacking the Everscamps in Leyawiin. Doing this gives me +5 to strength, Willpower and Endurance to beyond Level 10. Endurance hit 100 at Level 14. I consider Personality a dump attribute so I spammed up Illusion to 100 before Level 2 and use Invisibility and Paralyze.I made a spell with Invisibility 26sec - Heal 3pts for 25sec.

Ok, that’s ... helpful. I mean I don’t intend to make anything a dump stat, but I see what you’re saying. I will go to Lwin and find those Evers amps right this second... badly in need of a H2H target.

Are you playing on PC ? Do you have Knights of the Nine and Shivering Isles ? Vile Lair and the other DLC's ? Make sure Shivering Isles, Vile Lair, Mehrunes Razor, Thieves Den, Battle Horn castle are NOT enabled. If they are, un-tick them in the DATA section of the loader. The rewards and item stats from these DLC's are not determined when you get the item. They are determined when the DLC is enabled. DLC's like Knights of the Nine, Spell Tomes, Horse Armor and Wizards Tower are OK.
If you start over, it's a good idea to make a save just before you exit the sewers. I went through the tutorial as a Nord and raised skills as little as possible. I set difficulty at "easiest". I walked instead of running. Killed as little as possible. Only picked the goblin shaman's chest after I case Woad on her. Left the rest of the chests. The idea being that you leave the tutorial sewers with a "clean sheet" or as much as possible. I saved just before exiting and made my Breton.

I find it very easy to raise Magic skills, Combat skills are hardest and Stealth skills are a mixed bag.
" https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Whom_Gods_Annoy " is the quest with the Everscamps but don't start the quest-don't speak to her. Just walk in and kill scamps. Or let them beat on you if you want to raise Heavy Armor.

I have 360 listed in my profile, it shows under my name on each post. I own no DLC. Got the Everscamps figgered. My unclean sewer run is a drag, and very likely resulted in a sub optimal 1st level. Compounded by errors in my trial and error... but still managed 5str/4end/4spd. 2nd levelup I had it almost figgered but made a stupid mistake, so 4/4/4. Now I’m pretty sure I understand and am looking at 5/5/5 for my next lvlup. I don’t know if I’m optimum or if I’ll run out of skill ups by late game, but I’m pretty sure I’ll have my priorities at 100 long before that.

Thanks for your input all

From one newb to another, welcome to the UESP forums. It's been a pleasure talking with you.

I'd suggest playing the game kinda laid back and exploratory on your first character(s). Don't worry too much about leveling your stats efficiently, just play the game on a low difficulty, learn as you go, get a feel for it, and then try for a more focused playthrough.

I can appreciate that, but I’m not an RPG newb, nor a D&D newb. I Just needed to adapt from playing Skyrim 1st, before playing this. I’m under control now. Level 6, last 3 lvlups I made 5/5/5 on Str/End/Spd. All going to plan now.

Also, playing the game randomly, just exploring, is a good way to get bored, frustrated, underpowered, and into irreversible trouble. Alternatively, using the quest timing page, efficient leveling guide, character planners, etc., especially early on, has provided me a much smoother entry into Cyrodiil. I now know how to balance pure exploration with Main quest with Side quests and Levelling. I feel much more comfortable with where I’m going, where my chr is going, even what I’d like to try on my next chr.

tldr; Read the directions before beginning any lengthy project.

Thanks for your hjelp