RarRar on 11/5/2006 at 21:22

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So I finally got bored of Oblivion retired my first character and started my new character. There seemed to me so many things I did "wrong" the first time around I wanted to try and make the very "best" character I could this time around and avoid earlier "mistakes." I'm heavy on the quotes because right and wrong are entirely in the eye of the beholder. In fact, at level 21 my last character was so super the game started to become boring. This time around I'm trying to create an even more super character. And at level 3 already I'm pretty damn super. How can that be right?

I dunno. But it's fun and takes my mind off of my misery so I'm OK with it. What would you or did you do quite differenly the second time around? I'm still concentrating on maximizing multiplers at level up, but even more than last time. Also I'm prioritzing them better, planning what's best to increase early and what's good later on in the game. I left my race and birthsign alone since those are good and they're the same ones I always play in every Elder Scrolls game. Though I *was* tempted to go with the Thief this time solely for the bonus to Luck.
* First change. DO NOT MAKE SNEAK A MAJOR ATTRIBUTE. Sneak rises so fast on its own and it's a constant pain in the ass when you're not quite ready to level up. At level 3 I'm already an even 50 points in Sneak without even trying.
* Keep two Intelligence related skills as Minors. Last time I only had one Int skill as a minor, Alchemy, and since Alchemy rises so incredibly fast I soon ran out of ways to boost my Int without leveling.
* Make Conjuration a minor. I had it as a Major before so was never really able to build it up powerful enough to be fun without leveling through the roof. Also it's an Int skill.
* Build up Blade 10 points every level. That's right, all my Major skill gains are happening solely in Blade. This gives me a +5 in Strength every level up too, which is important early on when the game is hard. My Blade is now over 50 at level three and it's VERY nice. It doesn't take me 300 swings to kill a rat like it did last time. Remember how hard zombies were to kill when you first started? I laugh at them now.
* The Patrol Guards carry silver swords. Get one as soon as possible. No more rusty iron blades for me. At level 3 bandits aren't dropping silver. By waiting for a Patrol Guard to bite it then looting his corpse I have a really powerful weapon for my level.
* Pick the paralyze staff! For godsakes, the PARALYZE staff!! When I chose my Wizard's staff I thought fireballs would be cool. What I didn't know was that fireball staffs (and shock staffs and freeze staffs) are a dime a dozen later in the game. I have NEVER found a paralyze staff and casting the equivalent requires an Illusion skill of 100.
* Make a Fortify Security 100 points for 2 seconds spell as soon as possible. After using the magic lockpick for so long, going back to the old way of lockpicking is just excruciating. This time I'm making myself a handy dandy spell especially for those Hard and Very Hard locks!
* Collect poison-making ingredients early on. I really got to love poison later in my last game, but I never really collected enough ingredients for it so was always quite stingy using it. This time I'm loading up with ingredients and carrying 40 or 50 of them with me at all times. You think I'm super now? I'm INVINCIBLE with poisons.

I am concentrating on combat-related skills and attributes first, while the game is so hard, and deferring magic-related development for later. That means my multipliers are going towards Strength (always Strength of course), Agility (since my sneak is rising so fast it's a shame to waste those multipliers). I hate how slow you travel at first so I also always put points into Speed first thing, but that's a tough choice because Endurance is so very important early on too. With Strength I carry ever more stuff and my blade attacks are even more ridiculously powerful. With Agility I notice my arrows do a lot more damage, and Endurance makes a big difference on my health. Later I'll switch smoothly from Agility to Intelligence as my Sneak gets higher and higher and nets me fewer Agility multipliers. Anyway, Agility is combat related which is what I want now, while Intelligence is Magic related and good for developing much later.

Levels 1-5:
Strength +5
Agility +5
Endurance or Speed +5

Levels 6-10:
Strength +5
Intelligence +5
Endurance or Speed +5

Even this time I made one mistake. I designed my character in such a way that I could develop Illusion to a high level later on solely so that I could cast a good Paralyze spell. But since I'm getting me the Paralyze Mage's staff this time around, all that is wasted. I should have chosen to develop Restoration instead.

Maybe my third character will be right on the money.

WingedKagouti on 12/5/2006 at 08:59

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The Mages Staves max out at level 15 so it's not a long wait to get the best version possible.

Epos Nix on 12/5/2006 at 19:34

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I have a spell I created that fortifies Mercantile +100, Personality +100 and Charm +100 for 2 seconds that I always try to create as soon as possible in the game (to varying degrees, ie. +25, +25, +25 early on). This spell has 3 really good uses early on:

1. The most obvious: everything you buy and sell is better priced. Plus, +100 mercantile will allow you to invest in stores so you can sell stuff at higher prices later in the game.

2. Casting this spell on a guard when you have a bounty will make the guard "take care" of the bounty for you rather than go to jail, etc. Much more preferable than joining the thieves guild and paying half (this only applies to bounties under about 1000 though).

3. You don't have to do the stupid personality sub-game every time you want to get more information out of someone. This happens a LOT early on since you'll have low personality and low reputation.

Epos Nix on 12/5/2006 at 21:30

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Nice trick: If you are caught attacking someone and a guard gets aggressive, cast a charm spell on the guard then hold block and press enter to offer a truce. The guard will put away his sword and walk away like nothing happened!

RarRar on 13/5/2006 at 17:27

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I just sold my one and only Varla stone for 700 gold so I could get some training. It was hard to do but I never used even one of them in my last game, ever. Never used any Welkynd stones either, for that matter. But those are only worth 50 apiece. They are plentiful. I think I had something like 120 of them by the end of my last game. That's less than 5,000 sellable gold.

I never did the Ayleid statue quest last time around. That's a good idea. I think I'll hunt me down some of those.

The Marauder bosses are really cashing in for me right now. The best wones have several pieces of enchanted armor which I can sell for 1000 each.