RyushiBlade on 25/1/2006 at 22:12
So eager with anticipation for Oblivion, I have given much thought to what kind of character I'm going to make. So feel free to share your ideas of your first characters. You can use (
http://www.elderscrolls.com/codex/codex_combatskills.htm) this link to browse through the skills of the game.
Traditionally, my first character is always a Barbarian-type, but... Now I can't decide between a Barbarian, Jaegar, and Guy, a rogue thief. I'll undoubtedly end up playing both, but I can't decide which I should try first!
Jaegar, the Imperial Barbarian-Wanna-Be, having both high strength and high luck. Good natured, but hates city living, he lives for adventure, dodging traps, and the ilk; his high luck has served him well his entire life, though somehow seemed to fail by landing him in jail. (It wasn't until the Emperor came along that he realized his luck hadn't actually failed at all). Along wih luck, Jaegar has an innate talent of Telekinesis (I think it's in the game?), a talent he was born with and the only magic he will ever use. With his major skills set at Blade, Block, Heavy Armor, Athletics, Armorer, Marksman, and Alteration, Jaegar's a horse-stealing, tomb-raiding, monster-killing, friendly badass. His birthsign is the Warrior, obviously.
Or...
Guy, an Imperial rogue thief. More classic, less original, he excels in agility and speed and he rarely ventures outside of cities. To be honest, he rarely even kills much. He visits cities, looting every house he can, always keeping an ear cocked for news of greater booty to be had. He isn't afraid of anything, intent even to steal from the Thieve's Guild, though it must be said that he knows the meaning of "self-preservation." He isn't likely to run into a fight and - especially - not Oblivion until he's confident he can do so without being seen. Not only is Guy a rapscalion, he's also a young and handsome sweet talker, and he knows it. His major skills are Security, Sneak, Acrobatics, Light Armor, Marksman, Speechcraft, and Blade. His birthsign is The Thief.
Briareos H on 25/1/2006 at 23:24
Knowing that magicka has been rebalanced, I was considering either a full-mage or a ranged/thief/mage hybrid. But as Jump and Levitation are now out, I don't know if a full-mage will be that fun.
So in the end I think I'll choose my hybrid. Not all of these will be majors but I'll try to develop them first : Alteration / Destruction / Mysticism / Marksman / Sneak / Acrobatics / Blade. The Lover.
Such a character leaves plenty of room for totally different experiences while replaying : this is not a warrior, not a real thief nor a specific mage (necromancer, alchemist, ...).
But I generally don't like to plan the whole thing before playing : I'm constructing my character story on the fly, assuming amnesia at the beginning of the game.
steo on 25/1/2006 at 23:49
Shit, before I clicked that link I was unaware of how many skills they took out. There are only 3 weapon skills in the game?!? in Morrowind there were 6. Theres also no unarmoured skill, presumably causing considerable damage to pure mage players. I certainly hope you know what you're doing Bethesda but then again, the game has been delayed by a third of a year and they claim to have done much more on balancing the game than they did for morrowind. I'm even glad that they took out enchant because it was so ridiculously good and could be so easily abused. For example, in one of my earlier characters, I managed to find merchants that sold netch leather ash yams and (I think) bloat. By buying them out of these ingredients and then bartering again so their stocks would replenish, I managed to make enough fortify intelligence potions to boost my intelligence to 2145, with which I could never fail enchantments. I then made an amulet giving me constant effect chameleon of 1-47% and with a few equips and re-equips I had 45% chameleon which meant I could steal anything and always get sneak attacks. I also made potions of restore health and fatigue lasting for periods of up to 5 minutes. I then prematurely travelled to Red Mountain and stumbled upon Dagoth Ur whom I sparred with for quite some time before concluding that I was missing some vital item with which to kill him. This kinda ruined the game for me and shortly afterwards I started again as an all-rounder type dunmer. I played for some time, getting further in the actual main quest than I had before but still I decided that the game was far too easy and so started again as a pure mage type which I am still playing.
In other words, I bloody well hope this delay was for good reason and that Oblivion rapes Morrowind on gameplay and balancing. As far as what character I will play, I will probably go for an all rounder leaning slightly towards stealth. Heh, ever since playing Thief I have gone from someone who saw thieves as a weak and boring character class, to someone who opts for stealth in any game where it is possible. I prefer not to know exactly what I'm going to do in a game before I play it, it takes some of the suprise out of the game. Sadly I have already dug too deep in Oblivion previews, probably because I looked forward so much to November 20th and then discovered the four month delay. Oh well, it's probably for the best.
Damn, that went on a bit...
Pisces on 26/1/2006 at 02:16
Since they reduced the number of skills, does anyone know if they also reduced the number of Major/minor skills you take and if so what the numbers are? I'll take a high elf or breton battle mage: apprentice sign intelligence/strength. Blunt, heavy armour, destruction, alteration, conjuration and whatever else is appropriate, he will go the city way, I enjoy going around the cities and absorbing everything. Or a wood elf ranger agility/intelligence, the theif sign, marksman, blade, atheletics, mysticism, alchemy, light armour and whatever else is appriopriate, will play mainly forests.
Hard to pick which one to play first because they are both so exciting.
Convict on 26/1/2006 at 03:44
What's the replayability like with different characters? I mean would it be the same old stuff but using a character with different skills?
RyushiBlade on 27/1/2006 at 01:31
You get seven major skills (the rest are 'minor.') There are still 21 skills, IIRC.
steo on 27/1/2006 at 23:16
There are 21 skills but there were 27 in morrowind. Sadly it seems that nobody in cyrodill knows how to sharpen an axe either...
