1st time thru Oblivion - why do i keep dying

[meathead013]

so ive spent probably a hundred hours so far reading up, preparing to build my character, and a couple of cycles of playing thru early quests so i have a decent idea of basic game mechanics. i also played Morrowind all the way thru so theres some good transferrable game knowledge there

 

i decided to power-build my character by getting the staff of perma-scamps and bringing it back to my Imperial City shack to train up my character. so far i havent wasted even a single skill level up so you would figure that my character would be relatively strong by its current L20. yet my very first foray into the wilderness and im barely able to stay alive - in fact im NOT staying alive, im getting killed by stupid zombie summoning goblins, of all things

 

Redguard Level 20

Normal difficulty (50)

 

100 Strength

100 Endur

85 Intelligence

70 Agility

65 Personality

60 Speed

50 Willpower

75 Luck

 

86 Blade

74 Block

50 Alteration

52 Conjuration

50 Personality

35 Light Arm

43 Sneak

 

42 Armorer

29 Athletics

42 Blunt

42 H2H

56 Heavy

43 Alchemy

13 Destruction

50 Mysticism

12 Restoration

11 Acrobatics

12 Marksman

40 Mercantile

20 Security

20 Speechcraft

 

Standard Iron Heavy Armor, Standard Silver Longsword

 

I would think I would be slashing thru goblin shamans and warriors like they were butter, but im getting my ass kicked

 

its playing like the difficulty slider is on a lot harder than it is. and of course i dont want to lower the difficulty for stupid goblins right out of the damn gate

 

where did i go so wrong?

[meathead013]

i thought the creatures etc were supposed to level up with you but i thought that was static for them. so if i have leveled with max 5's i should be way ahead of the normal playing curve by L20, but it doesnt feel that way

[Striker879]

Goblins have a weakness to fire, but I see you haven't trained up Destruction. Find yourself a good fire enchanted weapon (I'd stay away from bows though ... looks like you don't train marksman either).

[meathead013]

well its just that i didnt prioritize that yet. i just wanted to get strength and endurance to 100 and that got me to Level 20

 

even tho some of the other skills are lagging, i expected the high STR and Blade to mean i could hack away at most opponents even if it took quite a few whacks and i had to repair up equip afterwards. but a normal block/attack routine just doesnt work, my guy cant keep up physically, and that surprises me

 

again, i wouldnt expect a standard player who just plays the game as intended to be as advanced as one that has maxed every levelup like i have. so im surprised on standard difficulty that those advantages arent evident. you would think max endurance and strength would mean i could outlast most standard oppponents in a physical matchup, but thats surprisingly not the case

 

i was intending to play the rest of the game openly without much training, i figured this would be enough of a head start. but that assumption appears fatally flawed somehow. now im trying to understand why. or perhaps this is why there are so many mods that change the advancement protocol

[Striker879]

Goblins, especially the Shamans and Warlords are some of the tougher enemies you'll encounter in the game. I personally backpedal and dodge (depending on whether they're archers or melee) while tossing fireballs. I try not to alert more than one at a time to avoid being swarmed. Their melee attacks in particular are fast and difficult to block.

 

The UESP Wiki has more info on them here and here.

 

The vanilla leveling system has it's weaknesses without a doubt. I prefer to train as I play as opposed to using training training aids like the Everscamps so that my skills remain more balanced (for example your Restoration is almost completely untrained, meaning your character won't have access to some of the better restore health spells). Trick is to try to get +5 on each upgraded attribute at each levelup (easy to say ... a bit more complicated to actually achieve with the vanilla leveling system).

[meathead013]

so i guess maybe i was biased against goblins. omg, im a goblincist!

 

i was thinking that goblins were pretty much pushovers, at least at equal-ish levels. but maybe they arent. i was kinda visualizing goblins from the tutorial so perhaps i shoulda looked them up before posting

 

i had just emerged from my long period of permascamp training, excited to finally enter the world with my Level 20 GOD, and the first goblin cave i come to i get my ass handed to me. so maybe goblins are such puzzies after all

[Striker879]

I generally don't bother with goblin dungeons unless it's quest related ... the loot to hassle ratio just not good. For simple gold hunts you can't beat marauder dungeons (of course you'll need a friendly merchant to convert to gold). Fort Blueblood isn't too far from Leyawiin and can be cleared without interfering with the Leyawiin Mages Guild Recommendation quest (if you haven't done that). The bonus is when you're selling your loot to Tun-Zeeus and he gives you his signature greeting.

 

Those goblin you first meet in the tutorial are wimped down models ... the later ones are good for training up your heavy/light armor skill though (as well as armorer and restoration).

[meathead013]

is combat just way way harder in this game than it was in morrowind? seems like combat is WAY harder than i expected it to be at this stage

 

i specifically built this character so that it would start out with strong physical combat skills, select supportive magic skills, and to build the rest of the magic skills over time so that by later levels the magic is close to as strong as it would have been if the character started out a mage. but the intent was for the majority of combat to be won with the blade

 

jacking up strength and endurance early (way above what would have happened if you just played the game and didnt max each levelup) should mean that my character is able to survive and win physical battles without a ton of work, but thats not happening. each battle is long and drawn out. i have to hit and run, hit and run. my health is getting so low that i have to run FAR distances to keep from dying, or cheat by using the convenience mark/recall mod i used. i cant even hit and run with the blade, i have to do it by summoning something good like a flame atronach and trying to run in circles without getting hit to the atronach can throw fireballs without chasing the monster. otherwise if i try to win the battle just by hacking/healing/hacking im dead pretty damn easily

 

so im less than halfway thru my levelups (currently at Level 23) and every battle is long and drawn out. doesnt seem like this is the way the game designers meant for it to be played at all. feels like im missing something about game mechanics or whatever bc right now running around in circles hoping your flame atronach manages to hit that goblin chasing you isnt much fun

[meathead013]

is it possible oblivion is just more heavily slanted to magic than morrowind was? seems like if i build my character like this in morrowind i would be able to hack thru most opponents with only a little in-battle healing. that certainly isnt the case now

 

i want to try to get out of this slash-run-run-run-run-run-slash-run-run-run-run-run etc etc etc pattern

[bben46]

Sometimes running is a viable option. Not every combat is an obvious stand up and fight it out proposition. Skill plays a bigger part than it did in Morrowind also - the more skillful you are the higher the damage you do.

 

BTW, there are mods that can reduce the long drawn out battles where both you and your opponent seem to be gradually weakening from minor cuts that you thought were deadly - but they tend to work both ways - both your opponent and you will lose health much faster and a battle rmay be over with just 2 or three hits.

Here are a few (There are more if you look) - use only ONE

http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/6926/?

http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/4699/?

http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/40206/?

http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/41465/?

http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/15705/?