Character Building

[okappa]

I've read multiple walkthroughs on building a character around the Leveling Problem but it's not so easy for me still. -.-

 

First of all, the class I want to play the most is a cross between Mage and Thief. Basically something that can get quick kills on most enemies without taking much damage with a combination of Stealth bladework, Destruction, and evading attacks.

 

The most obvious part for that is the race, which will have to be a Male Dark Elf.

 

From there I'm stuck, first of all, on which stats to focus on. Willpower and Speed seem like givens -- Willpower influencing Destruction with Speed influencing Athletics and Light Armor to keep me from dying after the initial strike. But what comes next? Agility seems pointless because I'm never going to use a bow, but then it also influences Sneak, which I'll be using all the time (and unnecessarily leveling if I choose not to go with it, but use Sneak as a Major.) Strength should make my Blade more powerful but is that necessary? And will I need Intelligence to increase my Magicka? And then there's always Luck. *sigh* How do you even WORK on Luck?!

 

The biggest problem, naturally, is the major skills. I feel like Destruction would be useful to have at a very early level (since the vast majority of stronger early enemies can be killed by a combo of a critical stab and a Destruction "Touch" spell,) but then if I use it too frequently I'll be leveling really, really fast. I know Acrobatics is definitely good as one of the major skills since I can control the leveling and it hits for Speed, but that's really the only one I'm so sure on. :(

 

Currently all I can come up with is:

 

Major skills:

Acrobatics (definite)

Light Armor (definite)

Blade (definite)

Mercantile (not totally sure)

Athletics

Destruction

Illusion

 

Restoration and Alteration used as minors to level Willpower?

 

EDIT: It occurs to me that Intelligence could be completely unnecessary if I go with The Apprentice sign.

[Slawter500]

I admire the amount of thought that you have put into this. Agility would be a good one to choose in my opinion, if you are going to be using sneak all the time it's an excellent asset, and will most likely level quickly.

[documn]

Are you going with the unmodded leveling system? If so, you might want to set some of your important skills as minor skills, which will allow you to level them as much as you want without making your character level up. This will give you an edge, though whether or not that's a good thing is up to you; maybe you'll like the extra challenge. Personally I think you might have a hard time with this character if you aren't going to use restoration, alchemy, or alteration for healing and protection.

[DaChunK]

Major skills:

Acrobatics (definite)

Light Armor (definite)

Blade (definite)

Mercantile (not totally sure)

Athletics

Destruction

Illusion

 

Restoration and Alteration used as minors to level Willpower?

 

EDIT: It occurs to me that Intelligence could be completely unnecessary if I go with The Apprentice sign.

 

***

Indeed well thought out.

 

I'd make a few changes though.

 

Firstly I'd not have athletics or Mercantile as majors. Both as you say are unmanageable as far as levelling rate goes. Illusion is good as well as Blade, Destruction and Light Armour for your build. Acrobatics is handy but again unmanageable for maximising your levelling process. Will help you level quicker though. So that ones debatable....

 

Luck has no supporting skill IE: You can only raise it by 1 every time you level your character. Which makes for slow ability advancement but in my opinion it's an essential one to put a point on every time.

 

Having that 100% weakness to magic gives me the heebie Jeebies from choosing the Apprentice class. It's ok if your not dirrectly facing mages in spell combat. Maybe a swift backstab first would lessen the weakness issue. Which brings me to my other suggestion -

 

I'd have sneak as a Major. My especially if you use any mods that enhance rogue abilities/thief abilities and backstab damage. - http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=6359

Higher Agility and Sneak means more damage with your blade in this situation.

 

Alteration may be a good choice for a butting thief. I have it on my thief character and it's very handy having shield and encumbrance spells among others. To help her cause.

 

I love Alchemy (though it can be time consuming and a little frustrating at times) It's worth having a good knowledge of it and it will help raise your intelligence ( always a good thing :-P )

 

My choice would be

 

Light Armour

Blade

Sneak

Alchemy

Illusion

Destruction

Alteration

 

I'd seriously think about choosing another birth sign and then you have race considerations to take into account. I love the Atronach sigh which is hard to start with, yet with the alchemy skill you can make enough potions to replenish Magicka and that 50% spell absorption comes in very handy later on in the game.

 

That's my 10 cents worth. Hope it helps a little.

 

DaChunK

[okappa]

This helps a lot. Thanks everyone. :)

 

Leveling system's definitely my least favorite part of Oblivion. *sigh* It seems like it's built to discourage specializing in the skills you're going to use the most, which is the opposite of intuitive. Still, if I play with anything but the vanilla leveling I just don't feel like I'm playing Oblivion anymore. :P

 

One last question: With the Atronach, spells still DO hurt you, right? It sounds like it'd be somewhat broken otherwise.

[Axxaw]

This helps a lot. Thanks everyone. :)

 

Leveling system's definitely my least favorite part of Oblivion. *sigh* It seems like it's built to discourage specializing in the skills you're going to use the most, which is the opposite of intuitive. Still, if I play with anything but the vanilla leveling I just don't feel like I'm playing Oblivion anymore. :P

 

One last question: With the Atronach, spells still DO hurt you, right? It sounds like it'd be somewhat broken otherwise.

 

 

With regards to the spell absorption the Atronach sign makes it so around half of the spells fired at you are absorbed passively with no damage to refill your magicka, the others still hurt you.

[okappa]

Alright, character is in-play and working great.

 

The final skill choice:

 

Alchemy

Blade

Destruction

Illusion

Restoration

Acrobatics

Light Armor

 

Not perfect, but perfect isn't what I need. What I wanted was a build that lets me go about my business and more or less ignore the leveling system, while still landing a minimum of 4-4-1 or 4-4-4 on every level. This accomplishes that spectacularly. <3 (And that isn't to say I don't get 5s, that's just a minimum. My first level was a 5-5-1. :P)

 

Also I confess I had never really tried alchemy much before, but endless supply of poisons FTW on a stealth character.

 

Again, thanks for the help. [/thread]