I want to finally beat oblivion but...

[SandsOfTime404]

1) No, do it the whole way if you don't mind spending the time to do so.

 

2) Make whichever enchantments you feel are necessary, but just avoid making "god" equipment. With enough enchantments you can make a set of equipment give you above 100% Chameleon, meaning you can attack, pick objects up, etc. but none of the NPCs will be able to detect you. Things like that are what I'd avoid, as they typically make the game boring. As far as difficulty, toy with it a bit. In the lower levels I typically keep the meter relatively low. As my character develops throughout the course of my playthrough, however, I raise it gradually. This is all dependent on your preference. If you don't find the enemies challenging, turn the difficulty up. If you discover that you're getting pummeled, lower it. It's hard to gauge which difficulty is "ideal". Character development plays a large role. For example: You set up a character with Major Skills and Attributes, Birthsign, and Race for a Mage-type play. If you primarily focus on your Major Skills you will most likely not be the best melee combatant. Therefore, it'd be no surprise that melee combat would be tough or impossible on a high difficulty.

 

Sorry for the wall of text. I just tried to explain what I meant as thoroughly as I could. A lot of this game is preference.

 

3) Along the same lines as 2, do what you think is best. I found that when I played Oblivion on the 360 that my idea of "fun" was farming armor. Having some decent money is nice, so my advice is to be dragging as much as you can with you to sell to the merchants. Buying houses in the cities, and the upgrades for DLC buildings, can become costly.

 

Of course, when you say "complete the game", I don't think you mean a completionist playthrough. Simply doing the Main Quest and the Faction Quests doesn't require much. All you really need is one good setup and decent Arnorer or cash to keep it in good shape. I definitely advise branching out and doing a lot of the side quests. The main quests are such a small piece of the pie. You can honestly play and love this game without ever finishing the main story.

[Thrakkkk]

Thanks everyone :)

 

I'm enjoying these answers and I don't mind walls of text at all. I'm a high elf mage at level 5 or 6 and I've only done two quests so far. I'll keep efficient leveling to 20 and see how comfortable I am with continuing that sort of leveling, especially after I get some good equipment. One thing I've been doing is making sure I level up endurance every time because I know how it's best to get the health % increase going right from the start

 

I appreciate the detail in all of your responses