Noob question - character setup for relaxing play

[chrisb46]

I have a copy of Oblivion (5th anniversary edition) on the way and wondered if anyone had suggestions as to how to setup a character for "relaxing" play. My main playing opportunity is on my daily train commute and I don't want to be frantically hitting buttons like an idiot and annoying other passengers.

 

I've just finished Portal 1 and 2 which were the perfect way to wind down on the way home - intriguing and challenging without the need for lots of button pressing (although I did get a few looks at the many, many LOL moments in both games).

 

I've tended to play melee style characters in things like LOTRO / WOW - would I be better off with more of a magic based character if this is the way I want to play Oblivion? Do I need to do lots of fighting and questing to progress?

 

Thanks in advance for any guidance.

[elvinkun]

Well, I would personally say that for more "relaxed" play, go for one handed weapons, heavy armor, shiled and occasional magic, especially restoration.

Archer and mage is a bit more hectic, because you have to aim, run, jump, sneak... Where a "tanking paladin" can take a lot of beating.

 

But all in all, if you play on lower diff, you may do whatever you like and find enjoyable without much stress or planning.

[ponyboy10]

I'm running an archer character and at least for me, I think it's more relaxed than melee. The big benefit is that I can sneak around and snipe enemies instead of button mashing all the time. It only gets hectic when they charge, but so far that's been more rare. That said, as elvinkun mentioned, I am also using a low difficulty setting, so with the 3x sneak attack archery bonus, I can often get 1-hit kills for most regular enemies. I guess you could either bulk up your character so that it can withstand anything, or invest in sneak attributes to avoid conflict as much as possible. Keep in mind, you really don't have to fight constantly if you don't want to -- battles will pop up, but you can focus more on exploring and social interaction and less on combat.

[chrisb46]

Thanks, it's really helpful that if I wind down the difficulty I can pretty much play how I want. I've settled on melee / tank characters in other games as what I enjoy most so it's nice to know that might be my best choice regardless. Can you create a Ranger style fighter / archer character with a few healing spells?

 

Coming from WOW and LOTRO, does the levelling and exploration follow the same mechanic - ie to see more of the world you have to level? Or is most of it - beyond dungeons, obviously - accessible without the need for hours levelling?

[ponyboy10]

Thanks, it's really helpful that if I wind down the difficulty I can pretty much play how I want. I've settled on melee / tank characters in other games as what I enjoy most so it's nice to know that might be my best choice regardless. Can you create a Ranger style fighter / archer character with a few healing spells?

 

Coming from WOW and LOTRO, does the levelling and exploration follow the same mechanic - ie to see more of the world you have to level? Or is most of it - beyond dungeons, obviously - accessible without the need for hours levelling?

 

That's what I'm playing -- archer with a healing spell and backup sword. I actually went ahead and made a custom "Ranger" class to cover this because none of the default classes quite fit it (no mod needed - you can make a custom class when you create your character).

 

The leveling is a little different -- the whole world is open to you, maybe save for some special areas that open up from quests or such. However, as you progress your skills, and ultimately level, increase. The thing people complain about is that all of the enemies level up with you (as well as some items -- ie. you have to be a high level to get the best version of the item). This is kind of opposed to classic leveling because in vanilla Oblivion, you will pretty much be able to go anywhere from an early level and most enemies should be beatable, but even as you progress and get super-powered, so do many of the enemies. There are mods to change this, though.

 

This is a good description: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Leveling (note the section "The Leveling Problem")

Edited December 6, 2011 by ponyboy10

[chrisb46]

Interesting approach to levelling and may well play into my "relaxed" approach to gameplay. It's quite a mindset shift to not be continually chasing the next level so you can see / get new stuff but that's one of the things about WOW and LOTRO I like least anyway.

 

Really looking forward to playing the game now. Thanks everyone for the advice.

[Patchup94]

I think you will enjoy this. Remember, the game will pause at any time. You can "relax" even in the middle of a fight.

 

Leveling goes by your "primary" attributes, determined by the class you role. There may be other attributes and you may wish to level up some of them, but only the primary ones contribute to character level.

There is a mod out there (probably more than one) that is a book you buy. It helps you track level progress. But you certainly do not need it.

 

With Oblivion, you can literally, spend your entire train ride just foraging for plants to make into alchemy potions. You'll kill some wild animals but otherwise it can be relaxing.

I know many people have spent hours just exploring and foraging and loved every minute of it.

I promise, you will occasionally come across a sight that will make you pause and stare at the beauty of the digital world around you.

 

On another note: I am pretty sure you can put on subtitles for everything so you can have the volume low.

[ponyboy10]

Yeah, it's definitely different. There are advantages to leveling up though -- your character gets "better", you fight bigger and badder enemies, loot gets cooler, etc. I believe there are some statically-leveled enemies as well, ie. a given enemy will always be level 10 regardless of your level. I'm only at level 5 myself, so I haven't gotten to a point where the standard leveling is annoying yet, but it sounds like when you get further, not being able to mow down the random baddie gets old. Fortunately, there are always mods :)

 

Hope you enjoy it... I've been like near obsessive about Oblivion since I got it a couple weeks ago. I would highly recommend doing some of the popular graphical mods to make the game world prettier. Be careful though, modding is super-addictive

[ponyboy10]

With Oblivion, you can literally, spend your entire train ride just foraging for plants to make into alchemy potions. You'll kill some wild animals but otherwise it can be relaxing.

I know many people have spent hours just exploring and foraging and loved every minute of it.

I promise, you will occasionally come across a sight that will make you pause and stare at the beauty of the digital world around you.

 

On another note: I am pretty sure you can put on subtitles for everything so you can have the volume low.

 

Big "yes" to all the above. Sometimes I find myself just wandering around or doing odd quests and barely fight anything. I love running over the crest of a big hill and seeing the explosion of landscape open itself up. I've had to stop and take it all in more than once.

 

I usually play with low volume too, and can confirm that the subtitles are really helpful. I've learned lockpicking will be a chore, but I've managed.

[Striker879]

Lock picking is only 'a chore' when you're trying to pick a lock that's way above your skill level for Security. If you're like me, and hate to leave a single container unopened, carry lots of lockpicks. Except the odd quest chest, I usually find the loot behind that 'hard' or 'very hard' lock isn't worth the time and energy when I'm at low levels ... the loot is leveled too.