Elder Scrolls IV - Any advice for a newbie

[Blackrat]

You probably had to be a virginal female

I think that might be the trick to actually ride one. For fighting one, being a big ugly male seemed to be enough. Darned thing attacked me on sight.

 

[Kaodi]

The unicorn and minotaurs are part of a specific quest, they are not tied to the scaled levelling business I believe. I have played through the PC version, and though many of the minor skills are not maxed, all the combat and magic ones are. I think my character is level 48 or something, whatever the highest level you can go without deliberately losing skill points so you can gain them back and go even higher.

 

[EricNoah]

I've been playing the PC version on and off since it first came out. Despite having played through a number of times, I still find things that I didn't know or that surprise me.

The Oblivion Wiki is good reading -- until yesterday I didn't know that there were "sleeper" Mythic Dawn agents scattered across the various towns -- I thought they were just random encounters. Now that I know about them, I am visiting the towns to try to lure them out and get them to attack me. It is fun to find the keys to their homes on thier bodies, and then go and look for the "evidence" of their cult membership.

I also am using a couple of major overhaul mods that make the opposition more varied in strength and add new creatures -- I ran into a beholder-looking thing in a cave recently and it just floored me because I had no idea it would be there. I've fought giants and werewolves and dryad-spider creatures. Fun stuff.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Don't be afraid to play tourist! There are some really pretty areas in the game. (And folks have made the game even prettier with mods for the PC version....)

The Auld Grump, half the mods I use just make the game prettier, I think....

 

[Vigilance]

I have no idea how any excels as a bowman. Even if you try to kite, you'll eventually backpedal into a wall or otherwise box yourself in, or you'll just get caught.

Oblivion is one of those games where spells offer you all the benefits of utility, immediacy, and generally superior results over mundane methods without a huge associated cost. It's not like you're burning vancian slots, after all. One school of maigic contains far more utility than any other skill. There's precious little incentive to bother with lockpicking or stealth when you can get the same benefits as those time-consuming, often-frustrating skills with a snap of the fingers. The long and short of it is, magic rules in Oblivion. It does get expensive though.

It's been said elsewhere, but never train Athletics or Acrobatics. Athletics increases just through plain old movement, and Acrobatics through jumping and falling. Since you need to level in a controlled manner, those skills are murder because you can't just decide you're not going to run or jump anywhere for the next couple of levels.

If you're going to become a thief, then don't bother trying to case the homes of the local nobility. They frequently seems to have little wealth. What wealth they do have, they typically carry on their person at all times. Instead, rob weapon and armor shops. They leave fortunes literally just lying about in the open.

I gotta say, I've never found that potions are particularly plentiful, so I'm not sure what the Beginner's Guide author was going on about.

I think this shows how good Oblivion is in some ways, because my experience has been more or less diametrically opposed.

Neither of my characters were particularly magic-dependent and the game wasn't hard on the default difficulty level at all.

I played a Crusader "out of the box" (not a custom class) my first time through and while he became fairly good at Restoration, that was really the only magic he excelled at. I mostly sustained myself through home-made potions (I was good at alchemy) and items I found on dead creatures, along with items I made through the Sigil Stones you get from Oblivion.

My current character is even less, magical, an Assassin (one of the standard classes) who again seems to get by fine with alchemy. I can shoot enemies for x3 damage, always with a poisoned arrow, and by the time they get to me, they're weak enough for me to finish off in melee.

I think this might be a personality issue more than a game balance issue, because when I try to play my mage, I die, like a lot, whereas my Crusader and Assassin lay waste to their enemies.

 

[Aus_Snow]

I think this might be a personality issue more than a game balance issue, because when I try to play my mage, I die, like a lot, whereas my Crusader and Assassin lay waste to their enemies.

Definitely true. First thing I played was a thief (or assassin-ish) type, not specialising in any magic at all, and churning through a lot of arrows. Stealth and security featured too, of course. Went fine, as it turned out.

I like all the major archetypes now. I think they're all playable, and quite fun. Some mods help, in one or two cases, but again that's very much a matter of taste.

 

[Felon]

My current character is even less, magical, an Assassin (one of the standard classes) who again seems to get by fine with alchemy. I can shoot enemies for x3 damage, always with a poisoned arrow, and by the time they get to me, they're weak enough for me to finish off in melee.

I think this might be a personality issue more than a game balance issue, because when I try to play my mage, I die, like a lot, whereas my Crusader and Assassin lay waste to their enemies.

Well, I don't mess with alchemy or poisons, so that may be the difference.

 

[Tinker Gnome]

I played a magic using character as my first. I recommend you just go out an explore and see what you can find. I would also recommend joining a guild for the quests and for fun.

 

[Vigilance]

Well, I don't mess with alchemy or poisons, so that may be the difference.

Yeah wow, especially if you like playing mages, alchemy can be especially powerful (you can score free equipment and ingredients by the ton in mage guilds and at the arcane library).

Home made potions also work differently than potions you can buy, and sometimes the potion you can make yourself is a better option than one you can buy.

 

[Bront]

Well after hearing a lot of good about this game and how Fallout 3 is going to be build with same engine

Wait, what?

I sure hope not.