Oblivion - New User

[Ophiuchus]

Oblivion is one of those games where people tend to mock if you have the difficulty slider set anywhere below about three quarters. I've spent all my time so far playing through on the lowest setting because I just find it more fun than getting bogged down in having to constantly heal or reload saves. That said, I've just got the PC version for mod-related lulz so I'll probably crank it up a bit this time, there's really not much of a challenge in it.

Oh, and loot. Everything. Everywhere. Everyone. There's a side quest involving the merchant in Chorrol. Get that done and she becomes about the best person you'll find to sell stuff to for quite a while. Or just get the DLC most suited to your character class, though like the other houses you still have to spend a shitload on getting them up to scratch. Unless you like bare walls an' whatnot, I suppose it doesn't really matter if you're just using it as a place to store loot.

In terms of houses, the one in the Waterfront is very cheap but very basic. You might prefer to wait and do one of the side quests that results in something a lot better.

But yeah, I've put something in the region of 180 hours into the 360 version... which doesn't mean I've finished, I still have a bunch of side quests and most of the Mages' Guild to do because I decided early on that magic was a waste of time, chose to be a Redguard, put absolutely no skill points into anything vaguely magic-related and spent all my time grinding away at being a big sword-waving heavy armour-donning thicko.

Oh, and don't be pressured by everyone banging on about how Morrowind is so much better. I fell into that trap, bought it and only lasted about two hours before I got bored of not knowing where the hell I was going and taking absolutely fucking forever to get there. Maybe it's one of those games which rewards the kind of patience that I just don't have. I'll keep my fast travel, thanks.

 

[wordsmith]

I personally prefer the side missions to the main quest, so I'm going to give you a quick run-down of what I would do first.
If you like stealthy games:
1) Steal something, get caught and go to jail.
2) Proceed through the Theives guild
3) Kill someone
4) sleep, get contacted by the Dark Brotherhood
5) Do those quests
6) HAVE FUN!

A side note- when you get to a Dark Brotherhood quest concerning a dinner party, SAVE. You will want to replay it...

If you like to play as a warrior:
1) Get yourself a weapon, go and do the Arena missions.
2) when you get asked to help someone find themselves, DO IT. You will get loads of loot, not to mention certain other perks
3) Do the fighters guild, more leveling up
4) more fun

Mages:
1) Do the mages guild
2) Do the Arena
3) max out skills
4) WREAK HAVOC!!!

Tips of combat-
stealth characters: avoid frontal confrontation. If you can get a jump on someone, do it. Sneak, Illusion and Marksman are your friend. A stealth bow shot with the right set of arrows can take down anything. If you do get in a frontal fight, don't worry about running. One of my personal favourite memories of the game is running a complete Oblivion Gate without stopping to fight anyone. Just call me Speedy Gonzales

Fighting/Melee characters:
Try not to get involved in multiple combat. Whilst you ARE built like a tank, if someone gets a staggering blow in at the wrong moment, you WILL go down. Get yourself a decent, enchanted weapon, make sure it stays it decent condition and don't worry about slower, more powerful attacks. Generally, Blunt weapons deal more damage but are slower than bladed weapons, so go with whatever your combat style is. Likewise with armor, and as you won't have either the sneak perks of Stealth or magical perks of Mages, make sure you are carrying enchanted armor whenever you can. If you decide to take Block as a major, make sure to take Armorer as well, you need to keep your defences as high as possible.

Magic users:
Destruction! Your major damage skill is Destruction, so make sure you build on that. You can't take much damage unless you have some shields, so restoration is another great option. Again, you really want to take stuff down from longer range, but a mage with the right skills can play as anything. With alteration, you can boost your skills to whatever level you want (so whilst you could be a puny mage, cast a few spells and you can suddenly become an axe weilding maniac for a few minutes). Also, don't underestimate damage over time+ paralyse spells, it's a great tactic. Paralysis is also brilliant if you find yourself in a warrior circle-jerk, as it gives you time to run like hell.

Other than that... Have fun

 

[TheBlueRabbit]

If you like playing magic-based or stealthy characters, as I do, an easy way to keep them alive is to invest in Illusion. There are some good mid to upper level invisibility spells that can allow you to walk amongst your enemies undetected. This is an excellent way to get into position for a deadly sneak attack with a dagger or a bow. Just remember not to interact with any objects until you're ready to strike, as the illusion will be broken as soon as you do.

 

[Trivun]

Decided I should try and increase my alteration skills a lot, since I'm hopeless at lockpicking which isn't good as an assassin or a thief...

 

[God's Clown]

Don't use the bow and arrow, it doesn't work very well.

I would start off with stealth they are overpowered and you can get to at least level 30 until you start getting screwed over by the difficulty level. And plus, shanking is fun.

Lies, I had mad love for bow and arrow. It works extremely well.

 

[nathan-dts]

This site is very helpful, but don't use it for a bit less it will spoil the game

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Oblivion

Other than that, do the arena early on buy the house along the waterfront it's cheap and a good place to store stuff

Or kill the woman who sends you off on the Rockhammer quest (only after finishing the quest) to get an awesome enchanted weapon and a key to a house for free. Also, nobody is around to see it.

 

[Sethran]

I don't know if anyone has said this yet, but leave the difficulty setting on the mid-grade, or just a little higher. The level of difficulty directly effects how fast you gain experience, lower being lower and higher being higher. If you want to breeze through the story and finish it at level Five, then you can set it on easy -- but if you want some good shit, and to be a powerful character, go for the mid-to-high range @_@

 

[Trivun]

To be honest I haven't touched the difficulty setting, just left it as it is, and managed to kill 3 minotaurs in the glade where you find the unicorn (actually, the unicorn is getting annoying, it keeps following me around and killed Gromm on a Dark Brotherhood mission, making me lose the bonus).

 

[Trivun]

Quick update, been doing the Thieve's Guild and Dark Brotherhood missions so far (but I've been a little sidetracked from those as well), and I'm also a Knight-Errant of the Order of the White Stallion. Does that actually get you anything apart from the White Stallion Lodge (which isn't really worth it anyway)?

 

[countrysteaksauce]

Download the mods that rebalance the game and also Midas Magic Mod. Try TESNexus for these.
You will get much more fun out of the game that way.
Also don't do Kvatch until..well you've done everything else.

Edit: Also don't really try to focus on two damage dealing specialties. I find that you just get weaker with both rather than better. i.e. Don't use blunt and blade as major skills.

 

[Jamash]

The lighting for the initial character design is horrible, and chances are when you leave the dungeons you character will look different in the daylight than you thought they did, so save just before you exit the dungeons so you can reload and make changes to their appearance.

Also if you're open to buying any DLC, the Wizard's Tower is a good buy, since it immediately supplies you with lots of alchemy ingredients (to make potions to sell), so it's a easy way to earn money. Plus you can easily activate the enchantment and spell making shrines in the tower, which would usually be unavailable to you until you did a few Mage's Guild quests.

The ability to make your own spells and enchanted equipment opens up an new aspect to the game, so try to get it asap.

Also don't be ashamed of joining the Fighter's and Mage's Guilds just to rob them blind, taking everything which isn't nailed down to sell.

 

[Mr Fatherland]

Buy the official guide, that helped me out loads.

 

[FrankDux]

Heard about Drakensang, it looks good but I'm not so keen on the fact that it's only out for PC. PC games are good, but I much prefer the level of control I have with a console controller (That said, I haven't played Halo in 3 months because I have it on PC and I'm still not used to the swap from left to right of the keyboard controls on my laptop)

Really, I have to say I like the PC because of hotkeys and the ease with which you can control your various powers. I think it's easier to click a few things than try to work a menu or something like in console RPGs, although I'm sure you can do both.

Plus you're going to get better graphics on the PC, and the pics for Drakensang look great:
http://media.pc.ign.com/media/824/824850/imgs_1.html

 

[Socius]

Mages types level fast, thief types level moderate and warrior types level slow! very slow!

 

[spuddyt]

yeah - don't do what I started doing and putting every single thing you could find from around the land all in one bedroom of Benirus manor - the game crashes (at least my 2gb computer ran out of memory)
and if you want to level fast, just pick one magic type (not restoration - takes ages) as a major skil land wonder around spamming a massively cheap spell from it

 

[Jandau]

1. Don't level too fast, you'll end up gimping your character.

2. Make sure to get solid stat bonuses on levelup. You don't have to get +5 on all three picks every level, but getting a +2, +3 and +1 is going to leave you with a weak character after a while.

3. Do NOT take Alchemy as a major skill. It levels too fast and too easy. Use it for Intellect boosts.

 

[bazookabob]

Make sure your major skills are ones that you know you'll use frequently. Unless you intend to only use magic I'd suggest having armorer as one of you major skills, it's too expensive to constantly be taking your weapons and armor to blacksmiths to repair. And always carry lots of repair hammers.

 

[Cheesebob]

Find the wabbajack staff.

It is the best staff in the entire game, by a long margin

I would tell you where to get it, but i'm not sure how to do those spoiler boxes