Oblivion: Custom Class

I have a Weekly WoW post stored on a text file somewhere that I will post Thursday or Friday. Thought that it would be nice for once to highlight one of the non WoW games that I enjoy playing. Yeah yeah yeah, I picked up Oblivion again and rolled a new character.

I love RPGs of all styles, but the problem is that I just don't have the time to sit and play them straight through to the end anymore without getting distracted or busy with one thing or another. Oblivion is great because it is based off of a quest system, not too incredibly different than WoW (sort of). This means that I can set it down for a month or two, pick it up, and not lose my place since it's not super linear.

The leveling system though feels counter-intuitive because it is very easy to screw your character to the point where the game is unbeatable. This is the way it works: There are a total of 21 skills in the game (blade, stealth, illusion, etc). Upon class creation, you choose 7 major skills, the rest are minor. If any any time you raise any combination of your major skills by 10 points, you level up.

The problem is that the enemies scale with your level. If you were to say, level your character a lot exclusively using non-combative skills (alchemy, security, etc), all enemies that you face will be at your level, but you will have the combat skills of a lower player.

Spellblade Assassin
I'm going to play this class as a stealth character designed around blade assassination and destruction magic kiting (for non-stealth encounters). You can either stealth via leveling illusion spells or through good ol' fashioned sneaking. I left it open for either because I myself haven't decided yet.

The skill choices are strange because I selected them around the philosophy of 100% leveling control. The major skills listed are all ones that are controllable and I will not be forced to use too often.

  • Sign: Thief
  • Specialization: Stealth
  • Attributes: Speed, Intelligence
  • Major Skills: Alchemy (int), Restoration (willpower), Marksman (agi), Acrobatics (speed), Block (endurance), Blunt (str), Speechcraft (personality)
  • Race: Male Dark Elf is ideal since it boosts all necessary stats. I will though, probably stick with Imperial for aesthetic reasons 😛

If you want, Atronach or Mage are both viable sign alternatives. Atronach though is expensive since you will be chugging down pots to make up for the 0 regen disability. It also might not be all that wise since I chose alchemy as a major skill. Mage is fairly safe, magicka bonus and no diability. Thief in my opinion is a good general stealth sign…the luck bonus is nice too.

I thought that I would try playing something different for once, rather than rolling yet another paladin. I actually love games that facilitate stealth based FPS/3rd person play (Thief is a favorite series of mine). But what can I say: I like hybrid classes.

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