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picking up steam on an Orc 'Alchemist' named Oubliette, which is a word I've always enjoyed, no she's not a walking dungeon with a trap door in her head, she's just an orc trying for a successful torch-carrying stand+fight build.

Combat, END, INT, The Tower Birthsign, The Tower Doomstone (because i just hate the lockpicking mini-game, i suck at it.)

Alchemy, Hand to Hand, Block, Alteration, Acrobatics, Mercantile, Security,

leveling semi-efficiently for...
Strength - running into fights with Summon Ghost/Fortify Strength/Bound Axe, swing swing swing, then punch punch punch, and paying for Blade training.
Intelligence - only using Alchemy when I need to use a potion, otherwise collecting a ton of mats and selling most of them, Conjuration flies up, and firing out the odd Dispel makes INT the easiest +5 to manage.
Endurance - have to keep an eye on Block a little bit, but i prefer not having to worry about Armorer (that Master's Hand greater power is sweet)
Willpower - have to work at leveling Destruction, probably would have been the better option to major over Alteration, so I could pump Alt for those higher level open spells, but whatever.

currently roaming the land at a slow pace (better for picking those flowers), avoiding Kvatch, doing side quests and knights of the nine. will leave the main quest for much later (when i've got the invis potions to scoot through the oblivion gates if i feel like it).

Just starting this game AGAIN (I... just can't let go of it. Once in a while I always come back to it). This time though, my playthrough will be HEAVILY roleplay focused, instead of the usual powergrind. I'll still make an effort to make my character really strong, and try to level her efficiently, but I'm not shooting Skeleton champs for an eternity just to get that +5 Agi, that's for sure...

Name: Luna R'Feu
Race: Breton
Class: Warlord (Custom)

Warlords are natural born leaders on the battlefield who are experts in various schools of magic to aid their troops. They can wreak havoc by calling for the elements to bring massive destruction onto their foes. They have the ability to rally their own troops and decept and cause disarray in the armies of the enemy. They will do all that it takes to attain victory, even if it means calling for the Undead. They seem reckless, but all of their bold moves are cunningly calculated risks. Their strength is not merely spiritual, as they are comfortable wearing both light and heavy armors, depending on what suits the situation best, and they're are also skilled with maces. Warlords are expert marksmen.
Favourite attributes: Personality, Willpower.

Majors:
Blunt
Destruction
Illusion
Heavy Armor
Conjuration
Light Armor
Marksman

Starsign: Mage

Backstory:

Luna was born into the noble of family of R' Feu. She was a hard studying child, always acing her subjects, but she always got into trouble. She often showed "not too ladylike" behaviour, like blowing up the lunch of her classmate into his face, because he said something inappropriate. By her family she was considered a rebel, a disgrace to her name. And among the plebs she was seen as the spoiled nobel who can do whatever she wants and get away with it. After Luna finished school, she decided to join the army. Her family was outraged, as they wanted to get her a "suitable" husband, Francis. But Luna was not interested in getting into arranged marriages. Especially not with a man like Francis. He was the embodiment of the rotten nobel world that she so despised. She would rather die on the front, than live just a single day with someone like him. In the army Luna was climbing the ladder really quickly thanks to her skills, and joined the ranks of the Battlemages in an impressively short amount of time. She always led her squads to victory with minimal casualties. As a naturally talented leader she soon got a high-ranking position, and had a whole cohort under her leadership. At the age of 25, this was something that very vew people before her have achieved. There was a particular centurion though, that was way too envious. He also didn't like being the subordinate of a woman, who was more than 10 years younger than him. His name was Vinius Graves. He came up with a plan to get rid of Luna once and for all. He seeked out Necromancers, and in exchange for the life of a couple of beggars on the Waterfront, he got a couple of Black Soulgems. He used these to frame and defame Luna . Luna was sent into prison, and Graves was promoted as the new commander. Luna swore vengeance on Graves, but unfortunately his true incompetence showed as he died in battle just months after. Now Luna only seeks to clean her name, and retain her rank and esteem in the army.

Character name: Christian
Race & Star: Altmer Atronach
Class: Akavirian (custom) Stealth Strength Endurance
Major Skills: Armorer, Blunt, Hand, Heavy Armor, Illusion, Restoration, Mercantile
Level: 50 , Heavy Armor at 60, Everything else at 100
Health: 705 Magic: 480 Fatigue: 455

Finished Knights of the Nine before level 2 in order to have 50 Endurance (Cassimir blessing). Made sure I got +5 to Endurance until it reached 100. Made sure I got +5 in 3 attributes on every level. Made sure I trained every level. Only 1 gate closed before level 17. After Armorer reached 100 I trained Mercantile and used Illusion to level but did not put +5 into Personality. At level 25, Luck was still 50 and Personality was still 40 but all other Attributes were 100 (changed KotN blessing to Strength). Loaded Shivering Isles and got hooked on Felldew at Level 25, cured it at Level 30.
Attributes are Strength 120, Intelligence 115 Willpower 110 Agility 115 Speed 110 Endurance 110 Personality 60 Luck 70
4 of my 7 Major Skills are affected by jail time so this character could top out at Level 94
538 days have passed. A-bomb bug hit around 400 days. Edited the INI, some text identifying items is red.

Reinstalled Oblivion this week and Marie is my new character. She's now around level 9, I think?
Race: Breton
Sign: Thief
Class: Custom stealthy stabby class.
Attributes: Agility and luck
Specialization: Stealth
Main focus with this character is on marksman, sneak, security and a little mercantile.

Started out with her being an assassin, but I'm likely going to experiment a bit with applying stealth to less stereotypically stealthy questlines. Being a sneaky archer during 'Caught in the hunt' was certainly very, very satisfying.

~Edit~ I faintly recall I may have made a post similar to this in the past. Consider this a reiteration, and improved "formula".

The Warlock Class and my character that will use it.

Name: Daemos Maleficus
Race: Altmer
Birthsign: The Mage

Specialization: Magic
+5 Strength, Willpower

Major Skills

~Alchemy
~Alteration
~Blade
~Conjuration
~Destruction
~Mysticism
~Sneak

The Warlock is selectively amoral/immoral person that lingers fluctuatingly between Lawful Evil and Neutral Evil. They are distinctly two-faced. Portraying a minimum of social niceties and legal observation when interacting with others, and when performing tasks in cities and towns. They may build up a rudimentary Speechcraft "relation" with their preferred general merchant, but not overly involve themselves with others.

The Warlock does not seek membership of the Mages Guild. Being by preference an autonomous Magic user. He or she does not mind buying spells from the Mages Guild, but does not seek to otherwise involve themselves with them. Unlike Necromancers who are usually opposed to the Mages Guild. The Warlock is merely selectively indifferent, and harbours no ill feelings towards the Mages Guild. I use two mods for this character that offers a house in the southern part of Blackwood. And another mod that allows procurement of Spellmaking, and Enchantment Altars from Calindil's Mystic Emporium. This allows the character unparalleled autonomous freedom and expression.

Because of the Blade skill, and the low Strength Attribute that this character will start with. It was decided for "non RP reasons" to join the Fighters Guild, and get a few minor ranks up, to build up trust amongst their ranks. The main issue being access to Blade Training. This Blade Training will occur in between leveling Magic skills, and moneys obtained from cleared dungeons.

One issue this will will have later on is the Fame requirement that the Master Trainer requires of the character. The Warlock does not care for fame or infamy. Preferring to exist below the radar, and go their own way. This may have some RP ramifications.

The Conjuration skill is primarily used for summoning Daggers, which are then poisoned and used in Sneak mode to swiftly dispose of "foes/undesirables", and to avoid "legal repercussions" The Warlock may also summon a Claymore for the heavy duty work. Especially if his or her Magical reserves are temporarily depleted.

Alchemy is preferred over Restoration. Warlocks have a love and affinity for poisons and potions, and are eager to expand their Alchemical skills, and concoct ever more fatal poisons.

Alteration is there for a plethora of options. Feather, Shield, Water Walking and Breathing, Open, etcetera. Mysticism should be a given skill for any Magic based character, and should require no further explanation.

The primary skill, and defining feature of the Warlock is of course still Destruction. And especially Shock Spells. As can be gleaned from my signature, describing this well.

The Warlock does not use Intelligence as a +5 skill, primarily because his or her Intelligence should be self examplary, and because they do still use all three Intelligence skills. So leveling that Attribute would be easy. I've considered taking The Warrior Birthsign over The Mage. But decided against it, because the main concern is still Magical and Arcane Mastery. Blade usage is of secondary relevance, as is physical Strength. The greater emphasis is to Willpower. The autonomous intent of the Warlock, as an independent, autodidact Magic user, that follows his or her own path, and while not necessarily evil by default, will do what he or she must do to defend the authenticity of their autonomous expression of self.

The Warlock eschews Illusion Magic. For it is involved with the Personality Attribute, which the Warlock could not care less about. Furthermore. The Warlock prefers to cause actual material changes in the world, in a real action sense. Not muddle the minds of others. Using his or her Sneak skill with poisoned summoned Dagger to dispose of "foes" that would otherwise require a Rally + Frenzy spell cast upon them to "trigger" them to attack the Warlock. Also, because of the Sneak skill; Invisibility and Chameleon are not necessary.

I present thus this depiction of my interpretation of The Warlock. What do you think of it?

This is the character I used for the fast-tracking and efficient leveling with zombies post I made in the What I did today in Oblivion thread. This is not my favorite build, but it works the same way and it showed me what the easy zombie points could do for something that starts with near maximum bow firepower.

Race & Gender: Female Bosmer --(taller, faster movement rate, less annoying, prettier than male)
Specialty: Stealth (to speed up skill points in Marksman, Sneak, and Acrobatics)
Birth sign: Warrior (to make life easier with more starting Strength/loot hauling capacity and Endurance/HP.
Custom bonuses: Strength and Endurance (these are dangerous to build so every character, imo, should have these)

Role play: Use bow primarily, with some poisons and some one-shot sneak attacks with Hatreds Heart blunt later in the game. Alchemy will substitute for Illusion spells. Everything I need for end game play will be had by level 25. Skill ups and attribute bonuses past that point don't really matter.

--Major skills in order of use
Marksman--primary offense (90-100% use until maxed out at level 7 w/ rusty iron bow, mostly).
Sneak--primary defense (90-100% use until maxed out at level 15)
Alchemy--secondary offense (90-100% use until maxed out at level 23)
--Use of the next four skills depends on how their minor skill counterparts are played to build attribute bonuses
Acrobatics--Needed for initial ability to jump on rocks. Easy to build at Dive Rock (or buy lessons)
Illusion--easy leveling skill.
Heavy Armor--easy leveling skill
Alteration--easy leveling skill

--Important Minor skills
Armorer--Buy lessons and fix collected enemy equipment for +10 until Expert level.
Blade, Blunt, Hand to Hand--played 5+5, or 10 points for Strength bonuses, later concentrate on Blunt for increased Hatreds Heart sneak damage.
Block--Use to help Armorer reach +10 skills for +5 Endurance bonus (could have switched it with Heavy Armor, but this time I didn't feel like blocking rats late in the game to level up.
Restoration--I don't play this much. Some at the start of the game when my potion supply is low.
--Not so important skills
Conjuration and Mysticism--Use them to help Alchemy with Intelligence bonus.
Security--Use to help Marksman and Sneak reach +10 points for +5 Agility bonus.
Light Armor--Use for Speed bonuses. I usually wear the Saviour's Hide starting at level 17 for the magic resistance, and later with the crown of Lindai. I don't like too much speed. 50-60% is good for me, but I will eventually top it off.
Merchantile--Use it to get rid of collected loot. I don't care about quickly raising Personality.
Destruction--I'll take a load of saved recharge potions and spam it at ogres later to build up Willpower for no good reason.
Athletics--I might buy lessons later for Speed
Speachcraft--Use as needed.

Orc Sniper vs Breton Gunslinger for Maximum Difficulty Games

These builds fit the game-play (but not the skill set) suggested by the game's premade Assassin Class (Intelligence=spell use, Alchemy=poison use, Marksman=bow use, Blade=blade use, stealthy behavior). Both are very powerful and play very well on maximum difficulty even at the highest levels.

Offensive Tactics
1) Conjuration (zombie, headless zombie, clannfear, and dremora lord)
2) Command (creature & humanoid --bows and blade)
3) Alchemy (mainly silence and damage health poisons, health potions)
4) Weakness to Poison + Weakness to Magic (Apprentice level custom spell, custom bows)
5) Paralyze (level 15 mages staff)

Builds--Both use the Magic specialty and custom bonuses in Endurance and Strength.
They also only need rusty iron bows and a rusty iron short sword (or fine iron for even less weight).

Orc (m) + Apprentice
Endurance: starts at 50, ends tutorial at 55.
Strength: starts at 50, ends tutorial at 55
Magic with birthsign: 160 start, 300 total)
Starting Willpower: 50
Magic Resistance: Negative 75% (25% Racial - 100% birthsign)
Pros:
Fairly easy to survive the tutorial and early game combat.
Weakness to Magic is immediately available for stack-multiplying custom spells and enchantments.
Can make a sniper bow that temporarily freezes the target in place using Drain Attribute (Speed) from its Berserker Greater Power.
Good movement speed (+6%) due to Orcs being tall.
Looks powerful and intimidating. Scares your dog and disgusts your Mom.
Cons:
Not a huge hog for health potions but its health must be monitored when magic is flying around. It also doesn't have much ability to add Reflect Damage later in the game when it will most likely be wearing a lot of Reflect Spell gear.

Breton (m) + Warrior
Endurance: starts at 30, ends tutorial at 45.
Strength: starts at 40, ends tutorial at 55
Magic: 100 start, 250 total
Starting Willpower: 50
Magic Resistance: Positive 50%
Pros:
Fifty percent resistance to magic lets you get sloppy around magic users once you build up high endurance/health. Total resistance to magic and physical damage is possible later in the game--but any character can get total protections by using 100% chameleon, so the Breton just has another option for it.
Not green and ugly. Mine looks like Audie Murphy.
Cons:
Easily killed during tutorial and early levels.
Must work Destruction skill up to 50 before Weakness to Magic is available for custom weapons and spells. This is much more difficult to achieve when playing at maximum difficulty but it can be accomplished before finishing the Mages Guild recommendations with the help of the Skingrad zombies and some wolves and mudcrabs.
Restricted to using shorter range "Command" bows to stack poison damage.
The Breton has a slower movement rate than the Orc, which seems to result in it being run down and cornered more easily, but that may just be my perception after being chased and slaughtered by Caminalda a couple of times.

Cons for both--Because the high marksman knock-down perk makes targeting the timed secondary poison shots very difficult, Marksman should be a minor skill. It must then be built up to at least 50 for both a Breton (for zoomed command shots) and an Orc, which means some tedious grinding against mudcrabs, zombies, trolls, etc.

Recommended Major skills: Conjuration, Alchemy, Destruction, Illusion, Acrobatics
Recommended Minor skills: Marksman, all three Endurance skills, all three Strength skills, Athletics.

Gunslinger vs Sniper
The Orc uses a sniper bow --Light 30ftx5s+ Drain Speed 100x1s + Weakness to poison 100x5s + Weakness to Magic 100x5s--that will freeze the target in place long enough to aim and hit with a second shot dosed with poison. It also uses a Command bow (Creature+Humanoid 25x1s). The Breton uses two combined bows (Command Creature or Command Humanoid + poison stacking enchantments) which turn but do not freeze the target, so shots must be from shorter range with a nearly face to face poison shot, analogous to using a handgun in a gunfight. The Breton could also make a sniper bow using the rat bite-Orc game load glitch, but it would still have to build Destruction skill to 50 to enchant with a Weakness to Magic spell.

I started a new character. A male Breton named Craven Moorehead born under the Mage. Combat path. Endurance & Strength. Majors are Armorer, Blunt, Hand to Hand, Heavy Armor, Alteration, Mysticism, Speechcraft .

My new Character
Name - roshni
Race: Imperial
Class: Battlemage

Welcome to the forum roshnikhanna , let the game begin.

I get a quick apprentice invisibility spell by making a custom 10 second spell after getting the Jone stone spell with 10 renown points.

I'm getting tired of playing a Breton.

I'm going to try a no-magic run. The rule I give myself is I can't cast my own spell. Alchemy, scrolls, racial powers and stone powers are ok. Enchanted items including staves are ok.

Reggie the Redguard , The Warrior , Combat, Strength & Endurance, Armorer - Blunt - Hand - Conjuration - Destruction - Mysticism - Speech

Has anybody tried a no-magic run ? What rules did you give yourself ? What was your character like ? Was it fun ?

I often play using only game weapons and no soul trapping. You can get several copies of the hatreds bows and mace for sneak attack stun and I recharge them all at once with a varla stone. Each weapon hits once to stun and then I switch to a plain weapon for the kill, so the pair of weapons gives me 30 kills on the most difficult enemies. I use base damage only for most fights, but that is stealth attacks, not toe to toe combat where you generally take damage making a kill.

IMO. the Lady + Willpower and maybe Agility would be a better birthsign and bonuses for you if you are not going to cast spells that build willpower. Willpower is part of the fatigue formula and you need high fatigue to keep up your damage during a fight, even with hand to hand.

You might want to reconsider Armorer in your build. It works extremely well as a minor skill to build endurance (hotkey hammers and repair after every fight) and build it to 75 by level 10 with trainer lessons for the damage boosting repair.

I would also stick with one fighting skill in majors, either blunt or hand to hand. Getting one to master rank quickly is the best thing you can do for success vs leveling.

If you save the game after getting a disease from a rat (do not cure it) and then start a new Orc character and reload the saved game you can use the disease to create a drain attribute spell that will then let you enchant with drain speed.


Standard Pilgrim class is one of the two worst classes in the game because its Specialty fighting skill is not in its major skill set, so you have to fight more per point which allows other major skills to build points and weaken you vs leveling.

Breton + Apprentice is too squishy for max difficulty unless you like a big challenge. 50 endurance minimum at the start is the way to go. Conjuration only needs +50 magic so the Breton does OK as is, and would have low health 40 Endo without Warrior/Lady birthsign. Apprentice gives the ability to use weakness to magic without building Destruction to 50, which is a bit of a PITA at max difficulty. But if you want to do that you could use Nord/Orc/Redguard (all have 50 racial Endo) plus mage sign.

Orc is best of the three mostly because of its 50 Willpower to regen the magic. The 25% resist magic helps but getting damaged by magic is not something to really worry about in the game. Orc doesn't need the rat bite because it has the Berserker power attribute drain which is what makes the glitch work on other races.

As for poisons. I mainly use simple damage health from sacred lotus and St. Jahn's wort, and the same with silence added (I forget the extra ingredients for that - motherwort and rice?). They are abundant and the weakness to poison and weakness to magic multiplies the affect. if you make a WtoP+ W to M on target spell, cast it 2-4 times and hit the enemy with a poison blade enchanted with command it will kill anything very quickly. Go into necro and conjurer dungeons to get best for level alchemy equipment from boss chests (level 17 master equipment).

Name: D’espar

Race and gender: Breton male

Birthsign: The Thief

Specialization: Stealth

Class: Shaddict

Favored attributes: Agility and Personality

Major skills: Blade, Sneak, Marksmen, Alchemy, Security, Speechcraft, and Illusion

Alignment: Lawful Evil - Detect Life is his only friend.

Faction expectations: Thieves>Mages>Blades>Dark Brotherhood

Personality: struggles with drug abuse, kleptomania and dark desires.

Religion: A slow burn –will embrace the Dark Mother one day.

Ethics and morals: Stripped away one-by-one until the day comes when he is all alone... – “Where have all the people gone?”, he asked to no one – eyeing the mountains of black soul gems around him.

My new playable Kristen character with CM Kristen follower included
Links do not work for me here for some reason but you can simply put the word KRISTEN into Nexusmods search engine to find it.