How does the game change if I avoid levelling?

[Neonetik]

I'm the kind of person who enjoys maximizing a characters potential when playing a game. You know, avoiding the loss of potential skill points and stuff, and I really hate when games give you the opportunity to gimp your character if you don't follow a very specific order of events.. Unfortunately, Oblivion (and Morrowind... and Fallout in general) is one of those games where if you don't level in a very specific way, this will happen to you. Not only that, but since enemies scale to your level, you can get overpowered quickly if you don't level in at least a decent way on higher difficulties.

However, from what I gather, you can completely avoid the whole aspect of levelling by just not sleeping.

My main question is, how does this game change as a result of not levelling? Do I get locked out of using certain abilities (EG, I must be level 43 to use magic missile or something)? Can I just not do certain quests? What exactly changes if I completely avoid levelling/sleeping?

Thanks.

[Bob of Mage]

You miss out on getting the best version of leveled quest rewards. This includes some really nice stuff like Sigil Stones which have effects you can't create on your own. Most high level armours doesn't show up because they are only set to spawn from leveled lists (pretty much anything above Steel or Chainmail). You also can't do the Daedra shrine quests which give some great rewards (lowest level is 2 and some need as high as 17 I think).

There are mods you can use to tweak things to help you in this area. I found one that lets you get +5 to a stat when you level up just one skill point instead of needing 10. There is also one that relevels your quest rewards to be equal to your current level. Both of these have really helpped take the need to min-max things out of the game.

[cyäegha]

Originally posted by Bob of Mage:

You also can't do the Daedra shrine quests which give some great rewards (lowest level is 2 and some need as high as 17 I think).

and as a result, you then shouldn't be able to complete the main story because you need to sacrifice a daedric artifact, but because it's a bethesda game, there's a simple way around that they (probably) didn't anticipate

in general, the difficulty curve of the game relative to leveling has a strange parabola, where at very low levels and very high levels, you're either statistically so far ahead of the curve that enemy stats simply can't catch up, or you have access to potentially insane equipment, spells or enchantments that they can't withstand

to that end, the most 'difficult' part of the game is actually at the middle-range of the level spread (about the teens-twenties-thirties, where most players would probably be when they finished the main quest), simply because your stats and equipment are generally at parity with what the enemy have

[Bob of Mage]

I should also point out that you can freely raise non-major skills if you stick to level one. This can lead to you getting top tier spells that are way more powerful then any enemy can deal with. The best example is high level summons which create creature that are many levels above even town guards (at low levels only since guards are set to PC level +10), and can one shot pretty much anything.

[EolSunder]

Not leveling.....

basic rewards. Loot and loot carried by enemies, chests, etc is scaled to your level. You won't get anything great from anything staying at low levels.

less stats. Since you aren't levelling up, you won't be able to have anything over low level stats. So no 100 endurance, 100 strength, etc.

Some quests won't start if your low level

Yes oblivion etc has silly leveling mechanics, but if your on a pc that is easy to fix with mods so you don't have to endure the horrible leveling, or curb the urge to powerlevel and make a super powerful character early.

[Unexpected]

I recommend against avoiding leveling, you can get better loot, New quests, and increase your favorite skills and get stronger, there is nothing to fear

[DMAN222]

On my first playthrough (which is also my only) I started out leveling fairly well - maybe two 4s or even a 5 4 and 1 to luck - my only problem is that I went sneak. And I started archery but have switched to mostly sword. So I have high agility and speed but not much else. I'm underpowered for fighting, but it isn't horrible. You don't have to work at smart leveling to enjoy the game and you can always turn the difficulty down.

Edit: so I would leveling is the best way to go even if it isn't done efficiently.

[EolSunder]

Basically to keep from leveling is easy, you can custom make a character and pick all major skills as skills that you won't accidently level up any. You can really play very easy as a low level character and max out most minor skills without ever leveling much, or at your own pace. But again, you won't have any extra stats, you won't get leveled loot or gear from chests/monsters, you won't be able to start quests that need a certain level.

But its all fun, you can still do fine at a low level with having high minor skills and basic major skills. So you can make a low level warrior who will max out his weapons, armor and healing spells and still be low level, you can still make a mage who can max out some magic, alchemy, armor and still be low level, etc. Just make up 7 major skills that you won't ever raise until you want, and you can basically be low level until you really want to raise up.

So skills like sneak, magic spells (other than restoration), weapon skills etc can be major skills and you won't ever raise them unless you accidently read a book or something, while skills you'll use the whole game like alchemy, mercentile, armor, athletics and acrobatics, security you can keep as minor skills and train up all you want, and you can be a low level guy with 100 armors, 100 in those skills and still have never leveled up. Ok i guess, but to me, a tad boring.

[masternoxx1]

at higher level, most of your quest rewards will be better, enemies will have the best gear around lv30, go higher than that is not really worth it. I like to stay on 25 for a while so I can use frenzy spell on NPC's. See all human enemies and many NPC's scale to your level, and many monsters, so there comes a point , about after you get your end and str to 100, where you will be getting weaker every lvl. Monsters will have more health and do more damage every hit the higher lvl you go. Check the wiki for oblivion monsters there is a page under the monster type categories that lists the formulas

[EolSunder]

true, but its not a huge deal about monster strength, you can adjust your difficulty slider any time you want if you run into something you can't really hurt. Heck i hate running into Dread zombies when i have leveled enough to encounter them, at basic levels can't even hurt them with weapons unless you are fire casting mage, i always have to lower difficulty to even have a chance to kill 1 lol.