LEVEL UP PROBLEM???

[76561198042888882]

i have been at level 19 for at least 2 weeks. i play this game on a regular basis and have completed most of the quests. i am now completing the final few quests as well as finding all stones, caves, forts, etc that i skipped over that didn't have quests associated with them or didn't find earlier. does it sound like i have a problem? thanks to anyone who responds.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Finding new areas and completing quests doesn't really doesn't increase your level.

In order to gain levels you must raise any combination of your major skills by 10. Maybe you are not doing that while exploring areas and doing quests.

Are you running any mods? or any leveling mods?

[gnewna]

What level are your individual skills (specifically your majors) at? If they are close to maximum, then it will take a very long time for them to increase further, meaning levelling will go slowly. Also, as I understand it, if you are mostly using about half of your major skills and those are very high level, and then you don't really use your others at all, then you will level very slowly indeed, as your used skills are levelling slowly and your unused skills, obviously, aren't levelling at all.

e.g. if your majors are Blade, Light Armour, Alteration, Destruction, Marksman, Speechcraft and Block, and you use a sword, shield spells (alteration) and bow and arrows a LOT, and have gotten them to, say, the high 80s or 90s, but you never actually wear light armour, use a shield, cast Destruction spells or try to improve people's disposition with the speechcraft minigame, then you'll probably take a very long time to level up, especially if you were to find a neat enchanted mace and start using it instead of your sword, and didn't come across any enemies you felt the need to take out at range.

You should also be able to check roughly how far you've got to go until the next level on your Skills tab (I think that's where it is, have been playing with Oblivion XP which completely changes levelling) at the bottom there's a progress bar.

If the problem *is* that you're not using your major skills, then there are basically three choices:

Start using the skills you're not using. I'm not sure of the maths, but I don't think you could be stuck at level 19 (barring bugs, etc) if you're using all your major skills regularly, so I'm guessing it's probably the thing I've described above. So, start using the unused skills. This should get you levelling up again, but may not fit with your character's roleplay, or may not suit the gear you have. In other words, it may feel a bit 'gamey'.

Start buying training for the unused major skills. This is obviously a bit of a money sink, and it's still kind of gamey as you're improving stuff you have no need or use for solely to increase your level. (With both of these two options, if the reason you're not raising your major skills is because you're using minor skills more in combat, then do be careful to keep working on those - you don't want to get to a high level because of all the training and then realise your main weapon skill is woefully inadequate.)

Decide to keep playing at level 19 until you eventually level up, assuming you've got some ability to increase your used major skills left. This has advantages and disadvantages: on the one hand, due to the levelled world, you don't 'need' to level up to defeat particular enemies, as they're all around your level any way. On the other hand, there are some quests that only open up at higher levels (I think some of the Daedric ones require you to be somewhere in the 20s or 30 or so?) and obviously the loot gets better as you get higher level.

[76561198042888882]

i think that you guys are correct. the first thing i have to do know is get some blunt instruments. i have only used blades since the beginning of the game. i'll have to check the other stuff to see where i can improve my stats, thanks for the information.

[[CRG] Ghost™]

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