My Major's Should be Skills I Don't Use?

[Raukue]

So I am new to this game and a bad idea to get so caught up in stuff I don't understand... I get OCD with games.... but I think I grasp the Skills and level up bonuses. Been reading up on that.

I just dunno which skills I will end up using the most is all. I really haven't gotten anywhere on my "dip toes" character to know if I will use Mysticism more or Conjuration... that sort.

I think my playstyle will be mostly melee oriented and using Blunt Weapons but Blade now and then if I find it stronger. Dunno if I should go Heavy or Light Armor. Use restoration magic ot heal and Alteration to Shield myself. I read should choose 1 Major of Each Attr...

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

My list:

Hand to Hand -or- Blade
Block
Light Armor -or- ??
Security
Illusion
Mysticism
Destruction -or- Restoration?


What bothers me is that Speed, Atheltic and Acrobatics sound like they level just by running and jumping and thus level rather fast. Light Armor is the only other choice tho... but I wanna use Light Armor, at least at first. So that one is just a toughie. The Hand was my original choice but a friend suggested to go Blade to why I dunno about that. He also said to go Restoration even tho I said I find myself using that a whole bunch and I don't care to touch Destruction spells as I wanna be melee oriented so... I dunno. He is rusty as he said so... dunno. I could double dip in an Attr I suppose and go Blade and Hand so I dont have to worry about Light Armor but... dunno.

Anyway... thoughts? I know I should not care and just enjoy the game. You see, I never even touch games where I get OCD and read and just stress out on a game before I even touch it or understand it or what is what... so yeah. So I know I should just not care and play it however but... yeah that OCD block.

[Paco]

Actually, in order to level up, you have to level up your major skills. Thus, if your majors are things you never use, it will be difficult if not impossible to level up. So, make sure your majors are things you actually use.

[Raukue]

Well I am aware of that, level up any Major skills for a total of 10 times and you level up... BUT if you level up Minor skills under the same Attr, like say get 5 Atheltic, 4 Acrobatic and 1 Light Armor then you'd get a +5 bonus on that stat for that level up... to my understanding at least.

Didn't think I'd get much a reply. But yeah it should be things that you know you can avoid levelling up but you can with ease on purpose when it's time? Just wonder if some Major skills should be ones I will use often but take awhile to level up anyway, like Restoration. Or if I should double dip in an Attribute and put none in Speed to avoid the Light Armor issue.

Thanks for the help though, I am willing to hear more since you seem to have some good hours in it. I know I am over worrying about stats and trying not to level up too fast but... that is the thing about OCD, you know its crazy to stress over something and know it makes not much difference but one just struggles anyway... it's why it's hard for me to get back into Pokemon and most RPGs.

I really do envy folk who don't care about perfecting stats or any other thing.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Here is my list of skills I don't like to use as majors.

Athletics
Acrobatics
Security
Speechcraft

and to a much smaller degree Sneak, but if you plan to play a sneaky character there is nothing wrong with using it as a major. I just like to sneak whenever I want without it making me gain a level.

I also prefer keeping Conjuration and Destruction seperate from each other. If I use one as a major I use the other as a minor. That way you can use both without them limiting each others usage while leveling. I prefer using Conjuration as a major however, because it is much easier to level up with.

This is my setup for major skills.

Alteration
Armorer
Conjuration
Illusion
Light Armor
Marksman
Mercantile

For Armorer, I used the Construction Set to change the associated attribute of Endurance to Strength and changed Hand to Hand to Endurance. That way repairing items helps raise your strength and it can make it easier to get +5 strength bonuses at level up when combined with Blade or Blunt. Otherwise I would use another skill.

With my setup I focus on Conjuration, Heavy Armor and Blade. I get Conjuration to 50, which is 2 levels of +10 and 1 level of +5, then I focus on Armorer so I can repair magical items asap while increasing my Strength at level up.

When I get Conjuration and Armorer skill to 75 and Heavy armor is capped, I start using light armor and play normally without focusing on specific skills anymore.

[Brandybuck]

If you want your majors to be skills you can control, then alchemy should be your first choice. Take two weapons as majors that you don't normally use, and the armor you aren't using. Then level those with mudcrabs or a convenient summons. A magic school that you don't normally use, that has a spell affecting self. That's five skills right there. If you're not a mage it's easy enough to fill the last two with other magic skills.

[Raukue]

Yeah. From what I gather, Athletics and Acrobatics level up pretty quickly. Sneak also does if you sneak around quite a bit and well.. I try to do that as well but suppose could control that by not doing it. Security I dunno about that... I mean can control it, don't come across too many unless thieving into houses? Hmm.

[Paco]

I would say if you wish for ones which are easy to control, use this:

Alchemy
Block
Conjuration
Alteration
Mysticism
Blunt or Blade depending on which you use most frequently
Light or Heavy Armor also depending on which

These seven can be controlled pretty easily, so there you go mate.

[Raukue]

I really stress and worry too much. A shame that it may prevent me from ever diving into this game. As I had said, getting all OCD or whatever you wanna call it, over stuff like this is what just turns me away from games. Dunno why I feel the need to be perfect in terms of stats in a game. Bah.

But I guess another quesiton... when I do get a level up... say if I have no Endurance as a Major but got Heavy Armor +10 before the level up... I still have the option to increase Endurance on a level up?


@Omgwtfbbqkitten

Saw your edit up there. That sounds confusing to me since I don't know the game and wonder if you are using mods? I am playing this vanilla, aside from the Unofficial patches and the UI mod so the interface is nicer. Cause to change an Endurance skill to Strength? Sounds like a mod to me.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

It is a mod of sorts, but it is a mod I made using the Construction Set. It is a very easy modification.

All you have to do is open an esp with the CS, preferably an existing mods esp so you don't alter the base game files or make an esp file which is a little more confusing.

After opening an ESP with the CS go to where it says character at the top , then skills. Scroll down the list to Armorer and change its governing attribute.

You probably won't make the modification and that is cool. It is just one of those changes that makes raising your Strength a little bit easier imo, rather than having to slash and smash countless enemies to gain skillups.

I have played the game alot using OCD type perfect leveling and this is one change that helps make things a bit less tedious.

I got the idea from Morrowind where armorer used the Strength attribute and Spear was Endurance, so I supplemented H2H in place of spear.

Originally posted by Raukue:

But I guess another quesiton... when I do get a level up... say if I have no Endurance as a Major but got Heavy Armor +10 before the level up... I still have the option to increase Endurance on a level up?

Yeah you can raise attributes at level up using minor skills.

You have to gain 30 skillups per level in order to get a +5 bonus on 3 attributes, 10 skill per attribute. Since you can only gain 10 major skills before a levelup, the other skillups have to come from your minor skills.

[Raukue]

Yeah don't wanna use mods like that. Feel like mods should be used after one has had their fill of the entire vanilla game. Hmm. But now that I think about it, if I can just alter my stats at any point through modding or such... it can leave me peace of mind knowing if I make a mistake I can just do that?

But... no I shouldn't. I really have to play as is and stop worrying so much about these little things. Just... easier said than done though. I keep saying I gotta change myself and stop obsessing over this stuff and yet I never do. Sigh.

Another question... why not Hand to Hand as a Major? As my friend said, if I am gonna use Blunt alot then Blade should be my Major and just wonder... why? The UESP site says that all of them gain 0.6 exp per hit regardless of damage so I would think since your fists fly faster than weapons... then your fists would level up faster, right? Unless I guess they need different amounts to level up. Like say Blade only needs 200, Blunt 200 and Hand needs 500 or something? I dunno.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Having 3 skills for each attribute is usually plenty to cap all of your attributes.

If you are worried about it, just make sure you get some +5 bonuses early on and you should have no problem capping your attributes.

The only problem that can happen is if you get +2 or +3 bonuses for several levels in the beginning, then your character could become weak and you may have a hard time winning battles. Getting +5 bonuses in Strength and Endurance early on is the best way to get ahead of your opponents because your skills are so low it is easy to raise them.

I usually save H2H for later when I have alot of Health and some reflect damage gear, then I go around punching things. It may be a challenge trying to raise it early on, but you can just stick along the shoreline and fight mudcrabs.

Here are the values. Blade and Blunt is 0.5000, and H2H is 0.6000

[Brandybuck]

Originally posted by Raukue:

I really stress and worry too much. A shame that it may prevent me from ever diving into this game. As I had said, getting all OCD or whatever you wanna call it, over stuff like this is what just turns me away from games. Dunno why I feel the need to be perfect in terms of stats in a game. Bah.

If that's your issue, you can avoid most of it by using a leveling mod. I use Galerion's Natural Leveling. It levels up your attributes as you use the associated skills. The only thing you need to worry about is your "tactical" skills. Always make sure whatever skills you use to deal with enemies are highest, and you should be fine. In a game where enemies level with you, specialization is critical.

I know you said you would rather play the vanilla game first, but at the same time you doubt you will play it because you worry too much. Consider a leveling mod an excuse not to worry.

[Raukue]

I might consider that if it saves me the stress. A shame to not play the game as the creators intended it but... I guess even the makers can get it wrong, eh? I hear Skyrim nor Morrowind did things this way... though I have not played either... point is, with Skryim, they did not follow Oblivion's way of doing things.

Anyway I googled and this was the 1st result that came up. Sounds promising?

Realistic Leveling by ♥♥♥
http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/13879/?

[Brandybuck]

I was going to try that mod, but chose Galerion's instead due to the simplicity. I've found that simpler and less intrusive mods tend to be the more stable mods. Not always true, but a good rule of thumb. Read through the comments, as that's usually the best source to judge a mod's buggyness.

[Raukue]

Hmm. Just don't wanna level too fast. And the one I had showed has more posts and says its simple and even re-calculates existing characters. Hmm. I will have to look into it. Seeing a few posts say stuck at L0 or something and responses saying is below 0 but will start to get exp again in a few hours? Hmm. Almost wonder if a level mod would solve my problem, cause it's a matter of which one to use now?

I think I may go with the Realistic Level Mod and maybe add Francescos Creatures and Items mod?

Realistic Leveling
http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/13879/?
Francescos Creatures and Items
http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/40190/?

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Just make sure you create a hard save before using one of the leveling mods incase you have problems you can uninstall it and reload that save.