Playing as a Thief

[frostdiamond]

Being an hardcore fan of Thief series, it's only natural that I'm playing a (level 10) Thief in Oblivion : )

When I'm not detected (eye icon dim) and perform a stealth kill with an arrow (3X damage) on a foe, all the other foes in the are immediately become aware of my presence AND my exact location. This makes no sense as the kill I just made was silent. In my opinion, I should be able to pick these guys off 1 by 1 without raising the awareness?

[Major Havoc]

Erm, you have a Thief confused with an Assassin, Thieves do not kill.
To truly Ghost a kill in Oblivion, the target needs to be isolated or you need nearly 100% Chameleon through assorted magical items. But you still need to be outside of detection range, like 150 feet or more.
BTW, I think Greater Life Detect has a range of 150 feet.

[Error]

It's because you used the bow and arrow. I guess the logic is that they can see the arrow and tell the direction it came from based on physics.

That being said, I've been able to sneak up behind someone while others were within visual range but not facing me for a 6x bonus and then back away. The one I hit if I didn't one-shot will chase me but the others aren't alerted because I remain in sneak mode. If I tried the same thing with a bow and arrow, it wouldn't have worked, so the logic is messed up somewhere but it is still fun.

[Major Havoc]

I have Ghosted six baddies in a row with a bow and arrow, all in the same area without being detected. But of course I was a Journeyman of Sneak, had nearly 75% Chameleon and was level 18 too. And that was with a plain vanilla character with no mods.

[frostdiamond]

I'm an Expert at Sneaking, no Chameleon effect at all and level 10.

You are right in deed - I am in fact playing a hybrid style of Thief / Assassin, possibly biasing towards the latter.

[Major Havoc]

I actually started off as an Agent. But after completing the Thieves Guild Quests, I decided with that Infamy I might as well do the Dark Brotherhood quests and get my sniper phase worked out. :p
But I'll tell you that it took a rather long time before I could atone for all that so I could get blessings again. But it did make for a rather difficult but entertaining Knights of the Nine and Main quests. :)
BTW, by the time you complete Mehrunes Razor, you can be an accomplished Archer. But running through all the country side does help too. Who needs a horse when you can outrun most of them? :D

[frostdiamond]

Yeah I agree. I could buy a horse, but just don't see the need to do that, yet. Running in the woods help increasing my athletics skill : )

As for the reason of this post. Well. I just look sniping people from the dark hahaha

[Major Havoc]

Heh, that reminds me of something that is rather disappointing about Oblivion. There is nothing more satisfying than seeing that you killed somebody with the perfect head or heart shot, but how in the Hell did I instant kill that guy that took an arrow to the hand? :p

[frostdiamond]

So Oblivion doesn't account for location damage eh? I always aim for the head anyway LOL

[Major Havoc]

It happens when something like a Bandit is charging you while swinging a battle hammer. They will usually shout "I have fought tougher Mud Crabs than you" before I release the arrow that kills them. Then as I stand over their corpse I will usually comment, "Oh really". :D

[frostdiamond]

LOL this may sound weird, but those mud crabs look quite delicious?!

[GatoradeMeBitch]

i agree ^^

[JtDarth]

Hmm, I am a perfectly efficient stealth pure archer character, with no chameleon whatsoever, all it takes is a bit of jewelry enchanted with nighteye and staying in the shadows, the problem you are running into is that there is someone else with line of sight on your target, I've never played melee stealth, but it seems to me that the chameleon stuff is pretty much hax. same way detect life is ingame wallhax. they are useful, but for me they remove the fun. I do have a few mods that deal with arrow velocity and make the type of arrow more important but other than that there is no gameplay changers installed.

[30]

Being a thief in oblivion is a little clunky here and there, while I would say it's not bad it's just really hard

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Playing as a Thief have been so much better if NPC's would randomly generate a decent item sometimes when you enter a new zone, like those found in boss chests so that Pickpocketing would be more worthwhile and it would be more fun to randomly check people for items. Even if there was only a 1% chance, like finding oddities in the Shivering Isles would be ok.

It is disappointing that most NPC's have worthless clothing, small amounts of gold, and way outdated useless weapons.

The same goes for breaking into peoples houses and stealing items. Most of the stuff in houses is worthless junk. I always find Iron/steel weapons/armor and unenchanted jewelery. It's not even worth your time entering houses.

There was only 1 time in countless hours of playing that I actually saw a good item in a chest and I think that was in Bravil Castle where I found an Enchanted Daedric Cuirass. I have saved and reloaded many houses and Castles to see if I could generate decent items and it is always a waste of time.

Oblivion is a great game, but I think it would have been nice to have been able to pickpocket and steal better items.

[JtDarth]

Originally posted by Dexter:

Playing as a Thief have been so much better if NPC's would randomly generate a decent item sometimes when you enter a new zone, like those found in boss chests so that Pickpocketing would be more worthwhile and it would be more fun to randomly check people for items. Even if there was only a 1% chance, like finding oddities in the Shivering Isles would be ok.

It is disappointing that most NPC's have worthless clothing, small amounts of gold, and way outdated useless weapons.

The same goes for breaking into peoples houses and stealing items. Most of the stuff in houses is worthless junk. I always find Iron/steel weapons/armor and unenchanted jewelery. It's not even worth your time entering houses.

There was only 1 time in countless hours of playing that I actually saw a good item in a chest and I think that was in Bravil Castle where I found an Enchanted Daedric Cuirass. I have saved and reloaded many houses and Castles to see if I could generate decent items and it is always a waste of time.

Oblivion is a great game, but I think it would have been nice to have been able to pickpocket and steal better items.

that unenchanted jewelry is extremely light, and can also be useful to your character outside of selling it. I'd take an inventory of jewelry over a piece of enchanted heavy armor, because in the end, say the armor is worth 1000 gold, but weighs 40 stones. You could wind up with 10 amulets for less than 10 stones, but making 1000. It really depends on the item in question, but for me weight to cost ratio tends to be more important.