Switching playstyles acceptable?

[Chance]

I'm currently playing a stealth archer but feel like down the line I may switch to conjuration, would it better to just start a new character or can I continue with this one and just start leveling up conjuration?

[kdodds]

Unless your class includes Conjuration as a major or minor skill, you'll suffer.

[Chance]

Originally posted by kdodds:

Unless your class includes Conjuration as a major or minor skill, you'll suffer.

so thankfully I did pick it as a major

[S]

Originally posted by kdodds:

Unless your class includes Conjuration as a major or minor skill, you'll suffer.

Do major and minor skills even matter anymore? I'm pretty sure you level up regardless, and you can pick your own attributes.

[Scraps]

There's very little issues I foresee with that. Minor skills get pretty significant less exp than Major, so you may have to grind Conjuration more if it isn't a Major, but people who try to get max level will level up everything and then some (via jail time).

Attributes will barely be an issue, as Intelligence and Willpower are still relevant for most builds (WIL not so much if you're under The Atronach). Agility can be kind of "eh" if you're not using the weapons it boosts, but even your bow can still be good in tandem with Conjuration, as you can get enchantments to make enemy's more vulnerable to your elemental summons' attacks, for example.

Basically how the Witchhunter premade-class works, which I'm quite fond of.

Originally posted by S:

Originally posted by kdodds:

Unless your class includes Conjuration as a major or minor skill, you'll suffer.

Do major and minor skills even matter anymore? I'm pretty sure you level up regardless, and you can pick your own attributes.

As with the OG, they ultimately affect your progression. But instead of being forced to level up Minors before working on some Majors to have a decent build, Major skills just level up faster.

[Entropos]

One potential warning:

If you start with archery, you won't be getting hit much. Because early on you can take out most mobs with one shot.

Eventually this changes, and you *will* be getting hit.

it's not really a direct problem, because you can find *something* that does almost no damage and just let them pound on you until your armor skill does up.

But that means you're now leveling up armor to go with archery.

And you probably need to start healing while you're getting pummeled so now you're leveling up restoration. Or maybe alchemy... which might mean buying more ingredients, which means selling more things, which means... now you're mercantile is going up to.

The point is, you can usually assume that there are some skills you will be using regularly in mid game that you don't use very often at all in the beginning.

So, adding conjuration is fine. But you're probably adding a few others that aren't quite so obvious (or planned).

Not sure how well I've explained this. Just... careful adding something as a "luxury skill", because you may not have as much room for luxury as you think.

[Majora]

One of the best things about Oblivion is yes, you can change your mind and your playstyle.
It'll just take you a while to level up your skills and find suitable equipment.
The magic skills are annoying to level up, so taking them as a Major skill saves on time and frustration.

[Trip]

All you really need to consider is if your skill being used to cause damage keeps pace with the level scale of your enemies. If whatever you are using to kill stuff is absolutely demolishing things then you can add in another vector for applying damage.

If you are struggling you need to tighten down on raising as few skills as possible till things ease up a bit. Maybe get some gear upgrades.

I almost never mix more then one offensive type, until I get it maxed to 100. Then maybe will add in another. One of these days though I'm going to do a restoration only build.

[Null_User]

I think you can. It's conjuration and not any armor skill, which means, you level up by just summoning stuff instead of getting hit. It's not destruction, meaning you don't have to attack anyone with a puny fireball. You could even use bound bow as a conjuration skill that relates to archery (though with an overabundance of weapons scattered across, only the weightless nature of a conjured bow would be of use). Hiring a trainer and joining the mages guild could help too.

Will it take ample grinding? Yes. But it's doable.

[Supernautilus]

Changing play styles is fine. But starting a new character can also be a lot of fun too. There is a ton of content in this game. More than enough for multiple characters.

I have three different characters I’m playing now. I’m just reserving some content for certain characters and skipping it on others, in order to avoid repetition.