r/oblivion

I dont know much about Oblivion but even I know about its infamous levelling system and how broken it is, along with its level scaling issues. Now, I am one to enjoy playing vanilla, as vanilla as possible really, but this is a long ass game and I want a nice experience that wont be sullied because I didnt do efficient levelling or leveled up too much or chose certain skills as majors, like this is a mess from my point of view.

Should I just add a mod to fix it, while still keeping close to the vanilla system? In that case, which mods you guys use and recommend for a new player? Again, I like playing vanilla so I want something that works like the original but its just a bit better/fixed, I heard they fixed it in the Remaster so there is clearly a problem that I want to adress before putting a lot of hours in the game.

Edit: Seems like vanilla is actuslly fine and the chosen option for me. Now another question: Unnoficial Patches... should I use them for bug fixing or just skip?

I've played Skyrim, Morrowind, and a decent chunk of ESO, and now due to the recent excitement around TES:VI, I've decided to finally pick up Oblivion. I'm well aware of the events of the main quest, but I'm going into Oblivion's side quests completely blind.

Let me know of your favourite non-main-story/main-guild questlines that I absolutely should not miss during my first playthrough.

I did it years ago on 360 but after 70 hours caved, rushed to just finish game fast prior to starting a demanding new job

Doing my second playthrough of the Remaster. My first one was when it came out but I didn’t complete it and did about 45 hours but then purchased BG3 and sunk hundreds of hours into it.

Came back to Remaster past 2-3 weeks, playing on expert, put in about 60 hours so far, first time I’ve ever really focused on alchemy. I have to say it’s one of the best skills in the game. I got it to 100 and through selling the potions I got mercantile to 100.

I just purchased the house in Skingrad that comes with the maid. She can give you unlimited Shepards Pies which can all be converted into potions to sell for 50 gold at the shop two doors down from the house.

So all you have to do to get infinite money is get those two skills to 100 and then buy the Skingrad house and maid quarters upgrade.

Back when it was new and we were all first playing oblivion, I remember having conversations like everyone was having A unique experience. It felt so personal, the path you took, the choices you made, you almost forgot everyone else had the exact same game.

"Yeah, I bought a house but I can't get the >!ghosts!< out of it" as if you're the only one.

"I found a village full of invisible people" etc.

So, if you check Martin's class, you'll see that he's a "Conjurer". This is strange, since he doesn't cast any conjuration spells. However, the Sanguine Rose artifact summons a random Daedra. Martin mentions that he used to be a Sanguine worshiper in the past, and that he briefly had the Rose as well.

My theory is that Martin used his conjuration abilities to aid in worshiping Sanguine. And while the player doesn't need to know conjuration spells to get the Sanguine Rose, Martin getting the Rose because of his use of Conjuration would be fitting for a worshiper.

Now, the next question is... which Daedra did Martin prefer to summon? Considering that he uses frost magic in-game...

I remember being so intrigued by it as a kid growing up, and as I replay it again it's been crossing my mind.

Is it like an easter egg? Some developer inside joke? Cut content maybe? The name, material, and enchantments feel so specific imo

I thought it might be fun to have a discussion about things Skyrim actually improved from Oblivion, rather than the other way around.

I'll start with a controversial one: Restoration. Hear me out. Restoration in Oblivion is arguably the best skill in the game. The ability to cast fortify skill makes training certain skills like security, speechcraft, and mercantile completely pointless, and greatly boosts your ability to cast higher level/costly summons, destruction spells, etc. You can even fortify restoration itself before casting other fortify spells. Or fortify intelligence and willpower to reach otherwise unattainable Magicka pools. It's truly a broken skill at level 100.

My problem with restoration is that it's not very good at all until level 75 (and to be honest, only level 100 does it become truly broken). It's incredibly tedious to train it because the devs presumably knew how broken it can be at higher levels and made it the slowest to level magic skill.

Honestly, Skyrim with its perk system (especially when paired with illusion and vampirism) makes restoration more useful throughout the game without being completely game breaking at higher levels. I like it a lot better, even though it's weaker.

Anyway, I'm sure this isn't a 100% original topic, but I think it would still be fun to hear what everyone thinks about the move from Oblivion to Skyrim and what Bethesda actually did right.