I am thinking of maybe starting a new character in Oblivion. The setup I am using won't be entirely different, but I do have a few ideas.

Mods:
+5 All Attributes (So I don't need to micromanage skill games as much)
Maybe a custom mod that makes more effects available for enchanting (notably the spell protections)
Not a mod, but if I get a leveled reward, I will allow myself to cheat other versions of that reward, provided my level is high enough (better than having to wait until a high level to do certain quests to get the best reward)

Character setup:
High Elf (for movement speed + Magicka)
Mage birthsign (more Magicka)

Custom class as follows:
Stats: 5 Endurance, Luck
Focus: Magic

Primary skills:
Restoration (rises so slowly, and it will be the skill I use most)
Destruction (rises slowly, and will be my secondary form of offense)
Not sure what else

Not primary skills:
Alchemy (want to play with this without worrying about leveling up)
Alteration (want a Willpower skill that doesn't level me up)
Athletics/Acrobatics (don't want to worry about skills like these triggering level ups)

Will also use:
Mercantile (level 50 to get other items to appear in the shop; this skill levels up too slowly so I will need to pay for training (either that or modfiy the game so it levels up faster))
Armorer (level 50 to repair magic items; I have a good way to raise this skill quickly if needed)
Other types of magic (Conjuration to get souls and staves, Illusion has some nice spells (though I might make custom Chameleon enchantments less effective or unavailable), Mysticism for Soul Trap

Will not use:
Speechcraft (charm effects should be enough)
Security (spells can replace this)
Sneak (ditto)
Armor skills (need maxed spell effectiveness), except maybe equipping a shield for the extra magical effect

Level ups:
As a constraint (and to balance out the bonus given by the +5 Attributes mod), will boost Luck at every level up until maxed out (which won't happen until something like level 46).
Will boost Endurance and either Intelligence or Willpower at first. Later will boost Intelligence and Willpower together if needed. At some point, will boost other stats (Strength comes to mind for carrying capacity, which was an issue on my previous playthrough).

Any other ideas? Any ideas for what else I should put in the primary skill slots? (The TES games give you too many slots for class skills, though Oblivion is at least better about it than its predecessors.)

Anyone? (I'd really like to start the new playthrough.)

(I'm thinking about Blade, Blunt, and Illusion as class skills; Blade and Blunt would be used primarily with enchanted or bound weapons, and that wouldn't take high skill (especially since I can fortify it if needed). Even if I do this, that still leaves 2 slots open.)

Aside from just cheating my level down, my strategy would be something like this:
1. Cast some spells to boost my Magicka (ti's safe to assume I have maxed Restoration); if that's not enough, there's potions as well.
2. Hit the goblin with a spell that had [element] damage, weakness to [element], and weakness to [magic]. Could also throw in a paralyze or calm effect to the spell so that the goblin can't actually fight back while it's taking damage from my casts.
3. Keep hitting the goblin with that same spell. If the spell is re-cast before the previous cast wears off, the second cast (assuming no initial resistance) will do 4x damage, the third 9x, and so on. Since the damage per attack increases so quickly (quadratically to be exact), the time it takes to kill an enemy this way will not increase as quickly as enemy HP does.

(Also, I don't think I'll actually reach level 60; in fact, my setup will likely finish maxing stats at level 46, and I don't think you can level up further at that point.)

Anyway, any suggestions for primary skills?

Wow, I had played Oblivion so long time ago that I forget the max level is 50 instead of 100.
Ok, seriously, the amount of HP or resistance to damage to balance your level in Oblivion is something that made me to get tired of the game (Truly, waste more than 5 minutes per opponent even with buff of different types of damage IS BORING). That is the only "game balance" cheat that I would use if I play the game again (not counting fix memories leaks, resolution for the fonts, GUI, etc).


Currently, I'm playing Morrowind, and I was curious about using the lance with light Armour as my primary offensive skills and Destruction/Conjuration (or maybe restoration?) as my secondaries skills. The other skills that I'm using are explicitly no-no from your OP. Of course this is more close to a war-mage.


If you are planning to use Luck, why not creating a custom class with main attribute for the luck ?

By the way, this is merely curiosity, but why breaking the game with patches for re-balancing AND THEN breaking it again to re-balance the re-balance that you made ?

It's because I find micromanaging skill increases for leveling up to not be fun, and the point of the game is to have fun. Also, the game's level-up mechanics (both stat and HP gain mechanics) are rather ugly and inelegant. (If I were in charge, I would decouple stat gains from skill increases and would make HP gains from Endurance retroactive.)

Also, last time I neglected luck at level ups (but I did boost it through constant effect enchantments), so I want to do something different anyway. I know I'll still become quite powerful eventually.

I could also point out that the Elder Scrolls games are not exactly known for their game balance (Morrowind is actually the worst example of this, but it's also true of the rest of the series); then again the games aren't exactly known to be bug-free anyway.

(There's also people who play this games with hundreds of mods; I'm not one of them.) If you don't have a problem cheating at this point, one option is to modify your level; if you lower it, enemy strength should be based on your lower level, which should keep things a bit more sane. Keep in mind that other aspects of the game, like random treasure and leveled quest rewards, will scale with your modified level.

Also, be aware that, if you're careless, cheats can cause issues; I remember playing an NES game and softlocking because I was unable to lose an unwinnable battle, forcing me to reset.

Morrowind is different from Oblivion in many respects, including its balance and the allocation of spells into schools. In any case, if you're thinking about using Destruction for offense, you might consider lookiing into Mysticism instead. Mysticism has the Absorb Health effect, which is identical to Damage Health (including cost), except for the school and the fact that it heals you at the same time it does damage.

Also, there's the Enchant skill; you can enchant items that allow you to cast spells with no chance of failure, with no cooldown after casting them, with a cost that decreases as your Enchant skill increases, and with the resource used recharging on its own. That skill is enough to replace all other magic skills if you know what you're doing, the only downside being the cost of getting the enchantments in the first place. (Well, there's also a limit on the power of enchantments, but reaching levels well past that with spells requires boosting your stats/skills far above 100.)

Thinking of not using Illusion as primary; I think I don't want Light spells to level me up.

Thanks for sharing it!
Sadly, I think I cannot offer you more advise as currently my expertise is only over Morrowind.
Enjoy your game!