Not really in Oblivion, damn level scaling.
The chances of the player finding something really good at the beginning are close to none. You just have to wait untile every common cutthroat packs fulll Daedric armor. Man, I was so disappointed in Oblivion... I was expecting a Morrowind on steroids, and all I got was the dumbest, mosty generic fantasy game I ever played.

Well I hate level scaling of both loot and NPC's in any video games.

Level scaling needs to just never be added into video games ever.

Over the last fifteen years I have tried at least twenty different types of mods that get rid of level scaling from The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion to trying to make my own static leveled mods. There are quite a few combinations I go that are results that I actually enjoyed having.

By the way.
Is ti just me or daedric Armor in Morrowind is basically useless? It is so heavy to be extremely impractical, so despite the insane level of protection it would be better to stay a tier lower (Ebony) or use unique gear.

Well, you *could* get a Black Soul Gem early and use it to place high level enchantments on equipment (I like +10 Luck on clothing, particularly since Luck is pretty rare and the small bonus it provides to most skills is really handy), but that requires getting access to the enchanting altar (which you don't get immediately) and figuring out how to make Black Soul Gams (and there's a finite number of Grand Soul Gems that are available at low levels that you can use).

I really do like training through use mechanics. It's part of the reason I love Wizardry 8 and some of the SaGa games. (SaGa 1 actually doesn't do training through use, and in SaGa 2 it's so slow that I often bypass it by avoiding the races that use that mechanic.)

The way Morrowind/Oblivion decides when a level up isn't a major issue (though the fact that it penalizes having your class skills and your specialization overlap makes absolutely no sense). However, there are two issues I have with the leveling system:
* The way stat increases at level up are handled. (I would have preferred something like Wizardry 8, where level up stat points don't depend on the actions taken during the level, or perhaps have exploration or completed quests be the main source of stat growth.)
* HP gains are non-retroactive, meaning a character who boosts Endurance early will have more HP than one who boosts it later to the same amount. Essentially, it means you *have* to work on Endurance early to get an optimal character, which penalizes builds that wait until later to boost it. (With retroactive HP gains, boosting Endurance early still has the benefit that you have more HP early in the game, which is where low HP is most likely to be a problem anyway.)

I know that my char had a Daedric sword. For armor, for quite a while he had the adamantium one from the official mod (installed the official mods, but nothing else, normally stay well away from mods (except maybe strictly bugfix ones), wanting to play games as the devs meant them, but since those were offered by the devs I took them rather as free DLC). Can't remember whether I moved to Daedric or something else by the time I last stopped, since I had max stats bar luck by then. But yeah, really heavy.

My preferred method of getting powerful early is different. Basically, what I do is this:
* Get access to one of the expansion areas (Tribunal is easiest).
* Buy a spell with a Fortify Skill effect. (Once you're in Tribunal, you can use Divine Intervention to reach a place where that spell is sold without needing a guild membership or ranking. To leave, just cast Recall (assuming you cast Mark in the mainland, of course).)
* Now, create your own Fortify Enchantment spell.
* Using that spell, enchant your own powerful items. (Soul Gems can be bought on that one island, filled with souls from summoned Ancestral Ghosts, then either sold (for more money than they ought to be worth) or used to enchant an item.)
* Now you can enjoy the benefits of custom enchantments, including spellcasting items whose charge regenerates.

(Incidentally, I was disappointed that Oblivion doesn't allow you to make custom "on use" enchantments; I really wish the game allowed for the creation of custom staves.)

I'd agree with the sentiment, except for that situation in Kingdoms of Amalur, where there is level scaling, but it applies only when you first visit the region, then locks, resulting in very unsatisfying fights and trash loot, for a game with otherwise pretty fun combat and great equipment. So limited or cut scaling often makes games that were made with scaling in mind much worse.

I hate those unkillable scorpions, muties and ghouls from Fallout 3+ running around killing merchants and other NPC out in the open without you getting any say in it so much more, though. It's one thing if they were hunting just you, although their stats are so ridiculous you can easily run out of ammo and break your weapon and spares just putting one down if you didn't optimize for high level combat, but what idiot thought it'd be a good idea to drop them on schmucks that are either unarmed or can barely fend off early game raiders, and don't scale up?

My favorite game ever. It was nowhere near perfect. Really quite a mess actually, but man it was something truly special. No google either that you could use to look up every little thing. You had to use a map, write things down, and actually use road signs and talk to npc characters for directions. It was glorious.

Or use the "Feather" enchantment. Or use "Bound armor" on ring/neck to get the cool appearance, have some protection and practically weight nothing. :D

One of the strengths of Morrowind is that it allowed A LOT of customization, despite it's flaws. And easy modability. And to find out that there are SEVERAL ways to complete a mission or the game, even if you screw up.

After playing it for an year, I've finally found out what happened to the dwarves...

Did I meantion modability - like whole quest chains and areas, that sometimes have even better story than the original?! Like a whole recreation of Tamriel? I don't think I've seen anything of this scope either in Oblivion or Skyrim.

I suppose those design decions were still connected to old-school roleplaying, where it was assumed that combat classes would only align with fighting guilds, magic users would prefer magic-focused factions and stealh-based characters would inevitably stick with the thieves & assassin's guilds.
Maybe it was Oblivion (and other famous RPGs which I don't remember now) that helped establish or solidify the current "do what thou wilt" trend on RPGs.

Yet another game I will never complete. Every single time I start an action RPG up I end up getting side tracked from a main story and get lost in doing nothing. Still hoping to finish Two Worlds and Two Worlds II which I have gotten far in recently but I don't know.

Maybe you might want to try some that are not as open or expansive, like the Ys games? (Specifically 1 and 2 are quite short (though 1 has at least one poorly desiged boss fight), or you could look at Ys 6, Oath in Felghana, or Origin if you want something 3d with some platforming thrown in. These games are linear, and have only a handful of sidequests, very unlike Bethesda's games.

Edit: Why the low rating?

OK GoG, I'll wait to 31/11/11 to re-re-re ... wait-for-it ... re-re-re-re-edition of Skyrim. I believe you can do it:)

But of course! With Skyrim so closely tied to the number "11" the Big Day should come on 11/11/11+11! That's when we should expect it...
...
....
...to not appear once again.

Still, GOG has surprised me more than once, so... nothing's off the table, I guess.