The Lady is one of the thirteen constellations existing in the Aurbis. It is one of the charges of the larger constellation, known as the Warrior, and its season is Hearthfire.1 1 In-game effects 1.1 Morrowind 1.2 Oblivion 1.3 Skyrim 2 Tips 3 Gallery 4 References Ability 'Lady's Favor' Fortify Attribute: Personality 25 points on self Ability 'Lady's Grace' Fortify Attribute: Endurance 25. Oblivion's RPG system was fun at first, but ultimately broken. The side quests are top notch, but the main quest is mediocre. The atmosphere is lacking, and NPCs have potatoes for faces. The leveled world killed any sense of progression.
This is just a guide on various tips and tricks I learned from playing thousands of hours over the last decade and a half.
Beginners Guide with Tips and Tricks
Basic Leveling for Noobs
So leveling in this game is based off of leveling up 10 of your 'major' skills. Keep this in mind... Now here is where most people fail to pay attention... Every skill is governed by an 'Attribute', each time you level an skill, it helps you increase the attribute once you level up.
- When you level up, you can only choose 3 attributes to level.
- Every 1-4 skill increases will give you a +2 towards that attribute on the level up.
- Every 5-7 gives a +3.
- Every 8-9 gives +4.
- 10 or more gives the max of a +5 bonus towards that attribute.
Essentially with all this in mind, your going to want to typically try to level not just the skills within your class, but the skills that will level the attributes you need the most.
Keep this in mind when you making your starting class. Your going to want to avoid picking a purebred class like mage if you only play in that style since you will be leveling to fast and focused to make the most of those bonuses.
Another few notes:
This is just a guide on various tips and tricks I learned from playing thousands of hours over the last decade and a half.
Beginners Guide with Tips and Tricks
Basic Leveling for Noobs
So leveling in this game is based off of leveling up 10 of your 'major' skills. Keep this in mind... Now here is where most people fail to pay attention... Every skill is governed by an 'Attribute', each time you level an skill, it helps you increase the attribute once you level up.
- When you level up, you can only choose 3 attributes to level.
- Every 1-4 skill increases will give you a +2 towards that attribute on the level up.
- Every 5-7 gives a +3.
- Every 8-9 gives +4.
- 10 or more gives the max of a +5 bonus towards that attribute.
Essentially with all this in mind, your going to want to typically try to level not just the skills within your class, but the skills that will level the attributes you need the most.
Keep this in mind when you making your starting class. Your going to want to avoid picking a purebred class like mage if you only play in that style since you will be leveling to fast and focused to make the most of those bonuses.
Another few notes:
- Luck does not have any skills it governs, but has a hidden effect that will boost all skill points by a tiny bit without displaying that effect in your stats.
- Luck is a good option if you don't have enough bonuses to take advantage of due to rapid leveling.
- Always remember to train 5 times at each level because that is the max per level.
- Use training on skills you don't use to make the most out of attribute bonuses.
- It is unwise to level before training 5 times.
- Try to count your skill increases and figure out what your bonuses will be on your next level up.
- Plan for your max level to land around level 40-50 depending on your starting skill levels from racials and such.
- Remember that your class 'type' (Combat, Stealth or Magic) will effect how quickly those types of skills will level.
- Magic skills are the easiest to level since you can cast those on yourself and they count towards leveling them.
- Destruction magic can be easily leveled after gaining access to custom spells where you can create a disintegrate armor on SELF that will help level both your armorer skill and destruction.
- Hold off on reading skill books (usually 25 gold value or more) until your a high level (at least level 20).
- Daedric items are the highest tier items in the game for basic armors and weapons. Glass is the highest light armor. These spawn in at level 20 and will be the last time you will get a new tier of weapon. Considering that you cant improve the weapons like you can in TES 5 Skyrim, your going to have to keep in mind that leveling past this point will make the game more difficult unless your character has the stats to compensate for the lack of newer level gear... so level 40 is going to be nearly impossible to play on normal difficulty with a poorly made character.
Making Easy Money
The Good Loot
Outside of Cheydinhal at the end of the road heading North-East out of the city, there is Fort Farragut. Coming from the road and facing the front of the fort, there is a big tree that is hollowed out on a side that will reveal a trap door to the end of the dungeon. If you cant find it just go through the fort normally. At the end of that dungeon, there is a barrel with a very hard lock on it, so bring plenty of lockpicks and save your game before attempting. It takes some practice, but listen to the tumblers and watch the movements carefully to get that lock open. Inside you will find several poisoned apples that will respawn after a few days. You should be able to sell them for a little less then 2k gold, each time you do this run (every 3 or so 'in game' days).
The Best Merchant
The best merchant that you can haggle with to get the best prices is 'Nilphas Omellian'. He is located within the Imperial City's market district's 'The Merchants Inn' and he buys items in value up to 2k gold and he is only an apprentice trader, making him a good option to sell items to. He is only there if you have the 'Fighter's Stronghold' DLC.
Trying to Get that Meta Build
- Do quests late game and focus dungeons early. The reason for this is that the quest rewards are leveled to you, so you may want to put off these quests so you can get the highest level version of that reward item that is possible. You can use a quest item leveler mod if you wish, but for vanilla its best to hold off on the quests that give the items you want for that final build of your character.
- Obsessively manage to try to get a +5 attribute bonus on every level up. If you want to get 100 in everything, you can do so by picking the 'Thief' birthsign and choosing luck on every levelup while getting +5 bonuses every time on the other 2. It is difficult and uncomfortable to attempt this, but it is doable.
- The Ring of Perfection, Mirror Shield, Sorcerer's Ring, Ring of the Iron Fist and the Ring of Vitality are a few high level randomly found enchanted items that you can find that you'll want to hold onto for your build. They are all incredibly powerful.
Good Mods to Consider
Morroblivion
This mod is a fantastic port of TES 3 Morrowind into Oblivion where you can play both games with the same character. This opens up so many possibilities of character design with the new items and gear you can get as well as the spells and abilities. The mod was ported rather then made from scratch, so its the same game you remember TES 3 Morrowind being... except it has an Oblivion skin on it graphically with TES 4 Oblvion's RPG and combat system as well. Point is that its true to the original. The mod is located on the TES Renewal site for Morroblivion.
Oblivion Reloaded
Great for a good graphical enhancement and not to difficult to install. Its settings can be modified in game and its generally rather stable if installed right. The mod can be found on its own site or on Nexus.
Unmentionable Adult Mods
I cannot really say to much about this, but TES 5 Skyrim is rather famous for it and TES 4 Oblivion, while not as famous does have these as well and located on the same unmentionable site. Softer Adult mods are however located on Nexus Mods but game changing and adult gameplay overhaul mods are going to be located on the unmentionable and highly controversial site... Same as TES 5 Skyrim. You will need to find that on your own pal.
Recommended for You:
- All The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion Guides!
Skyrim Gameplay Time
You May Also Like:It's a topic that always raises hackles – Is game X better than game Y? Immediately, a dozen gamers will jump to each game's defence, and probably rightfully so. Every game has good and bad aspects – even if the only good aspect is just how hilariously bad it is.
Unfortunately, the love/hate debate isn't as easy for Skyrim and Oblivion. Both games have strengths and weaknesses, and equally strong fan-bases. Instead of simply saying one is better than the other, it makes more sense to compare to whom and why the game appeals.
Oblivion had, compared to Skyrim at least, a much more varied and interesting quest line-up. More backstories, objectives, and just sheer personality – that makes it appealing to genre-fans that like to get as immersed in a game world as possible. Side missions and monsters had a little more variety as well, not to mention the map itself. Oblivion tried to do much more than Skyrim in terms of sheer world building and for many that had huge appeal.
Now, Skyrim definitely has the better graphics. Oblivion was first released in 2006, Skyrim in 2011. No surprise there. For gamers that favour graphics, Skyrim would be the better choice in that regard. In a direct comparison, Oblivion can't hold a candle to Skyrim which is an issue for many who want to be visually immersed in a world. This especially applies to newer gamers. Skyrim makes for a lovely entry into the world of RPGs, with a wide sprawling world that really feels alive. It is comparatively easy to play and grasp, while also offering activities that suit almost any player type so a great way to get started. That being said, the many, many dungeons of Skyrim tend to fall into one of two categories: Nord gave site or dwemer ruin. With few exceptions, they all feel the same after a while, despite the puzzles involved in solving them.
If you play mostly for the quests, Oblivion would be the game for you. Particularly when it comes to faction quests, like the mages college in Skyrim. Oblivion had more variation to these storylines, as well as filling the world with interesting places. Towns in particular are not fleshed out very well in Skyrim. This is in part explained due to the cold and inhospitable nature of the place, but that still doesn't make it any more fun to play.
Oblivion had properly populated towns with dozens of NPCs going about their business. Just the Imperial City had more going on than pretty much all of Skyrim's capitals combined. Many of those can be described with '15 buildings within a fence', even if the town is supposed to be a major trading hub, like Whiterun or Morthal. The lack of l general activity and variety means that many Skyrim towns just feel flat in comparison to the rest of the world.
When it comes to actual gameplay though, Skyrim has the upper hand: Controls, combat and freedom of movement are greatly improved compared to Oblivion. This, again, makes it more appealing to newbies and casual gamers. Tough controls aren't really appealing to most people, and most people expect modern games to have learned from past mistakes. The same improvement level goes for the skill trees. With the expansion packs and the vampire skill tree, the system got a little more complicated in Skyrim; however, the simplicity of actually applying points, coupled with the possible variety of skills made the system near revolutionary.
Elder Scrolls V Skyrim Gameplay
That being said, no real strategy was required here to build a good character. The skill trees are all perks and abilities, and the only actual stats are health, magicka and endurance. It's almost impossible to put stat points into the wrong place, but as a result do the choices don't really have a lot of overall impact. Early on in Oblivion though, players could found that they would profit strongly from a +5 in endurance. However, if they stacked points in just one stat alone, further down the line they would end up with near unbeatable difficulty. It required thought and planning to build a viable character that could survive and see quests through to the end.
Classes were also better balanced in Oblivion. None were overpowered compared to the others, although many players have at least one archer. A mage or warrior was a personal choice, rather than a massive advantage one way or the other. Skyrim saw the rise of stealth based characters, who could one-shot most threats before the action took off.
Oblivion has, as mentioned, the advantage in all things quest related. From a better main quest-line to appropriate faction quests that don't involve thieves clobbering draugr. Skyrim's quests seem to consist mainly of fetch-quests – at least that's what it feels like to most. Many elements of Skyrim were designed to appeal to a broader audience. It worked, but it didn't make everyone in the Elder Scrolls fan base very happy.
Speaking of TES fans, many will probably point out that Morrowind (released in 2002) was a great TES game as well. Despite it being 15 years old, it still has many dedicated fans. With graphic mods its outdated feel can be changed to something most players can still enjoy. It incorporates more of the ‘typical' RPG experience than either Oblivion or Skyrim, both of which are more action focussed. One thing is sure though: Both Oblivion and Skyrim easily beat Morrowind when it comes to combat!
To sum it up, the pros and cons of both Skyrim and Oblivion:
Skyrim- Pros
Graphics
Simplicity
Broad appeal
Skyrim- Cons
Boring questlines
Small towns
Dungeons
Little strategy to levelling
Oblivion- Pros
Quests
Interesting world
Great cities and landscapes
Levelling up is a challenge
Oblivion- Cons
Graphics
Combat
So, is Oblivion better than Skyrim?
Hard to say.
Did we like it better?
Absolutely.