Ru
14th November 2006, 14:25
Oblivion Tips & Tricks
I've been playing Oblivion for a quite a bit recently and i thought it was about time i put up some bits of sound advice, most will be known by those already playing i guess, but it'll be handy for those just starting.
If you want +5 to the your three desired stats for each level up you have to make sure you can manipulate your major skills so that you can choose when you want to level up. 10 major skill increases result in a level up, and when you do, the bonuses available to your stats are a reflection of how much you used the corresponding skills. For example, Heavy Armor, Armorer and Block all contribute to Endurance. So, if youwant your endurance to go up by +5 the next time you level up, you must get at least 10 levels up in Heavy Armor, Armorer and Block before you do. So basically, the key is to choose major skills that you wont be using, or at least you will be but in measured amounts that you can control, (like alteration, mysticism, alchemy). And only level up once you have 10 skill increases in the three stats you desire.
Guilds : As Strings said, join a guild! join as many as you want, however, note that the Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild missions will credit you with Infamy, oppose to most other quests that make you more famous. As far as i know, its NOT good to be more infamous than famous, do you get kicked out of the lawful guilds? Something like that anyway. Yeah, so, Guilds are quests on a plate. I found the Mages & Thieves Guild to be most fun. There are smaller guilds/factions, such as the vampire hunters that will find you in the temple district if you've killed a vampire before. Once part of them, they will pay 250gold for each vampire dust, so STOP selling them for 50gold to shopkeeps now!
Guilds, Arena, they'll put some gold in your pocket, but looting and selling is by far the most profitable method in the game. In Ayleid Ruins you will find lots of Welkynd Stones. These recharge your magicka, and weigh only 1 for a sell cost of 50. So, pretty efficient as far as these things go. You can shoot down ones out of reach with your bow or a fireball. I used to sell all i found, until i realised how invaluable they could be. I only carried health and sorcery potions before, but a Welkynd Stone is far better than any sorcery potion, so now i carry 5 Welkynds and happily sell all sorcery potions i find!
How to get the best price? Well, here's where tricks become useful. If you talk to someone with your weapon out, you will recieve a -10 to your disposition with that person. However, if you then speechcraft them to the max disp, and talk to them again but with your weapon sheathed, you'll notice that the disposition is 10 higher than a second a go. Hence, you can increase the default max dispostion of anyone you talk to be 10.
The Arcane University is The Shit. Spelling making is too fun. Here is some things ive noticed.
The most expensive enchantments are Protection and Fortification. Money is generally not an issue though, soul gems are. Get a hold of a weapon enchanted with soultrap as soon as possible. I have an axe, and its invaluable cos i smack em about with my normal mace, hit 1 (hotkeyed to Soul trapping axe) and finishing blow YEAH! take another one! You can never have to many soul gems. Elenglylum (wrong spelling) is an Ayleid ruin south of Chorrol that housed a Black soul gem as a prize when i was in there once. Black soul gems are capable of capturing a human soul, making them the most powerful soul gems in the game (excluding Azura's Star, the resusable soul gem, a prize at one of the shrines. Ahem, Azura's). Mmm, as for spell making. To make a cost efficient spell the key is to rely on the duration of the spell more than the base damage. For eg. i made a spell called Vampircal Heat (gay? shut up) that does : absorb 10pts in 10ft, for 5 seconds. Thus, when being attacked by 3 guys or so, i can pinch 50 health from each and get healed 150pts myself. At a cost of 108 magicka, that is sweeeeeet. It would be far more costly to do 50pts for 1 seconds.
ADDITIONAL EDIT: Once you have Azura, you may as well sell everything below Grand/black. There aint no use for them apart from recharging weapons as you want to use greater/grand for enchantments.
Clearly, when you run about places your constantly bunnyhopping and casting spells to increase your skills. Few things to note. It seems that your skill goes up with the amount of casts made*, not the power of the cast. Hence, use your cheapest spells to increase your skills. *Either its the amount of casts made, or its to do with the efficiency of the spell, which would be why smaller ones are better). So, i thought why not make a spell that heals, detects life, creates a light and protects myself, but all in small amounts to increase the skill of each magic kind. DOESNT WORK, when you make a spell, the prodominant magic determines the nature of the spell. The one i prev mentioned was just Illusion. Oh well. Moving on.
ADDITIONAL EDIT: in order to take advantage of the system i just mentioned, when making a spell, say an uber destructive one, but you only have destructive skill of 50, and its says you need 75, heres how you get round it. If you are an expert in, say restoration, then simply add enough of a restore (absorb) affect to the spell to tip it over to being a restore spell of 75 (for example) Yay, castable!
Ways to take advantage of the spell making system even more. Create fortify spells to stats such as Armoror, Security, Speechcraft etc, 100pts for 2 seconds. These spells should cost around 20 magicka only! This gives you enough time to cast, and then use the hammer/lock/person etc. I dont actually use any of those, as they would take the fun of those mini-games away. However, the truely useful ones that i happiliy use are, Fortify Endurance, Fortify Mercantile and Fortify Luck (all by 100 pts for 2 secs). First off, its important to note that Endurance is the only stat that has bonuses relevant to each level up. Err, i mean, in my opinion, you want to get Endur to 100 first and foremost before all other stats because your health goes up by 1/10th of your endurance, so your going to want as many levels with your Endurance at 100 as poss right? As for Mercantile fortifications, this allows you to get an excellant selling rate, and allows you to invest in the shop, which means they will have more money to barter with (hhaa, straight back in your pocket!). Also handy. And then theres fortifiying luck..
I dont really know, i think it smooths out armoring speechcraft etc, +5 damage with weapons. More importantly though, Iain has two Mundane Rings (insane) which is probably due to his luck being nigh 100. So, fortifiying your luck before traveling into the next area/level (which i think is when your items are spawned) should ensure better items.
Fortifying Magicka is a bit more complicated. I hear that in Morrowind you could stack spells, ie cast feather over and over again and recieve more and more bonuses. In Oblivion, casting the same spell again DOES NOTHING!! (booming voice). However, theres nothing stopping you from making an identical spell with a different name and casting that. So stacking is basically just slightly more awkward. As i was saying, i have noticed when you fortify your magicka, the amount you fortify by is full of magicka. Ie, not just a higher max of magicka, but more magicka in itself. This can be used as such: By creating spells of Fortify Magicka 100pts for say 8, 6, 4 and 2 seconds you can then cast them (from 8 secs to 2) and will have an effect of 400pts fortified for about half a second after that last cast. (gaps of 2 sec because a cast takes just more than a second). This is when you can then cast a spell with a much larger cost than you could normally cast. But surely il have no magicka after casting those fortifications you ask? nah, cos theyr fairly cheap costs due to the small duration time. Obviously, this trick would be ideal for when you know theres a fight round the corner, and you would want the uber spell to be some kinda kick ass health protection skill increasing kinda thing that lasts for ages.
Other tips, Uh, when running about and you catch a glimpse of water, always have a quick skirt around its edges to find some nirnroots.
When looking through book cases, make a point of reading anything 15gold worth or more, as it may be a Skill Increase book.
Trainers are GOOD, dont turn your nose up at them, the gold they ask for is nothing for the time they will save you.
Not my tip but - "enough alchohol will make anyone look like a slob".
Try to hang onto Quest weapons/armor for a while (assuming they're good, like Umbra and Rockshatter) as Quest items weigh 0!
When leveling up Destruction or Sneak, they only work if the destruction is making contact with someone/creature, and if your sneaking is with someone/creature present.
ADDITIONAL EDIT: Destruction clearly is awkward to level up as it needs enemies. Not so. Simply create a spell of 'Drain 3pts on self', this wont actually hurt you, but will credit some destruction skill (cast as much as poss).
Word for the wise, all those efficiently leveling up (+5+5+5) beware! If you waste too many skill increases (ie skill increases in a stat your not going to level up) then you may end up not being able to get 100 in all your stats. Im ALMOST screwed on it, from now on i will have to level up speed every level...damn acrobatics..
I've been playing Oblivion for a quite a bit recently and i thought it was about time i put up some bits of sound advice, most will be known by those already playing i guess, but it'll be handy for those just starting.
If you want +5 to the your three desired stats for each level up you have to make sure you can manipulate your major skills so that you can choose when you want to level up. 10 major skill increases result in a level up, and when you do, the bonuses available to your stats are a reflection of how much you used the corresponding skills. For example, Heavy Armor, Armorer and Block all contribute to Endurance. So, if youwant your endurance to go up by +5 the next time you level up, you must get at least 10 levels up in Heavy Armor, Armorer and Block before you do. So basically, the key is to choose major skills that you wont be using, or at least you will be but in measured amounts that you can control, (like alteration, mysticism, alchemy). And only level up once you have 10 skill increases in the three stats you desire.
Guilds : As Strings said, join a guild! join as many as you want, however, note that the Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild missions will credit you with Infamy, oppose to most other quests that make you more famous. As far as i know, its NOT good to be more infamous than famous, do you get kicked out of the lawful guilds? Something like that anyway. Yeah, so, Guilds are quests on a plate. I found the Mages & Thieves Guild to be most fun. There are smaller guilds/factions, such as the vampire hunters that will find you in the temple district if you've killed a vampire before. Once part of them, they will pay 250gold for each vampire dust, so STOP selling them for 50gold to shopkeeps now!
Guilds, Arena, they'll put some gold in your pocket, but looting and selling is by far the most profitable method in the game. In Ayleid Ruins you will find lots of Welkynd Stones. These recharge your magicka, and weigh only 1 for a sell cost of 50. So, pretty efficient as far as these things go. You can shoot down ones out of reach with your bow or a fireball. I used to sell all i found, until i realised how invaluable they could be. I only carried health and sorcery potions before, but a Welkynd Stone is far better than any sorcery potion, so now i carry 5 Welkynds and happily sell all sorcery potions i find!
How to get the best price? Well, here's where tricks become useful. If you talk to someone with your weapon out, you will recieve a -10 to your disposition with that person. However, if you then speechcraft them to the max disp, and talk to them again but with your weapon sheathed, you'll notice that the disposition is 10 higher than a second a go. Hence, you can increase the default max dispostion of anyone you talk to be 10.
The Arcane University is The Shit. Spelling making is too fun. Here is some things ive noticed.
The most expensive enchantments are Protection and Fortification. Money is generally not an issue though, soul gems are. Get a hold of a weapon enchanted with soultrap as soon as possible. I have an axe, and its invaluable cos i smack em about with my normal mace, hit 1 (hotkeyed to Soul trapping axe) and finishing blow YEAH! take another one! You can never have to many soul gems. Elenglylum (wrong spelling) is an Ayleid ruin south of Chorrol that housed a Black soul gem as a prize when i was in there once. Black soul gems are capable of capturing a human soul, making them the most powerful soul gems in the game (excluding Azura's Star, the resusable soul gem, a prize at one of the shrines. Ahem, Azura's). Mmm, as for spell making. To make a cost efficient spell the key is to rely on the duration of the spell more than the base damage. For eg. i made a spell called Vampircal Heat (gay? shut up) that does : absorb 10pts in 10ft, for 5 seconds. Thus, when being attacked by 3 guys or so, i can pinch 50 health from each and get healed 150pts myself. At a cost of 108 magicka, that is sweeeeeet. It would be far more costly to do 50pts for 1 seconds.
ADDITIONAL EDIT: Once you have Azura, you may as well sell everything below Grand/black. There aint no use for them apart from recharging weapons as you want to use greater/grand for enchantments.
Clearly, when you run about places your constantly bunnyhopping and casting spells to increase your skills. Few things to note. It seems that your skill goes up with the amount of casts made*, not the power of the cast. Hence, use your cheapest spells to increase your skills. *Either its the amount of casts made, or its to do with the efficiency of the spell, which would be why smaller ones are better). So, i thought why not make a spell that heals, detects life, creates a light and protects myself, but all in small amounts to increase the skill of each magic kind. DOESNT WORK, when you make a spell, the prodominant magic determines the nature of the spell. The one i prev mentioned was just Illusion. Oh well. Moving on.
ADDITIONAL EDIT: in order to take advantage of the system i just mentioned, when making a spell, say an uber destructive one, but you only have destructive skill of 50, and its says you need 75, heres how you get round it. If you are an expert in, say restoration, then simply add enough of a restore (absorb) affect to the spell to tip it over to being a restore spell of 75 (for example) Yay, castable!
Ways to take advantage of the spell making system even more. Create fortify spells to stats such as Armoror, Security, Speechcraft etc, 100pts for 2 seconds. These spells should cost around 20 magicka only! This gives you enough time to cast, and then use the hammer/lock/person etc. I dont actually use any of those, as they would take the fun of those mini-games away. However, the truely useful ones that i happiliy use are, Fortify Endurance, Fortify Mercantile and Fortify Luck (all by 100 pts for 2 secs). First off, its important to note that Endurance is the only stat that has bonuses relevant to each level up. Err, i mean, in my opinion, you want to get Endur to 100 first and foremost before all other stats because your health goes up by 1/10th of your endurance, so your going to want as many levels with your Endurance at 100 as poss right? As for Mercantile fortifications, this allows you to get an excellant selling rate, and allows you to invest in the shop, which means they will have more money to barter with (hhaa, straight back in your pocket!). Also handy. And then theres fortifiying luck..
I dont really know, i think it smooths out armoring speechcraft etc, +5 damage with weapons. More importantly though, Iain has two Mundane Rings (insane) which is probably due to his luck being nigh 100. So, fortifiying your luck before traveling into the next area/level (which i think is when your items are spawned) should ensure better items.
Fortifying Magicka is a bit more complicated. I hear that in Morrowind you could stack spells, ie cast feather over and over again and recieve more and more bonuses. In Oblivion, casting the same spell again DOES NOTHING!! (booming voice). However, theres nothing stopping you from making an identical spell with a different name and casting that. So stacking is basically just slightly more awkward. As i was saying, i have noticed when you fortify your magicka, the amount you fortify by is full of magicka. Ie, not just a higher max of magicka, but more magicka in itself. This can be used as such: By creating spells of Fortify Magicka 100pts for say 8, 6, 4 and 2 seconds you can then cast them (from 8 secs to 2) and will have an effect of 400pts fortified for about half a second after that last cast. (gaps of 2 sec because a cast takes just more than a second). This is when you can then cast a spell with a much larger cost than you could normally cast. But surely il have no magicka after casting those fortifications you ask? nah, cos theyr fairly cheap costs due to the small duration time. Obviously, this trick would be ideal for when you know theres a fight round the corner, and you would want the uber spell to be some kinda kick ass health protection skill increasing kinda thing that lasts for ages.
Other tips, Uh, when running about and you catch a glimpse of water, always have a quick skirt around its edges to find some nirnroots.
When looking through book cases, make a point of reading anything 15gold worth or more, as it may be a Skill Increase book.
Trainers are GOOD, dont turn your nose up at them, the gold they ask for is nothing for the time they will save you.
Not my tip but - "enough alchohol will make anyone look like a slob".
Try to hang onto Quest weapons/armor for a while (assuming they're good, like Umbra and Rockshatter) as Quest items weigh 0!
When leveling up Destruction or Sneak, they only work if the destruction is making contact with someone/creature, and if your sneaking is with someone/creature present.
ADDITIONAL EDIT: Destruction clearly is awkward to level up as it needs enemies. Not so. Simply create a spell of 'Drain 3pts on self', this wont actually hurt you, but will credit some destruction skill (cast as much as poss).
Word for the wise, all those efficiently leveling up (+5+5+5) beware! If you waste too many skill increases (ie skill increases in a stat your not going to level up) then you may end up not being able to get 100 in all your stats. Im ALMOST screwed on it, from now on i will have to level up speed every level...damn acrobatics..