The Ravings of Demented Rabbits

Champions of Cyrodiil

Which not all of them are, but never mind that.

So a few people now have asked me about my various Oblivion characters, and since I've played enough of them, I've started forgetting who they were. So I checked. And you, dear reader, can be the beneficiary of some show and tell.

Valerius: Male Dunmer Custom Class, Level 29
Playing Time: 70h, 2m

Skills: Blade 125, Alteration 47, Destruction 75, Mysticism 59, Restoration 56, Light Armor 100, Sneak 72
Factions: Mage's Guild (Arch-Mage), Fighter's Guild (Master)

My first character, who also beat the main quest, explored a LOT, and did two factions worth of quests (Fighter's Guild? It sucks. Trust me here.). As you can see, primarily a light armor blade fighter, with a bit of magical versatility (only since you have to really devote to magic, not really). He worked, as far as he went, but light armor, blade-wielding, non-stealth characters are pretty rough going, so my first game was pretty challenging, until I reached high levels and custom enchanting, and then...well, not so much, really.

Twitch: Male Khajiit Custom Class, Level 25
Playing Time: 54h, 22m

Skills: Blade 68, Acrobatics 60, Light Armor 68, Marksman 115, Mercantile 53, Security 104, Sneak 111
Factions: Arena (Grand Champion), Dark Brotherhood (Listener), Thieves' Guild (Gray Fox)

Twitch is a result of Samson and Whir going "You don't have a Dark Brotherhood character? It's the best faction in the game! What's WRONG with you!?" Since I wanted to try a stealth character anyway, I went for it. Allow me to inform you that, not only is the Dark Brotherhood easily the best faction in the game, followed by the Thieves' Guild (note the factions), stealth archers are, once you get over that initial phase of running away because you suck, pretty much a God class. Twitch, via night eye, is able to traverse dungeons as if in daylight, quickly gunning down even the most powerful of enemies in one or two bow shots, almost always without ever having been seen. If it weren't so fun, it would be disturbing.

Alera: Female Altmer Custom Class, Level 32
Playing Time: 51h, 10m

Skills: Alchemy 100, Alteration 100, Conjuration 100, Destruction 100, Illusion 82, Mysticism 42, Restoration 50
Factions: Mages' Guild (Arch-Mage)

In which I attempt playing a mage character, devoting body and soul to it as I know you need to. And it works, mind you, after a fashion. Against many enemies, Alera is a Goddess of Destruction, laying fiery burnination upon the masses, or summoning daedra lords to do it for her. Due to the way magic leveling works, it took forever to get there, but what the hell. Suffice it to say that I feel like Oblivion PC magic got nerfed hard from previous games, and it's now more annoying that fun. In addition, Alera has yet to complete the main quest line, as she is stuck in Kvatch. At level 32. You know that tip where you should do Kvatch before level 5? They mean it.

Hrolf the Ganger: Male Nord Custom Class, Level 26
Playing Time: 33h, 19m

Skills: Armorer 91, Blade 60, Block 51, Blunt 100, Heavy Armor 100, Restoration 77, Security 42
Factions: Knights of the Nine (Divine Crusader)

"Hey, Knights of the Nine! I should make a crusader character to go through it!"

It turns out that, when played correctly, heavy armor fighters are highly effective, both at killing and leveling. By simply getting in fights, then repairing your gear, you level quickly and easily, and at later levels the game helps you by making the fights longer. Restoration helps you heal up after the carnage.

After doing the atmospheric Knights of the Nine, Hrolf was also my first (and so far only) character through Shivering Isles, which was...something. I remain highly ambivilent about my SI experience, not in the least because a paladin was not meant for SI storywise, and because there's not many things more annoying than having to spend literally 2-5 minutes fighting every time you see a Grummite. Those aside, I had fun with SI, but my favorite DLC is still Knights of the Nine.

Rankin: Male Redguard Custom Class, Level 19
Playing Time: 20h

Skills: Armorer 47, Athletics 48, Blade 75, Acrobatics 51, Light Armor 75, Security 49, Sneak 62
Factions: Arena (Myrmidon), Thieves' Guild (Shadowfoot)

My current character, such as he is, assuming I decide to ever play him again, which should give you some idea what I think of his playing style. The problem is the same thing that makes fighters easy to play - he levels quickly, and can rapidly outpace his equipment (he still has a Kvatch guard helmet at level 19). Too, it's that same thing as Valerius. Light armor is really bad to take to a fight, and he gets in a lot of fights. It seems clear that when I go to play through Weye for real, I'll be doing it with a new character.

Posted by Dwip at March 27, 2008 6:22 AM