As requested here is a page about character creation including some examples.
Firstly a refresher on governing attributes and associated skills
STENGTH - governs blade-blunt-hand to hand
INTELLIGENCE - governs alchemy-conjuration-mysticism
WILLPOWER - governs destruction-alteration-restoration
AGILITY - governs security-sneak-marksman
SPEED - governs athletics-acrobatics-light armour
ENDURANCE - governs armourer-heavy armour-block
PERSONALITY - governs speechcraft-mercantile-illusion
LUCK - governs no skills but effects everything you do
when you create a character you must choose the following:-
RACE - CUSTOM CLASS - SPECIALIZATION - CLASS ATTRIBUTES - BIRTHSIGN - SKILLS
these will effect your powers, gameplay and levelling speed. read your Oblivion instruction book for race bennefits and weaknesses.
lets just make a few very valid points now.
1stly how long do you intend to play your character? the reason being as most model characters have attributes and skills that suit levelling to play style and give you a headstart to journeyman bonuses.
2ndly if you plan to play longterm, which race would suit you so you play as your character within the game relm.
the reason being is despite starting attribute and skill bonuses ALL races are not attribute handicapped. that means a teenyweeny wood elf can attain a strength attribute of 100 just the same as a hairy nord, it just takes longer to get there.
longterm play will result in maxed attributes and skills across the entire spectrum. you just need to decide how to get there and make sure you level efficiently.
3rdly and very importantly. MAGIC! do you want to use it? maybe not early but later? if you choose a race and birthsign with low a magika pool you will NEVER be able to cast high powered spells (unless you use mods).
magika will be forever stunted to your intelligence level + enchanments.
other birthsigns and race bonuses can be aqquired with spells and levelled attributes through out your journey. think wisely about your needs for spellcraft.
here's some popular model classes you can find in any guide or website. they all play to the class specialization and level accordingly to that style.
WARRIOR
RACE - Orc Nord Redguard
SPECIALIZATION - Combat
CLASS ATTRIBUTES - Strength and Endurance
BIRTHSIGN - Warrior
SKILLS - Blade Blunt Block Heavy Armour - Armourer Restoration alchemy
here you have the offensive skills, armour,repair facility and the means to heal wounds and poison weapons. magic is only for restoration and buying cheap spells to enchant your equipment.
can be made into a "Tank" to smash through opponents. levelling speed is dictated by constant fighting/repairing/healing
MAGE
RACE - Breton or High elf
SPECIALIZATION - Mage
CLASS ATTRIBUTES - Intelligence and Willpower
BIRTHSIGN - The apprentice, Mage or Atronarch
SKILLS - Alchemy Alteration Conjuration Destruction Illusion Mystism Restoration
overcomes everything with magic. dies if anyone gets close with a melee weapon. fast to level if you train skills. combat attributes such as strength and endurance will wither as you have no skills to level them up.
add a blade skill in place of restoration to get a War wizard.
STEALTH MAGE
RACE wood elf
SPECIALIZATION - Stealth
CLASS ATTRIBUTES - Agility and Speed
BIRTHSIGN - Thief
SKILLS - Marksman Sneak Light Armour Alchemy Illusion Conjuration Blade
a thinking mans character. use stealth and cunning to overcome opponents and rob the rich.
THIEF
RACE - Khajitt or Wood Elf
SPECIALIZATION - Stealth
CLASS ATTRIBUTES - Agility and Speed
BIRTHSIGN - Shadow
SKILLS - Sneak Security Illusion Mercantile Speechcraft Marksman Light Armour
Clear that loot and protect yourself with ranged comat
The above are very single minded classes for single minded role playing. whilst they level attain very good initial start bonuses and level up quickly within their field, they are somewhat limited to broadening attributes for a stronger all round character.
*NOTE* many template characters will have skills you don't want or need. ie why does a warrior need blade and blunt. for all of the above cases simply replace skills you don't want with the ones you do. you may find for example you want a battlemage character but, it takes a while to increase your intelligence, willpower and destruction skill to give you the required magika and proficiency to cast high powered spells in succession. you could in that case choose marksman over a skill you don't favour to give you early game ranged attacks which will later be superceeded by ranged destruction.
think what you want, how your character will round out with play and maturity and choose accordingly.
Here's some split skills models. they take longer to level but are ultimately very powerful
WAR MAGE (my last character)
RACE - Dark Elf
SPECIALIZATION - Mage
CLASS ATTRIBUTES - Strength and Intelligence
BIRTHSIGN - Apprentice or Atronarch
SKILLS - Blade Block Marksman Light Armour Destruction Conjuration Sneak
A special service type soldier. competent with all weapon and magic offense but uses stealth and range to weaken opponents first. uses heavily enchanted armour and weapons. (Atronarch is a risky birthsign as magika does not regenerate without sleep-use potions and welkynd stones to replenish in combat and take advantage of the spell absorb ability by enchanting some jewellery to give you 100% spell absorbtion)
IMPERIAL HEAVY BATTLEMAGE (my next long term character)
RACE - Imperial (because i like the look and Roman likeness)
SPECIALIZATION - Combat
CLASS ATTRIBUTES - Strength and Intelligence
BIRTHSIGN - The Apprentice
SKILLS - Blade- Heavy Armour-Armourer-Destruction-Conjuration-Alchemy-Sneak
skills chosen for attribute increase when levelling. ie blade/stength heavy armour/endurance destruction/willpower conjuration and alchemy/intelligence sneak/agility.
this gives strength and endurance for combat and ability to wear heavy armour.
intelligence and willpower for powerful destructive magic and quick magika regeneration. alchemy for early level money making and level training (likewise conjuration) to quickly raise intelligence and total magika and sneak because its governed by agility. agility gives balance and resistance to knockdown in a fight. not to mention the sneak attack and pickpocket bonuses!
a strong, deadly blade and spell wielding opponent encased in heavy armour with back up from summoned creatures.
my idea of the perfect powerhouse to demolish dremora!
done last night. my imperial Maximus Titus Aurellius is now on the loose in Cyrodill! interesting to note that imperial is one of the weaker starting races you can choose. quite poor race attributes. but if you read on you can see there are ways of quickly evening the balance....
The Leveling Conundrum
most players whom are less pleased with their characters normally refer to levelling speed as the basis of their woe.
levelling in oblivion is a double edged sword.
on one hand you get to increase your attributes, you get access to cooler armour,weapons and creatures and you can get higher damage levelled weapons etc.
on the other hand, every time you level, so does every other npc.
(creatures are at fixed levels with the exception of boss type creatures)
if you increase say, your blade skill and level up every other npc gets an increase to blade skill.
the trick is to choose your character so that race/specialization/attributes and skills work for your gameplay so you can attain the best attribute bonuses when you level up.
essentially then you will stay ahead of most npc's in your chosen skills as long as you think about your levelling and apply your bonuses carefully.
what do i mean by this?
well, you need 10 skill point raises to level up. if you raise blade by 10 points alone you'll get a 5 point bonus for strength attribute and 1 for anything or you could just choose two 2 point bonuses on any attribute and 1 spare.
if you diligently apply your biggest bonus to its attribute you will level more efficiently than spreading points willynilly, to recap, make sure when you get those +3 and +4 bonuses, apply them to their relevant attribute. don't take the option of equally spreading those points around.
in order to level efficiently you have to train your skills.
ie. if you want the maximum level bonus to raise your intelligence (hence increase your magika pool) you need to apply a skill to get 10 consecutive skill points.
this generally means going somewhere you won't be disturbed and "training" that skill. each skill has a way of being trained. strictly speaking its not really in the spirit of how beth intended the game, but.....
its easy to encompass into your role playing idealology. besides, when you see npc's practicing sword skills against boards etc they are actually increasing their skills!
how to train each skill then? most are easy, just apply the skill repeatedly.
although some require tricks.
Block - go to sewers and block repeatedly against rat attacks
blade - hit the boar in "thieves den" add on. the "bloodbank" unconcious dude in "vile lair" add on. shadowmere (he can't die) although you'll get expelled from guilds or thwack the petrified followers at the daedric shrine to peryite. (you need to then committ a crime and clear bounty as thwacking the followers mucks up bounty figures)
Blunt- same as blade.
Armourer - repair everything a lot!
Heavy armour - go to sewers and get attacked by rats. don't block
Light armour - same as above
Athletics - run or swim against a wall
Hand to hand - same as blade
Destruction - create a weak "weakness to fire" on self spell (or any similar spell that won't actually hurt you and cast repeatedly. TIP. weight cast key down and watch telly for few hours!
Alteration - repeatedly cast shield
Illusion - repeatedly cast a light spell
conjuration - repeatedly summon a gauntlett or skelly
Mystism - repeatedly cast detect life
Restoration - repeatedly cast a heal self or at target
Alchemy - create tons of cheap potions
Security - open easy locks and snap lockpicks
Sneak - sneak around a sleeping beggar
Acrobatics - jump around a lot, bigger jumps best
Marksman - same as blade
mercantile - sell lots of cheap crap. after each sale exit dialogue screen then re enter
speechcraft - play the speechcraft game on everyone
If you look at the UESP wiki site it goes into some detail on training, how each fast each skill trains etc.
you can see though that by applying training methods you can control levelling and attribute bonuses.
hope that helps some people struggling to level.
