Oblivion, redux

Started a replay of Oblivion. Yes, I already put in over 1000 (yes, thousand) hours on this before...thought I would try out some alternate strategies.

1) How far can you level up in the training area? Well, sneak can be at 100. Block can be over 25. Other things can be in the 20s. How to get sneak that high: when you first encounter the "sneak" goblin, he never turns around, so you can level-up on that behind him. Thing to do is go to 25, so you get the damage bonus, then whack it and take the loot, and go into the next room, where there are the 4 goblins, incl the one on patrol. Wait until the patrol goblin passes by, then follow to find a stalagmite pair in the dark that you can get stuck behind. Now, put a weight on the forward key, and you can walk away for a while (this is going to take several hours). Come back when you need to approve the 50,75,100 level dialogs, and zowie! You are the Expert of Sneak. Unfortunately, you can't get Athletics up at the same time, you actually have to change position. For Block, you stand and let the rats attack you one at a time, and hold out your shield. This isn't fast, but it's effective. Heal yourself along the way, and kill the rats when you can't recover. Move on to the next one, perhaps with new armor. You'll want to repeat this routine again later, when you need to level-up on armor.

Bonus: pick a character type where Sneak is a major skill. This way when you leave the training area, you can go sleep somewhere and level-up 10-12 times immediately. (Course that might be dangerous, as the opposition is suddenly a chunk better than you, and you only have a punky weapon). If I could, I'd want to design a character type where all the things you can level-up on fastest/soonest are primary skills: Sneak, Block, Alteration,

2) Go straight for the Mages Guild, and do their tasks. Practice on some low-level spells that are not attack, while standing around. Your aim is to get to Alteration Level 50, because that is when you can use Chameleon--and you can enchant your armor with it. Along the way you have to either capture some souls, or find some loaded soul gems. IIRC, with Common souls, you can enchant Chameleon at 14%, Greater Souls at 17%, and Grand souls are 20%. You'll have to sleep-level-up along the way so you have enough Magicka to do the enchanting, but once you can, with Chameleon > 100%, you are undetectable by anyone, which pretty much makes you invincible. I found a couple of Grand Soul gems with grand souls in them, which is great, because you aren't going to encounter any for a while.

3) Good loot and interesting opponents don't really show up until about Level 10. Recall all the squawk when the game originally came out about how the opponents level'd up with you? i.e., the game does not ever get easier in terms of fighting...well, true enough, until you learn the trick about Chameleon. But the real problem is that you do need some money for buying things, but that's really only at the beginning, when you need to buy spells; you're going to find adequate armor on opponents. And excepting when you attack a clannfear which reflects damage, you don't even need armor when you have 100% Chameleon (other than needing to wear enough charmed items to reach that 100%).

4) Fast travel does nothing for your skill increases...but it lets you join Mages Guild sooner, and Chameleon.

5) Do the task about the missing brother in Chorrol/Cheydinhall, and then the follow-on about the missing sword, but DO NOT turn in the sword--you want to keep it and use it. This is the best sword you can get for a long time.

6) Clear out any relevant caves/etc BEFORE taking on any kind of escort assignment. NPCs all operate via Artifical Stupidity, so they are going to run into fights they can't win. Granted, official escorts can't usually be killed, but there's that one "take weapons to cave X and clear the goblins out" where they CAN be, and if one of them IS, later rumors mention your failure. Whats-er-name the orc and the Black Bow Bandits task, she can be killed too, but she does at least wait for you to say it's ok to tag along...and when you have Sneak 100 and Chameleon 100, you can kill anything anytime anywhere without taking any damage, so you don't want anyone else getting in your way.

7) Avoid starting the main story/quest line until you have Chameleon = 100. Fast travel around Kvatch to make certain...because once you start it, the Oblivion gates start appearing. They're fairly dangerous, but if you have Chameleon 100, you don't care.

8) Let summoned chars do your fighting. Until you have chameleon 100, this is important. Otoh, it does mean that your weapon attack skills atrophy.

9) When you go to Leyawiin, go to Rowena Galentius' house, and whack Everscamps to your heart's content. They won't attack you until you attack them, and even then only one at a time. I shot arrows into them for 10 Marksman levels. I whacked a bunch for ten Blunt levels. I punched a bunch for 20 Hand-to-hand levels.

10) Begin the game with "Bag of Holding" plug-in. This lets you carry an emormous amount of stuff, as opposed to going back and forth hauling loot to the merchants (which would otherwise be infuriating, and ultimately something you stop doing).

11) Do the paid training once you start having money. Granted, this is only 5 skill levels per major level, but you want to pay-train the major levels.

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Largely good strategies. I've played 120 hours, am level 12, Master of the Fighters Guild (didn't do that first time), near the top of Mages Guild, skill level ~50 on most (100 on sneak), Chameleon 100, have NOT begun the main story line so no Oblivion Gates yet, and I have not traveled too far or done too much yet. And I can continue to major-level-up for a while yet, probably at lest 5 more, maybe 10. MANY places to visit and explore.