Oblivion Mods

[Mithrandir]

Got a new computer for myself recently and so I have *finally* gotten around to purchasing Oblivion and am really enjoying it so far (although I'm going to restart since now that I have a better feel for the game, I have a better idea of what kind of character I want), but was curious about what mods the LurkerLounge community felt were essential to their Oblivion experience. I've found PlanetElderScrolls Top Rated list and A's List of Recommended Mods, but I am finding the sheer number of mods in both locations quite overwhelming at the moment. Plus, A's List has a decent number of broken links as well.

In any case, some direction would be appreciated.

[Drasca]

In any case, some direction would be appreciated.

Focus on purely cosmetic mods for now. www.elderscrolls.com has a Oblivion mods section. You should be able to move on from there to greater things.

[[wcip]Angel]

Also be sure to check out the UESP: Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages:
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Oblivion

The UESP-wiki is *the* most comprehensive source of information on the Elder Scrolls-games, including Oblivion.

You asked about mods. Check the following links:
* http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Must_Have_Mods
* Oblivion Mod Wiki: http://www.tescreens.be/oblivionmodwiki/.../Main_Page
* http://www.tescreens.be/oblivionmodwiki/in...ecommended:Mods


Also check out tweakguides guide to Oblivion, not only for suggested mods, but how to optimize your Oblivion gaming experience.

I recommend:

* Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul (makes enemy levelling more realistic)
* BT mod (essential for fixing the default clunky-console-y interface)
* Landscape LOD mods
* "Natural Environments"-mod

Also check out Gamespot's mod-pack: Make it pretty

Good luck in the wilderness! May your arrows fly with deadly swiftness and cool accuracy.

[Alram]

Play the game through without any mods first and learn what your tastes are. If you just have to have one, then try one of the several mods that improve your underwater vision.
The only exception to the above imo is that if your play style is micromanagement of attributes to get +5s when you level then get the Skill Diary; it makes life a lot easier. I am sorry I don't have the link atm.

Also you will find the Wiki to be invaluable for info on everything including mods.

[Alram]

Here is the link for the Skill Diary

[Chesspiece_face]

here you go:

13 Oblivion mods that should not have been... mods.

[NiteFox]

Your one-stop shop for all good Oblivion mods. Thank me later.

[Mithrandir]

Fantastic guys - everyone was a big help.

/grouphug

[Alram]

So tell us Mith about your caharacters, gameplay and the mods you selected.

[Mithrandir]

Had to send the computer back because it had a bad hard drive, so I haven't played any Oblivion since the post and thus haven't been able to use any mods yet. I had really been enjoying playing a Khajiit Assassin, although I also was hoping to be able to use more magic so I was thinking about making a custom class and switching out Acrobatics (the Dodge gained at Journeyman sounded like it might be useful but the water-jumping just sounds like fluff and attacking while falling/50% fatigue reduction for jumping sounds useless) for one of the magic disciplines. I like the idea of Illusion with a thief/assassin-type character, but also really liked the idea of Mysticism for Soul Trap so I can make magic items (are high quality souls plentiful enough for a non-Mysticism trained character to effectively make top tier magic items?), and summoning minions to do by bidding is always attractive so I was considering Conjuration as well. Destruction wasn't really exciting for me since I would rather sneak and deal with foes via blade or bow. Restoration also didn't seem useful because even in the short time I got to play with Alchemy, my backpack was filled to the brim with potions. I have been on the fence about Alteration since I just don't know how useful the Shield-type spells are, but otherwise the encumbrance increase and water breathing spells looked very useful.

I always love playing thief characters in these big opened-ended sandbox-like RPGs because I am essentially a kleptomaniac. I spent my first two hours in the first city I traveled to doing nothing but robbing the place blind and had a blast doing it.

If I dropped Acrobatics I was also most likely going to change my character's race from Khajiit to Wood Elf.

[Alram]

There are some minor spoilers in my post--not plot spoilers, but how to get things done spoilers.

Had to send the computer back because it had a bad hard drive, so I haven't played any Oblivion since the post and thus haven't been able to use any mods yet. I had really been enjoying playing a Khajiit Assassin, although I also was hoping to be able to use more magic so I was thinking about making a custom class and switching out Acrobatics (the Dodge gained at Journeyman sounded like it might be useful but the water-jumping just sounds like fluff and attacking while falling/50% fatigue reduction for jumping sounds useless) for one of the magic disciplines. I like the idea of Illusion with a thief/assassin-type character, but also really liked the idea of Mysticism for Soul Trap so I can make magic items (are high quality souls plentiful enough for a non-Mysticism trained character to effectively make top tier magic items?), and summoning minions to do by bidding is always attractive so I was considering Conjuration as well. Destruction wasn't really exciting for me since I would rather sneak and deal with foes via blade or bow. Restoration also didn't seem useful because even in the short time I got to play with Alchemy, my backpack was filled to the brim with potions. I have been on the fence about Alteration since I just don't know how useful the Shield-type spells are, but otherwise the encumbrance increase and water breathing spells looked very useful.

I always love playing thief characters in these big opened-ended sandbox-like RPGs because I am essentially a kleptomaniac. I spent my first two hours in the first city I traveled to doing nothing but robbing the place blind and had a blast doing it.

If I dropped Acrobatics I was also most likely going to change my character's race from Khajiit to Wood Elf.

There are 2 schools of thought on selection of skills. If you make the skills you use the most your primary skills, then you will level quickly and not get +5 to attributes when you level. This is not a big problem unless the primary skills are ones which are useless for fighting--in which case your character will get his butt kicked a lot. For instance if sneaking is a primary skill, and you use stealth often, then you will level up with stealth and won't be able to pump up fighting skills optimally. For this reason I never used noncustom classes.
On the other hand, if you make your primary skills ones which are not used all of the time, then you can level your important skills as high as needed and get +5 to attributes when you do level. I personally always used/use this approach.The disadvantage to this is that you have to micromanage your skills and some people feel that interferes with immersion in the game. The wiki I referenced explains it well.

That said, Illusion is very powerful. I made 1 guy who never killed with anything but illusion and conjuration. Whenever there was more than 1 enemy he would dominate one and have them kill each other off. A conjured critter would then finish the job. Illusion can also make you invisible and get you better prices at the merchants by charming them.

Mysticism is very easy to level and doesn't need to be high in order to soul trap. Higher levels of soul trap only increase the duration of the spell. As you level the quality of monster also levels and it is easy to get higher level souls. Also the sigil stones provide higher level enchantments automativally as you level up.
To make magic items you need to gain access to the Arcane University which yo get by completing all the Mage Guild quests.

If conjuration will be a prime method of combat, level it high. Conjuration levels fast.

Alteration is good for some utility spells. It provides an alternative to lockpicking should you so choose. It also levels quickly.

Restoration levels slowly. It makes a good primary skill imo. Alchemy can certainly be used instead. My personal general tendency is to use alchemy for healing when in a tough fight, and restoration otherwise
but special circumstances abound.

The rolling dodge ability you get from Acrobatics also makes it possible to run faster. It does better as a secondary skill.

Have fun. When I get my computer fixed, I will be playing it again.

[kandrathe]

Got a new computer for myself recently and so I have *finally* gotten around to purchasing Oblivion and am really enjoying it so far (although I'm going to restart since now that I have a better feel for the game, I have a better idea of what kind of character I want), but was curious about what mods the LurkerLounge community felt were essential to their Oblivion experience. I've found PlanetElderScrolls Top Rated list and A's List of Recommended Mods, but I am finding the sheer number of mods in both locations quite overwhelming at the moment. Plus, A's List has a decent number of broken links as well.

In any case, some direction would be appreciated.

Here is what I have done.

Aesthetics and interface
BTmod v2.20 -- Total immersion mod that reduces the HUD and menus etc to very minimal
- Downloaded higher resolution skins for some common scenery (like road, bricks, leaves)
Alternate Torches -- Aesthetic Mod to make torches flicker and crackle
Natural Wildlife
Vanity Camera Smoother
Potion Sorter -- Sorts potions in the list by type

Game Play
Ariana Trudeaux -- Companion Mod who mostly stays in my house to make it not seem to empty
Additional Spells -- Adds in the ability to find spells (including the missing ones) in dungeon loot
Combat Behavior -- Better AI in fights, if the enemy gets low on health they will attempt to flee
Divine Watch -- House Mod with difficult high level quest to earn it
Bruma Mages Guild Repairable -- adds a series of quests to rebuild after the main quest line is done
Quest Reward Leveler -- Levels the quest reward to be useful at the level you are at
Perception Mod -- New spells to determine how tough an opponent is

Bug Fixes and control changes
FathisFix
MagesGuildQuestFixes
NoMoreAnnoyingMessages
MyArcheryMod -- my own custom mod to scale up slightly the damage of archery at lower levels since nothing at that level should survive 50 arrow hits
Safe Archmage Storage

Official Mods
DLCFrostcrag
DLCHorseArmor
DLCMehrunesRazor
DLCOrrery
DLCSpellTomes
DLCTheivesDen
DLCVileLair

Enjoy.

[Rhydderch Hael]

I can't tell you anything abouts mods (I was/am/gonna be playing this on an Xbox). But there are a few things about gameplay I can jaw on about...

In the grand scheme of things, the only differences between a Major skill you select at character creation and a Minor skill is their starting position at game's start— and the fact that you'll level-up via the Major skills.

Your character can master the Sneak skill as a Minor skill just as easily as if it was a Major skill— you'll likely just start 10 or so levels behind, that's all. The problem is that if you level-up too fast (by constantly employing your favorite skills as Major skills) you'll end up increasing your character attributes by two, maybe three points at a time (as opposed to increasing them the maximum five points each turn). Which means that unwise skill selection will cost you a good two or three points per attribute— which means missing out on around 5-10 attribute points total every time you level up. Character attributes are capped at 100, so those loss of points will add up and make a dent in your character's development.

---------------

Illusion: the Charm spell is somewhat of a joke. It's funny because you don't need a high skill level in Illusion to make the spell work— the only time you use Charm is right before entering a conversation with someone, and game time "stops" when you do so. In that regard, the duration of a Charm spell becomes completely irrelevant. What does this mean? When you craft a personal Charm spell at an Altar of Spellmaking, you can define the spell's characteristics with a very high magnitude (say, and increase of 80-100 points) while making it very short in duration (3-5 seconds). A Journeyman or even an Apprentice of Illusion can accomplish this, which has just as much effect as if a Master had crafted it, but lasting nowhere near as long (which doesn't matter anyway because of the aforementioned stoppage in time).

----------------

Enchanting weapons— pretty useful. If you take advantage of the somewhat cheesy Drain Health effect on an enchanted weapon, you easily tack on an extra (and temporary) 100 points of damage to your attack (dependant on the target's Resistance to Magic, of course). Add in some elemental damage, maybe even a 1-second Soul Trap spell, and you gain a formidable weapon.

The big problem is that the mix-n-match advantage of an altar-enchanted weapon doesn't really beat the disadvantage of having such a small pool of magical reserves within the weapon. The biggest, baddest Soul Gem you can use to enchant a weapon only garners you 1600 mana points within the weapon. If you adjust your enchantments' to the game's maximum limit of 85 points per attack, that gives you 19-20 charges before the weapon is depleted. That's fine for low-level sword fodder, but inadequate for bosses or very high level monsters.

Is there an alternative? Yes: the Transcendant Sigil Stones of Oblivion. If you start closing Oblivion Gates at level 17 or higher, you gain the best quality of Sigil Stone in your quests. The effects they impart are randomly determined at the moment of acquirement (you can always save the game prior to extracting a Sigil Stone, then reload untill you gain one to your liking) and you can only have one effect placed upon a weapon (as opposed to the mix-n-match you get from a Soul Gem/altar enchantment) but the per-attack effect and the total amount of charges available within the weapon are greater than what you can attain from a Soul Gem enchantment.

For example, if you enchant an Ebony longsword with a Grand Soul Gem, one result can net you a weapon with 20-25 Fire damage per attack with 19 or 20 charges. A Sigil Stone will impart 25 points of Fire damage per attack, with around twice as many charges.

[Mithrandir]

So if I wanted to make a character that primarily used Blade, Light Armor, Alchemy, Security, Sneak, Marksman, Athletics, Alteration, and Illusion - it would actually be best to make my 7 "Primary" skills something like Heavy Armor, Blunt, Hand to Hand, Destruction, Restoration, Armorer, and Speechcraft (how fast does this level?) to retard the leveling process as much as possible?

Thanks for the explanation of game mechanics folks, there are a lot of subtleties of which I was completely unaware.

[roguebanshee]

Enchanting weapons— pretty useful. If you take advantage of the somewhat cheesy Drain Health effect on an enchanted weapon, you easily tack on an extra (and temporary) 100 points of damage to your attack (dependant on the target's Resistance to Magic, of course). Add in some elemental damage, maybe even a 1-second Soul Trap spell, and you gain a formidable weapon.

Err... no, you won't get a formidabble weapon with elemental damage.

Use Weakness to Magic 100/3 sec combined with the Drain Health 100/1 sec to make something that's so good it's beyond broken. Mainly because Weakness to Magic affects itself, any subsequent applications will be calculated from the new Magic Resistance. I once tried the enchantment on a Rusty Iron Knife using a low Strength character with minimal Blade skill, Storm Atronarchs went down in 4 (maybe 5) hits.

Only "downside" is that you need 50 Destruction before you can enchant with Weakness to Magic.

1-2 seconds of Soul Trap is useful on a weapon though. But that's about all Mysticism is good for in Oblivion.

[Alram]

So if I wanted to make a character that primarily used Blade, Light Armor, Alchemy, Security, Sneak, Marksman, Athletics, Alteration, and Illusion - it would actually be best to make my 7 "Primary" skills something like Heavy Armor, Blunt, Hand to Hand, Destruction, Restoration, Armorer, and Speechcraft (how fast does this level?) to retard the leveling process as much as possible?

Thanks for the explanation of game mechanics folks, there are a lot of subtleties of which I was completely unaware.

If you go this route, then try to get at least 1 for each attribute as a major.
Speechcraft levels fast and is a good choice.
Also, if you use this approach, get that skill diary mod I referenced in a former post. It will allow you to track each attribute so that you know the optimum time to level up.

[Alram]

1-2 seconds of Soul Trap is useful on a weapon though. But that's about all Mysticism is good for in Oblivion.

Actually there is a viable build that uses mysticism extensively. If (and only if) you select The Tower as your birthsign you get access to the reflect damage spell. With a high level of mysticism you can then make custom spells with long duration and a high% of reflect damage. It works well. BTW, there isn't really any other good reason to use The Tower as your birthsign IIRC.

[Rhydderch Hael]

Err... no, you won't get a formidabble weapon with elemental damage.

Use Weakness to Magic 100/3 sec combined with the Drain Health 100/1 sec to make something that's so good it's beyond broken. Mainly because Weakness to Magic affects itself, any subsequent applications will be calculated from the new Magic Resistance. ...

I was duly informed that repeated applications of the same magical attack don't stack— you merely re-set the duration timer with subsequent hits.

At low levels, the Altar/Soulstone enchanted weapons with Drain Health+ abilities do pack quite a punch, but I've taken a Level 35+ character into the woods and found the self-same weapons going from full charge to empty against Mino Lords or Ogres without hardly making a dent. The big kicker about "Drain Health 100" spells are that they temporarily subtract 100 hitpoints from the target: with each and every repeated blow you land with your sword, you're subtracting 100 (and only 100) points the whole time— permanent damage is coming through the weapon's base damage values and/or any elemental damage attached. If the dust settles, your weps have gone dry, and the bad guy is still standing, that Drain Health 100 didn't amount to anything.

(of course, the aforementioned 35+ character was using plain Steel weapons at the time, but that's another story...)

At higher levels the consistent, permanent damage of a Sigil Stone-enchanted weapon won't be a juggernaut-killer, but will at least put a bigger dent in the bad guy's health arc after you've expended a good 3000+ mana points of enchanted firepower (as opposed to the 1600 of a Soulstone) through the weapon. Rinse and repeat with a second such weapon (at high levels with Strength and Feather effect in use, I typically have three or even four weapons packed and hotkeyed), then crack open a Varla stone to recharge the entire inventory for the next go. 6000-12,000 mana points recharged by a single stone? Sweet.

Another subtle difference between a weapon enchanted at the Altar and one enchanted with a Sigil Stone is that any and all spells imparted via the Altar will carry a duration value (1 second minimum). That means "Fire Damage 25 for 1 second", or "Damage Health 20 for 1 second". This produces a noticeable lag in the damage inflicted (you can set a Troll on fire with one hit of such a weapon, and he's got just enough time to land a punch to your face before it finally kills him). But more importantly, that 1 second duration also cuts into the mana expenditure of the enchantment.

A weapon enchanted with magical damage via a Sigil Stone delivers that effect instantaneously— it's quicker and, more importantly, it's more mana-efficient. That's why a Sigil Stone weapon with around 3000 points can deliver a good 70+ charges as opposed to an Altar-enchanted weapon of similar damage delivering only 20 charges through 1600 points. The 1-second duration versus instant infliction costs plenty in terms of mana, just as how any crafted spell's mana cost will skyrocket as you increase its duration.



When it comes to elemental damage, best bets are to go for weapons that deal Shock, with Fire weapons as a backup. There are few creatures that have any resistance to Shock damage. While there are more creatures around that have a resistance to Fire, there are also more creatures that have an actual vulnerability to it as well, which helps. Frost damage, on the other hand, is resisted by a alot of creatures, the Undead in particular.

[roguebanshee]

I was duly informed that repeated applications of the same magical attack don't stack— you merely re-set the duration timer with subsequent hits.

Weakness to Magic doesn't stack as such, the actual penality is just calculated from the targets current Magic Resistance. This means that if your target is currently at 0% Resistance then a 100% WtM leaves the target at -100% MR. If the target is at -100% MR when the 100% WtM hits then the WtM penality is 200%, regardless of what took the target to -100% MR. If the -100% MR was reached by an older WtM (from the same weapon/spell) then it will be replaced by the new and more powerful application.

At least that's how things worked when I last played, they may of course have patched that functionality away afterwards. It also worked on yourself to allow for some major exploits (add a 3 Drain Health/1 sec/self to an otherwise beneficial spell and you'd get both parts to work with WtM), but that was patched fairly quickly.

[Mithrandir]

If you go this route, then try to get at least 1 for each attribute as a major.
Speechcraft levels fast and is a good choice.
Also, if you use this approach, get that skill diary mod I referenced in a former post. It will allow you to track each attribute so that you know the optimum time to level up.

Okay, finally got my computer back and wanted to do a quick sanity check before I locked my character in. The wiki link was very helpful but I just wanted to make sure I had everything down.

*Wood Elf
*Endurance/Luck as primary attributes
*Blunt (Str), Mysticism (Int), Restoration (Will), Block (Agi), Acrobatics (Spd), Heavy Armor (End), and Speechcraft (Pers) as my major skills and planning on playing an Assassin-type character focusing on Blade, Light Armor, Sneak, Alchemy, Alteration, Illusion, Security, and Marksman.

Any thoughts on the +5/+5/+5 vs. +5/+5/+1 leveling schemes? Can you reach all 100's either way?