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In the original Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, the leveling system, while nicely involved, could also be somewhat self-defeating. If you weren’t careful, you could end up unintentionally underpowered as your level increased alongside the larger world’s. In short, mistakes could be made.
Oblivion Remasteredmaintains the relative freedom of the original’s system while no longer punishing players for investing in each skill at their leisure. You’ll grow fittingly mighty as your level increases, and you’ll do so in ways which are tailored to your play style. Here’s what’s changed, and perhaps more importantly, a general overview of the leveling system itself, in Oblivion Remastered.
How Leveling Works In Oblivion Remastered
In Oblivion, much like in Morrowind and Skyrim beforehand and thereafter,you level up by raising your various skills' own levels. Some combination of skill raises, no matter the combination, willgradually elevate the main level-up bar.
Once that’s been filled,you must sleep in a bed, at which point something very cool happens. You get a neat message about how much stronger you’ve become, andyou’re given the chance to raise your stats.
Raising Skills To Raise Your Level
But before we get into that, let’s talk a bit more about those skills.There are 21 skills in Oblivion Remastered, just as in the original version of the game. And, just like back then,they’re split into three categories - Combat, Magic, and Stealth - with seven skills in each.
The terms can be a tad misleading in some cases. For instance,Speechcraftis inStealth. It’s more about the subtle art of the silver tongue, a “sneaky” endeavor in charisma, but not a literal act of quiet killing. But hey, every skill’s gotta gosomewhere.
Toward the end of thetutorial stageat the start of the game, you’re given the chance tochoose a class or create a custom class. Your class determineswhich skills are your Major Skills, and which are your Minor Skills.
This choice comes into play during the level-up process becauseyour Major Skills advance in rank more swiftlythan the rest, meaningyou’ll not only improve them faster, but their respective rapidity translates to a faster time filling the level-up bar.
The Level Up Screen
Once your bar is full, and you’ve slept in a bed and gotten that message we’ve mentioned,you’re given 12 Virtuesto spend. Virtues arepoints which are assigned to your eight attributes as you so choose, thoughyou can only ever choose up to three attributes to raise per level.
For the most part, this is straightforward.For every attributeexceptLuck,one Virtue is equivalent to one attribute point. Put another way,if your Strength is 55 when you reach a new level, and you add five Virtue points, it will now be 60.
But Luck is the exception. For Luck,Virtues are only worth a quarter of a point. Thus,four Virtue points are required to elevate the Luck attribute itself by one.
Choosing which attributes to raise is all about your goals.If you’re running a build with axes, Strength makes sense, right? Maybe you want lots of bulk, too, soEnduranceis a good bet with that. On the other hand, if you’re intent oncasting lots of magic, Strength won’t do you much good save for the increased carrying weight.
There’s really no “wrong” way to spend your Virtues each level, but it wouldn’t make sense to purposefully counteract your build aims! Think about the skills you use the most, and work to improve their effectiveness.
