I think i'm probably leveling up too fast. I'm still equiped with the same sword i had at level 5, and i'm at level 20 now. It's a good sword, the Ebaser is it's name i think, but the enemies are getting tougher and tougher to kill, especially the Daedra i run into at my current level. But also creatures like Ogres and Minotaurs deliver very hard blows, they wreck my armour in seconds, and it costs me thousands of Septims to get it fixed again later on, because my own skills aren't high enough yet to repair enchanted equipment. Plus the enchantment on my sword is wearing off faster than i earn money to get it recharged again.

I wish there was some sort of Bag of Holding or some such, because i get encumbered ridiculously fast, and had to leave for thousands of Septims worth of goodies behind. Of course i can always go back to the fort or cave where i left it, but somehow i never get to that, i keep rolling from one situation into the next. :D

The ignore armor hit won't make any difference. At 21 I can sneak up right next to an ennemy and do a x6 melee sneak attack, and it will barely take any health away from the mob. Like I said it took me 57 hits to kill the last ennemy I killed. That sneak attack just lowered it to 51 attacks left to kill it. Yay! Even if you ignored the armor, you'd still have to hit him a least 40 times still.

I actually started a new game as a warrior, pure thief is impossible. I did anything I wanted to do with a thief anyway. Completed the Thief guild and Dark Brotherhood, poked around castles and such, got rich, explored ruins, and I hadn't started the main quest yet. That new Khajiit warrior will allow me to do the Fighter Guild an the Arena, as well as maybe the Mage guild if I have time.

Well that sucks.

However... as opposed to quitting, if I get to that point I'll start creatively tweaking the character, a few more points in various attributes, maybe some better equipment will miraculously appear out of thin additem air.

One of the things I really liked about NWN was that stealth was a real asset.

Just a thought: What's stopping you from re-entering the shadows after each stealth attack? There were plenty of ways of doing this in Morrowind. I can't imagine there being any less in Oblivion.

Trust me, I did so too. My character is set up in a full set of Glass armor and a modified glass longsword with the damage of a daedric one.

All in all, the set give me +10 agi, +10 speed, +5 endurance +40 health, +10 security, +10 sneak, +10 Blade, +10 Light armor, +15 Shield, +20 Chameleon. That's on top of the +30% fire +30% ice resist ring and a stat boosting amulet I got legit. The sword has +7 health +7 endurance +7 magika stealing. I also raised my endurance some with the console. The goal was to make my character more fighter like. The character went from 75! health to 240 or so I think. The battles I mentioned above were with those items and stats.

Because I'm detected and can't. I guess I could get invisibility potions or such, but those were regular fights. If I have to spend 10-15 mins and pull crazy tricks just to beat a random trash monster, there is a problem and I won't get anywhere at that rate.

-I had the same fighting problems with my assassin character. the solution is easy: drop the difficulty slider just a tiny bit. Sad you have to do it, but it majorly affects the damage done/received ratio. Which is JUST what you want to change.

-No Morrowind was unbelievable and just wrong how it worked with sneaking. In no way if I'm seen can I hide again, that's just wrong and I'm glad Oblivion fixed that.

Things I like:
Graphics are nice
Better stories and more variation in graphics and the world.
More alive
Less bugs
More of the same things I loved with Morrowind
You still get plenty of gold from hunting vampires ;)
More goodies and more action in the wild that feels well, just more in place.
No flying birds picking your head all the time!
Still moddable!
What you do during a fight has impact! (Read, you can fight in this game ;) )

Things that bugs me:
Consolly feel - inventory and the journal system.
Less is not more . I want crossbows, medium armours, throwing weapons etc. Give me!!!
Still favours casters a bit too much but well more a matter of taste.
The all knowing watch! If the police here was that efficient there wouldn't be no crimes, but still they let known necromances room around in caverns? - Ok, if you kill a peson in his home, they know you did it! Bad you go to jail! You kill someone in a creepy cavern - they know you did it.
A daedra has his little lair of child sacrificing and all in general be a bad naighbour behaviour - ten minutes walk up the road and the damned guard on horse asks me "whats up citizen"?
They know where you are! You can't hide so start running! If you sneak around being really good at and have a chameleon spell and hits the caster in your enemy group from far away suddenly they know you are there and you can't sneak.
Weapon swapping during fight is hard - but crouching and walk like an astmatic ant is ok.
No magic creation except in the big city after doing several stupid quests!
Scalable enemies are ok - to some degree.
Scalable items are not! Sick highwaymen with Silver weapons and dwarven armour are not fun!

One time I escaped from prison and got all the way to the door leading out of the castle undetected, but I couldn't get past the door without being seen. I decided to just run trough and escape them. I spent something like 15 minutes running trough town with the guards after me, I went in shops and everything, but they wouldn't give up. I eventually decided hiding was impossible and I went out of town and ran off with the guards after me. I almost made it to the imperial city before they killed me and I reloaded.

I don't think you could get them off you without a horse.

There is a mod that change this. I didn't try it yet, but it make it so that when you commit a crime it only get reported in a certain radius around you and if no guard "hear" it you don't get caught. I think it was called "no psychic guards" or something like that.

Sounds like something I will have to check on!
I mean it would be nice to after a week or two find a wanted poster somewhere you haven't visited yet with your (piss-poor-ugly) face on and a wanted text ;)

I jumped through an Oblivion gate and only one guard chased me through... one is pretty easy to dispatch.

I think I'll have to look into the mod... it's really stupid that when you leave a town and go to another town you get greeted at the gate by a guard who somehow knows what you've done.