[OBV] So uh, we can't be thieves then?

[SpiritWarrior]

Some people have posted about problems with 'thief' classes in Oblivion. Is this a viable class I can complete the game with and be competetive and actually have fun with it at the same time? If not, are there mods that specifically tailor to this while not exactly 'cheating' the game?.

Basically I plan to make a stealthy, somewhat selfish loner-type char. A kind of Oblivion version of Garrett. I don't want to get so far to find out I am gimped. I want to have fun with it not just 'get by' too. My first class was a Crusader-type (Paladin) and it works fine so far.

Btw..is there actual stealth in this game or is it just hiding in shadows?

Anything else I need to know if I wanna go this route class-wise?

[Kyrvias]

Stealth is one of the best features of this game.

Hiding in the shadows actualy feels like it. You're nervous, wondering whether your footsteps might alert your enemies.


The lockpicking is much better than it was in morrowind. Even my fighter, with a Security skill of 7, was able to crack a Hard lock. But, that's really only becuase I played an assassin my first time through. This allows the thief/assassin to get good treasure early on; If they're skilled enough.

For assassins, Poisons play a huge role. Paralyzing, Intelligence draining, Health Damaging... the possibilities are endless. You could even put two effects into one poisons, saving you an extra attack. Couple a health damage poison with a sneak attack, and you could seriously cripple your opponent.

Quite frankly, I think that stealth is the best feature of this game. The thieves guild quests are great to boot! And the Dark Brotherhood... well, let's just say that they have an "evil humor" to them.

And I think that this game is probably possible with a stealth character. In fact, it is completely possible.

Just my 2 septims.

[Thoran]

Stealth is good, not Thief series good (best stealth game... EVER) but good.

Problem is that many quests require you to kill stuff, but your just not that good at killing stuff (better at avoiding it).

One option is to go Vamp, I think that offsets a lot of the negatives of a thief character... but it gets tiresome pretty quickly.

And as Kyrvias said... get your alchemy up quick (just got my apprentice glassware).

[Thoran]

oh yea... get the 'No Psychic Guards' mod too.

[Kyrvias]

I have it on the 360, so I don't have that luxury. More of a challenge, I say.

[Luvian]

Yeah, where I am now, it take my cheated character 50 hits to kill an ennemy while they often kill me in 2-4 hits.

I gave myself moded glass armor and weapons, and it's still ridicullous. I wouldn't recommend it.

Actually, you can play a thief. Just don't put any thief skill as your major. As long as you only level based on fighting skills you'll always be balanced with the mobs. The problem is that when like me you leveled mostly from stealth, security and such the game still put you up against ennemies as if you were Tralar the Barbarian king of Xuxjudu. Good luck fighting those peasants in full Deadric. What? You're a rogue and would like glass armor? Too bad, everyone else use Daedric.

At first things seemed balanced, especially with sneak attacks, but sneak attacks never get better multiplier to match the health of ennemies. My sneak attack barely dent the health of level 20 ennemies now.

[ 04-03-2006, 07:38 PM: Message edited by: Luvian ]

[SpiritWarrior]

It seems like it calls for a thief mod, simply adding a multiplier to sneaks over time and various other tweaks. In the meatime I'll just play my pally I guess.

[Kyrvias]

I failed

Still... pally's are fun

[ 04-04-2006, 11:23 AM: Message edited by: Kyrvias ]

[SpongeLikeCow]

Being a thief is fun at early levels, but as you level up the enemies have so many hitpoints that backstabbing becomes completely irrelevant, and every Joe Blow npc has glass or daedric armor worth 1,000 times more than anything you can ever steal. A thief simply becomes a warrior with glass armor instead of daedric. You can forget about being Garret past the first few levels, not gonna happen.

There are several plugins increasing bow damage. I suppose you could install that, turn the difficulty all the way down, and play a thief with low endurance and no armor that could kill enemies quickly from stealth. That might stretch out the feeling of being a thief past level 5. Maybe crank up melee weapons too.

Look for a mod called "300 weapons", it adds a blackjack that can knock enemies out for a few minutes. There are also plugins making high level armor much more rare and increasing the value of stuff to steal like silverware. I'm testing one called Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul, haven't played it much yet though.

[Thoran]

I'm currently level 10 and still having fun as a stealth, but I have a couple mods installed like stealth multiplier... they must have playtested stealth characters... I wonder how they could have thought it was balanced in it's default configuration?