Character Creation

The heart of your The Elder Scrolls® IV: Oblivion™ experience stems from the character you play. The attributes, skills, and spells you possess change the way you play and interact with the game. The sheer volume of options available for character creation ensures that each new character can offer a radically different experience.

You create your character in stages, so we'll take each of your choices in order.

Can I have that axe mister?

Face Value
Before deciding what class of character you will be, you first choose your race and look. There are ten different races available to choose from. They range from the subtle and magically inclined High-Elves to the barbarian warrior-like Nords to the Khajiit, a cat-like people that excel in stealth and agility, plus many more. For more detailed information on each race, check out the Races page on Oblivion's official Web site here.

Each race boasts unique natural gifts that can help serve one style of play over another. You can certainly play an Orc mage, dedicated to the arcane arts, but you may find that an Argonion or High-Elf would be better suited to the class.

Is that paint on your sword, buddy?

After deciding on a race, you get to choose whether your character is male or female and then fully customize their look. You can, among other things:

• Create a custom color tint for their skin.
• Choose a hairstyle (unique to their race).
• Change the color, set, and slope of their eyes.
• Radically sculpt the features on their face. For example:
  • Change the length or breadth of their nose.
  • Arrange their cheek bones high or low; make the cheek bones pronounced or subdued.
  • Alter the jut and width of their chin.
  • Set the angle of their eyebrows.
  • Make their lips full, thin, wide, or pressed together, and even fix their default expression (smiling, frowning, or somewhere in the middle).
• Change their age. This doesn't alter your overall look, but can add wrinkles and more pronounced texture to the skin.

Birthsign
After playing the game for a while longer, you get to choose your character's Birthsign. This small addition to the character creation experience (it was available in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind® as well) helps narrow the overall thrust and ability of your character, so make sure you choose something that you feel assists you with the type of character you want to play. For example, if thievery and stealth are to be your strong suit, you may consider The Shadow as your Birthsign, which gives you the Invisible spell once per day for sixty seconds.

The different Birthsigns break down for the most part into two different categories. They either give you a bonus to an attribute (including Health, Magicka, and Fatigue) or a special ability. Here are examples of each style of Birthsign:

• Special ability: Choosing The Lord Birthsign nets you the Blood of the North ability, which helps you regenerate up to 90 points of Health, but it also gives you the Trollkin curse (a nod to a troll's historic weakness to fire), which reduces your fire resistance by 25 percent.
• Attribute boost: The Mage Birthsign offers a simpler, more direct result. You boast 50 more points of Magicka (the pool of energy you draw from to use spells).

I was just looking for the bathroom!

A Touch of Class
Your final decision is your most important one, and that is your class. In essence, your class decides what skills you specialize in and what attributes increase naturally at a faster rate.

Unlike many roleplaying games, choosing to specialize in one thing doesn't mean you are excluded from pursuing another. Just because Intelligence and Willpower are my main attributes doesn't mean I can't increase Strength to become a more capable melee combatant; it simply means that if I choose to increase my primary stats, they increase by more than a secondary attribute.

Likewise, just because I focus on my Blade and Blunt Weapon skills doesn't mean I can't increase my Acrobatics or Sneak ability by practicing them too. Improving the major skills I choose (there are seven) determines when I level.

Where's a boomstick when you need one?

You can choose a pre-generated class, but if you do decide to create a Custom class, you have the following decisions to make.

• Basic structure: In order to set the foundation for your character, you choose among three basic premises. They are Stealth, Magic, and Combat, and they pretty much speak for themselves. These three choices represent the essential strength of your character, and determine what set of skills you focus on and what level they start at.
• Focus attributes: After making your first choice, you're tasked with calling out two attributes as the most important. The two attributes you choose have the benefit of increasing much faster than the others when you go up in level.
• Primary skills: Your last step is to choose seven major skills. These skills start out more powerful than the others and determine when you go up in level. You can only increase your overall level by increasing your primary skills by 10 points (in any combination). You increase your skill ratings by simply performing actions related to your skill (e.g. using your shield to increase your Block skill). Skills include abilities like Blunt Weapon, Blade, Sneak, Security (picking locks), Speechcraft (ability to intimidate, bluff, charm, etc.), Acrobatics, and others.

Your avatar in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion shapes your entire experience in the world of Tamriel. Not only does this help inform the way you play the game from a mechanics standpoint, but also how you experience the story and influence the world. Choose carefully when deciding just what sort of character you wish to play.

Article by Alex McLain

• Official game site.
• Bethesda 's Web site.