Oblivion Remastered: How the new leveling system works
Here's how Oblivion Remastered fixes the original's leveling problem
Wondering how the new leveling system in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered works? The remastered version of Oblivion is more than just a visual upgrade. One of the most impactful changes in comparison to the original game is the player's leveling progression.
In short, the 2006 version of Oblivion featured a leveling system that was a bit of a headache, and the remaster fixes this. If you'd like to know more, this guide explains everything that's changed in the Oblivion Remastered leveling system and how it works.
The leveling problem in the original Oblivion
Let's travel back in time to 2006, when the original Oblivion was released. Most aspects of the game were great, especially its vast open world, fantastic storyline, eccentric characters, and corny dialogue... But it suffered from what is now referred to as the 'Oblivion leveling problem'.
In OG Oblivion, your character gained experience by leveling their skills. But not just any skills; major skills, which you chose during character creation at the start of the game. The remaining skills, called minor skills, didn't contribute to your character's leveling progress. Once your major skills increased by 10 points, your character could 'take a rest' (sleep for at least an hour) to level up. After leveling up, their HP was boosted by 10% of their endurance and new Daedra Quests became available - but on the downside, every enemy became stronger.
This system might not sound unreasonable at first, but let's not forget that you only leveled your skills by using them - ie, 'Alchemy' increased when you crafted potions, 'Acrobatics' increased when you jumped, and 'Heavy Armor' increased if you got hit while wearing such armor. If you quickly leveled your major skills without leveling minor ones, your character level went up, your enemies became stronger, but a big chunk of your abilities remained underdeveloped.
Furthermore, the original Oblivion used a convulted 'governing' system linking each skill to a specific attribute. Attributes would only rise upon level ups if the skills linked to them were also upgraded. In other words, if you wanted to upgrade Endurance but failed to sufficiently level the Block, Armorer, and Heavy Armor skills (Endurance's governed skills), you wouldn't receive an Endurance boost when your character reached the next level.
In short, leveling your character in OG Oblivion sometimes felt like a punishment rather than a reward. The game's leveling system created a problem where if you leveled the 'wrong' skills or leveled your major skills too quickly, your enemies would become stronger, but your character would not. If you chose many non-combat abilities as major skills, such as Speechcraft, it was especially difficult to keep up in battle, as Speechcraft contributed nothing to battle prowess. And if you made an effort to level efficiently, the leveling system felt restrictive, as you were forced to grind certain skills (particularly minor ones) while avoiding others.
The new leveling system in Oblivion Remastered
Thanks to Oblivion Remastered, all of those leveling issues are a thing of the past. The new leveling system introduces the following changes compared to the old one:
- You get to assign attribute points freely. Removing the need to track the number of skill upgrades for each governing attribute, Oblivion Remastered lets you assign 12 attribute points (called Virtues) to three attributes of your choice whenever you level up, with a maximum of +5 points per attribute. So, no matter which skills you leveled, you can always assign +5 points to Endurance upon reaching the next character level. Beware that leveling Luck by +1 costs four Virtue points whereas the rest of the attributes gain +1 per Virtue point, which may be a reason to favour luck during Oblivion Remastered's character creation (rather than Endurance, as was the case in OG Oblivion).
- All skills contribute to your character's leveling experience, not just the major skills. That said, Oblivion Remastered still separates major from minor skills as major skills receive an instant boost at the start of the game and level up faster.
- No more 10% Endurance-based health boost upon leveling up. You can still boost your health by attributing points to Endurance, but you're no longer forced to pump points into Endurance early on, as there's no longer an HP boost to miss out on.
While that fixes the main downsides to Oblivion's leveling system, many things remain the same: skills are leveled by using them, character experience is derived from skill upgrades, leveling up requires sleeping, and most importantly, enemy difficulty scales with player level. That means there's one potential pitfall you still need to watch out for: do not grind one particular skill at the expense of others! If you decide to go crazy on speechcraft without using any combat skills, it will cause you to level up and face enemies far stronger than you... Good luck talking that Dremora Captain to death!
That sums up the changes in the new Oblivion Remastered leveling system. Although they remain much the same compared to the original Oblivion, perhaps you'd like to refresh your memory on how to create spells and how to recharge weapons next.