Agleridon

A while back, I posted that one of my qualms with Oblivion, which I was playing a lot, was that the leveling system forced me, completist that I am, to do the things necessary to have a character that can do anything. When I did Runswithsnails IV, I waited until I was higher in level to do the quests with leveled items. I started out spamming illusion spells so that I could take advantage of invisibility as soon as possible, then exploited that alongside ever-improving magic skills all-around and the ability to slug things out with a big sword and heavy armor. Eventually, I was switching to blunt weapons and light armor, not because they were better, but because I had maxed out my heavy armor and blade skills. Toward the end, he was invincible, although I could probably have made him invincible even earlier if I'd tried.

I said that I would like for the game to be more "choose your weapons." Well, I finally broke down and started another character, determined not to go all crazy like I did with the first one. Runswithsnails IV will always be my super-powerful character in that game. He's the only one I'll have done all of the quests with. But I figured I'd do some specialist characters that would explore aspects of the game I neglected at earlier levels and emphasize them, getting some replay value out of this game, I guess.

Agleridon is my first attempt at a real specialist character. He's already quite accomplished. His primary specialty is alchemy. He's an evil character that loves poisoning everything. As such, his next favorite skill is marksmanship, giving him a vehicle for delivering all those wonderful poisons. But if that doesn't work, he can fall back on chameleon potions and sneak attacks with powerful magic daggers. Right now he's using light armor, but that's really just a means for me to keep increasing his strength. Once his strength is maxed out, I'll probably switch to no armor. I just realized that I totally had that wrong. Light armor skill increases improve speed, not strength. And his speed is already maxed out. But I'm keeping light armor with this character because I want to and because armor rating is good. So there.

I should probably cut back on playing this game so that I don't have to go cold turkey in January when I'm in school and busy. Or maybe I should rush to do everything I can with Agleridon beforehand? No, that's probably a bad idea. So far, his accomplishments include restoring Deepscorn Hollow (the base of operations I had in mind for this character before I even started him), restoring Frostcrag Spire (even more useful for alchemy than Deepscorn Hollow), completing everything for Dunburrow Cove, completing the thieves guild questline, acquiring Mehrune's Razor, mastering alchemy (but he still needs the equipment to take advantage of this), taking down the Gatekeeper, finding tons of nirnroots, and murdering lots of people, some of them deservedly. But he still needs to complete the dark brotherhood questline at least. Maybe some more beyond that. I'm not sure yet.

Some other ideas for Oblivion characters I might do...

• One that uses blunt as a primary combat skill. So far I've always done blade-wielders.
• A mage character that doesn't use armor or weapons much. I could also rely on alchemy a lot again. Now that I've gotten some experience with alchemy, I like it.
• A good character. Agleridon is pure evil. Runswithsnails IV started out evil, but redeemed himself and used the Gray Cowl of Nocturnal to lead a double life. I should have an actual, honorable character.
• A character that uses the atronach birthsign (it sounds fun and is totally different).
• Playing a different game. Seriously, I'm playing this game way too much.