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first of all i have to say that i'm a hardcore dnd player, and played morrowind for only some time... now i decided to play Oblivion. call it whatever you like - i really wanted sth new, sth fresh to all that dnd games...

and now there starts a problem. as i really believe that there is nothing else like magic (and all the dnd productions proved it, don't know how it is here at tes) my dnd chars were always sorcerers with subtle acents of monk to give them a little rogue like edge :Wink: and i always did everything i could to cast invisibiilty (main defence spell) as well to be already the most stealthy i could... however the magic was always something very agressive and devastating (fire frost acid electricity) both one target and multitarget-area and this magic i'd like to meet in the oblivion as well. other types of magic i used was something to get my some tank-servants - either mind control or calling forth demons/beasts... the same thing i'd like to do in oblivion - yet i don't know how strong the magic is, and which area to devellop to get purely the most damage outcome :Wink: and i'd need some stealth to get almost undetected in some places to get my spell best utilized, speed to be able to shoot flurry of arrows, cast a lot of spells, and run the hell when there's a need for that Wink as well i'd need bow bonuses for the hard time when the magika/mana is to be regenerated Wink

so what class, birthsign, race am i to choose to accomplish best in this profile?
i was thinking of dark elves, high elves or bretons as they are supposed to be the best for mage builds... but which one would be best? and why...

concerning the birthsign - is the mage the best? or am i wrong?

and the class - which one gets the most powerful and most damaging spells? aslo is the alll spell only class better or worse in comparison to those with some rogue abilities... at least is there any to choose from? mage sorc or maybe something else would be even better?

and finally which spells are these that deal most damage? i mean also which school or whatever it is called in here

thx in advance

You want the spell schools, Illusion and Destruction. The first gives you Chameleon and Paralyze, as well as raising and lowering the aggression level of another being. The latter is, well, destruction. Both should be placed in your major skills: they involve the attributes Personality and Willpower, respectively.

For stealth, you'll want to put Sneak in your major skills--that's from Agility. Probably Light Armor, too, which is in Speed. It will go up a lot easier than Acrobatics, which basically involves jumping, and...jumping. I'd also throw in either Hand to Hand (which may sound very monk-like, but really doesn't do a hell of a lot of damage; and you can't enchant your hands, where you can enchant a weapon on strike) or Blunt (maces, warhammers, I *think* staves, but they may be only for spells; I haven't tried one, yet). That comes from the attribute Strength. Finally, I suspect you'll want Armorer, that is, using a repair tool to fix worn weapons, armor, and even magical objects (at higher levels). That will give you your Endurance attribute. The only alternative to get Endurance in as a fast-rising attribute (and you'll want it to be, sometimes; Endurance determines the hit points you receive each level, and they aren't increased retroactively when you raise it) is Heavy Armor. Not really your monkish kinda thing, is it?

Note, this is only one way to build a character. Another, alternate route deliberately puts all the skills you want to work up as *minor,* because that way they will start a much lower point, and improve very quickly (assuming you can get them to work; some of the magic schools might be a problem). This means, for example, you might make Mercantile or Speechcraft your major choice for the Personality attribute, then buy a very cheap, easy to cast Illusion spell, and start shooting it off, all the time. You'll quickly accumulate levels. When you gain 10 skill levels in any or all of your major skills, you'll make a character level. And any levels in minor skills will be used to contribute to the multipliers you're offered to the base attributes. You probably know about that, already--

So if you've made only 1 skill level in Illusion, and none in Mercantile or Speechcraft, you'll be offered a potential attribute increase to Personality of 1 when you sleep. But if you've made 10 levels in Illusion--caused because you took it as a minor skill, and it starts much lower at the beginning of the game, rising much faster--then you could receive a Pesonality increase of 5.

Yeah, it's tradeoff. Enough to make your head hurt.

The rest is up to you.

thanks for this full answer ;-) yes my head is starting to hurt when i try to pack all the info in it ;-)

i'm building my 7th char, but now i believe i've done it quite well ;-)

can your innate attributes go beyond 100?

just curious, coz in Morrowind, your strength can't go beyond 100(unless with spells/equipments). That's is, if you choose to be under the steed sign, your initial boost to speed(20) will eventually be useless. Same goes with other birthsigns.

Destruction school is for damage (and I think the bound weapon and armor belong there as well)Fireball, Snowball and Lightning deal a lot of damage at higher levels but later in the game

SPOILERYou get a lot of powerful staves, which make learned spells almost useless(can be used by anyone).

[QUOTE=Masa]Destruction school is for damage (and I think the bound weapon and armor belong there as well)Fireball, Snowball and Lightning deal a lot of damage at higher levels but later in the game

SPOILERYou get a lot of powerful staves, which make learned spells almost useless(can be used by anyone).[/QUOTE]

Bound weapons and armour is in the school of Conjuration.

Oh, yes how thoughtless of me. Thanks for correcting me.