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The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Hints
Combat Tips
1 of 12: Before heading out into the wilderness or some dark dungeon for extended exploration and combat, be sure you have plenty of supplies with you. The most important ones include the best armor and weapons you can get, health-restoring potions, torches, lockpicks, repair hammers, magicka-restoring potions if you use magic a lot, arrows if you use bows a lot, and filled soul gems and/or Varla stones for recharging enchanted weapons if you use them a lot.
2 of 12: When you're fighting an enemy that swings a powerful weapon, try to dodge away from his swings and then immediately move in for an attack. An alternative is to block his blow and then attack, but you'll take more damage that way.
3 of 12: If you use maneuvering a lot in combat, you can have very mixed results with it. Always quicksave before a tough combat and try it again if you die or get hurt too badly -- you might do much better the next time using the very same tactics.
4 of 12: You can often leave an opponent behind by retreating through a door that leads to another region or level, but they can sometimes follow you through that door. However, if you're running from a bunch of enemies, going through a region door or two is a good way to leave at least some of them behind.
5 of 12: You can use potions designated as poisons (ones that have all negative effects on them) to empower your weapons for deadlier strikes. You can mix up some poisons of your own using alchemy, or you can buy them or find them in loot. (Shady Sam sells some good ones.)
6 of 12: The Paralyze spell is a very useful offensive tool in combat, since you can use it to paralyze a powerful foe so he can't strike back while you attack him. Unfortunately, the Paralyze spell is very hard to cast and to mix up poisons for, and you're never allowed to enchant a weapon with it.
7 of 12: Most spells cast a bit faster if you're in fight mode and are holding down the Block key as you cast. Also remember that any armor you're wearing may lower the percentage effectiveness of the spells you cast, especially if your armor skills are low.
8 of 12: To keep your best magical weapons fully charged at all times (and to capture souls for enchanting), you'll want to have Azura's Star from the Daedric Shrine Quests and a weapon that can cast Soul Trap whenever it strikes.
9 of 12: It can really help to have an unkillable quest-related companion with you during combat. The best way to arrange that is to do Main Quests up through "Find the Heir" to get Brother Martin to follow you around. Instead of going to Weynon Priory right away when he joins you, go loot some dungeons, finish some combat-heavy faction or misc. quests, etc. Brother Martin will stay with you and help you kill off all the enemies you come across, and he can't be killed due to being quest-related.
10 of 12: If you're having way too much trouble in most combats because you created a badly balanced character or have been leveling him up carelessly, make yourself a set of "Chameleon Clothing" and/or some powerful enchanted weapons as specified in my Enchanting Tips. Those can help you get past any pesky combats that you can't otherwise win, thereby allowing you to continue with your current character instead of having to start the entire game over.
11 of 12: Quickly practicing up your Conjuration skill (see the Magic Skills Practice Tips) until it's 100 will also be a big help, since you can then summon powerful undead and Daedric allies to help you in battle. Even a level 1 character playing on the highest difficulty setting can survive tough dungeons and quests by using summoned creatures all the time.
12 of 12: Another thing you can do that's much quicker and easier is adjust the difficulty slider. Bring up the game's options menu and choose "Options" and then "Gameplay." The slider is at the top of the window that comes up, and it can be slid to the left to make combats easier. See the link below for more details.
