Hah!

I remember running across a shield once, before getting stuck and hovering on it as its physics tried to move it out from under my feet without success... rather amusing.

Well yeah, like I said, I love the physics engine on Oblivion. It's probably better than the HL2 engine. Not being able to decorate my house is just a microscopic fault in an otherwise perfect game.

So I figured out the trick to the game. I played a mage-type character and leveled up real fast and after maybe 20 hrs of gameplay I was like lvl 14 and hadn't even gotten as far as Kvatch. I got really frustrated because I couldnt kill shit. Everything took like a million hits and I couldn't figure out wtf was wrong. I'm pretty sure it was the leveling system. I made a new character, this time a straight up Breton warrior. I'm enjoying the game a lot more mostly because I've figured out how the leveling works. You have to get a certain amount of points in your main skills before you level up. So put all your mostly used abilities as your main skills, and you'll find yourself leveling up way too fast. So I put armorer, blade, and a few other often used abilities of a warrior as minor skills, and worked them out heavily, while not using my major skills nearly as much. That way, my dude is tough as nails, not facing off opponents way to hard for me because I raced through the lvls. I was able to take out all the arena fighters in Imperial City and become grand champion at lvl 7. Now I've got about 20 hrs with my new character, but I'm only a lvl 10, and I'm much further in my quests (so far only just become a Blade), with much better gear. Much more enjoyable experience lvling slowing, IMO.

Yeah, the game levels everything up with you, which has caused many complaints similar to yours, Hyfe.

My assassin can still handle them, though for a few levels he was struggling; and my Mage has hit a boredom wall with me, heh.

I'm now the Grand Champion in the Imperial Arena, a member of the Blades, a member of the Fighters Guild, and a member of the Dark Brotherhood. And only level 12. Heh.

That armor they give you in the Brotherhood is the shit. Too bad I'm a heavy armor kind of guy. I'll probably just slip it on whenever I want to sneak around, which isn't often. Seeing as I can lug around nearly 500 lb worth of crap, it's no big deal to keep on hand.

BTW, has anyone fought Umbra yet? Supposedly she has the best sword in the game, and she's just a short distance away from the Blade's hideout. I'm probably going to give it a shot tonight.

There's another Umbra? How original.