I have been recently looking into getting a leveling mod, since I just realized that the leveling system probably won't let me max my character, since I never knew how the leveling system worked and I'm level 15. If someone could briefly explain what the mods do, and how the leveling system works, that would be a lot of help to me. I've realized something about these mods though. All of them boast that the leveling is automatic and you don't have to choose your attributes, the game does it for you. When I thought about this I realized some problems, if you don't choose your own attributes then either....

a) The game chooses for you what it wants to level up. This can be a problem if your a warrior and the mod chooses to upgrade your intellegence or willpower or something

or

b) When you level, the game upgrades all your attributes, which would be like cheating, and your attributes will go up to quickly

So i'm stuck here. I have two choices. Either I continue playing my character now, that I already put 35+ hours into, but knowing that I will never max him out. Or start a new character from scratch.

Also I would like to know which leveling mod is right for me. I never planned on using mods my first time through, besides ones that may enhance graphics or the UI. Mods that affect gameplay seem like cheating to me, but right now I would like to get one because I just want to play my character and eventually at the end max everything out. Considering that, whats the best leveling mod? I would like almost everything to stay the same in the game. The health progression etc. I dont want mods that will give me more health or something.

From what I hear, it's an auto-update to specific attributes, but based on which skills you're actually using. So your warrior might get a useless attribute boost, but only if you're using "useless" skills like speechcraft.

First time I played Oblivion and started looking into the way the leveling system works, a while through the game I started to realise how bandits were suddenly getting some much better kit, I half expected to see crabs and rats walking around in glass armour or something after that

Well I dont know what you want exactly:


A) A lvling mod where you fight creatures to gain experience?

B) A lvling mod that simply upgrades your skills?


Because if you choose B, then you dont even need a lvling mod. Simple open up the console ( ~ ) and type:

player.advskill [skillname], [ammount]

If you consider this cheating, well its as much cheating as using lvling mods. With the console, you choose the ammount, and you get bonuses on attributes as if you leveled normally, so you can simply go to sleep and pretend you had a very good night sleep and your security just jumped 75 levels.