Some beginners' oblivion questions

Yeah, that’s exactly right. If you have all the skills you want to use as majors then improving them will cause you to level up very quickly. Having some of your main stat affecting skills as minors will allow you to practice them and get better over all.

I think I really need some combat tips. It seems that no matter what I’m fighting, it always seems to stun me, regardless of if I’m blocking or not, the only time I’ve staggered someone is if they hit my block. What am I missing that’s getting me killed each time I try to fight in close quarters?

Hit them first, and you can stun them. Wear them down with spells/arrows if you can.

Yeah, I don’t actually fight anything unless I can put a poisoned arrow or two into it first.

The only thing I’ve run from is a Will o the Wisp or some such. It drains me every hit, and nothing I have seems to affect it much (I’m at level 11.) I usually use my bow on everything, but it doesn’t seem to be impacted by my arrows, even if they are fire or frost. Argh.

Silver. My basic arrows are silver, they don’t weigh any more.
I carry a backup silver sword as well.

The first one I met was a shock, the fact that I didn’t register that ‘that’ was the monster didn’t help either.

If you are intested, there is a mod that gives you the +5 option for each of your skills when you level. I’m using it and I like it alot. This way I don’t have to worry about “accidentally” leveling before I’ve worked on my skills enough to get the +5.

Ah! Would not have known that silver was the trick - I was trying shock, fire, etc. Time to go back to that cave entrance… ;)