So, Bethesda finally did it. After years of leaks and court documents floating around, Oblivion Remastered shadow-dropped in 2025, and honestly, the community is still reeling. We all expected the Unreal Engine 5 glow-up. We knew the lighting would be gorgeous and the draw distance wouldn't look like a soup of pixels anymore. But the biggest shocker? The leveling.
If you played the 2006 original, you remember "The Problem." You basically had to have a spreadsheet open to make sure you weren't accidentally making your character weaker by... actually playing the game. It was a mess of efficient leveling and micromanaging minor skills just to get a +5 to Endurance.
The remaster changed all of that. It’s a hybrid. It’s basically what happens when you take the DNA of 2006 Oblivion and splice it with the accessibility of Skyrim. Some veterans are calling it "dumbed down," while others (myself included) are just happy we don't have to jump everywhere for ten hours to make sure our Acrobatics doesn't screw up our next level.
The Death of the "Efficient Leveling" Spreadsheet
The most dramatic shift in oblivion remastered leveling changes is how attributes are handled. In the old days, your attribute bonuses were tied directly to which specific skills you leveled up. If you wanted +5 Strength, you had to level up Blade, Blunt, or Hand-to-Hand exactly ten times before hitting your next character level.
That's gone.
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Now, when you sleep to level up—and yes, you still have to sleep—you are handed a flat pool of 12 Virtue Points. You can dump these into your attributes however you see fit. Want +5 to Endurance? Just put five points there. You don't need to track whether you leveled Armorer or Block. You just... do it.
There is a catch, though. You can only put points into three attributes per level, just like before. And the cap per attribute is still +5. This means you can't just become a god at level 2, but it removes the stress of "wasting" a level-up.
Why Luck is Suddenly Weird
Luck has always been the oddball stat in Tamriel. In the original, you could only ever get a +1 to Luck, and it never had a governing skill. In the remaster, Virtuos (the studio behind the port) decided to make Luck a massive investment.
It now costs 4 Virtue Points to get a single +1 in Luck.
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Because you only get 12 points total, going for Luck is a huge sacrifice. You’re essentially trading a +4 or +5 in a combat stat just to nudge your Luck up a tiny bit. It makes the "Thief" birthsign way more valuable than it used to be.
Major Skills Don't Hold All the Power Anymore
In the original, only your seven Major Skills contributed to your character level. Your Minor Skills? They helped your attributes, but they didn't push you toward level 2, 3, or 50.
In the remaster, all skills contribute to your level XP. This is very "Skyrim-esque." If you spend all day picking locks and brewing potions, even if those aren't your Major Skills, you’re going to level up. However, Major Skills still matter because they have a higher XP multiplier. You’ll level up much faster by using your primary class skills than by messing around with your minor ones. It keeps the "class" identity alive without punishing you for being a jack-of-all-trades.
The Scaling Nightmare (Or Lack Thereof)
Everyone’s biggest fear was the level scaling. We all remember the infamous "Level 20 Bandits" wearing full Daedric armor just to rob you of two gold pieces.
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The scaling is still there—it’s Oblivion, after all—but it’s been tweaked. Enemies are generally a bit "softer" at higher levels compared to the original, and because you can actually hit your +5 attribute caps without a PhD in mathematics, you’re usually much stronger than the enemies by the mid-game.
Actionable Tips for Your New Playthrough
If you’re just starting your run in the remaster, forget everything you knew about the "optimal" way to build a character. The old "don't pick the skills you actually use as Major Skills" strategy is officially dead and buried.
- Pick Major Skills you actually use. Since all skills contribute to leveling now, you want your favorites to have that XP boost.
- Prioritize Endurance early. Even though the 10% health-per-level calculation has been modified, having high Endurance still dictates your base survivability. Use your 12 points to max this out first.
- Ignore the "spreadsheet" mentality. Just play. The Virtue Point system ensures you won't fall behind the power curve unless you purposefully ignore your combat stats.
- Watch the Luck trap. Unless you’re doing a very specific "Gambler" build, those 4 Virtue Points are almost always better spent on Strength, Agility, or Intelligence.
The oblivion remastered leveling changes basically turned a chore into a system. It’s not perfect, and some of the "crunchy" RPG feel is lost, but the trade-off is a game that you can actually play for fun rather than for stats.
Load up your save, find a bed in the Imperial City, and start dumping those Virtue Points where they belong. Just maybe stay away from the Kvatch gate until you've put at least five points into your health. Trust me on that one.