I’ve always loved Oblivion but have never looked into making a build. When TES Classics came out, I started to work on this gem but lost drive half-way through. Now, however, I think it is time to unveil...
“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time”.
The Marsh Monk is a fast-paced, unarmed, almost-unarmoured-but-not-quite and quite deadly assassin. After all, why stab when you can snap necks? Why cleave when you can crush organs? You’re speedy, light on your feet and absolutely brutal when it comes to taking down your target. With Magicka, wit, speed and sheer power on his side, the Marsh Monk can easily take down any foe with ease.
A Shadowscale from Black Marsh, the Marsh Monk was sent to Cyrodill to join the ranks of the Dark Brotherhood but was unexpectedly delayed when he was arrested by the Imperial Guard, accused of being an ally of the Grey Fox. You were thrown into your cell, left to rot, but the Dread Father cares for his children and sent down his dark tendrils of fate and gave his child a chance to escape... Now free, the Marsh Monk seeks his revenge, but first, there must be blood.
Race: Male Argonian
Any Argonian born under the sign of the Shadow becomes a Shadowscale, a child of Sithis and destined for a life as an assassin. Unfortunately, Oblivion will not recognise you as a Shadowscale but that can easily be explained that his delay caused the other assassins to misjudge who he is.
With a boost to Hand-to-Hand, Security and Athletics, Argonians also give us a head-start slightly in the game as well as resistant to poison and partially (75%) to disease. Males get a slightly faster speed attribute but I mainly chose this for personal preference.
Birthsign: The Shadow
As explained above, we are a Shadowscale and thus, we MUST take the Shadow stone in order to for the build. Moonshadow is a great power and is defiantly a great way to escape from trouble or to sneak up closer.
Custom Class: Marsh Monk – Athletics, Hand To Hand, Alteration, Destruction, Restoration, Acrobatics and Sneak
Very little to explain here but here is how it goes - Athletics and Acrobatics is for moving fast and for dodging if we get into trouble, Hand To Hand is for dealing out damage along with some Destruction thrown in as touch spells to soften our targets up a bit more, Alteration and Restoration are for protection and finally, Sneak is for getting up close and personal while unseen.
Untagged skills I also used were Block, Alchemy and Security, as Block made me feel a tiny bit more badass, Alchemy allowed me to craft some more potions for restoring my stats and Security got me into places when I didn’t have the appropriate unlock spell
Favoured Attributes: Strength and Speed
Levelling: Strength + Speed + Agility + Willpower
Apparel: Boots of Bloody Bounding, Sack Cloth Pants, Bands of Kwang Lao, the Eye of Sithis and the Ring of the Vipereye
This was my chosen apparel by end game and I quite liked it! I didn’t see the need to wear a chest piece or helmet (though I did don the shrouded hood in arena fights) and the entire look was very rugged, very pit fighter-ish. With some enchantments to boost our speed, hand to hand, athletics and acrobatics, this set up will keep you going fine.
Weapons: Your fists! No exceptions!
Notable Spells: Elemental Shields, Unlock spells, Aegis, Elemental Touch Spells, Devour Health, Corrode Weapon, Greater Magicka Drain, Heal Superior Wounds
Combat is fast, action-packed and brutal, but at the same time, it is also sweet, satisfying and stealthy. Even the mightiest of barbarians will fall to you as you sidestep them and drain their health slowly with a touch spell or smash your palm into their face and rendering them useless on the ground.
Even at the beginning of this playthrough, I found my Hand To Hand to be exceptionally powerful, more so when I nicked the Band of Kwang Lao (located in a locked chest in the Bloodworks of Arena) early on. Doing the Arena questline very early on will get you loads of gold and goodies for later on, so slay that Prince and to spill some blood! Your next goal after that should be the Dark Brotherhood questline, which is what I did.
When heading into battle, be sure to assess the situation carefully. Remember, you are an assassin and the only person who you should be killing is your target, whether it is the leader of a group of bandits, a contract or even just the final boss in a quest. You should sneak past all of those you do not wish to kill, only eliminating those when there is no other way to get past or if you get seen. Always keep a Shield spell up, just in case, and save your elemental shields for close calls.
Scout ahead and assess who needs to be avoided and who should be killed. If you get into combat against a group on enemies, drain their health with your spells to replenish your own and then move in for a power attack. Duck and weave around them with your fancy speed, healing as you need to, before you take them out!
Against heavy hitters, your best option is sneak attacks. Hang back and watch them stride about before stalking close to them... Hit them from behind and give them what for, before melting back into the shadows. If they managed to survive the first hit, jump back and start unleashing your elemental touch spells on them!
- You are an assassin, not a violent sociopath. You keep a level-head when you are not sourcing out a kill and you NEVER kill anyone in plain sight. You also obey the Five Tenants at all times, for Sithis is your father and his word is law.
- When in doubt of scoring a kill, flee. While it may be dishonourable to most, you are an assassin and you will ALWAYS return to find your mark.
- Your morality is up to you, the player, but I played my Marsh Monk as a dirty trickster, a power-hungry anti hero who desired only blood and chaos.
Most quests were easy enough to complete, even with minimal armor and gear. The following are essential to the build but others may be played if you feel they fit:
Dark Brotherhood questline, Arena questline, Thieves Guild questline, Noctournal’s quest, Meridia’s quest and anything else that relies on sneaking, being stealthy or killing your enemies.
There you have it guys, my first Oblivion build! I will be updating with screenshots this weekend, as soon as my PC returns to me, but I did really enjoy the playthrough on my xbox copy. Regardless, I hope you enjoyed the build!
I would like to thank Brewmaster, for some advice on the build, Prisoner for the encouragement and everyone on the Skype chat for listening to me ramble on about it!
I’ve always loved Oblivion but have never looked into making a build. When TES Classics came out, I started to work on this gem but lost drive half-way through. Now, however, I think it is time to unveil...
“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time”.
The Marsh Monk is a fast-paced, unarmed, almost-unarmoured-but-not-quite and quite deadly assassin. After all, why stab when you can snap necks? Why cleave when you can crush organs? You’re speedy, light on your feet and absolutely brutal when it comes to taking down your target. With Magicka, wit, speed and sheer power on his side, the Marsh Monk can easily take down any foe with ease.
A Shadowscale from Black Marsh, the Marsh Monk was sent to Cyrodill to join the ranks of the Dark Brotherhood but was unexpectedly delayed when he was arrested by the Imperial Guard, accused of being an ally of the Grey Fox. You were thrown into your cell, left to rot, but the Dread Father cares for his children and sent down his dark tendrils of fate and gave his child a chance to escape... Now free, the Marsh Monk seeks his revenge, but first, there must be blood.
Race: Male Argonian
Any Argonian born under the sign of the Shadow becomes a Shadowscale, a child of Sithis and destined for a life as an assassin. Unfortunately, Oblivion will not recognise you as a Shadowscale but that can easily be explained that his delay caused the other assassins to misjudge who he is.
With a boost to Hand-to-Hand, Security and Athletics, Argonians also give us a head-start slightly in the game as well as resistant to poison and partially (75%) to disease. Males get a slightly faster speed attribute but I mainly chose this for personal preference.
Birthsign: The Shadow
As explained above, we are a Shadowscale and thus, we MUST take the Shadow stone in order to for the build. Moonshadow is a great power and is defiantly a great way to escape from trouble or to sneak up closer.
Custom Class: Marsh Monk – Athletics, Hand To Hand, Alteration, Destruction, Restoration, Acrobatics and Sneak
Very little to explain here but here is how it goes - Athletics and Acrobatics is for moving fast and for dodging if we get into trouble, Hand To Hand is for dealing out damage along with some Destruction thrown in as touch spells to soften our targets up a bit more, Alteration and Restoration are for protection and finally, Sneak is for getting up close and personal while unseen.
Untagged skills I also used were Block, Alchemy and Security, as Block made me feel a tiny bit more badass, Alchemy allowed me to craft some more potions for restoring my stats and Security got me into places when I didn’t have the appropriate unlock spell
Favoured Attributes: Strength and Speed
Levelling: Strength + Speed + Agility + Willpower
Apparel: Boots of Bloody Bounding, Sack Cloth Pants, Bands of Kwang Lao, the Eye of Sithis and the Ring of the Vipereye
This was my chosen apparel by end game and I quite liked it! I didn’t see the need to wear a chest piece or helmet (though I did don the shrouded hood in arena fights) and the entire look was very rugged, very pit fighter-ish. With some enchantments to boost our speed, hand to hand, athletics and acrobatics, this set up will keep you going fine.
Weapons: Your fists! No exceptions!
Notable Spells: Elemental Shields, Unlock spells, Aegis, Elemental Touch Spells, Devour Health, Corrode Weapon, Greater Magicka Drain, Heal Superior Wounds
Combat is fast, action-packed and brutal, but at the same time, it is also sweet, satisfying and stealthy. Even the mightiest of barbarians will fall to you as you sidestep them and drain their health slowly with a touch spell or smash your palm into their face and rendering them useless on the ground.
Even at the beginning of this playthrough, I found my Hand To Hand to be exceptionally powerful, more so when I nicked the Band of Kwang Lao (located in a locked chest in the Bloodworks of Arena) early on. Doing the Arena questline very early on will get you loads of gold and goodies for later on, so slay that Prince and to spill some blood! Your next goal after that should be the Dark Brotherhood questline, which is what I did.
When heading into battle, be sure to assess the situation carefully. Remember, you are an assassin and the only person who you should be killing is your target, whether it is the leader of a group of bandits, a contract or even just the final boss in a quest. You should sneak past all of those you do not wish to kill, only eliminating those when there is no other way to get past or if you get seen. Always keep a Shield spell up, just in case, and save your elemental shields for close calls.
Scout ahead and assess who needs to be avoided and who should be killed. If you get into combat against a group on enemies, drain their health with your spells to replenish your own and then move in for a power attack. Duck and weave around them with your fancy speed, healing as you need to, before you take them out!
Against heavy hitters, your best option is sneak attacks. Hang back and watch them stride about before stalking close to them... Hit them from behind and give them what for, before melting back into the shadows. If they managed to survive the first hit, jump back and start unleashing your elemental touch spells on them!
- You are an assassin, not a violent sociopath. You keep a level-head when you are not sourcing out a kill and you NEVER kill anyone in plain sight. You also obey the Five Tenants at all times, for Sithis is your father and his word is law.
- When in doubt of scoring a kill, flee. While it may be dishonourable to most, you are an assassin and you will ALWAYS return to find your mark.
- Your morality is up to you, the player, but I played my Marsh Monk as a dirty trickster, a power-hungry anti hero who desired only blood and chaos.
Most quests were easy enough to complete, even with minimal armor and gear. The following are essential to the build but others may be played if you feel they fit:
Dark Brotherhood questline, Arena questline, Thieves Guild questline, Noctournal’s quest, Meridia’s quest and anything else that relies on sneaking, being stealthy or killing your enemies.
There you have it guys, my first Oblivion build! I will be updating with screenshots this weekend, as soon as my PC returns to me, but I did really enjoy the playthrough on my xbox copy. Regardless, I hope you enjoyed the build!
I would like to thank Brewmaster, for some advice on the build, Prisoner for the encouragement and everyone on the Skype chat for listening to me ramble on about it!
(But in all seriousness I'm glad to see the build turned out really well and I'm happy to have been of some help in the creation process of this build)
