Every Class In Oblivion Remastered, Ranked

Oblivion Remastered breathtakingly remakes the land of Cyrodiil, including all its gameplay intricacies. One of the first you'll encounter, before even exiting the tutorial stage, is which class you will inherit for the entirety of the game's 100-hour-plus run.

Before venturing past the sewers of the Imperial City, your character will need to pick a class. Unlike Skyrim, Oblivion requires that you choose a specific class, birthsign, and race before venturing out into the world. Also, unlike Skyrim, your build matters much more in this game due to Oblivion's absurd scaling mechanics (which we cover below). We'll be ranking all 21 of the game's classes from best to worst, ranking them based on their effectiveness without major metagaming.

Custom classes are excluded from this list.

21 Healer

Healers only have Destruction for outputting damage, although Illusion can be used as a form of crowd control. You aren't proficient with any armor, or weapons, and your Major Skills demand that you metagame to increase your Endurance and other important stats.

It doesn't even have a Major Skill in Conjuration, the one school of magic where healing others would be required mechanically. Don't play a Healer.

20 Rogue

The Rogue lacks a ranged Major Skill, preventing it from being a top-tier class. A lack of Sneak proficiency means you'll be playing this class as a lightweight fighter, dodging attacks and blocking on occasion.

If that playstyle interests you, a Scout is a better class option. If you want to use Illusion and Blade together, play a Bard instead. The Rogue's defining features are done better with other pre-made classes.

19 Battlemage

The Battlemage is an objectively worse Spellsword, both for melee combat and for casting spells. Your lower Willpower stat will make spellcasting somewhat tougher in the early game, and this class doubles up on melee Major Skills with no skill that increases your Endurance.

18 Thief

Strangely, the Thief isn't proficient with Blade for a class that wants to get close to steal. Since Illusion isn't a Major Skill, you might also have a harder time sneaking around in the early game when compared to an Agent.

The Agent is arguably a better choice if you want to play a dedicated stealth character.

17 Pilgrim

Pilgrims have a strange combination of Attributes and Major Skills that make this class undesirable; a lack of Strength hurts their damage output with Blunt Weapons.

Most of their Major Skills increase Attributes that aren't enhanced at the start, they lack a ranged Major Skill, and their only means of increasing Endurance quickly is through Block. It's not the worst class in Oblivion, but it's far from the best.

16 Monk

Hand To Hand has the lowest damage output out of every skill in Oblivion, although unarmed builds don't have to worry about getting stunned by attacking a blocking opponent.

Your enhanced mobility makes you significantly harder to hit, although this playstyle discourages the use of Endurance skills—meaning the Monk is a glass cannon at higher levels. Considering your subpar damage output, this tradeoff isn't worth it.

15 Acrobat

If you read the leveling preamble earlier, then the Acrobat's rank shouldn't come as a surprise. This class is made up entirely of Major Skills that you'll use in gameplay, which means you'll level quickly. This wouldn't be a negative if it wasn't for your Major Skills.

Almost all of your Major Skills focus on Agility, with your main damage skill requiring Strength. Your only Endurance-related Major Skill is Block, and you have no ranged Major Skills. It's hard to justify playing an Acrobat when classes like Bard and Spellsword exist.

14 Warrior

From a roleplaying perspective, the Warrior is your traditional fighter who is a martial weapons expert. The issue is that using multiple weapons isn't necessary in Oblivion, making skills like Hand To Hand practically useless. It also lacks a Major Skill in a ranged archetype like Marksman or Destruction.

The good news is that the Warrior is a fairly easy class to play, having a boost to its Endurance stat and two Endurance-related Major Skills. So long as you increase your Endurance every time you level up, you should be able to survive most of the monsters Oblivion throws your way. If you want to weave spells or stealth in general gameplay, you're better off with another class.

13 Barbarian

Barbarians are meant to trade survivability for damage in most RPGs, Oblivion being no exception. The issue is that they don't output more damage than any class that has higher Strength or Blade as a Major Skill.

You can make Barbarians tougher if you focus on using the Armorer and Block skills to level your Endurance, but you'll always be behind what a Knight or Spellsword can achieve. It's not a bad class by any means. There are just better alternatives.

12 Scout

Scouts in Oblivion are speedy duelists that focus on movement more than tankiness or utility. They lack a Major Skill in a range archetype, although they do have Athletics and Acrobatics to make up for this.

In practice, this class requires Attribute min-maxing to get going, as you'll want to increase your Endurance, Speed, and Strength stats. And since you are using Light Armor, it can be tricky to get your Endurance up without relying on the Block stat—a skill that's less useful due to your inherent speed. While by no means a terrible class, the Scout's Major Skill selection makes it difficult to get optimal Attributes unless you metagame.