It's very beloved by longtime fans of the series, but all of my attempts to get into it have failed early on. Its age is a surprisingly huge barrier to entry. Navigation, menus, combat, I found it all to be quite painful.
It's been a very, very long time since I've played, so I don't remember exactly how it's balanced. I think my magic worked pretty damn good? All I can say for sure is that magic is handled very differently than it is in Skyrim, so I recommend that you do at least dabble in it for the full experience.
I think that in general though, Oblivion encourages its players to pursue a mixed build instead of a specialized one, so don't worry about it too much.
Minor magic-related spoiler: [SPOILER - highlight to read]: Once you've advanced enough in the mages guild, you can create your own custom spells. So if you're running a mage build, and are in need of a more heavy-duty destruction spell, you can just make one.
It used to be pretty big, and then Bioware went and closed all their forums (they were a shitshow to be fair anyway).
Almost all of the mods are still on the Nexus though, and there are thousands of them.
My condolences. Still, if you enjoy it, that's the main thing.
Skyrim or DAO?
For Skyrim? There are mods that alter (and I would argue improve) skill trees. There are mods that make magic more balanced. There are mods that make crafting more involved than just crafting millions of iron daggers. iirc there are even enchanting mods.
Then there's the visual stuff. Armour sets, graphics mods... and yes, the nudie stuff counts if you're in to that kind of thing.
I bought the PC version of Ultimate. Anything I should get for a first play through?
__________________ What CDTM believes;
Never let anyone else define you. Don't be a jerk just to be a jerk, but if you are expressing your true inner feelings and beliefs, or at least trying to express that inner child, and everyone gets pissed off about it, never NEVER apologize for it. Let them think what they want, let them define you in their narrow little minds while they suppress every last piece of them just to keep a friend that never liked them for themselves in the first place.
"The Daemon lied with every breath. It could not help itself but to deceive and dismay, to riddle and ruin. The more we conversed, the closer I drew to one singularly ineluctable fact: I would gain no wisdom here."