The best races and origins to pick in Oblivion Remastered

Choosing your race in The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered isn’t an easy decision, and it’s a challenging choice you must make early on. You’ll do when making a character but before starting the tutorial and selecting a birthsign.

There are 10 playable races available in Oblivion Remastered, with your choice determining your initial attribute points and skills and how other races react to you. Each also has its own unique abilities and weaknesses, which have a longer-term effect on your character.

There’s not technically one best race in Oblivion, as your choice should depend on what you want your playstyle to be, but if you’re new to Oblivion or undecided on how to play this time around, we’ve highlighted what we believe is the best race for all players and detailed its main benefits and weaknesses. We’ve also added some alternate suggestions as well.

All races in Oblivion Remastered

There are 10 playable races in Oblivion Remastered, which we’ve listed each below:

You choose your Oblivion race when creating your character at the beginning of the game. Once the opening cutscene has played, you’ll enter the character customization menu. Your character’s race is the first choice you need to make. Click on the portrait of a specific race to select it and press the right toggle on your controller to bring up the stats, so you can see the stats each race has.

After choosing your character’s race, you must choose their origin, which further affects their stats. This is a new feature for Oblivion Remastered, as the original Oblivion tied gender to your stats. For example, Male Bretons had -10 Speed, while Female Bretons had -10 Strength. In the remake, however, it seems gender has no impact on your stats. Instead, your origin does. For example, a Breton from Systres has less speed than one from High Rock, but more Strength.

Can you change your race in Oblivion Remastered?

No, you cannot change your race in Oblivion Remastered. Once you choose your race, you get one final chance to change your pick before you leave the sewers (the tutorial), but after that, your pick is set in stone.

However, you can change your Oblivion race on Windows PC by using console commands. Just open the cheat console by pressing the tilde key (~) and type ‘showracemenu’ (without the quotes) into the console and press enter. This should bring up the race menu and let you change your race.

Best races in Oblivion Remastered

The best race to pick in Oblivion Remastered is a Breton with the Systres background.

If that one doesn’t strike your fancy, however, two other terrific picks are either the High Elf with the Auridon background or the Redguard with the Dragontail Mountains background.

Whatever race and background you pick will give you a +10 bonus to some attributes and a -10 penalty to others. Additionally, the vast majority of your skills will start with a baseline of +5, but your race and background can increase some skills to a baseline of +10 or +15. With all of that in mind, we’ll explain why these three race and background combinations are our top choices.

If you’re undecided on your playstyle — or are simply looking for a good all-around Oblivion race — you can’t go wrong with the human race, Breton.

The Breton race is arguably the most balanced in Oblivion, though they are more magic-leaning due to their increased magic skills, like Conjuration, Mystician, and Restoration, plus their improved Willpower. Their resistance to Magicka also gives them a high level of magical defense, as they absorb half of all magical damage; regardless of whether you want to be a spellcaster or not, that’s universally useful.

Systres Bretons come with no permanent negative effects, but they have reduced Endurance, Agility, and Speed. These drawbacks are pretty negligible, however, as Agility and Speed don’t take too long to level up. This Endurance reduction is worth keeping in mind if you value Health, however, as Endurance is directly related to how much your maximum Health increases each time you level up. Again, though, it’s not a bad trade-off considering the benefits this race comes with.

The Breton is a good race to build on if you don’t want to commit to one playstyle, especially if you’re considering trying a mage build.

The High Elf race (of either background) is the best Oblivion race for those who want to create a pure mage build, thanks to increased Alteration, Destruction, and Mysticism, plus the Magicka bonus. In fact, if you pair this race with the Atronach birthsign, you get the highest Magicka available in the game. Do note that this race’s weaknesses to fire, frost, and shock damage means you may find battling other mages more challenging.

Redguard (Dragontail Mountains)

The Male Redguard is the best race for those who want to create a warrior build focused on melee. Redguards are hardy, boasting high Endurance and Strength, bonuses in Blunt and Blade (and various armor types), and natural resistance to poison and disease. Just don’t expect to be winning any personality contests or pub quizzes.