Summary:

• Changes a few skills to have different governing attributes, to make increasing said attributes less tedious
• Many classes fundamentally changed, to fix Bethesda's poor porting of their Morrowind classes
• Major skills reworked for less redundancy and weapon-skill bloat
• All vanilla assets preserved, and nothing added on top
• Viable alternative to having to rely on custom classes
  

Overview
Simply put, the preset classes offered in vanilla are mostly dogshit. Major skills that don't match the class attributes, many feel too similar to each other, and a lot of them have too many god-damn weapons skills. A lot of people just opt for a custom class that offers a better focus on their playstyle or makes min-maxing easier. This mod probably won't be of interest to min-maxers, but seeing as this is a role-playing game, I thought it'd be nice if the roles you could choose to play via picking one of the standard classes were more fun and effective to play. You get to have the class description on your stats screen as a badge of honour, without gimping the viability of your character. 

1. A few skills have new governing attributes, for good reason. Bethesda imported the attribute system from Morrowind, but ended up cutting many of the skills, meaning that they'd need to rework which attributes govern what skills. Clearly, they wanted each attribute to have 3 skills assigned to it, for symmetry and balance, which makes a lot of sense. However, Strength can only be levelled by using one of the 3 melee weapon skills, Endurance can only be levelled by taking damage or utilising a repair system that's not universally useful for all characters, and Speed gets raised so damn rapidly because it has not 1, but 2 passively-trained skills used constantly by players. I made some changes inspired by alexpublius' Governing Attributes Rearranged mod, but wanted to do it slightly different.
2. Class attributes and playstyles are reworked for sanity and variety. Another problem Bethesda clearly ran into when porting over the attribute and class system from Morrowind is that, with a lot of skills and mechanics changed and gone, the classes as they were fit poorly into Oblivion. Did they make changes to these classes? Did they reassign attributes to better fit the changed mechanics and skills, or rethink the playstyles of the classes to better suit the game? Lmao no, they just straight up ported them and filled in the gaps where axed skills were. This ended up with many of the classes having attributes that didn't fit their advertised playstyle, and with many of them feeling pretty same-y. I rearranged the attributes and overhauled some of the classes totally to try and iron out some more tangible differences between them.
3. Classes have a better variety of skills, for utility and for less redundancy.  Honestly the worst part of picking a standard class is that many of them have more weapons skills than they need. No one wants to have to constantly switch between weapon skills to level their combat class (for fucks sake, Archer has 4). Also, not EVERY stealth class has to be a carbon copy of Thief with a couple skills swapped out. I've done my best here to give classes more passive skills to train, and more magic/utility skills for flavour, the results aren't perfect but they're a damn sight better. Now, no class (barring Warrior because its the archetypal Combat class) has more than 2 weapons skills.
4. No classes added, all class portraits preserved and adhered to as best as I could. There are still 7 classes for each specialization, and no class shares the same attributes, the combinations have just been swapped around. I love the vanilla class portraits, and I tried my best to be faithful to them. Where they clearly displayed bows, light or heavy armour, potion-brewing etc. I have made sure to represent those with skills in the classes they represent. For the few classes that I completely overhauled, they've swapped class portraits around and were designed to fit those portraits as best I could. Better yet, this mod is compatible out of the box with mods that change the class portraits, so you can pick use either the big tiddy one or the diversity one with this mod happily. 
5. This mod is for fun and flavour, custom classes are still available. A lot of us are pretty used to playing with custom classes by now, and they're still the best if you're trying to min-max the vanilla levelling system (although I'd hope most of us use vanilla+ mods or overhauls to fix the jank-ass levelling). This is just an acknowledgement that this mod isn't ground-breaking and doesn't make sweeping changes to the game, I just made it because I wanted to. The most useful part of this is probably the changes I made to governing attributes.

List Of Changes

Spoiler:  

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Governing Attributes

Armorer is now governed by Strength
Strength can now be raised via Armorer, which means classes that spec Strength don't need to load up on weapon skills, and you can level Strength without having to swap weapon types constantly. You can also level Strength now outside of combat, if you want to spend time fixing your gear or paying for training when you're close to levelling up.

Athletics is now governed by Endurance
Endurance can now be raised passively via Athletics, which opens up health boosts for more classes, especially ones that don't make use of heavy armour or blocking. You can also level Endurance now without getting smacked around.

Hand to Hand is now governed by Speed
Speed would get raised super fast in vanilla because Athletics and Acrobatics get used a lot passively. With Athletics swapped out for Hand to Hand, this fixes that problem while offering another way to level Speed via combat, and splits up the weapon skills across more attributes.

Classes

Acrobat - Stealth | Endurance, Speed | Acrobatics, Alteration, Athletics, Block, Blunt, Light Armor, Marksman
"Acrobats are sturdy and nimble, their bodies conditioned by years of training. As enforcers or bodyguards, their ability to shrug off blows and manoeuvre around their enemies make them a tough match."

Vanilla Acrobat was pretty much just a Thief without social skills, and its description encouraged an almost identical playstyle. I changed it to make them a combat-capable, tanky stealth class, able to use light armor, shields and alteration magic to protect themselves, and acrobatics and athletics to dodge and outmanoeuvre opponents. Marksman preserved for the sake of the class portrait and also a tool for ambush. Think Rogue but hardier and faster.

Agent - Magic | Intelligence, Personality | Alteration, Conjuration, Illusion, Marksman, Mysticism, Sneak, Speechcraft
"Agents are skilled in deception and investigation, augmenting their perception with their spells. They are invaluable as envoys or spies, dedicated to a patron or greater cause."

Agent was yet another class too similar to Thief and didn't really have a niche of its own. Its now far better suited to subterfuge, with plenty access to utility spells to avoid detection and distract the enemy. Combat can be handled from afar with bows and conjured minions. Basically a magic spy.

Archer - Combat | Strength, Agility | Armorer, Athletics, Blade, Block, Light Armor, Marksman, Sneak
"Archers are adept at harassing their foes, from a distance and up close. Ideal skirmishers in battle, they pepper enemy units with arrows, and run circles around them when engaged."

No way was I gonna let Archer have 4 weapons skills. I trimmed this down to the basic tools needed for a skirmisher; bows to harass the enemy from afar, athletics to create distance and outmanoeuvre, blade and block to engage in melee when overrun. Sneak is there for when you need it, but otherwise this class better represents the role of light infantry.

Assassin - Stealth | Agility, Speed | Acrobatics, Alchemy, Blade, Light Armor, Marksman, Security, Sneak
"Assassins are killers well-versed in both stealth and close combat.  As ruthless murderers or principled operatives of noble causes, they use bows, blades and poisons to conduct their work."

The skills for vanilla Assassin were perfect for the classes playstyle (and are untouched), but the attributes, which made sense when Intelligence had a greater role on Alchemy and governed Security in Morrowind, made no god damn sense in Oblivion. Agility and Speed better define what this class is meant to do; pick off opponents at distance or up close, and hold your own in 1 on 1.

Barbarian - Combat | Strength, Speed | Acrobatics, Armorer, Athletics, Block, Blunt, Hand to Hand, Light Armor
"Barbarians are ferocious fighters with a talent for charging down and overwhelming their foes. Fearless and strong, they find employ in armies or warbands."

This class didn't need blade, so I threw Acrobatics in there as another way to level Speed and for charging and dodging. Athletics now also helps this class get some Endurance to make it bulkier, yay. Still geared towards charging at your opponents as fast as possible and dealing shit loads of damage.

Bard - Stealth | Speed, Personality | Acrobatics, Blade, Illusion, Light Armor, Mercantile, Security, Speechcraft
"Bards are sharp and charismatic, bolstering their allies and manipulating their opponents, staying out of harms way as best they can. They yearn for quests and adventure, seeking fame and hoards of treasure."

I never really understand where Bethesda was going when they designed their Bard class, it seemed a bit of a mess. Now it's more like a traditional RPG Bard class, geared towards supporting allies, disorientating enemies & crowd control, and avoiding damage.

Battlemage - Magic | Endurance, Intelligence | Alchemy, Alteration, Armorer, Block, Conjuration, Destruction, Heavy Armor
"Battlemages are strong in body and mind, skilled at spellcasting and heavily-armored combat. As guards or as soldiers, their armor protects them while they summon their minions and throw their spells."

Bethesda's idea of a Battlemage has been a bit inconsistent, and I wanted to introduce a Destruction-user that utilises heavy armor and shields (there's plenty of sword & spell classes available anyway). I swapped the Sorceror portrait over to this class, because it better represents this, and geared the class towards tankiness. Run in there and fire off some touch spells!

Crusader - Combat | Endurance, Willpower | Alteration, Armorer, Athletics, Block, Blunt, Heavy Armor, Restoration
"Crusaders are diehard devotees of great causes, their fierce resolve giving them the will to withstand almost any tribulation. Skilled in the art of healing, they can outlast even the toughest of opponents."

I made adjustments to this class to better fit my idea of a "Crusader" - zealous, strong willed and resilient. The magic skills it has are geared towards protection and healing, and I got rid of destruction because otherwise it really was a little too similar to Spellsword.

Healer - Magic | Willpower, Personality | Alchemy, Alteration, Hand to Hand, Illusion, Mercantile, Mysticism, Restoration
"Healers are spellcasters specializing in miracles, preferring to use magic to help or amaze rather than harm. In noble courts or religious orders, their invaluable services keep their pockets lined healthily."

I went back to how Healer was designed in Morrowind - support allies and protect self with your spells, and use hand to hand or absorb spells for damage. Still a little niche, but should be fun to play at least. If Alchemy wasn't represented in the class portrait, I'd probably have swapped it out for Conjuration for summons, but it fits thematically and you can always use scrolls or followers from guilds to use your healing magic on.

Knight - Combat | Endurance, Personality | Athletics, Blade, Blunt, Heavy Armor, Illusion, Restoration, Speechcraft
"Knights are civilized combatants, schooled in letters and courtesy, governed by the codes of chivalry. Leading men into war or adventure, their heavy armor and bolstering spells protect them and their allies."

Just a little cleanup, made the class tankier with an Endurance spec and got rid of hand to hand in favour of restoration for heals and buffs. Also threw athletics in their over block for personal preference, don't need a shield too desperately if you wear plate armor and use a massive sword or warhammer.

Mage - Magic | Intelligence, Willpower | Alchemy, Alteration, Conjuration, Destruction, Illusion, Mysticism, Restoration
"Mages wield a might more powerful than the sharpest blade. Their expansive knowledge and magical acumen make them the most well regarded scholars in any field."

No changes here. I didn't mess with the archetypal classes too much; they represent the Combat/Stealth/Magic specializations as purely as possible. Mage is exactly what it says on the tin anyway, a class that only focuses on magic skills.

Monk - Stealth | Willpower, Speed | Acrobatics, Alteration, Hand to Hand, Marksman, Mysticism, Restoration, Speechcraft
"Monks are students of discipline and self defence, augmenting their bodies and hindering their foes with magic. In priories, monasteries, or roaming the land, their resolve serves them well in their purpose."

Security and Sneak? For a Monk? I had to change it. Now Monk is still an unarmed combat class, but with spells to protect and buff themselves and also debuff their foes. There weren't really many more skills that were urgently needed in this class, so I left Marksman in to remain faithful to the class portrait, and added Speechcraft because Monks believe in diplomacy and peace, I assume.

Nightblade - Stealth | Intelligence, Agility | Acrobatics, Alchemy, Blade, Illusion, Mysticism, Security, Sneak
"Nightblades are exceptional at stealth and stalking, using their magics for concealment to avoid or prey upon their foes. As hitmen or spies, no target of theirs is safe."

Nightblade was a confused class, billed as a stealthy killer but didn't have sneak and used destruction magic? I adjusted the class to put it somewhere between Agent and Assassin, with some of the qualities of both but unable to attack their foes at range. Sneak past some of your foes using magic to guide you, and absolutely slaughter your target (or anyone else in the way) with blades and poisons.

Pilgrim - Magic | Willpower, Agility | Alchemy, Conjuration, Destruction, Marksman, Mercantile, Restoration, Sneak
"Pilgrims are travellers, seekers of truth and enlightenment. Through their experiences in the wilderness, they are keen hunters and observers, keeping enemies at a distance with arrows and spells."

Bethesda really butchered this class. I combined aspects of Morrowind's Pilgrim and Oblivion's Witchhunter (and swapped over Witchhunter's portrait to this class) to make the ultimate ranged combat class. Firing off arrows and spells from afar, and summoning minions to close in and distract enemies. Alchemy and Mercantile are for flavour and utility, both fitting a travelling class fairly well I think.

Rogue - Stealth | Strength, Personality | Blade, Block, Blunt, Light Armor, Mercantile, Security, Speechcraft
"Rogues are opportunistic fighters with a penchant for swashbuckling and manipulation. Ruthless in combat and in diplomacy, they thrive as independent privateers or mercenaries."

The vanilla class had the right idea, I just tweaked its focus closer towards dealing shit loads of damage in close quarters and looting/swindling. Kind of like a smooth-talking version of Barbarian, play for the ultimate swashbuckler experience.

Scout - Combat | Endurance, Agility | Alchemy, Athletics, Block, Blunt, Light Armor, Marksman, Sneak
"Scouts are hardy and perceptive, gifted with the ability to evade, observe, and guard with great proficiency. They are cautious and methodical, and make excellent lookouts and adventurers."

Made a few changes to this class to make it a bit stealthy; its still primarily geared towards combat, but has a few extra tools in its arsenal for avoiding or engaging foes undetected. Feels more like an outdoorsman now.

Sorceror - Magic | Strength, Intelligence | Blade, Blunt, Conjuration, Destruction, Illusion, Mysticism, Restoration
"Sorcerors are fearsome in combat, summoning thralls and casting terrifying hexes whilst they hack at their foes. As coven leaders or as devout followers, they are a force to be reckoned with."

Now that I stole Sorceror's class portait and replaced it with Battlemage's, I have an excuse to fundamentally change this class. Morrowind's description painted this class as real wicked magic users, so I took it in a direction that fits this idea and its new portrait. Similar to Monk and Witchhunter, this class is primarily focused on hindering your opponents with curses before engaging them in melee, almost like a barbarian that casts hexes on everyone. What sets this class apart is its much wider array of spell options to utilise.

Spellsword - Magic | Strength, Willpower | Alteration, Armorer, Blade, Conjuration, Destruction, Heavy Armor, Restoration
"Spellswords are scholarly fighters who wield spell and blade to maximise their offensive capability. Prized as mercenaries and heavy skirmishers, they crash into enemies with terrifying effect."

This class is out here to deal as much damage as fucking possible. Didn't change it too much, just gave it a Strength spec and replaced some of the skills it didn't really need with others for a bit of extra utility. 

Thief - Stealth | Agility, Personality | Acrobatics, Light Armor, Marksman, Mercantile, Security, Sneak, Speechcraft
"Thieves are pickpockets and pilferers. Unlike bandits, who kill and loot, thieves typically choose stealth and subterfuge over violence, and often entertain romantic notions of their charm and cleverness in their activities."

Only changed it to Agility and Personality, because I wanted to give Agility/Speed to Assassin and Personality fits the charming thief archetype nicely. Otherwise, no change, for reasons outlined under the Mage class above.

Warrior - Combat | Strength, Endurance | Armorer, Athletics, Blade, Block, Blunt, Hand to Hand, Heavy Armor
"Warriors are the professional men-at-arms, soldiers, mercenaries, and adventurers of the Empire. They train with various weapons, and condition their bodies with long marches."

No change, see Mage for reasons. Now the only class to have 3 weapons skills.

Witchhunter - Combat | Intelligence, Speed | Alchemy, Block, Blunt, Hand to Hand, Illusion, Light Armor, Mysticism
"Witchhunters are fighters who hamper their opponents magical capabilities before engaging them in melee. From religious groups to townsfolk, they find plenty of work rooting out undesirables."

I wanted Witchhunter to be more like its name, and be a true anti-mage class. Taking inspiration as well from the Pilgrim class portrait which it now has, its designed for quickly closing in on magic users, hampering their ability to cast spells, and beating the absolute shit out of them in melee.


Compatibility
Perfectly compatible out-of-the-box with mods that change the class portraits. If there are any conflicts with other mods, bashed patches should sort things out (I'm a bit of a Wrye Bash noob), and if all else fails xEdit will do the trick. If patches are needed, point it out to me or have a go at making the patch yourself.

Patch for Ascension available in Optional Files.

This mod is the first of three planned mods that will make up COCC (Completely Overhauled Character Creation). The second mod covers birthsigns and birthstone powers, and the third will cover races. The third and final instalment shouldn't be too much longer, as well as a merged version of all three mods.