Alchemy or Enchant???

[Skuld]

Well before I get too far(I'm presently on my way to Balmora) I wanna know if I've made a bad choice by chosing Alchemy. Well not necessarily a bad choice but would Enchant have been a better skill to chose at character creation? I know Alchemy's good because you can put all the stuff you find to good use making potions, and even the harmful ones you can sell, but Enchant seems like a better choice. The thing that turned me away from enchant was that it's difficult to get to a level where you can make really good items. What should I do??? For the record I'm playing a thief type character with Mysticism as one of my main skills.

[techoluvr]

I think you made a fine choice. The only up side to enchant though is that enchanted items recharge their power a little faster the higher your skill is at. Plus, to have an almost 100 percent chance to succesfully enchant sumthin you have to use alchemy to boost your int. to at least a couple thousand ive heard

[fable]

Alchemy is the better choice, from my perspective. First of all, you can easily get cheap or free alchemy ingredients, and with every successful use you increase your skill slightly--and potentially your intelligence, as well, if you choose to raise it. It's possible to get 5x each of several successive levels in intelligence, using alchemy.

Second, those potions are going to be very useful to you, both in the short term and long run. Instead of searching out the appropriate vendor, you can make what you need. You can also sell potions. This has made alchemy my cash cow, since I won't sell occupied soul gems--their obscenely high prices make 'em simply too cheesy, IMO.

You can always raise your enchant skill later from a teacher, but why bother with alchemy, when it's so easy to learn by practicing?

[Skuld]

Thanks. I made the right decision then. I also looked through the section on enchantments in the manual and it seems like almost more trouble then it's worth if you're in impatient type.

[Lost_Guardian]

I 100% agree with fable. I have a Breton Sorceress who has Alchemy and i love making potions! And as fable said its a money maker!

[Ares2382]

Well I sort of have to disagree with you guys. See the thing is Alchemy is super easy to lvl up(although annoying to click the same button all the time to combine 100 or so potions), but you can easily raise Alchemy by 10 points in a matter of just few minutes.

From my experience playing this game, and I've been plaing it since day 1, everytime I took alchemy as one of the major/minor skills my characters ended up lvling up crazy fast, and it kinda took the fun out of it.

But as skills go Alchemy is the better skill, but I would just recommend putting it under Misc. so you don't lvl up too fast.

[Skuld]

Well jumping everywhere you go boosts your acrobatics skill ridiculous amounts, but I still made it a minor skill. And I can justify having Alchemy as a minor skill because it's oen of those you need to level up a bit before you can get a good success rate, so boosting it early makes sense.

[Ares2382]

I guess the most important thing to note about this game, and one of the many reasons it's so great, is that there really no right or wrong way to play your character, whatever skill you choose you can always train the other one through either intensive practise or just a few extra gold coins.

[Mad Loco]

Alchemy is the most powerful magic in the game, there is a massive amount of things you can do with Alchemy, such as fortify luck which boosts your luck passed 100 allowing you to do anything and succeed, or water walking..and the potions you make can make you a nice amount of gold if you run short of it. Plus ingrediants grow back after a while so there's always stuff to use and if you guys haven't already figured out by now, it's probably the health potions that 75% if not 90% of players use if they have to fight and guess what..thats an alchemy skill , by making your own you can make more powerful stuff you could become fairly powerful without being a high level person.

[Lowkei]

right choice!

i would say you made the rite choice choosing alchemy instead of enchant because alchemy only uses ingrediants so if the potion fails it dosen't really matter because ingrdiants are everywhere, were as enchant uses soul gems and really needs a high level to work, so if the enchantment fails you wasted a good item especilly if you used a grand sould gem. I would say just wait till you get to balmora and then pay to train you enchant skill before using it and keep alchemy as one of your skills as you don't need a very high level to make potions usually. Sorry if this is no help.

[miciah]

I agree with Ares2382's comment that there is no right or wrong choice in Morrowind. It all depends on how you want to play the game, or how your approach to gameplay changes as your character develops. For instance, when I began playing my current character, I was primarily using a physical combat offensive. Then I progressed to a stage where I was primarily attacking through summoned minions. When I began to accumulate several conjuration artifacts, I switched to minions summoned from enchanted items. Now, with some of the more powerful weapons I've collected, I'm back to about 50% physical combat. So how I've played has morphed a lot over time. But I've never had any reliance on either Enchant or Alchemy.

When I was starting out, I was encouraged to make Enchant a major skill and leave Alchemy as a misc to train up as needed. So that's what I did. In reality, I've actively used NEITHER skill and I just finished the main quest with little serious effort.

I've only brewed a potion twice. It was when I was trying out the skill to see how it worked. Since then I've carried around Grandmaster Alchemist equipment and ingredients with no reason. I kept thinking I would use them at some point, but it's all just been dead weight to me. So after around 250 hours of gameplay carrying the stuff around, I may well get rid of it all before I move on to Tribunal.

Not only have I not been making potions, I also almost never use a potion. Again, I have many I've been carrying around in anticipation of use, but there isn't anything in a potion that I can't cast as a spell instead, and spells take up no weight. There were two instances when I was a new, weak character with physical combat as my best offensive option when I used potions to get through multiple simultaneous enemies. But since then the only potions I've used have been restore magicka potions. However, I've now reached a point in my character's development where I don't even use those.

I've also never used Enchant because I only care about items with constant effects, and I'm not a powerful enough enchanter to do those with reasonable success. So when I got to the point that I was walking around with 300,000 in gold and nothing to spend it on, I just decided to pay to have items enchanted. So overall I haven't needed either Alchemy or Enchant.

For the record, my current character is a Breton under the Atronach birthsign, so my resistance to magicka and my spell absoption make most spellcasters of little concern. I use Unarmored, which despite warnings I've read, has worked wonderfully for me in physical combat, and the lack of armour means more encumbrance for loot. Between the equipment I've found and constant effect items I've paid to have enchanted for water walking, water breathing, invisibility, levitation, night eye, and a ring that keeps a Flame Atronach with me at all times, I find that I have no real needs now. So overall I haven't needed either Alchemy or Enchant.

Of course, that's just how I've been playing my character. There are many, many options and many work arounds should you decide that your character is deficient in some regard.

[Anonononomous]

I wouldn't have gotten either. I find making potions boring. And if I don't worry about picking up all but the most exspensive alchemical ingredients I get a much tidier inventory. And yes, I know about the house mods where you can sort your ingredients. But still, sitting around sifting through a million ingredients to find the ones you want in boring to me.


I'd just take an extra combat or castable magic skill.

[Alien_Newborn]

When I made my first character, I had both Alchemy and Enchant as minor skills and, whereas I had alchemy at 100 within 60 game days, I find that enchant skill is only usefull (I mean, like, used at least thrice per gaming session) for HIGHLY magic-dependant characters, (you know, like, the littlest, tiniest babies? [you know, they watch those shows on public television?] )

Under the influence (again)
Alien_Newborn

[ArchMage]

I prefer Enchant

I agree that it is simply a matter of opinion: some people prefer magic, others prefer combat, others prefer theiving skills and back stabbing. Everyone's opinion is just that: an opinion, and that's the wonderful thing about this game: it's different for everyone, and everyone can have fun their own way.
Me, I prefer Enchant, because Potions take up space and weight, and their affects are not fast enough sometimes, whereas a well-placed spell, scroll, or enchanted item can mean the difference between life and death.
I just started this game a few days ago, I'm at level 20 and I've already enchanted an Ebony Long Sword with fire damage of 50-100, and believe me, it's wonderful being able walk up and cut down one of those big-assed monsters that have kicked my behind so many times. To be honest though, I have been playing hardcore RPG's for 23 years, so I tend to skip past the boring, easy levels and jump straight into the more difficult tasks, so it helps to have a sword that will cut down the much-stronger enemies that I am faced with. And an enchanted weapon is immediately available to you, whereas a potion you actually need to "use" and then hope the affects are quick enough to save you.
Again, some people prefer the "in your face" physical combat that requires no magic at all, like junior high students that have too much testerone and not enough skills; others prefer the maleability of magic, and the wonderful things that can be done with it; still others like a mixture, and even others prefer being the "ranger" types, or hunter types.......it's all a matter of YOUR opinion: choose what suits your preference, that way the game is most enjoyable to you.