Help me learn to play morrowind

[Claudius]

Hi I'm a new player and am kind of confused. I have tried to do searches but everything is so diluted. I do a search on sneak and I get all kind of threads but nothing about sneak!!!

Anyhow I'm trying to build a character that will be fun for me to play. I like to do a variety of things. I have questions about stealing, magic, and combat.

Question 1) Magic - I dont understand this very well. You only get a limited amount of magicka points and then you are out. Spells have a chance to fail all the while you might be getting eaten by something bad. Even when you do cast a spell the ability doesn't level very fast I feel. Example I hit level 10 without training core 10 skills and my magic skill restoration still hadn't leveled. The exception I found was alchemy. By buying crab and egg you can level alchemy like mad and earn crazy money but it kind of spoils the game?

Question 2) Combat - I think I understand this one. Earn gold to buy good things/find them. Train up weapon and armor (one or more). Kill things. I guess theres no question other than what else makes you good at combat? Kind of tied to 1 as I could think maybe magic but you run out of magic and can't cast and chop at same time anyhow.

Question 3) Stealth - I get frustrated looking for something to steal. I'm sure there are great things if you have the patience to look everywhere.

Sneak - I try to use this in shops to get them to not see me so I can take expensive things. It only works if I am totally out of the room and never when I am barely out of eyeshot. ALSO IT NEVER LEVELS UP. NOT 1/100 OF THE METER HAS GONE UP THE WHOLE LEVEL 10 AND I HAVE IT AS MAJOR SKILL. Plus it is useless in combat. Even if you totally sneak someone its a useless advantage. Initiative isn't a big deal.

Security - is this good class skill or should it be misc skill and trained to about 20 to get easy locks open screw hard ones?

Speech - Usually seems counterproductive. A big money suck bribing the ones you failed to admire to get them to like you and get a good price again? But bribing seems good

Question 4 What skills are good?

Magic - I like all of these but wouldn't choose them as maj/min because I don't seem to use them enough to level (magicka doesn't regenerate unless sleep)

Combat - I like one weapon, Heavy Armor (best protection), Block, Athletics, Armorer (miscellaneous skill train to 20)

Stealth - I like: Mercantile (yes please), Security (but doesn't level fast), Speech (is this really necessary???), Light armor (to lighten the load), Short blade (use as a light backup weapon) I suppose there are some places where insane acrobat or levitate get you some loot.

Question 5 I think these skills are bad but maybe I am just new?

Magic - none are bad. all good even unarmored helps if your armor breaks at a critical time. More magic skill is good to have more options but as I have already said I don't understand how you level this besides training or cheesing with cantrips and sleeping. My idea is to use potions and enchanting (paid) to get the magic I need with some basic level for utility spells (mark recall restore attribute healing etc)

Combat - Armorer is pretty lame. Just train to 20 and always carry 10 hammers on each mission. If it doesn't work just keep hammering away and use lots of hammers to get job done. more than 2 types of weapons or two types of armor seems pretty dumb. Athletics speeds the game up but no combat advantage I see.

Stealth - Sneak seems horrible considering I can't get it to level it doesn't advance and surprise is no help in combat. I will admit sneak is psychologically fun!! See combat for rule against too many types of armor/weapons. Hand to Hand seems absolutely horrible unless you want to role play cain from kung fu. marksman is fine except fishy to shoot arrows from point blank.

This is a hard game the only way I got to level 10 was gold bonanza from alchemy. I would like to learn to play the game role playing wise but I don't want to get killed or never advance in level!!!!

Please help!

Thank you,

claudius

PS I just tried making a mage with all the magic skills except unarmed, conjuration, and ??? with Light Armor, short blade, and Mercantile. I did the potion thing to make money then eventually got repeatedly owned by the ninja guy I want to make a guy and not have to start over!!!

[fable]

Question 4 What skills are good?

Questions like this are really better suited to our Search, simply because they're so broad, and every skill in the game is good, depending upon how you want to build your character. If you serach on "skills," you'll get threads about a whole range of builds, along with the skillls each player suggests using to make that build work.

Define the kind of character you want at the start of a thread just for that, and tell us how to help you build it. That will make these questions and answers more focused, and you'll find the replies more helpful.

Alchemy: No, that doesn't spoil the game, because there are so many different ingredients to collect and purchase, and many different formulas you can make. But if you want to make alchemy harder to raise, check out the sticky threads at the top of the forum.

Note the one about mods. If you're playing on a PC and have a good deal (at least 500 KB) of memory, you can and should consider adding mods to help personalize your experience. One very popular kind of mod adds a slow recharge to mana in realtime, another lets you change the swiftness with which various skills increase, and a third governs some of the potentially cheesier aspects of some ingredients--which is why I mention mods; but there are plenty of other kinds, too.

[Claudius]

thanks and about my char idea

Thank you fable for your reply. I'll post the character I am thinking about (and level 4 so far) along with something about what I like about those choices. Also, good idea on mods. Alas my computer with good graphics (newer) has some hardware issues with internet connection that I need to solve before I can download mods.

Mystic Wanderer

This character is a resourceful rogue with some fighting ability but not an extreme thief character. Some magical tricks are included including Illusion, Mystic arts, Healing, and herbal lore. The race is dunmer as I like this race style wise. Stealth is chosen because the primary armor and weapon is stealth. Stealth skills are left to Minor because they advance faster (or at least start out with bonus points). Birthsign is the lady because I am a newb and that cuts down on the degree you have to worry about getting 5 in 3 categories each level. Plus more health and early disposition.

Major

Heavy Armor (if I find a good piece of high protection)
Alchemy (cash and level at will)
Illusion (stealing, stealth, defense from physical)
Mysticism (attack attributes, utility spells, defense from magic)
Block

Minor

Short blade
Light Armor
Speech (cheaper to bribe people for quests)
Security (get the loot)
Restoration (minor cures and healing between fights)

Creed: Help the common people while seeking adventure. Do not get manipulated by factions but instead make own decisions. Hire on to guilds but do not kill relatively innocent people.

[Coot]

About sneak improvement: find a place that has a few people. Some alley in a town will do. Your sneak skill only improves when you're in someone's line of sight so you have to have npc's around.
Hold down the sneak key continuously (or put a heavy object on the sneak key, leave the computer and go do something nice).
You'll want a place where people move around a lot so that when you're being seen by someone, he/she will eventually turn around, giving your sneak ability a chance to activate itself again.

Of course, this is cheesy. Very cheesy. That's why I'd never do this :laugh:

[marak the veile]

sneak is very useful (but my character is a thief), there are a lot of things to steal. I got so excited yesterday, because I managed to steal the ancient dwarf's books (they all give attribute bonuses) from the locked cabinet right next to him in the corpusarium. There's nothing that'll make you feel more badass than stealing from right under someone's nose.

Also, speech can be useful, you should probably bribe everyone who you think you'll be doing business with regularly, get them to like you and you save money when doing business with them.

[galraen]

About sneak improvement: find a place that has a few people. Some alley in a town will do. Your sneak skill only improves when you're in someone's line of sight so you have to have npc's around.
Hold down the sneak key continuously (or put a heavy object on the sneak key, leave the computer and go do something nice).
You'll want a place where people move around a lot so that when you're being seen by someone, he/she will eventually turn around, giving your sneak ability a chance to activate itself again.

Of course, this is cheesy. Very cheesy. That's why I'd never do this :laugh:

In Morrowind you don't have to be anyones line of sight. You can park youself behind the guy in the Excise office (the one who gives you the package for Caius Cosades) and do the continual sneak cheese whilst making coffee or whatever. However, you do need to have sneak at at least level 20 to make use of this 'cheese'.

[fable]

In Morrowind you don't have to be anyones line of sight. You can park youself behind the guy in the Excise office (the one who gives you the package for Caius Cosades) and do the continual sneak cheese whilst making coffee or whatever. However, you do need to have sneak at at least level 20 to make use of this 'cheese'.

I simply parked my level 8 character in a spot to the left of a merchant in his shop, along the wall, and placed weights on the keyboard to invoke sneak. Came back 90 minutes later, and had gone up 30 levels in the skill. -That said, I do use some tweaking mods that might have removed any limit, though I'm aware of such.

[Claudius]

Could I have some feedback on the character build that I posted? Do you think it is not good? Or am I missing something?

Fun character but I think I might start over yet again with the same character but make a rule not to use alchemy scams to make money. Its a funny thing...Theres a fine line between having no fun because you are getting thrashed to often and not having fun because you are too good.

Currently I know I'm not ultimate but I found the simple tactic of making intelligence potions and then super healing potions basicly wins every fight. If they can't outdamage your healing that is. And they haven't yet!!! My alchemy is 100 now and short blade only 46. Kind of crazy. At this point its overwhelming because I have too many options yet the enemies are so weak that all I need to do is constantly beat on them and drink a healing potion that cost 6 gold to make. Usually not even needing the potion!

Thanks for the advice on sneak. I did some thieves quests and trained it up to get it started.

This is a fun game but too seductive to cheese your way through. Its no fun to lose but no fun to win too if you cheese

claudius

[fable]

I"d drop:

Speech. It's extremely easy to make tons of money in Morrowind, even without all the cheese people will tell you about. So you don't need to worry about having little for bribes.

Security. When you get security high enough, you can open locked items, provided you have picks. If you get the relevant spell school high enough (Alteration), you not only open locks, you can do many other things.

Short Blade. Nice, especially for the poison and paralyze effects on items you find, but you really only need one weapon type, and long blades are the most popular. You can work up Short Blade later with an instructor, if you so choose.

I'd add:

Athletics. When you're outnumbered or outgunned, being faster than everybody else rules.

Illusion. Invisibility, calm, enrage, paralyze. What's not to like? Very useful for thieves.

Alteration. As above.

[Claudius]

Thanks for the idea fable.

I'm rebuilding and restarting. My new idea in the game is to #1 not be obsessive about getting 5 x3 attribute each level up. That is silly. If you are immersed in a game world you are thinking about game world things not game mechanics like what your stats are. Also I found it excessively cheap to run my alchemy scams. I will still use alchemy to make a little money but no more buying 200 eggs and crabs and making 200 potions. I will consider that they only get their stock ingredients (UPS) each morning and I can only buy whats in stock.

Sign: the one that gives magicka with no penalty
Style: Magic (even though I'll mostly be fighting) - magic is hard to level
Attribute: Intelligence, Willpower

Major

Alchemy (will still be good) :Intelligence
Heavy Armor :Endurance
Alteration :Will
Mysticism :Will
Illusion ersonality

Minor

Light Armor :Agility
Restoration :Will
Athletics :Speed
Sneak :Agility
Longsword :Strength

How's that sound?

claudius

[fable]

That looks good to me, though I might suggest raising Long Blade to a major, and dropping, say, Alteration to a minor. It's just pretty tough to advance weapons in the early game, while magic schools can be very easily advanced by creating a spell in the appropriate school with one spell point. Then you just keep casting it over and over, in the privacy of wherever you care to be. I think of it as practicing, and perfecting within character.

[Claudius]

Yes I have to restart! haha. A nix hound nearly got the best of my char, it was pretty hilarious. I did come up with a cool idea. I craft a combination spell 'Battle cantrip' designed to use a minor effect from each school of magic I use. A 1-2 Sanctuary for 30 sec; slow healing rate for 7 sec; 1-5 shield for 15 sec. Nothing for mysticism as its kind of a buff and reflect is too expensive to be of any value for a cantrip.

I enjoy role playing this weak character more than an unrealistic super alchemist scam artist.

I may actually not start over and just hunt mud crabs to raise my long blade? Why not? Also I found an amulet of summon bonewalker in a crate so I might just try the experience haha. It can be fun to roleplay a vulnerable junior mage gathering herbs.

claudius

[Coot]

In Morrowind you don't have to be anyones line of sight. You can park youself behind the guy in the Excise office (the one who gives you the package for Caius Cosades) and do the continual sneak cheese whilst making coffee or whatever. However, you do need to have sneak at at least level 20 to make use of this 'cheese'.

Yes, that's right. 'Line of sight' wasn't the correct phrase. But you do have to be around someone for the sneak skill to go up. You can't sit in an empty house and train sneaking.