Thinking of a new character...

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Fri May 30, 2008 3:34 am

I'm thinking about playing Morrowind again, but I have some questions.

First off: I'm trying to find the mod "Rhedd's Heads", but the site doesn't exist anymore, and nobody seems to host it. Does anybody know of a site that does? Or, if it isn't too big, could you send it to me?

Secondly: I'm going to build yet another Fighter/Mage type, this time more a Spellsword-type.

This is what I have in mind:

Specialisation: Magic.

Major:
Heavy or Medium Armour (Not sure yet, got any advice?)
Armorer
Alteration
Mysticism
Destruction

Minor:
Spear
Speechcraft
Restoration
Alchemy
No idea about the last skill... (Maybe Illusion? Or Security?)

So, my doubts: Heavy or Medium Armour? Is Spear a good choice? Is Destruction worth it? Which starsign would you recommend, besides The Atronach? (My current character has this already.)
Finally: Which Race? I can't choose between Red Guard, Nord or Breton.

Enchanting items can be done by NPCs as long as you're willing to pay, right? No "need" to master it yourself?

Thanks in advance!

BlueSky · Post by **BlueSky** » Fri May 30, 2008 8:03 am

Just did a search using Rhedd as key word on Planet Elder Scrolls and a combo pack of heads came up....also on the elricm.com are over 150 head mods..
Hope this helps......

Rein · Post by **Rein** » Fri May 30, 2008 8:22 am

It's been about 5 - 6 months since I played last but I'll give it a shot. Let me start off with saying (for explanations sake) your major skills lvl faster then your minor skills, and your minor skills lvl faster then the left over skills. Look at all of the skills you chose. Now ask yourself if you want the major ones to be noticablly stronger then minor ones or if you want them all to level equally and be of equal strength? If you want to have them all about the same then the next step is to think which of these would lvl faster normally (if they weren't a major or minor skill) I'll use medium armor, destruction and armoror for my example. Medium armor is used as your main defense and destruction is used as you main attack (lets just say) so, naturally they will level faster then your armoror skill due to being used constantly. You will want to put medium armor and destruction in your minor skills list and armoror in the major list to balance them out. This would cause the armoror skill which is not use as frequently to level faster then it would otherwise.

But if you want certain skills to lvl faster and be noticably stronger then just put them in you major skill list. Duh.

Thats just a little advice not sure if it will help you decide or not.

About the medium/heavy armor I would say medium just cause its lighter and I personally think there are cooler looking medium armor then there are heavy. The armoror skill is always good to have. Spears are also good, they have reach and IMO the Daedric ones look sweet.

Now the only reason I can see as to having speachcraft is so you can convince people to do what you want with ease. In that case I would suggest putting mercantile as your unknown skill. This will help get your personallity attribute up faster and will make bartering easier. Alchemy IMO is a must have. Potions help out in the worst of situations and its a good way to make money. Destruction, keep it, I'll explain why in a sec.

As for Alteration, Mysticism, and Restoration these can be replaced by enchanting. One, its cheaper to make your own enchantments. Two, you don't have to go to a town to make them, you can do it anywhere. Three, this gives you more options for chooseing other skills that lvl naturally and will make lvling your character faster, like athletics and acrobatics. It will even leave an open spot so you can throw in security as well. This way you lvl one skill faster because you gain points for enchanting everytime you use an item, and with alt, myst, and resto, you only gain points when you cast that specific type of spell, thus lvling those skills slower. The reason I said to leave in destruction is because it seems you want to cast spells as your main offense and useing enchanted items for that purpose would only cause problems if the charges fully depleted and you had no souls to re-charge.

If you decide that you don't want to do enchanting then I suggest a sign that will benefit you the entire game not just till you get your attributes to 100. If you do decide to go with enchanting then I suggest to just use atronach. IMO its the best sign in the game.

As for race it also depends on if you go enchanting. If you go enchanting I would not choose the Altmer, they are weak to magicka and without the other spell skills you are not getting a lot of willpower per lvl. If I'm correct, willpower helps resist all types of magic. The safest bet would to go with Dunmer because they are good for casting and fighting physical, which is just what a Fighter/Mage type needs.

Well thats all I have about that, I don't know much about mods. Sorry.

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Fri May 30, 2008 9:01 am

Thanks, Bluesky. I found the mod.

The reason I want to avoid a Dunmer and The Atronach are because of my previous character. He had both. Excellent choices, but I want something else.
Destruction is mainly a Major skill because I would rather rely on my spear and use Destruction as a back-up, hence it gets lesser use.
I'm really not convinced about dropping Alteration, Restoration and Mysticism for Enchanting. It doesn't really offer anything that an NPC couldn't. Also, it will only become usefull late in the game. Finally, I like the versatility these schools offer. Maybe I'll take Enchanting as my 5th Major skill and put Medium Armour in the 5th Minor slot.
I'm also going to swap Speechcraft for Mercantile.
As for race and birthsign, I think I'll settle on a Breton with the Apprentice.

I'm also conisdering using the mod Galsiah. Anyone got experience with that?

Thanks for the advice so far!

Rein · Post by **Rein** » Fri May 30, 2008 11:44 am

I figured you would keep alteration, mysticism, and restoration. You should really try out enchanting, though. I know it's one of the reasons I loved the game so much, it has so much versitility. Here is a link to another post i made earlier this week about favorite items.

http://www.gamebanshee.com/forums/the-e ... 72-p3.html

All of the items i mentioned in the post where made by me and it cost me nothing. There are many things enchanting are usful for at the very start of the game. Like the pants and shirt i mentioned in my other post. You don't have to do it if you don't want to. I just think a lot of people miss out on this wonderful part of the game. It does take time to get the skill up but it levels with you. Most of the time i don't even need to worry about lvling it to make new items that match my characters lvl. If you get Azure's Star then it will help a lot also. Using the Star, as you walk around you trap anything and then use the star to re-charge the item right then and there. Works great for those powerful items that use a lot of charge. Just trap and re-charge. The best part about this is when you re-charge items it makes your enchant skill go up fast. Don't get me wrong, having spells are great also. There is a great amount of customization there as well, probably more. I just like the fact that enchantments cast 100% of the time, use no magicka, you can create new ones anywhere, they make your clothes glisten, and once you have Azure's Star, you will never have to worry about waiting for the items to re-charge. Just enchant an item with summon golden saint and your set!

BlueSky · Post by **BlueSky** » Fri May 30, 2008 11:58 am

GawainBS:
I'm running a game with about 60 mods right now, lots of the city expansion mods, plus a birthsign mod, of course the better bodies, a headpack, a book cover and books rotate, a combo texture mod and many more, this weekend I'll doublecheck and see what I've got installed and PM you if I've got the mod in question....also have about 200 various mods stockpiled on a portable harddrive, some I've used in the past and some for future games.

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Fri May 30, 2008 12:27 pm

Firstly you're right to ignore Enchant IMO.

Destruction is definitely worth it, although in my experience it will force its way into being your prime 'weapon' over any other, including spear, eventually as it's so dominating power-wise.

Spear is a sound choice, I usually keep it and either Heavy or Medium armour as tertiary skills so that I can buy training to max endurance quickly, but it's a decent weapon.

It's all a matter of personal preference of course, but I'd never have Alteration as a major skill or Armourer as major or minor.

I'd choose between Apprentice, Mage, Lady or Warrior for birthsign. The first two give magic boosts, the latter two are good for combat. Personally I find the extra 25 points of Endurance hard to resist, but as you will have gathered I'm rather obsessed with gaining as many HPs as possible.

If you concentrate on magic for the other choices, then I'd say Nord, the frost resistance is a boon, especially in Solstheim. If you go combat on the others, then Breton for balance. My choice would be Breton, but then I do prefer magic oriented characters, the best balance IMO would be Nord, and no, it's not an endurance thing again!

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Fri May 30, 2008 12:55 pm

Bluesky, I found the mod on Planetscrolls, so no need to rummage through your hard drive for me.

Thanks for offering, though.
I was tempted by the birthsign of The Lady, but I found that with some misc. skill purchases, I got 100 Endurance pretty fast with my previous character. I think the *1.5 Magicka will benefit me more in the long run.
Maybe I should make Alchemy a Major and Alteration a Minor.

I really was tempted by Nords, but that would hamper my maximum Magicka, which is something I use a lot.

So, at the moment we have:

Female Breton, Magic-specialized, The Apprentice.

Stats: Intelligence, Endurance. Is Luck worth "tagging"?

Major: Mysticism, Destruction, Alchemy, Armorer, Enchantment.
Minor: Spear, Medium Armour, Restoration, Alteration, Security (Not sure about this one.)

My primary concern would be raising my STR & END, followed by AGI & INT.

Greg. · Post by **Greg.** » Fri May 30, 2008 2:53 pm

I'd drop security for illusion - alteration can open locks, and mysticism can disable traps.

Don't take enchant - paying is more reliable.

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Fri May 30, 2008 2:56 pm

I like Security on top of Mysticism for those times you can't afford to make too much noise...
So, Security Major instead of Enchantment, and Illusion as a Minor? Or viceversa?

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Fri May 30, 2008 4:41 pm

I'd go for Illusion instead of enchant, enchant possibly being the most useless skill in the game.

Rein · Post by **Rein** » Fri May 30, 2008 5:49 pm

Nobody likes enchanting? = (

Why doesn't anyone like enchanting?

Useless!

I can do all of the things you mentioned above with enchanting. FREE!
I don't understand.

It can be used for everything. Is it because people don't want to put the effort into it? I have a ring that I made that summons a Golden Sait for 60 secs. I cast that and trap its soul. Then use the soul right on the spot to make other enchantments. It's the best soul in the game and its right at your finger tips. By the time you get enough money to pay an enchanter to make a CE item, you could have made 10 CE items of your own. Did I mention free? Then all the money you saved you can train your other skills or even max out enchanting. The enchanted items cast 100% of the time. With the Golden Saints soul in every enchantment they hardly ever run out of charge. For those super powerful enchanted items all you have to do is summon GS soul trap it and use it to re-charge the item. Most of the time it refills it back to full charge. You can unlock everything. You can fortify any skill or attribute. You can effectivly cast any and all spells with one skill. You don't even have to be good in the other magic skills to use the items. It's like being a master of all skills in one.

Well, I still think you all should try it before you say its worthless but thats just me. And like you said its all about personal preference.

No hard feelings? Ugh! I hate debating. It gets me flustered. Lol! Oh one last thing I want to add before I get stomped on again. The higher your enchant skill the less charge it uses for the items, and the faster the items re-charge over time. Ha! Now what you gonna say?! :mischief:

P.S. You know I'm JK right?

Is there anyone out there that likes useing the enchanting skill? Quick I need back up! And GwainBS, you can do whatever makes you happy. It's all about having fun.

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Fri May 30, 2008 11:02 pm

In a game where money flows like water in a monsoon what's the point of boosting your intelligence and enchant skill to ridiculous levels just to save some meaningless coins?

If the game hadn't required you to have 300+ intelligence and enchant to be able (if you're lucky) to make weak CE items then maybe it would have been worth it, but I still wouldn't waste a major or minor skill on it. The problem would still be that to make good CE items, like exquisite rings that boost an attribute to 40+ you'd still have to pay someone else to do it.

I have played an enchanter by the way, stubbornly persisted until I'd created my own CE item, couldn't go through that tedious monotony again

The bottom line though is you're bottom line

And GwainBS, you can do whatever makes you happy. It's all about having fun.

, I agree with that 100%

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Sat May 31, 2008 5:13 am

Hehe. I'm with Galraen on this. Money isn't a problem at all, and getting decent Enchanting takes way too much effort. Even then, once you get all the CE items you want, Enchant stops being useful.

Greg. · Post by **Greg.** » Sat May 31, 2008 5:27 am

Except for recharging your weapon/non-constant effect items.

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Sat May 31, 2008 5:40 am

Oh, but by that time, I'll probably buy enough ranks in Enchanting. I'll probably purchase a few ranks now & then to get my INT-mod to x5 when leveling.

Rein · Post by **Rein** » Sat May 31, 2008 6:38 am

My point wasn't about saving money but about enjoying the experience.

I've never had my Intel over 100 nor enchant, but I've still made some pretty sweet items. I've easily made a ring that restores health 4 points CE. Yeah it took a couple of trys, but I did it. The NPC enchanters run off the same mechanics that you do while enchanting so to say you need to pay to make a good enchant is only true before you get your skill up. Plus I thought it was a Role Playing Game. This aspect of the game truely makes you one above the rest. To be able to say yeah I made that sweet item really shows accomplishment and shows you put forth the effort to become a master of the art.

When you try and try and try, time and time again to make that enchanted item but all you see is "Enchantment Failed", it sucks and you want to give up. But IRL mastering something isn't just given to you. You have to earn it. Once you level that one time and you rest and try once more to make the item and it says your enchantment was a success, it feels good.

Thats when you know your place.

I am simply trying to show that learning enchantment was a very fun, (and tough), but rewarding experience. Plus I'm very stubborn

. I never said it was easy. I never said it was instant. But there are ways to make it lvl faster like I mentioned earlier.

I have played an enchanter by the way, stubbornly persisted until I'd created my own CE item, couldn't go through that tedious monotony again

To be brutally honest, this is true. But if you keep trying and don't give up you will make better items. It makes the game longer and provides a new experience. I've been to that point before, but I also overcame that point. I ripped it to shreds actually.

Even if you don't take up enchanting to make your own items (like Galraen stated, very tedious) the skill is still useful cause it allows the enchanted items you do have to last longer before the charge runs out. Also re-charges over time faster, or you can be more effective at re-chargeing them manually. So, how about this:

Major: Mysticism, Destruction, Alchemy, Security, Enchantment.

Minor: Spear, Medium Armour, Restoration, Alteration, Illusion.

Could everyone agree on that? Lol!:laugh:

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Sat May 31, 2008 10:09 am

As we've taken this thread way off topic Rein I suggest we simply agree to disagree. Although I do agree with you about the role playing aspect; the one time I did persevere was when I was playing an enchanter. The skill also, as you point out, makes enchanted items last longer and allows you to recharge them on the fly. However, that's true if it's a miscelaneous skill.

What I find is truly ironic is that the skill would be much, much more useful in Oblivion, where items don't recharge over time, but Beth excluded it for some reason!!!

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Sat May 31, 2008 10:49 am

I'm more convinced of the general need of Armourer, in fact. I don't see myself using Enchant a lot. The few times I tried it, I got disappointed with the same thing Galraen did: the tedious grinding of it. See? It makes me use MMO terms for a Single Player game. That's bad.

I'll up Enchant as a misc skill, since the slower drain on items is nice, but it is even nicer to be able to repair those items if you're far from civilisation.

Rein · Post by **Rein** » Sat May 31, 2008 10:57 am

GawainBS wrote:Enchanting items can be done by NPCs as long as you're willing to pay, right? No "need" to master it yourself?

I was just giving my 2 sense on her question. But yes, you are right we've gone astray.

The skill also, as you point out, makes enchanted items last longer and allows you to recharge them on the fly. However, that's true if it's a miscelaneous skill.

And this is very true as well. Having it as a major or minor would benefit leveling Intel faster but she's got alchemy for that.

As we've taken this thread way off topic Rein I suggest we simply agree to disagree.

DEAL!

By now GawainBS is probably already level 50 and has all the spells and enchanted items she needs. Lol!:laugh:

So, GawainBS, have you decided?