08-02-2005 22:44									#91
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Solver, how would you rank the magic skills in their importance?

	08-02-2005 23:04									#92
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Destruction and Alteration are the two most important. Destruction is how you kill things, and does increase fast as a major skill. Alteration does provide levitation, jumping, opening and a few other nice effects, and is commonly used. For a mage character, obviously, you can have the magical skills as major or minor. For instance, I would major in Destruction, Alteration, Illusion, Blunt Weapon (wizards use staffs) and Enchant.

Enchant is actually a tricky skill. It's great if you are going to enchant your own items. Which takes practice. So if you want to do that, it might be good to stock up on soul gems, go out and kill lots of tiny critters soultrapping them, and trying to enchant something with their souls. That way, your enchant skill will increase at some point enough for you to be able to decently enchant powerful items. Enchanting yourself is good because otherwise you'll spend hundreds of thousands of gold to pay an enchanter.

Oh, and the Unarmored skill is bugged and weak. I'd be tempted to take it as a mage and walk without armor, but the way the game works, it's not a good idea.

	08-02-2005 23:57									#93
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quote: Originally posted by Solver Destruction and Alteration are the two most important. Destruction is how you kill things, and does increase fast as a major skill. Alteration does provide levitation, jumping, opening and a few other nice effects, and is commonly used. For a mage character, obviously, you can have the magical skills as major or minor. For instance, I would major in Destruction, Alteration, Illusion, Blunt Weapon (wizards use staffs) and Enchant. Enchant is actually a tricky skill. It's great if you are going to enchant your own items. Which takes practice. So if you want to do that, it might be good to stock up on soul gems, go out and kill lots of tiny critters soultrapping them, and trying to enchant something with their souls. That way, your enchant skill will increase at some point enough for you to be able to decently enchant powerful items. Enchanting yourself is good because otherwise you'll spend hundreds of thousands of gold to pay an enchanter. Oh, and the Unarmored skill is bugged and weak. I'd be tempted to take it as a mage and walk without armor, but the way the game works, it's not a good idea.

If you have a character with some combat skills and not a lot of magicka, is destruction necessary? For such a character, what two or three magic skills does he need?

	09-02-2005 00:17									#94
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my next character will be one who uses an axe or bludgeoning weapon as primary damage dealer.

I tried destruction, I didn't like it that much. But it comes in handy against groups of enemies.

3 important mage skills. Alteration, restoration, and either enchantment or alchemy- whichever you prefer. Or do both.

	09-02-2005 04:47									#95
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quote: If you have a character with some combat skills and not a lot of magicka, is destruction necessary? For such a character, what two or three magic skills does he need?

I would prefer to take destruction because it can have very powerful spells... but then again you aren't going to have lots of magicka. You know, since most birthsigns are useless, take a sign that gives you extra magica (Atronach or, IIRC, apprentice) for a mana bonus, or use some enchantment for it. Destruction IS very good. Not only for spells like fireballs, but also for direct damage health, or draining enemy attributes, skills, etc. I think destruction is the single most powerful skill, as a ton of spells come under it.

Don't major in restoration, leave it at minor. It's really not worth being a major skill. However, if you care to do it, majoring in alchemy is a great idea for a character that will have some magical ability. Making potions is easy, can give you lots of money and is, in fact, the most overpowered skill. That is because you can use alchemy to make yourself insanely powerful. I mean insanely. Like, kill any enemy with a single staff hit, move around at an unbelievable speed, not lose any helth, or gain thousands of magicka.

	09-02-2005 18:18									#96
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I have to agree that power-gaming Morrowind is ridiculously easy. In fact, if you chose heavy armor, a bashing weapon (ax/blunt/longsword), merchantile and alteration as major skills, you really wouldn't need anything else. Bashing weapons will kill your enemies; heavy armor will do the best job of keeping you from getting killed; alteration will make sure you can go anywhere yu need to; merchantile will get you anything you can't get any other way. After those four, whatever else you choose is gravy.

So you really should roleplay instead. Build a character based on what you want to be and do, not what will win (because, really, Morrowind isn't so hard to beat that you need to game it that way). Or take a pre-made character and have them grow; I'm playing an out-of-the-box bard who, I decided, only got interested in the Marksman skill once he found a crossbow, and has been training himself to use it ever since. But the variety of characters you can build is one of the best things about the game.

	09-02-2005 20:04									#97
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Mercantile is useless for power-play. Absolutely useless. If you power play, you kill an Ordinator, go sell his armor and get some 35k gold. Repeat it several times and you have more gold than you can spend.

	09-02-2005 20:11									#98
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Did they design the game with some obvious way to cheese up your skills. For instance, in the cave outside of Seyda Neen, there are 3 prisoners chained there. You can ramp up your Speechcraft skills endlessly by Admiring them. I consider something like that a cheat, but maybe it was designed to be there for people to use?

	09-02-2005 21:51									#99
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Nahhh, they just designed the game to give you maximal freedom, which does, in turn, often make balance weak. Heck, you can level up most skills very easily. Take any magic skill. Create a custom spell like fire damage 1 pt on touch and cast it repeatedly while running, it will only cost 1 or 2 mana and will level you up fast.

	10-02-2005 00:15									#100
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quote: Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly I have to agree that power-gaming Morrowind is ridiculously easy. In fact, if you chose heavy armor, a bashing weapon (ax/blunt/longsword), merchantile and alteration as major skills, you really wouldn't need anything else. Bashing weapons will kill your enemies; heavy armor will do the best job of keeping you from getting killed; alteration will make sure you can go anywhere yu need to; merchantile will get you anything you can't get any other way. After those four, whatever else you choose is gravy. So you really should roleplay instead. Build a character based on what you want to be and do, not what will win (because, really, Morrowind isn't so hard to beat that you need to game it that way). Or take a pre-made character and have them grow; I'm playing an out-of-the-box bard who, I decided, only got interested in the Marksman skill once he found a crossbow, and has been training himself to use it ever since. But the variety of characters you can build is one of the best things about the game.

I have to admit, I'm finding the Mournhold expansion to be hard. The original game is very easy, but this expansion is tough in areas.

Darkbrotherhood Assassins tough.
goblin handlers- tough
those uber liches (can't remember what they are called)- tough- mainly because they drain your strength.

There was this one guy who I gave money because he was asking for it, then keeps demanding more. I eventually cut him off. A few days later he attacks me. Ridiculously tough!! . I had to lower the difficulty level just to defeat him.

That guy who was a hand of the lady. Very, very tough. I had to lower the difficulty level to defeat him as well.

yeah I know, a lot of it is my weapon. I just wanted to try something different. But short blades suck. The game is so biased towards long blades. I just made that weapon that female god (her name startes with A Axelta or something like that) want you to make. And of course it's a long blade. I think I'll go find a long blade master trainer. I'm sick of every good weapon being a long blade.

	10-02-2005 00:18									#101
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Yeah, Tribunal is considerably harder. In fact, it's extremely hard for a mage, as most characters and enemies are extremely magic resistant. That beggar, Gaenor, is probably the toughest fight in the game. Of course, Almalexia's hand is impressive, and Almalexia is also strong (a god, duh), so yes, Tribunal is good in that regard.

	10-02-2005 01:26									#102
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I find myself so wrapped up in trying out new characters with different skill sets and races that I am not getting very far in the game. I have created about 8 characters and none of them have gotten much farther than Seyda Neen and Balmora because I play a different character every time I play. I guess I'm trying to find the one that I like the best.... So far I like this female Argonian adventurer I made the best...

	10-02-2005 01:40									#103
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quote: Originally posted by bfg9000 I find myself so wrapped up in trying out new characters with different skill sets and races that I am not getting very far in the game. I have created about 8 characters and none of them have gotten much farther than Seyda Neen and Balmora because I play a different character every time I play. I guess I'm trying to find the one that I like the best.... So far I like this female Argonian adventurer I made the best...

That is one of the good things about Morrowind, you have a lot of re-playability(becoming rare these days) in the game. I havent ever finished the main quest yet, or even gone into the expansion area's yet. I've probaly played for a good 60 hrs.

I havent played it for a good few months at-least, but now i feel the urge to get back to it

	10-02-2005 03:24									#104
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There's great replayability even without creating new characters... I for once don't do that, I become rather attached to my characters. I played with one character first, power-gaming it, becoming extremely powerful, and then retired it. Then I created another character, a more interesting one, and have stayed with that one since, using the mods and expansions to prolong the lifespan of the game.

And yeah, it's great how Morrowind can be played for some time, put aside for two months, and played again.

	10-02-2005 04:41									#105
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quote: Originally posted by Solver Mercantile is useless for power-play. Absolutely useless. If you power play, you kill an Ordinator, go sell his armor and get some 35k gold. Repeat it several times and you have more gold than you can spend.

It's very useful at the beginning, before you're strong enough to pull tricks like that off. After that, though, you're right.

	10-02-2005 04:45									#106
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quote: Originally posted by bfg9000 I find myself so wrapped up in trying out new characters with different skill sets and races that I am not getting very far in the game. I have created about 8 characters and none of them have gotten much farther than Seyda Neen and Balmora because I play a different character every time I play. I guess I'm trying to find the one that I like the best.... So far I like this female Argonian adventurer I made the best...

I did this too, at first. The trick -- as I've learned from this thread, actually -- is to not do too much with any one character. I really like my Bard, and I'm using him to explore the whole map (as a good Bard would), but he's only doing House Hlaalu quests (in addition to the main quests). I want to do the Temple pilgrimages, but it makes no sense for an Imperial bard to do them; I'll have to create a new character, which I'm looking forward to.

	10-02-2005 08:08									#107
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What are your guys's favorite races?

I liek Orc, b/c I get a good physical guy, and I hate having to build up using Mage skills.

With Orc, I can reall pzwn people, adn sell their shizznat for $$$. With money I can upgrade skills.

Orcs are butt ugly, but I like the combat benefits.

Redguard are nice too b/c of the strength thing.

	10-02-2005 08:11									#108
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Btw,

as far as the intermittent month on month off play, that is how you have to do it in my opinion, or else you have no life, or the game becomes boring way fast.

While it is fun to explore all of the tombs and try to do all of the sidequests (I can never find that one *******'s cloud cleaver) I must say, it is a better idea to stick to the story line, or the gaem will begin to seem quite pointless.

	10-02-2005 10:17									#109
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quote: Originally posted by bipolarbear What are your guys's favorite races? I liek Orc, b/c I get a good physical guy, and I hate having to build up using Mage skills. With Orc, I can reall pzwn people, adn sell their shizznat for $$$. With money I can upgrade skills. Orcs are butt ugly, but I like the combat benefits. Redguard are nice too b/c of the strength thing.

I like Nords for the same reason. Plus, I love dwarves, and Nords just seem like really, really big dwarves.

I actually like Argonians best, but I hate that they can't wear boots; there seem to be lots of cool boots in the game.

	10-02-2005 10:34									#110
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quote: Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly I did this too, at first. The trick -- as I've learned from this thread, actually -- is to not do too much with any one character. I really like my Bard, and I'm using him to explore the whole map (as a good Bard would), but he's only doing House Hlaalu quests (in addition to the main quests). I want to do the Temple pilgrimages, but it makes no sense for an Imperial bard to do them; I'll have to create a new character, which I'm looking forward to.

Actually i'd say it makes a lot of sense. The bard is sort of like the ancient naturalist - wandering around, gathering new stories. Pilgramages are great places to get stories - take Chaucer, for example, making one of the great stories of all time from a pilgramage (fictional entirely I presume, but still).

The bard doesn't have to be religious to do them; simply interested in meeting people and immersing him/herself in the culture.

	10-02-2005 10:41									#111
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quote: Originally posted by bfg9000 If you have a character with some combat skills and not a lot of magicka, is destruction necessary? For such a character, what two or three magic skills does he need?

I think destruction is the easiest to up; you can spellmake a extremely manacheap fleabite spell, sit in the corner in the mage room (with the beds), and cast it over and over again, for an hour or so, and up your destruction like 30 points. It's useful, as such, for gaining ranks in the mage guild, and for upping willpower (if I remember correctly, i always get them confused), which is useful for other skills.

For a combat-oriented slightly magic using character, I recommend Alchemy first, then alteration (for levitate, etc., as solver says), and either enchantment if you're willing to spend a ton of cash, or ... hmm, that's probably it. Really alchemy and alteration are all you need.

Alchemy is so powerful it's practically cheating; you can relatively easily make such powerful healing potions (even at skill 50) that you can't buy them, and easily can make enough of them to be nigh-indestructible unless you REALLY try. Add mana restoring potions to that - similar to health potions - and you'll never run out of mana, either.

Of course you have to be willing to walk around the marshlands gathering marshmerrow, and the plains gathering wickwheat, but what the hey? At least they grow in big groups, so you can get 30-40 at a time ...

Anywho, alteration as Solver says is key as well, it means you don't have to get thievery skills if you don't want. And provides levitate and Water Breathing, both of which are highly useful especially for getting out of sticky situations as well as getting into happier ones ...

	10-02-2005 13:16									#112
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quote: Originally posted by snoopy369 Actually i'd say it makes a lot of sense. The bard is sort of like the ancient naturalist - wandering around, gathering new stories. Pilgramages are great places to get stories - take Chaucer, for example, making one of the great stories of all time from a pilgramage (fictional entirely I presume, but still). The bard doesn't have to be religious to do them; simply interested in meeting people and immersing him/herself in the culture.

Hmmm...hadn't thought of it that way. Still, I want to do the pilgrimages as religious affairs, so I think I'll make a more cleric-like character to do it. (edit: plus, I just have a hard time imagining the Temple admitting a high-ranking member of House Hlaalu.) I might have my Bard go work for the Imperial Cult, though...

	10-02-2005 14:20									#113
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quote: Originally posted by snoopy369 For a combat-oriented slightly magic using character, I recommend Alchemy first, then alteration

I 100% agree.
My latest character is some kind of scout-alchemist.
As only magic skill, she has Alchemy in major, Alteration in minor.
She (breton) is an expert marks(wo)man and alchemist, restrict herself to light armor, otherwise uses all kind of weapons (I switch often, so only spear has reach 60, others are below 50).

For levitate, heal and fatigue she uses her potions. The Alteration is usefull for underwater exploration. I have a water breathing 2 minutes that I re-cast when needed.
For other usefull spells like mark/recall, soul trap, open lock,... well, she sometimes fails. But with potions of restore magicka, who cares?

Oh, and btw, I'm at day 50-60 iirc, level ~25, and she hasn't sleep yet, .

potions

	10-02-2005 19:17									#114
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I´m coming back to Morrowind, but I´ve been absent for a long time... I already have the exp, what mods should I add?

I´m going to start a new character btw, mage this time.

	10-02-2005 19:49									#115
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quote: Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly I like Nords for the same reason. Plus, I love dwarves, and Nords just seem like really, really big dwarves. I actually like Argonians best, but I hate that they can't wear boots; there seem to be lots of cool boots in the game.

Are the lack of boots that big of a deal to your armor rating? I dont think so. I decided I wanted to make a character with as many 40's and 50's as possible starting off. Turns out the best race and gender for that is a Female Argonian. Special abilities Strength & Luck. Sign: The Lady.

	10-02-2005 20:02									#116
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A few more questions since I've been getting some excellent advice:

I just found out that I cant join House Redoran because I'm alredy in House Hlaalu. Without giving me any spoliers, can you tell me if there is a way to switch back and forth between the two? If I have to pick just one to be involved with, which should I pick?

Someone said that they choose Spear as a Minor skill because it is the only weapon that trains Endurance. Do you think it is worth a minor slot?

How do you correct a situation where you have "Persuaded" an NPC (who is not same race as you) down to zero attitude towards you through failed "Admire" and "Bribe"?

	10-02-2005 20:31									#117
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quote: Originally posted by bfg9000 Special abilities Strength & Luck. Sign: The Lady.

I wouldn't chose Strength.
Strength is the easiest ability to raise: 5 skills.
Endurance and Personality are the most difficult: 3 skills. Chosing the Lady is thus a good choice.
All others have 4 skills.

I'd chose Endurance & Luck.

	10-02-2005 20:37									#118
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quote: Originally posted by bfg9000 How do you correct a situation where you have "Persuaded" an NPC (who is not same race as you) down to zero attitude towards you through failed "Admire" and "Bribe"?

In my games, neither Admire nor Taunt had any effect on 0 attitude NPC.
Bribe did.

If they don't want to speak to you, try a potion/spell of Fortify Personality.

	10-02-2005 23:26									#119
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Charm spell.... charm 30-40 pts for 1-2 secs.

	11-02-2005 00:19									#120
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Magic is reallly useless in MW. You can do everything better with different skills(alchemy) or just by buying potions/scrolls. Potions are also instant unlike magic so they are much more useful in combat. I hope magic is useful in TES4.