29-04-2003 20:56									#1
	Morrowind - Explain Magic to me Support Apolyton

I'm starting the game again in couple of days, after I replace the lost CD, and this time as a Mage/Thief.
In the meanwhile i'm satysfying my hunger by downloading lots of mods.

In my first and only game I was playing a guy with no brains and a big sword so I completely missed the magic and thievery aspects of the game.

I heard lots of stuff about enchanting, etc but never figured out what is it and how to use it.

Also, what character should I choose?

	30-04-2003 01:13									#2
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Just point and it burn. It's different from first game. Liche fire shield and runnnnn. Or become Liche.

You will need a lots of money for enchanting.

	30-04-2003 17:48									#3
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You enchant items by getting yourself a nice Soul Gem (Grand Soul Gems are the best, but there aren't many, and Azura's Star is the ultimate Soul Gem, since it is reusable while other Gems are one-shot deals), casting Soul Trap on a powerful non-unique monster (Golden Saints and Ascended Sleepers are the best, don't bother trying to trap an Ash Vampire's soul since they're unique creatures) and killing the creature before the spell expires. Then you either a. click on your filled Soul Gem and drag it onto your character portrait, which will give you the option of either recharging a magic item or creating a new one, or b. (my recommendation) join the Mage's Guild (I think House Telvanni will also suffice, possibly the Tribunal Temple and/or the Imperial Cult, I forget) and gain access to their Enchanter. If you Enchant your own items then it's free but you may fail and waste a gem (chance to fail is based on your Enchant skill), if you hire an Enchanter you'll have to shell out some cash but the enchanting will always work. If you've got Azura's Star then go ahead and try to enchant your own stuff, so long as you've got ready access to Golden Saints and Ascended Sleepers, since there's no penalty for screwing up the enchanting process (other than the difficulty of finding and killing a new Golden Saint or Ascended Sleeper). You can only enchant items with spell properties that you know (e.g. you can only create an item that will protect you from fire damage if you know the spell Protection from Fire or Protection from All Elements or whatever have you), so make sure your spell book is loaded up before you go hunting for soul gems and souls.

I forget what magic schools my character specialized in -- it may say what my character skills were on the old Morrowind Experiences thread. I know she had Block, Long Blade, and Mysticism, and didn't have Enchant or Alchemy, but I forget the rest. (Enchant is a pretty useless skill once you find Azura's Star, but it's a huge money-saver otherwise. The primary difficulty with it is that it's tough to "auto-train," since soul gems are in much shorter supply than Alchemy ingredients and are also much more difficult to use.)

	30-04-2003 20:26									#4
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loin : thanks.

I think i'm going with a pure mage character, with only Light Armor, Blunt Weapon and Acrobatics as non magical major/minor skills.

When picking the two favorite attributes one will be Intelligence, and the other either Luck or Willpower.
Which one do you think I should choose?

	30-04-2003 22:52									#5
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Short Blade is better for a mage, IMHO.

And, I never pay enchanters. Sure, I try to have lots of gold, but it's still no good spending 30k to enchant something. It's much better to summon something like a Flame Atronach (or Golden Saint, later), kill it and try to enchant yourself .

	30-04-2003 23:03									#6
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I always paid enchanters. I had so much money that I needed to spend it on something.

ACK!

	30-04-2003 23:44									#7
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Go for Luck as a favored attribute -- Willpower's easy enough to boost (especially if you're playing a Mage), but Luck isn't the primary skill for anything, so it's a real pain to boost it. I remember that after beating the game I had 100's for all of my attributes, except for Luck, which was still down at about 70 or 75.

	30-04-2003 23:49									#8
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Should I go for the PC or X-box version? My computer is decent, but are the mods worth it?

	01-05-2003 00:46									#9
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quote: but are the mods worth it?

Definitely.

	01-05-2003 00:49									#10
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quote: Originally posted by Solver Short Blade is better for a mage, IMHO.

I'm going for Blunt only for the sake of roleplaying. I want my Wizard's Staff.

As a mage, in the very early game, how difficult will it be to kill all those easy animals(rats, cliff racers, etc) without using my magic skills?

	01-05-2003 02:11									#11
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Direct Damage spells aren't the way to go for the Mage in the early game, at least not in my experience. I went more for the Enhancement type spells, to increase the amount of hand-to-hand damage that I inflicted or decrease the amount taken. Bear in mind that I was using a long blade and not a staff, but in the early game there shouldn't be much difference. With enhancement spells under my belt I didn't have many difficulties in the early game. (The most important spell to get early on is either a Reflection spell or an Absorption spell, depending on what kind of a Mage you're playing. I went with Absorption since I was born under the sign of the Atronach, but Reflection spells are also nice to have on hand. Also, you must get an Invisibility spell, since running away is your best defense sometimes, and Invisibility's the best way to do this until you can get the Mark/Recall spells.)

There are also darts (another mage-ish weapon in almost all RPG's) that are available for your use. They're pretty weak for use later in the game, but for the early game you may want to look into using them.

	01-05-2003 13:04									#12
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can some one tell me where the spell book is for morrowind?

I'm finally playing a mage like character. I bought some scrolls. Are those spells automatically in my spell book? how does that work?

	01-05-2003 16:57									#13
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How do I create potions? Alchemy something? How? Where? With what?

Diss :
Scrolls are like one-time spells. You use the scroll once and it's gone.

You can buy spells from people(try the Mage's Guild, the Telvanni people, etc) and these spells will be in your spell book together with the ones you started with.

	01-05-2003 17:47									#14
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The best thing about Daggerfall and Morrowind is the ability to create your own spells.

You can do some pretty creative things with it.

	01-05-2003 18:09									#15
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quote: Originally posted by Eli How do I create potions? Alchemy something? How? Where? With what?

You need alchemical equipment and a good alchemy skill. The different pieces of equipment do different things, I forget offhand what the differences are, but you don't need all of the equipment to make a potion -- some of the equipment only makes the potion more potent. IIRC, you drag the alchemical equipment over onto you or something, and bam, you're making potions -- mix up some ingredients and you're good to do. If you mix two ingredients with the same alchemical property (most ingredients have four properties, the higher your alchemy skill the more you can see) then your potion will have that property. You can find potion recipes from time to time, but it's primarily a matter of experimenting.

Your alchemy skill increases by eating ingredients, and some ingredients (like saltrice) are cheap and plentiful. I'd usually collect saltrice until I had several pounds of it, and then I'd eat it all in a marathon gluttony session. Your skill goes up the same amount regardless of whether you're eating saltrice or diamonds, so save your expensive ingredients for use in potions or else for sale.

	01-05-2003 18:24									#16
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Thanks.

What exactly is this alchemy set? What does it contain?

Also, I decided to go as an Atronach but wasted all my magicka points on the three people in the cave near Seyda Neen... I tried fighting them at first, but by big Axe(Blunt) hits once every 20 tries.
Where do I restore my magicka points? Are there any quick ways to do this in the middle of nowhere?

How do you increase all your magic skills?
All I had now is two increases to light armor and that's pretty much it. My destruction is about to rise, but all the rest is at zero or almost zero. Do you simply cast spells one after another and then restore the magicka somewhere?

Another little problem is the plugins. I get a warning when firing up the game. I attached the warning.txt here.

	01-05-2003 18:26									#17
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Oops, here's the file.

Attachment: warnings.txt
This has been downloaded 1 time(s).

	01-05-2003 19:15									#18
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I just ignore the warnings I get with plugins. They'll always give you a warning when you load a game that was saved sans plugin when you've just added a new plugin.

There are four pieces of alchemical equipment -- the mortar-and-pestle (the only piece of equipment you actually need to make potions), and then there's the Retort, the Calcinator, and the Alembic, which are optional pieces of equipment that increase the potency of your potions or else reduce the negative effects of your potions. I forget which piece of equipment does what.

If you're born under the sign of the Atronach then the only way to regenerate spell points is to either have somebody cast a spell at you (you've got a chance of absorbing the spell points) or to drink a potion that restores spell points. I forget what potion recipe I used, but my primary use of alchemical equipment was to brew up potions to restore my spell points -- they're a must-have for people born under the Atronach.

You increase magic skills by casting spells that employ those particular skills. For example, to increase your Illusino skill you'll need to case Invisibility spells and Chameleon spells and whatnot. It's not necessary that the spell actually accomplish anything useful -- f'rinstance, you can cast a Restore Hitpoints spell and increase your Restoration skill, even if you're already at full HP. It's difficult for somebody born under the Atronach to just sit around casting spells to increase their skills, though, since they don't naturally regenerate magicka. I didn't cast spurious spells until my alchemy skill was high enough to have several dozen Restore Magic Points spells on hand at all time.

IIRC you can buy a spell that increases your attack skill. Go for it, you'll need it early on -- it's more efficient in the early game to enhance your attack skill and bludgeon people to death than to kill them with direct-damage spells.

	01-05-2003 19:27									#19
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You may want to restart under an easier sign, like the Mage or the Apprentice. I was used to playing a Sorceror in Arena and Daggerfall (in those games you weren't born under Signs, but your class carried a lot more features to it, specifically the Sorcerors had 300% magicka, did not regenerate magicka, and could absorb enemy spells, i.e. they were equivalent to mages born under the Atronach in Morrowind) so I was prepared for the difficulties of not being able to regenerate spellpoints, but as a starting mage you might want to use an easier character.

	01-05-2003 21:33									#20
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I'll handle. After all, I already passed the majority of the quests once.

	01-05-2003 21:38									#21
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Atronach becomes the best magical star sign, IMO, in the middle-to-late stages of the game, when money and/or alchemical skill no longer becomes a factor, particularly in the late game after you've acquired the Necromancer's Amulet (which regenerates spellpoints). It'll be a bit problematic in the early stages, that's all. I hardly used magic at all until I was around 12th level -- 'course, I had an easier time of it, since I had decent strength and had skill in long blade, block, and armor.

	01-05-2003 22:40									#22
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Errr, problem.

I stood in the Balmora temple casting spells and then spending 35 gold on getting my mana back up when using the monolith thingie. But it stopped working. Now instead of getting the restore mana spell I get some silly fortify intelligence one...

Bah. Anyway, i'm off to soultrap rats and sell them to people.

	02-05-2003 00:04									#23
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And the Necromancer's Amulet doesnt restore spellpoints... It fortifies intelligence, and gives 25% absorb and couple more stuff, but no restore spellpoints.

	02-05-2003 01:42									#24
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Really? I could've sworn that it did. I must be thinking of another artifact.

They've really scaled down the power of magic-users from Arena and especially from Daggerfall. It used to be that you could create spells that increased in power per level, e.g. a Cure Paralysis spell that had a "5% chance at success, plus 5% per level," or a Fireball spell that did "5 points of damage, plus 5 points per level." So, at level 20, not only are your spells cheaper to cast (since the cost to cast a spell went down as your level went up), but you could also create spells that had a cheaper base price, since a 100% Cure Paralysis spell always cost more than a 5% Per Level Cure Paralysis spell. So every five or ten levels I'd get a whole new batch of spells, e.g. at 10th level I'd have "10% Per Level Cure Paralysis" spells while at 25th level I'd have "4% Per Level Cure Paralysis" spells. By the time you hit 20th level or so you were essentially invincible, since all of your spells were uber-powerful yet were still dirt cheap to cast.

IIRC you can still absorb spellpoints from your own spells, though. If you're born under the Atronach then you can cast an area-effect damage spell at your feet, and you'll absorb the spellpoints that you used to cast it. They may have finally removed this with one of the newer patches, though.

	02-05-2003 02:01									#25
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Whoops, the artifact I was thinking of was the Mace of Molag Bal.

	02-05-2003 16:22									#26
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quote: Your alchemy skill increases by eating ingredients, and some ingredients (like saltrice) are cheap and plentiful. I'd usually collect saltrice until I had several pounds of it, and then I'd eat it all in a marathon gluttony session.

Is there a way to do this except consuming them one by one by one by one...?

	02-05-2003 16:46									#27
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You can also pay somebody to train your skill up, of course, or you could create potions out of your ingredients one by one by one (I just found it easier to eat them raw one by one by one).

	02-05-2003 21:09									#28
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How can I get spells that make more damage than the 2-20 fireball?

	02-05-2003 23:42									#29
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The spellmaker's the easiest way -- go to a Mage's Guild and talk to several of the members, one of them is going to have a dialogue option of "Spellmaking" which will allow you to create your own spells. You may have to be a member of the Guild, I forget the exact details. IIRC you may also be able to get Spellmaking through House Telvanni and/or the Tribunal Temple and/or the Imperial Cult.

I never bought spells that did more damage than the Fireball, as it was easier to just make my own. I do know that more powerful prebuilt spells are available, though, e.g. Greater Fireball. Shop around at the various Mage's Guilds, they're your best bet for buying spells until you become a member of House Telvanni or the Temple or the Cult etc.

	03-05-2003 00:31									#30
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Boots of Blinding Speed + Breton race = Vrrroooom!