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Morrowind for the first time; char build?

DraQ

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As the title says. I want something that's effective, but not necissarily a min-max, superpowergaming Batman char. I'm a bit of a storyfag, but want the game to be as mechanically enjoyable as possible at the same time. I hear you can be quite creative with the magic in Morrowind, is that true?
Yes, although I'm not sure I can recommend a mage to a first-timer. Magic in Morrowind is a powerful, but difficult road, you can't rely on offensive spell spam, premade spells are just unsuitable as primary means of attack and custom spells eat horrifying amounts of magicka.
OTOH if you make smart use of spellmaker, you quickly become physical god (albeit a squishy one).

Also, a mage is a Batman char by default, physically dwarfed in every way by actual superhero character, but capable of outbadassing them all through sheer cunning and resourcefulness.

Something along the lines of battlemage or spellsword is widely considered to be the best noob class, for pure caster I'd take vanilla Mage, possibly swapping some spell schools around, and maybe replacing short blade with blunt, possibly also unarmored with some skill of choice (you don't play as wizard to get hit anyway).

For pure caster magicka multiplier conferred by Mage, Apprentice and Atronach signs OR Breton and Altmer races is absolutely crucial. Max magicka of 100+CE fortify int you might be wearing is just insufficient for combat casting, having base magicka of at least 150 after you develop your character is what you need to cast interesting custom spells.

regarding alchemy:
Alchemy is good if not abused - especially considering that a mage will burn through a lot magicka potions when in combat. Just don't make potions while under influence of potions and don't batch produce potions solely for sale.

Finally, avoid all guides, online maps, wikis and other sources of metagame information.
 
Last edited:

Daemongar

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Codex Year of the Donut
Right now, I'm playing a Dunner Pilgrim, with the sign of "The Lady" and at level 8 or so, have a personality of 80. It's actually kind of nice to walk around with ordinators and other pricks being nice to you, or offering helpful advice.

I've never lasted long with a pure mage class. The closest I ever came is with a mana-regen mod. The problem of simply getting a spell to fire at early levels was too frustrating. Think I always made it to the mage on the bridge guarding the Dweomer ruins, then die many horrible deaths.
 

Aothan

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starting at the end of thread, well I have to say Alchemy is notably unbalanced. Good concept yet all too easily misused and will completely undermine the game before you are aware of the same. I'd express similar concerns with incorporating magic too extensively into a variety of classes simply because magic over operates and thus effectively undermines the game's design to develop your character with both key abilities and certain limitations (i.e. might not open every locked door or chest etc). A final concern is to not succumb to the inclination to hop everywhere so as to advance levelling in Acrobatics, but at the same time by all means role play your training in these areas (if it is a core skill, otherwise again be mindful of the game's somewhat open design).

from recollection I think most characters can be feasible, I always tended towards Ranger combinations (melee, ranged with a touch of 'natural' healing magic) and usually preferred Altmers. Also Redguards have a natural ability that makes them very effective in the early levels.
 

DraQ

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Personally, I always found Morrowind combat mechanics the weakest of the serie, so I've never understood people playing this game with melee or even ranged characters as opposed to magic.
Actually Oblivion's combat was much worse, and vanilla Skyrim's comparable to Morrowind's.
Daggerfall's wasn't exactly better either.
Not to imply that at any point in the series the combat wasn't completely barebones at the very best.

What I really don't like is enchantment mechanic: it requires you to drink tons of INT potions just to have the slightest chance of success.
For artifact-grade CE enchants. There is a lot of very useful stuff you can enchant around level 1 with enc as primary if you don't think in the categories of superheroism inducing rings and daedric swords firing nukes.

As for walking speed I see it as incentive for planning your travels.
You can also make a lot of your journeys hassle-free by using interventions and mark & recall spells, plus public transport.
Later in game you can effectively replicate Icarian Flight scrolls (except as spell or reusable trinket and with integrated landing provisions) - all that talk about Boots of Blinding Speed being a must-have is a good indicator of a person unable into spellmaking.
:smug:
 

miles teg

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I was never able to find those boots :D but I remember an OP amulet located close to Gnisis. Something like 100% chamaleon or something similar...
 

Sykar

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I was never able to find those boots :D but I remember an OP amulet located close to Gnisis. Something like 100% chamaleon or something similar...

That amulet breaks combat just as badly as using the alchemy exploit since it is basically nearly Invisibility which cannot break and is really long lasting, making the AI not being able to target you and makes you nigh invulnerable in combat.
 

Mastermind

Cognito Elite Material
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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I mean, what's better that crafing a ranged absorb health spell? :D Another broken mechanic I guess, but it's only viable end game, given the amount of mana it consumes.
What I really don't like is enchantment mechanic: it requires you to drink tons of INT potions just to have the slightest chance of success.

You're doing it wrong. You don't enchant shit yourself, you pay someone to do it for you. The Enchant skill is there to reduce charge cost, so that you can make a life stealing ball of death ring using Almalexia's soul and rape everything that moves in 50 feet by shooting it machinegun style (casting spells via enchanted items is instant). Your magicka should be saved for effects that aren't worth making a new item to cast.
 

Mastermind

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
all that talk about Boots of Blinding Speed being a must-have is a good indicator of a person unable into spellmaking.
:smug:

Or an indication that one is not a complete fucking retard. :smug:

BoBS require far less effort, can be acquired right at the start with no hassle (except the odd wildlife), and remain useful in places like dungeons where an item that lets you leap across half of vvardenfell is not all that useful.

(except as spell or reusable trinket and with integrated landing provisions)

I think we found who cannot into spellmaking. :smug: There is no need for integrated landing provisions. A CE 1 point slowfall on another item will prevent all fall damage without taking up jump power on your transportation item, making for both more efficient transportation and better utility, as taking no fall damage is useful in other contexts too.
 

Mastermind

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
...is still a nice thing to have especially given that you can fit it even on a piece of armor with pitiful enchant capacity, such as pauldron, but it doesn't give you ability to stop in mid jump at a whim (for example when your jump would have carried you way beyond your intended destination).

Aim better. Also, I usually have this thing with me for all my precision flight needs:
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Steel_Blade_of_Heaven#Steel_Blade_of_Heaven

My favorite transportation method remain scrolls of windform however.
 

Greatness

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Metagaming your way straight to BoBS then cheating to ignore their negative effects is just stupid anyways. It throws out any semblance of difficulty the game might have had, since with them you can just dance around every single enemy in the game. It also makes the world feel tiny when you can run from one side of the island to the other in a minute or two. The run speed really isn't that bad if you just invest in speed/athletics and make proper use of spells and travel mechanics.
 

DraQ

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Metagaming your way straight to BoBS then cheating to ignore their negative effects is just stupid anyways. It throws out any semblance of difficulty the game might have had, since with them you can just dance around every single enemy in the game. It also makes the world feel tiny when you can run from one side of the island to the other in a minute or two. The run speed really isn't that bad if you just invest in speed/athletics and make proper use of spells and travel mechanics.
Besides, the way you can ignore BoBS debuff is something that should be patched away anyway.
 

miles teg

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You're doing it wrong. You don't enchant shit yourself, you pay someone to do it for you. The Enchant skill is there to reduce charge cost, so that you can make a life stealing ball of death ring using Almalexia's soul and rape everything that moves in 50 feet by shooting it machinegun style (casting spells via enchanted items is instant). Your magicka should be saved for effects that aren't worth making a new item to cast.
I liked to enchant stuff myself (I'm a mage or what?). As for the machinegun effect, I used the unofficial patch that fixed it :D

All this talking is making me thinking it's time to play with my Atronach Breton again...
 

Aothan

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the Redguard skill is reserved for overwhelming encounters, there is no need to rest on every average encounter.
 

DraQ

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I liked to enchant stuff myself (I'm a mage or what?). As for the machinegun effect, I used the unofficial patch that fixed it :D
:bro:
There is a lot of cool stuff you can enchant right away as a hybrid with enc as major - light, cheap weapon (like chitin) with bound weapon on strike, a hmmr with drain agility, etc.
As a pure caster you can still make yourself a restore attributes trinket or, if Atronach, a short period summoning one.
 

Shadenuat

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The problem of simply getting a spell to fire at early levels was too frustrating.
If you can't get a spell out I remember having some success with a magical battery type of play. Enchant yourself a bunch of items shooting fireballs and capturing souls, recharge them with gems on the way.

If you set your spells right (game shows you chance of success anyway) and not tired you should always cast the spell it shouldn't be a problem.

Btw for a caster I would recommend a spell-book mod. I don't remember which one I used but there are mods that allow you to sort and switch spells easier.
I remember when I had no internetz I had to name spells using in-game alphabetical order, using retarded names like "A Fireball", "AB Fireball AoE", "Z Support Teleport" whatever
 

Greatness

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The code patch now days allows you to search through your spell book by just pressing the first letter of the spells name. It also makes casting way less clunky in that you don't have to lower you weapon and equip the "jazz hands" every time before casting.

As for useful enchantments, there's too many to name. Probably the most fun part of Morrowind is divining new ways to cheese the system. Of course I wouldn't recommend delving into that stuff until you've seen a decent amount of the game first.

Morrowind is probably the only game out there that lets you play a proper mad wizard with crazy experimental spells. Stuff like enchanting throwing stars that cast Bound Longbow then hitting enemies with them and watching them stand around confused since the Bound spell forced them to equip the bow but they have no arrows. Or instead enchant them with bound armor followed by calm which will force your target to replace all their armor, which you can then pickpocket away and leave them standing there naked and confused once the conjured armor/calming expire. Or just simple things like cheap ranged Demoralize creature spell with a huge AoE that you cast at Cliff Racers when they group up, due to their insane speed they'll all scatter away at the speed of light without you having to bother killing them.
 

miles teg

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The more I think about this game, the more I remember the ways one could abuse it.

I remember I enchanted an item with the whole purpose to summon a Ghost for 30 seconds. The idea was to attack it so that it would become hostile; it would then start casting fireballs at me, so that I could absorb them and recharge my mana (Atronach gives you spell absorption). The problem was that by mid game my skill ranking with the short sword was so high (and the weapon was so powerful) that I could one-shot the ghost, thus preventing it to cast any spells. Then I started targetting it with my bare fists, to the point that that skill went to 100 by mid game :D
 

Metro

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Metagaming your way straight to BoBS then cheating to ignore their negative effects is just stupid anyways. It throws out any semblance of difficulty the game might have had, since with them you can just dance around every single enemy in the game. It also makes the world feel tiny when you can run from one side of the island to the other in a minute or two. The run speed really isn't that bad if you just invest in speed/athletics and make proper use of spells and travel mechanics.

The run speed IS that bad.
 
Self-Ejected

Lilura

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Morrowind is best explored by way of setflying in the console with setspeed at a value of several thousands..
 

Commissar Draco

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Insert Title Here Strap Yourselves In Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Divinity: Original Sin 2
Take Imperial with sing of Lady and make him knight; you will have nice long learning curve with some challenge even after 20 level and LARP Centurion Bicus Dicus.:smug:

Run spead is not that bad and Atheltics is on of the few skills which training won't cost you a septim nor lost health.
 

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