Some time ago, I swore that I would never write another FAQ again. Aside
from the fact that I have yet to finish the three I have already begun, I had
neither the time nor interest to continue pursuing a FAQing career. And then
I started playing Morrowind. A wealth of information has obviously become
available for this huge game in the now two years since its release, but it
became quickly apparent to me that much work was still to be done. And thus,
this FAQ was born.
I will be blunt: this is NOT a full walkthrough. If you're looking for a
hand-held guide through every last quest in the game, then you're reading the
wrong FAQ (and more than likely playing the wrong game- go play Final Fantasy
if that's what you're after). There are more quests in this game than I could
even begin to count, and it would be impossible to complete them all in one or
even two runs through. Attempting to even scratch the surface of every last
thing to be seen and done in the world of Morrowind would deal a fatal blow to
my oh-so-precious sanity, so I shan't be doing that to say the least.
The purpose that this file is meant to serve is more that of a general
FAQ. Herein lies a wealth of information that should prove useful to any and
all of those who would aspire to venture forth into the vast universe that is
Morrowind. This file is virtually spoiler-free, and thus I would recommend
that any player new to the game read it in its entirety, as it should answer
many of the questions that you might have about the game. The veteran might
find this guide to be more useful as a reference tool, and perhaps even the
source of a helpful tip or suggestion.
This is the FAQ that I thought the world needed, which is the sole reason
behind its existence. It is my hopes that it will be your tutor to the ways
of Morrowind, imparting upon you, gentle reader, the knowledge that will help
you to gain the most out of your quest. The journey, however, shall remain
forever yours, and yours alone to make. I wish you the best of luck!
1. Highlight the name of the desired subsection below.
2. Press ctrl + c.
3. Press ctrl + f.
4. Press ctrl + v.
5. Press Enter.
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I. Getting Started
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A. Creating Your Character (An Overview)
B. The Skills
C. The Races
D. The Signs
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II. Game Basics
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A. Controls
B. Magic & Combat
C. Crime & Punishment
D. Goods & Services
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III. Advanced Info
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A. A Guide To Alchemy
B. Spells & Spellmaking
C. The Art Of Enchantment
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IV. Mini-Walkthrough
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A. Welcome To Seyda Neen
B. The Road To Balmora
C. The Big City & Beyond
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Version History, Credits, & Contact Information
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And so the journey begins. You awaken in an imperial prison ship shortly
before you are released into Morrowind to fulfill your destiny, whatever that
might be. The game will take these first few minutes of the game to explain
the bare basics of the game's interface to you. That much it does a good job
of, but there are a number of things it does leave you to figure out for
yourself. But that will all be discussed in detail later. For now, we'll
focus on the fact that one of the first things the game will direct you to do
is create your character.
The first and most important thing to realize about character creation is
that you must expect to try several, if not many times before you finally end
up with a character that you will be satisfied with. Assuming you are just
starting playing the game, your knowledge of what combinations of skills are
in any way useful is practically zero. Even if you read this guide several
times over for my personal take on every aspect of character creation, there
is no substitute for your own experiences and tastes. I strongly suggest you
spend some time experimenting with a variety of skills, races, and birthsigns
before continuing much further into the game. Verily, few things suck worse
than playing for 20 or 40 hours before realizing that you would rather have
chosen a different skillset, race, or birthsign.
Your name, at the very least, is a rather inconsequential decision to
make (unless you end up making a guy named Lisa, I suppose). For everything
else, however, the decision you make will go far towards defining the
character you will soon become. My purpose here is to guide you not towards
the character I would personally choose, but moreso the character that works
best for you- YOUR character. And before we go about creating that character,
there are several things I would like to explain in this section of the FAQ
that should help you to understand just what that character might look like,
so please keep reading.
First, let's go over the basics. Your choice of race and sex will
determine your character's initial statistics, as well as some of your
abilities or powers. Next, you are given a choice of three possible ways to
determine your class. One of them (creating your own) actually doesn't suck.
Your class will determine your major and minor skills (we'll talk a lot more
about skills in a minute), and will also grant a 10-point bonus to two stats
of your choosing- your class's "favored attributes". Lastly, you will be
prompted to choose a birthsign. The constellation that governs your
character will grant your character further abilities, powers, spells, and/or
stat bonuses.
Before moving on to the issue of skills, let's take a minute to discuss
the differences between abilities, powers, and spells. Abilities are inherent
attributes, such as a natural immunity, that doesn't have to be actively used
in order to work. A power, on the other hand, is a special bonus or attack
which your character may use once per day, a day in this case being 24 hours
from when it was last used. Spells, lastly, can be used as often as you wish,
providing you have enough magicka (Morrowind's version of MP) to cast them.
Spells given by birthsigns will always succeed when cast, and do not belong to
any particular school of magicka.
When creating your class, you are to appoint 5 of the game's 27 total
skills as major skills, and 5 of them as minor skills. Your character will
still be able to use and level up all 27 of them, but major and minor skills
will start at significantly higher levels (30 and 15, respectively) than
the miscellaneous ones (5). Major and minor skills will also level up faster
than the other skills will. Most important, however, is the fact that your
character gains levels by leveling his or her major and minor skills. The
skills you appoint as major skills needn't be the ones you use most often,
merely the ones you need to have at a higher initial level, and to a lesser
extent, which ones you want to level up faster.
You might have also noticed that each of the game's races, which I
discuss in detail in section I.C. of the FAQ, convey bonuses to certain
skills. These bonuses will be added to a skill's initial level at the
outset of the game. Additionally, each class is instructed to select a
specialization: combat, magic, or stealth. Of the 27 skills in the game, 9
belong to each category. All skills that fall under a character's
specialization receive a 5-point initial bonus, and will also be noticeably
easier to level up throughout the course of the game. Your specialization
doesn't necessarily have to be the category that most of your major or minor
skills fall under- just the ones you'd like to receive the bonus.
Skills in Morrowind level up by using them. Your axe skill goes up by
hitting things with axes. Your armor skills go up by getting hit with the
armor on. The sneak skill levels up by sneaking. It's a bloody brilliant
system when you think about it. My point, in any event, is that some skills,
such as enchant, are significantly more difficult to level up than others are.
Others, like athletics, level up at a highly uncontrollable pace. I'll remind
you again that your character will level up as a direct result of leveling up
your major and minor skills. Ergo, you must decide which skills you would feel
comfortable having tied to your character's growth.
For every 10 levels you gain in any combination of major and/or minor
skills, you will be prompted to rest and meditate on what you've learned. In
short, your character will level up. Of course, you won't level until you
actually rest, meaning you can very possibly gain many, many levels in various
skills before you actually level up. The game keeps track of your advancement
towards and past that level up, and you can see it by hovering your mouse over
the "level" statistic in your character's stat menu. This same method, by the
way, can also be used to view your advancement towards gaining a level in any
particular skill.
When you level up, in addition to the gain to your maximum health, you
will be prompted to allot three "points" to three separate stats, which will
cause them to grow. The system works a bit deeper than that, however, by
introducing multipliers to the mix. Every skill in the game has a "governing"
stat, and when you level that skill up, you gain a multiplier for that stat.
If said stat is one of the stats you choose to allot a point to at level up,
then it will rise by more than one point, depending on how many times you
leveled up any skill which cited that stat as a governing attribute. Any
advancement of any combination of skills will add to the multiplier "pool",
meaning that leveling one skill five times is just as effective as leveling
two or even three skills of the same governing attribute any combination of
times that add up to five. The chart below details how many levels are
required to gain each multiplier:
As you can see, the highest possible multiplier to achieve for a single
level up is 5. But as you know, it only takes 10 levels of major or minor
skills in order to earn a level up. I would at this point like to remind you
that miscellaneous skills, while not contributing to a level up, do count
towards modifiers. And, as I will discuss in section II.D. of the FAQ, it is
possible to "train" your skills up by paying a certain amount of money for
each level. Ergo, you could train the miscellaneous skill "Long Blade" 10
levels prior to your level up and earn a x5 multiplier for it. And, as you
might have guessed, training skills from very low levels (such as 5, where
all of your miscellaneous skills will start) is pretty cheap. And what this
all amounts to is an easy way to increase your stats in the early game.
The drawback of exploiting this system is that it can often cause you
to get way ahead of yourself attempting to reach a certain multiplier before
leveling up. Too many times, I've actually found myself with enough skill
levels gained for more than one character level gain. In this event, you
will only level up once per rest, which will allow you the opportunity to
gain more multipliers for your next level. Another complication involves
actually needing to rest for one reason or another (for example, you are
leveling up a magic skill and need to rest to restore your magicka), in
which case you are sadly out of luck. What this kink in the system is
meant to do is discourage the player from this sort of behavior in the
first place.
I most certainly do not condone the abuse of this system, but the
knowledge is noteworthy, nonetheless. The primary reason I make this point
is to address a number of misguided individuals who have reached a rather
inappropriate conclusion from the knowledge that we have garnered thus far.
As we have mentioned before, your character will gain 1 level for every 10
levels you gain on major and minor skills. These skills, as you might have
expected, cap at 100. Logically then, these folks assume that the lower these
skills start, then the higher level they can eventually reach. But if you've
been paying attention to what I've been saying, then you might have already
begun to see how this thinking is flawed.
Typically, a higher level indicates higher stats. This is the norm in
just about any RPG I could name. But as we've already discussed, you can level
your stats as quickly or as slowly as you wish in Morrowind, meaning that the
highest level you can possibly reach should not necessarily be one of your
highest concerns. By keeping the information I've given you in mind, you can
play through the game with the comfort of knowing that you will be very able to
max out your stats if you so choose. Even luck, which is the most difficult
stat to level due to the fact that it will never gain any multipliers (as luck
governs no skills), can be maxed out if you dedicate 1 point per level to it
starting no later than around level 10 or so.
The only further benefit that leveling up conveys upon your character is
an increase in maximum health, the increase being roughly equal to about 1/5 of
your character's endurance stat at the time. Your health will indeed continue
to rise with each level you gain, but if maximum health is a concern of yours,
then the most reasonable course of action is to work towards increasing your
endurance stat as much as possible early in the game. Maximum magicka, on the
other hand, is a direct result of your intelligence stat, which will be capped
at 100. This fact demonstrates just how useful races or birthsigns which
fortify your maximum magicka can be.
Moving away from the subject of leveling up, I'd like to focus now on the
game's skills, and the concept of choosing ten of them as the major and minor
skills of your class. Now, I've gone over some general information concerning
skills in this section already, and the next section of the FAQ (section I.B.)
goes over all 27 skills in a bit more detail. Before continuing along to that,
however, I'd like to go over some advice concerning skills that will apply to
any player, regardless of class type.
There are basically four different kinds of skills (excepting Athletics
and Acrobatics, which seem to resist categorization): weapon skills, armor
skills, magicka skills, and everything else. Weapon skills govern the use of
a particular style of weapon, such as Axe or Long Blade, and your accuracy with
them. Damage dealt depends only on the equipped weapon and your character's
strength stat. On the other hand, the agility stat is a factor in determining
accuracy, and can help compensate for a low weapon skill. Next, armor skills
dictate the magnitude to which armors of its type will add to your defense
(read: NOT your evasion). Evasion, or dodging attacks is purely a result of
your character's agility, and curiously has nothing to do with the weight of
the armor currently equipped.
A magicka skill will determine how likely a spell that falls under its
particular school is to be successfully cast. The chance-of-success percentage
is listed for each spell in your spell menu next to that spell's casting cost
like so: "casting cost/success %". A spell with a 100% success rate will never
fail when cast. Spells with a higher casting cost are less likely to succeed
when cast, and another major factor in spell success will be your character's
current amount of fatigue (fatigue is discussed in more detail in section II.B.
of the FAQ). You should also bear in mind that spells are not necessarily the
only method of brandishing spell effects in Morrowind. Section III.C. of the
FAQ discuss the art of enchantment, which essentially allows you to imbue an
item or piece of equipment with magicka. It is a fact to seriously consider
when deciding which schools of magicka you'd like specialize in, as many spell
effects tend to be more useful and readily available as actual spells.
All other skills in the game (besides Athletics and Acrobatics, as I have
already mentioned before) will have an effect on your chances of successfully
performing the action controlled by that skill. Block, though technically an
armor skill, falls under this category since it affects your chances of
successfully blocking an attack with a shield as opposed to the amount of
defense offered by that shield.
The relative natures of each of the four different types of skills are
your first tier of consideration as far as choosing your major and minor skills
go. On the subject of armor skills, for example, you're better off picking one
type and sticking with it as opposed to selecting multiple types. The same can
also be said for weapons, though it bears mentioning that the Unarmored and
Marksman skills are both meant to serve moreso as supplementary skills rather
than primary ones, and thus can sensibly be chosen as major/minor skills in
conjunction with others of their respective types. These rules tend not to
apply to magicka or other skills, thus you should find quite a few of either
type in just about any character's major/minor skillset.
Weapon skills (aside from Marksman) tend to level very quickly as a result
of everyday melee combat. Even the less combat-oriented characters must resort
to duking it out every once in awhile, so this should be pretty universal. As
major skills, weapons level extremely, perhaps even uncontrollably fast- a fact
which might influence your decision. Minor weapon skills still level at a good
pace, but much less so than they would as major skills. However, the initial
15-point difference between a major and minor skill tends to have a noticeable
and significant impact on your character's accuracy, which is compounded by
the slower rate of experience gain a weapon skill would possess as a minor
skill. It is for this reason that I personally recommend that any player
select his or her chosen weapon skill as a major one if possible.
Armor skills naturally gain experience a lot slower than your weapons do
unless you spend a significant amount of time in the game getting your ass
kicked. However, armor skills can be raised far more easily than weapon skills
can by simply putting a bunch of that kind of armor and then letting a rat or
slaughterfish beat the shit out of you for awhile. Block and Restoration, for
obvious reasons, are two skills that level up great alongside any armor skill.
And given how easy they are to level, I've found that armor skills can fare
just as well as minor skills as they do as major ones, so that's where I
usually put 'em.
Magicka skills are also notoriously simple to level up. Since a spell
need only be successfully cast in order for you to gain experience from it,
all you need is a spell with a casting cost of one (available from any
spellmaker) and a place to rest and you're in business. The only real
disadvantage to this is that the frequent resting might cause an unwanted
premature level-up, to which I reply "tough shit". Before you go making all
of your magicka skills minor ones, however, you should note that even the
easiest spells to cast demand a fairly high skill level to be cast with much
consistency. Around 30 or so is sufficient for simple spells, while more
advanced ones may require levels of around 40 to 60 to be of any use at all.
Therefore most, if not all of your magicka skills should probably be set to
major slots if at all possible.
The rest of the game's skills vary greatly in terms of how they are best
managed. Some are impossibly difficult to level, and are probably best left
out of your top ten. Others level quite easily, and may be chosen as minor
(or major) skills based on that fact alone. And then there are skills like
Athletics, which you're going to make use no matter what, but they level at
such an uncontrollable pace that you couldn't pay me to select 'em as major
or minor skills.
And finally, there's the type of character you choose to play through the
game as. Different skills work better for different characters, as should be
obvious. But although the game directs you to choose only one specialization
for your class (combat, magic, or stealth), you should in no way feel confined
to that description. In fact, it is virtually impossible for anyone to create
a character focused entirely on a lone category. In the coming sections, I'll
be talking quite a bit about what skills, races, and birthsigns work best for
combat-oriented, maicka-oriented, and stealth-oriented character types, which
is why I mention this. Attempting to focus your character on a single class
category tends to make selecting a full set of major and minor skills at the
very least exceptionally difficult. So with that in mind, try to keep an open
mind about skills, races, and birthsigns that you think may not apply to your
character type, because they just might.
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Skill Type Governing Attribute
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Stealth Strength
Acrobatics is essentially the game's jumping skill. The higher your skill
level in Acrobatics, the higher you can jump, and the farther you can safely
fall without taking damage. At high levels (around 50 or so), jumping actually
becomes faster than walking. At very high levels (at least 90), you can get
some serious air, and even easily jump over houses. Acrobatics levels, simply
enough, by jumping and taking damage from falling, with the latter doling out
more experience. It's a pretty damn easy skill to level, so make it a minor
skill if you make it anything. By the by, my favorite place to gain experience
in this skill is a building just on the east side of the river in Balmora, on
the north side of town. A flight of stairs lead from the streets to the roof,
which can be then be leapt from to sustain minor damage. Hop back up the
stairs to the roof and repeat until insane.
Skill Type Governing Attribute
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Magic Intelligence
One of the more generally useful skills in the game is Alchemy. Section
III.A. of the FAQ discusses the skill in a bit more detail, suffice it to say
that this skill allows you to create potions with a variety of useful effects.
In addition to that, this skill has the potential to be rather profitable,
since alchemical ingredients in this game literally grow on trees, and the
resulting potions can be sold for cash money. Creating potions is the primary
method of leveling up the skill, though consuming ingredients directly also
contributes a negligible amount of experience (though eating scrap metal was
never really a good idea to begin with). Even though your chances of creating
potions successfully is a result of your Alchemy skill, gaining experience is
by far easy and profitable enough to make it better suited as a minor skill as
opposed to a major one. This is also probably the only skill in the game that
I would strongly recommend including in any character's skillset, since potions
you create are usually far more powerful than the ones you can buy or find.
Skill Type Governing Attribute
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Magic Willpower
Alteration is the school of magicka concerned with the manipulation of the
physical world. It encompasses a wide variety of spell effects, many of them
invaluably useful. Unlocking/locking locks, water walking, water breathing,
shielding, and levitation entail most of the school's actually helpful effects.
Including this school of magic as a major or minor skill is never a bad idea,
regardless of the type of character you're playing. The fact is that you'll
likely be using many effects that fall under the school of Alteration during
the course of the game; the only real question is whether you'll possess those
effects as spells or as enchantments. Most of Alteration's effects do well
either way, though I would suggest the Security skill to any character who
passes this one up.
Skill Type Governing Attribute
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Combat Strength
The Armorer skill allows you to use armorer's hammers or repair prongs to
repair damaged weapons and armor. All equipment sustains general wear and tear
through everyday use, which will eventually diminish its effectiveness and
eventually render it unusable until the damage is repaired. Any armor smith
will repair your equipment for a negligible fee. And when it comes right down
to it, that negligible fee is all this skill really saves you. That's not even
counting the cost of the equipment, which is often much more than you would've
paid just to have the shit fixed for you. Nothing except maybe light armor
breaks easily enough to justify carrying hammers and prongs around with you,
and even then they're heavy enough to offset the benefit of wearing light
equipment. And did I mention that the Armorer skill levels way too Goddamn
slowly? In conclusion, I would strongly recommend leaving weapon and armor
care up to the professionals in this game.
Skill Type Governing Attribute
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Combat Speed
Athletics is the art of, well, running. So unless you walk everywhere you
go in this game (not recommended), you'll be making use of this skill on a more
or less constant basis. Though it should be very obvious, it bears mentioning
that this skill levels at a highly uncontrollable pace, which is why I tend to
advise against listing it as a major or minor skill. Even without the bonuses
conveyed by major or minor skill status, you should find this skill will level
up just fine with all the running around the game forces you to do. If not,
then you should note that Athletics levels a lot faster by swimming than it
does by running. Hop into the river at Balmora and swim into a post until the
desired level is reached, or boredom has forced you to commit hari kari.
Skill Type Governing Attribute
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Combat Strength
Axe is the strongest weapon skill choice in the game in terms of sheer
power. While slow and quite heavy, axes deal the most damage of any weapon
type available, and come in one and two-handed varieties. The one-handed
versions, or war axes, do less damage, but are a bit quicker to use and allow
for the use of a shield. Battleaxes, however, are specifically designed for
maximum damage output at the expense of pretty much everything else. Axes are
also uber sexy, which is really just my opinion and has absolutely nothing to
do with the game itself.
Skill Type Governing Attribute
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Combat Agility
The Block skill allows you to use a shield to defend yourself in melee
combat. Unlike other armor skills, your Block skill relates to your chance to
successfully block an attack, which will remove all damage that would've been
dealt by it, rather than merely adding to your defense. This skill gains
experience by successfully using your shield to defend attacks, thus it tends
to get easier to level up as the skill level rises, since you'll be able to
block attacks far more often than at lower levels in Block. In my opinion,
the success rate of the Block skill doesn't reach a very desirable level until
about level 40. Additionally, it's virtually impossible aside from training to
level your Block skill without also leveling an armor skill. Based on these
facts, I'd strongly recommend Block as a major skill for any character that
doesn't plan on primarily wielding two-handed weapons.
Skill Type Governing Attribute
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Combat Strength
The Blunt Weapon skill covers a very wide assortment of weapons, all of
which possess different features. Clubs... well, clubs just suck. Maces are
one-handed weapons with a good balance of speed, weight, enchantability, and
damage output, much like Long Blade-type weapons. Staves require both hands to
wield and are weaker than maces, but are also lighter and quicker. Finally,
warhammers are closely equivalent to battleaxes. They are slow, powerful two-
handed weapons tailored specifically towards dealing maximum damage, but also
possess the unique bonus of being exceptionally good at knocking an opponent
off of their feet. Overall, the variety of the Blunt Weapon skill is certainly
a pleasant bonus to enjoy, but the other, more specialized weapon skills would
likely serve as better choices in the long run to the more decisive player.
Skill Type Governing Attribute
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Magic Intelligence
Conjuration, as the name suggests, is the school of magicka related to
summoning forth physical forces from nothingness. Curiously, turn undead and
command (control) creature are two spell effects that fall under this category.
But the two real draws of the school of Conjuration are the summoning of bound
items and the summoning of creatures. Bound items are ridiculously powerful
pieces of equipment that can be conjured, and last for as long as the spell
does. Summoned creatures will faithfully fight anything hostile towards you
for the duration of the spell, or until they are killed. Summoning creatures,
unfortunately, is one of the most expensive spell effects in the game, and
bound items should only appeal to the less combat-oriented characters who
aren't already equipped with powerful weapons and armor. These two facts
and more tend to make Conjuration a school of magicka best suited as a major
or minor skill only for the more magicka-oriented character.
Skill Type Governing Attribute
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Magic Willpower
Destruction is the magicka school of attack magicka and attacking things
with it. With this school, you've got your basic elemental damage spells,
your damage and drain attribute spells, and even spells to lower an enemy's
resistances or damage their equipment. Needless to say, the spells that just
do direct damage are the most popular. You'll commonly see weapons enchanted
with these particular spell effects, and they usually tend to be far more
effective than the spells alone. However, the Destruction skill governs both
short and long-range attack magicka, making it a bit more versatile on that
front. For a skilled mage, the Destruction skill is a viable magicka-based
replacement for the Marksman weapon skill. Otherwise, I wouldn't even bother.
Skill Type Governing Attribute
---------- -------------------
Magic Intelligence
Enchant is one of those skills that will be useful to any player, but can
only be fully utilized by a hardcore mage. Your skill level in Enchant governs
your chances of successfully creating enchanted items, the amount of use you
can get out of an enchanted item before the charge is spent, and how much you
can recharge enchanted items with soul gems (check out section III.C. of the
FAQ if you want to know what any of that nonsense actually meant). The skill
gains experience by using soul gems to create enchanted items or to recharge
them. It also gains a very small amount of experience from actually using them
(though this doesn't apply to cast on strikes or constant effect enchantments).
Enchant is probably one of the harder, if not the hardest skill to level
naturally, especially in the early game. This is why my usual advice for this
skill to just leave it as a miscellaneous skill and train it up as high as you
can to enjoy its benefits. Failing that, if there was ever any skill that
would do better as a major skill rather than a minor one, it's Enchant.
Skill Type Governing Attribute
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Stealth Speed
Unarmed fighting is the oddball of all the melee combat skills present in
the game. The disadvantages are numerous and quite obvious. This style of
fighting, first of all, damages a target's fatigue rather than its health.
Health will only be damaged once the target has lost all fatigue and has been
knocked down. Secondly is the obvious disadvantage of being unable to bear an
enchantment on your weapon (read: your fists). Still, even considering this,
some players swear by this skill as perhaps the most effective weapon of all.
This is largely due to the fact that once you have knocked your target down,
it's rather difficult for them to get back up when facing a skilled martial
artist. The relative ease of leveling the skill is another advantage, since
all you really need is a single target to wail away on.
o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o
| Heavy Armor |
o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o
Skill Type Governing Attribute
---------- -------------------
Combat Endurance
The Heavy Armor skill entails the heaviest and most defensive of all
armors available. However, the best armor under this category doesn't really
surface until later in the game, so early on Heavy Armor tends to be less than
or equal to Medium Armor in terms of overall effectiveness. And while the best
Heavy Armor-types around will strongly eclipse any and everything else, it's
also (not surprisingly) really Goddamned heavy. This shouldn't be too much of
a problem for a powerful fighter, but it's worthy of mention that wearing this
type of armor levies an additional penalty on you that makes it easier for you
to be knocked down (for more on this, see section II.B. of the FAQ).
Skill Type Governing Attribute
---------- -------------------
Magic Personality
Illusion is the school of magicka that alters the perceptions of reality.
Spells like charm and invisibility, as well as a myriad of negative status
effects are included with this school. As for the former, charm/frenzy and
invisibility/chameleon spells tend to be expensive, but extremely effective
when used properly. Remaining undetected by your enemies is helpful in any
situation, whereas charming them is a hell of a lot easier than bribing them,
and a good frenzy spell allows you to easily and legally kill anyone in plain
sight. An evasion-raising spell effect called Sanctuary is also included in
the mix, but like all the other defensive spells in the game is only useful to
the more skilled mages who can actually cast it well. Speaking more on the
latter, by far the most useful and popular status spell effect is Paralyze.
It fares far better as a weapon enchantment than as a spell and is thusly most
often used as such. Therefore I can only reccomend this as a major or minor
skill based on the power of the spells I mentioned earlier, which tend to be
very expensive spell effects thus leaning this school more into major skill
territory. Stealth-types probably have more use for this school of magicka
than anyone else, but it can be handy to just about anyone who uses it right.
On a final note, if you're having enough trouble seeing in this game that the
light-enhancing spells of this school appeal to you, forget it. Your problem
is most assuredly related to the brightness and contrast settings on your
monitor, or the fact that you actually own an Xbox.
Skill Type Governing Attribute
---------- -------------------
Stealth Agility
Light Armor is likely the most popular of the main armor skills in the
game. While Light Armor governs the least protective of all armor, it still
offers sufficient defense while weighing practically nothing. Also, if you
have the Tribunal expansion pack, one of the best sets of light armor around
is available about 10 minutes into the game, making this skill that much more
appealing. Unless you plan on creating a strong, combat-oriented character,
this is probably the best armor skill to consider.
o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o
| Long Blade |
o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o
Skill Type Governing Attribute
---------- -------------------
Combat Strength
Long Blade is the most common weapon skill in the game. You'll see more
weapons that fall under this category than any other, which is somewhat of an
advantage in and of itself. Statistically speaking, Long Blade-type weapons
(read: swords) possess the greatest balance of weight, damage dealt, weapon
speed, and potential for enchantment in the game, making Long Blade a good
weapon choice for any middle-of-the-road player. It also helps that quite a
few of the playable races (4) offer a bonus to this skill.
Skill Type Governing Attribute
---------- -------------------
Stealth Agility
Marksman governs all types of long-range physical combat, from bows and
arrows to throwing stars. The value of being able to attack your enemies from
afar in this game usually isn't apparent until you try it, so I'd suggest that
you do. With a decent amount of skill and luck, you can significantly weaken
or even outright kill most opponents before engaging them in melee combat, and
there are always a few tough customers that you'd probably rather not get near
in the first place. Even the toughest warrior should be able to find some use
for this skill, and long-range combat can be much more useful depending on how
physically frail your chosen character type is. On the downside of things,
Marksman tends to gain experience more slowly than normal weapon skills do,
which makes it all the more important to select as a major skill as opposed to
a minor one, if you're so inclined. Given the usefulness of long-range combat,
I'd recommend including either this or the magicka school of Destruction in
your character's skillset. And at the risk of sounding repetitive, make sure
you take along a melee weapon skill, as well.
o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o
| Medium Armor |
o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o
Skill Type Governing Attribute
---------- -------------------
Combat Endurance
Medium Armor is, for all practical purposes, a happy medium (haha, a pun)
between the other two main armor types, and is a good choice for any player,
most likely a combat-priented one, looking for something more defensive than
Light Armor, but would rather not deal with the hassles and burdens of the
Heavy Armor type. Medium Armor is especially effective early on, given that
a few very good pieces of it are available rather soon into the game.
Skill Type Governing Attribute
---------- -------------------
Stealth Personality
Mercantile is the art of haggling. Gain experience in the skill by
offering and getting better deals than the base price while bartering (see
section II.D. for more on this). I could go on and on about this skill, but I
won't. The simple truth is that you do not need to worry about money in this
game. You literally possess the capability to buy something from someone and
then sell it right back to them for more than you paid for it. And remember
that we're talking about a game where if you don't like a deal you're getting,
you can just kill the son of a bitch and sell everything he owns to the guy
next door. There's really no point in appointing this skill to a major or
minor position unless you're just really greedy, or if you just can't think of
anything else to put there.
Skill Type Governing Attribute
---------- -------------------
Magic Willpower
Mysticism is the school of magicka bent on manipulating the mystical
forces of nature. I'm not exactly sure what that means, only that this school
is pretty much regarded as one of the most useful magicka schools. I tend to
agree, except only in the case of a mage-type character. Spell absorption,
spell reflection, mystical detection of keys, enchantments, and/or animals, and
teleportation are infinitely useful effects, but only if you're powerful enough
to actually use them. Spells that drain attributes are also available, thus a
nice absorb health spell helps make Mysticism a decent half-assed alternative
to the Destruction skill. They also make superb weapon enchantments, as well.
Soul trapping (used in conjunction with Enchanting- refer to section III.C. of
the FAQ for more info) and Telekinesis are two more prominent spells of this
school, but both are rather cheap to cast and fare just as well as enchantments
than as spells. So in conclusion, if you've got a mage-type character in the
works, this is probably one of the main magicka schools to consider including
in your skillset. For anyone else, you're best off leaving this one alone.
Skill Type Governing Attribute
---------- -------------------
Magic Willpower
Restoration is, as you might have guessed, the school of magicka focused
on healing and fortifying your body. Spells that restore health, cure disease,
and fortify attributes or resistances are all included with the Restoration
package. You needn't be a full-blown mage to make use of this school's useful
spells, in fact I'd recommend this skill to just about any player who doesn't
feel like relying entirely on other methods of keeping themselves healthy.
You're of course advised to still make good use of the other methods available
to you- a good health restoration spell can help save those restore health
potions for more appropriate situations (you'll quickly learn that restorative
potions work a lot better in the heat of battle than restorative spells do).
Spells that cure disease or restore damaged attributes can also be of great
assistance in the field, but that about does it for the extent of this school's
useful spell effects, at least for the novice mage. More skilled magicians
might enjoy spells that fortify their resistances, but fortify attribute spells
are of limited use due to their overall cost in achieving any kind of a useful
effect. Still, you can't go wrong including the magicka school of Restoration
as either a major or minor skill in your character's skillset.
Skill Type Governing Attribute
---------- -------------------
Stealth Intelligence
Security is a real nice way of saying lockpicking. This skill governs
your chances to successfully unlock doors and chests with lockpicks, and disarm
traps with probes. The single disadvantage to this skill is that unlock spells
and enchantments are a lot more reliable than carrying around lockpicks is.
That being said, having a high skill level in Security is your best bet early
in the game to defeat high level locks and the only way besides telekinesis to
disable traps. Most traps aren't lethal, but they still hurt. The Security
skill gains experience by successfully unlocking a lock or disarming a trap,
only so many of which exist within the game. However, there is a lock spell
effect, which is essentially the cantrip for this skill. A lock spell is
available immediately into the game from the Caldera Mage's Guild (you can
travel there from the Mage's Guild at Balmora). After acquiring the effect,
merely create a lock spell or enchantment with a magnitude of 1 and level your
Security skill to your heart's content. The ease of leveling means that
Security fares equally well as a minor skill as it does as a major one, but a
stealth-type character will still probably want to go major with it.
o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o
| Short Blade |
o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o
Skill Type Governing Attribute
---------- -------------------
Stealth Speed
Short Blade governs the second most common type of weapon found throughout
the game (Long Blade being the first- this game is awfully fixated on swords).
Short Blade-types include daggers, short swords, and short swords with funny
names, like Tanto and Wakizashi. These weapons are by far the weakest weapons
available, but they are also the lightest and quickest. They tend to possess
high levels of enchantability, making this weapon choice much more of a magical
damage-dealer than a physical one. Powerful warriors are probably much better
off selecting a more powerful weapon skill, wisely observing the fact that the
Short Blade skill is listed in the stealth category instead of the combat one.
Skill Type Governing Attribute
---------- -------------------
Stealth Agility
Sneak is the art of moving unseen or unheard. A little sneak icon will
appear in the lower left-hand corner of the screen whenever you are holding
the sneak button down and are unseen. Any putz can hide behind something or
stay far enough away from someone that they remain undetected, but it takes
skill to be near someone without letting them know you're there. That's where
the Sneak skill comes in. When you reach a point where you might actually be
noticed by someone or something, your Sneak skill will dictate how likely you
are to remain hidden. It's a constant-effect kinda thing, so if you just stand
in one spot and hold the sneak button, the little icon will phase in and out.
At lower levels, this skill is ineffective enough that it takes for fuckin'
ever to level, and is probably best raised via training. At higher levels,
however, the bonuses conveyed by the skill can be substantial. Obviously, the
ability to remain unnoticed makes everyday thievery easier, but being able to
sneak up on someone will allow you to successfully pickpocket them (just talk
to anyone while holding the sneak button down to try) or deal critical damage
with an attack. Just about any stealth-type character is best advised to have
this as a major skill, but other types could probably stand to be without it.
Skill Type Governing Attribute
---------- -------------------
Combat Endurance
Spear is one of the more alternative weapon skill choices in the game.
Spears and Halberds are two-handed weapons that are just as slow, but don't
deal quite as much damage as battleaxes or warhammers. The advantage of these
weapons, however, is the extremely high potential for enchantment they tend to
possess, eclipsing even Short Blade in terms of average enchantment points per
weapon. Of course, the downside is that this is a bonus that cannot be fully
recognized until much later in the game, so the Spear skill is somewhat of a
late bloomer in terms of usefulness. On the other hand, in conjunction with a
character well-versed in the Enchant skill, the Spear skill can be quite deadly
much earlier in the game.
Skill Type Governing Attribute
---------- -------------------
Stealth Personality
The Speechcraft skill directly affects your chances of successfully
persuading someone (this is discussed further in section II.D. of the FAQ).
In short, given that the skill is nothing more than a simple chance check for
an action which can be failed over and over again with little consequence, the
importance of the Speechcraft skill more or less amounts to saving you about 30
seconds of your time. Leveling it is as simple as endlessly admiring someone,
though it will tend to level a bit on its own if you often tend to get on good
terms with someone before doing business with them (which is highly recommended
in any event). Still, I wouldn't include this as a major or minor skill unless
I was just really desperate to find something to fill a minor slot.
Skill Type Governing Attribute
---------- -------------------
Magic Speed
The fourth, forgotten armor skill is the art of not wearing any at all.
Your Unarmored skill is applied to any body part not currently covered with a
piece of armor, meaning that unless you're always running around with a full
set of armor on (unlikely), you'll be making at least some use of this skill at
any given time. Unarmored is a fairly ineffective skill until it reaches
higher levels (around 50 or so), at which point it becomes surprisingly good.
It will never be as effective as the strongest armors of the other three
categories, and is generally a poor choice for a primary armor skill. However,
as a secondary skill it can do an excellent job of filling the gaps in any set
of armor. The Argonian and Khajit races, unable to wear boots or headgear,
should pay special attention to this skill. Aside from that, Unarmored tends
to be more useful to players favoring heavy or medium armor, as offsetting the
weight issue via one or more vulnerable body parts is generally more helpful to
the player whose armor actually weighs something. Keep all this in mind when
deciding whether or not to make Unarmored a major or minor skill.
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_\ /_ | ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯/ \¯
\ \/ / | o / /\ \
_\ /_ | C. The Races | ¯/ \¯
\ \/ / o ~~~~~~~~~~~~ | / /\ \
_\ /_______________________________ | ¯/ \¯
\ \/ /| Section I: Getting Started |----------------------------------o / /\ \
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Abilities
-----------------------------------------------------
Immunity to Poison 100% resistance to poison damage
Resist Disease 50% resistance to common disease
Powers
------------------------------------------------------------
Water Breathing Water breathing for 120 seconds on self
The Argonians are a reptilian race that don't lean towards being tailored
towards any one particular type of character. In their case, this is mostly a
disadvantage, since combat-types and magic-types both have a few powerful
races catering specifically to their needs to choose from. Really shitty
racial abilities and the inability to don headgear or boots doesn't really
help this race's case any, either. Their stats tend to look a bit nicer than
those of the Dark Elf, but the Argonians are probably a worse choice in the
long run.
Abilities
----------------------------------------------------------
Magicka Bonus Fortify maximum magicka 0.5x intelligence
Resist Magicka 50% resistance to magicka
Powers
--------------------------------------------------------
Dragon Skin Shield 50 points for 60 seconds on self
Unlike the other humanoid races in the game, it's tough to say exactly
which, if any real-life nationality the Breton are based upon. But that's
pretty irrelevant, I guess. The Breton are a people with a natural affinity
for magicka, or "Magicka Warriors" as I like to call them. Their inherent
abilities make this an ideal class for magicians, both on the offensive and
defensive fronts. Dragon Skin is a welcome bonus, as well, to a class with
minimal physical defense. Aside from that, their stats are nothing special,
but decidedly sufficient for the mage-type character.
o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o
| Dark Elf |
o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o
Abilities
------------------------------------------
Resist Fire 75% resistance to fire
Powers
--------------------------------------------------------------
Ancestor Guardian Sanctuary 50 points for 60 seconds on self
Dark Elves are the native inhabitants of Morrowind, and you will thusly
see more of them than any other race in the game. What makes this a rather
important fact to know is that they all possess a rather large natural immunity
to fire, which is actually pretty useful (to them, anyways). Ancestor Guardian
is also a good power to have, as it's a notably potent version of a difficult
spell to cast. Statistically speaking, Dark Elves are pretty average, although
a bit weak on the defense. They're probably the best choice you've got for a
stealth-type character, but regardless of your class type, you can't go wrong
with a Dark Elf if you're looking for a good all-around race.
o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o
| High Elf |
o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o
Abilities
---------------------------------------------------------------
Magicka Bonus Fortify maximum magicka 1.5x intelligence
Resist Disease 75% resistance to common disease
Weakness to Magicka 50% resistance to magicka damage
Weakness to Fire 50% resistance to fire damage
Weakness to Frost 25% resistance to frost damage
Weakness to Shock 25% resistance to shock damage
High Elves are somewhat of an extreme choice as far as magic-type classes
are concerned. A very large magicka boost is countered by some pretty serious
weaknesses to pretty much everything. Combining this race with The Atronach
birthsign creates an impossibly large magicka pool and does a lot to offset the
otherwise-debilitating weaknesses imposed by this race. Aside from creating a
ridiculously overpowered mage, however, there's not too much else you can do
with this race except see how fast you can get yourself killed.
Powers
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Voice of the Emperor Charm 25 to 50 points for 15 seconds on target
Star of the West Absorb fatigue 200 points on target
Imperials are the ruling class of Morrowind, so to speak. A better way to
describe them is as the Roman knockoffs who moved in and conquered the place.
Their stats are pretty middle-of-the-road with an emphasis on personality and
personality-based skills. Their powers can be useful from time to time- not
the best around but certainly not the worst, either. Still, unless you're
interested in the personalty bonuses, there's absolutely no reason to select
this race.
Powers
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Eye of Fear Demoralize humanoid 100 points for 30 seconds on target
Eye of Night Night Eye 50 points for 30 seconds on self
The Khajiit are creepy cat people with an affinity for drugs and a habit
of talking about everyone in the third person. A quick look at the stats and
skill bonuses of this race identifies it as one best suited as a stealth-type
character, but poor overall stats and generally useless powers really aren't
helping this race out too much. And I should probably also mention that like
the Argonians, Khajiit are unable to equip boots or headgear. I'd recommend
a Dark Elf for a more well-balanced stealth-type character, but I'd still pick
a Khajiit over a Wood Elf.
o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o
| Nord |
o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o
Abilities
---------------------------------------------------
Immunity to Frost 100% resistance to frost damage
Resist Shock 75% resistance to shock damage
Powers
-----------------------------------------------------------
Woad Shield 30 points for 60 seconds on self
Thunder Fist Frost damage 25 points on touch
Nords are pasty, white-skinned folk that, much like the Vikings of our
world, enjoy beating things up and not much else. The resistances to frost
and shock are a really sweet bonus to this race, though Thunder Fist and Woad
are only as useful as you make them. If you're looking for a powerful race
that can hold its own in melee combat with a sizzling side of sexy, then look
no farther.
Abilities
--------------------------------------------------
Resist Disease 75% resistance to common disease
Resist Poison 75% resistance to poison damage
Powers
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Adrenaline Rush Fortify endurance 50 points for 60 seconds on self
Fortify strength 50 points for 60 seconds on self
Fortify agility 50 points for 60 seconds on self
Fortify speed 50 points for 60 seconds on self
Fortify health 25 points for 60 seconds on self
Redguards are the negro race of Morrowind, and are set up a lot like Nords
in that fighting is pretty much the only thing they're good for. Whereas the
most appealing aspect of the Nordic race might have been the base resistances
or the maximum strength, the best thing that the Redguards have going for them
is their Adrenaline Rush power, which essentially allows them to go apeshit for
60 seconds a day. It kicks a quite a bit of ass, though the fortification to
your health is kind of a double-edged sword in that it can kill you if it wears
off while your health is still too low. It's also probably the only reason why
anyone would want to play as a member of this race instead of an Orc or a Nord.
Abilities
------------------------------------------
Resist Magicka 25% resistance to magicka
Powers
------------------------------------------------------------------
Berserk Fortify fatigue 200 points for 60 seconds on self
Fortify attack 100 points for 60 seconds on self
Fortify health 20 points for 60 seconds on self
Orcs are somewhat of an alternative combat-based race. They tend to be
much more focused on defense than the other races, and the females can even
make for halfway decent mages. That is unfortunately the extent of the nice
things that can be said about Orcs, since their lone power is a real let-down.
Berserk seems like it almost wants to be the Redguard's Adrenaline Rush, but
it's not like fortifying your fatigue or your health was ever horribly useful.
Therefore, what Berserk really boils down to is a 60-second accuracy enhancer.
That being said, Orcs are still a powerful choice of race for the combat-based
character, if nothing else than on the power of the 25% resistance to magicka.
Abilities
-------------------------------------------------
Resist Disease 75% resistance to common disease
Powers
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Beast Tongue Command creature 5 levels for 600 seconds on target
Wood Elves are the closest thing Morrowind has to a traditional elf-like
character, except that they're shorter, dumber, and weaker than you'd probably
expect. They get knocked around a lot since they entirely lack anything in the
department of strength or defense. The hefty bonus to their Marksman skill and
maximum starting agility would be wisely observed by anyone who chooses to play
as a Wood Elf. Still, it's not like this race has too much going for it except
for a mildly useful power. You know, there's probably a reason that nobody
likes Wood Elves- it's because they suck.
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\ \/ / o----------------------------------| Section I: Getting Started |/ /\ \
_\ /_ | ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯/ \¯
\ \/ / | o / /\ \
_\ /_ | D. The Signs | ¯/ \¯
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_\ /_______________________________ | ¯/ \¯
\ \/ /| Section I: Getting Started |----------------------------------o / /\ \
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o
| The Apprentice |
o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o
Abilities
---------------------------------------------------
Elfborn Fortify maximum magicka 1.5x intelligence
50% weakness to magicka
If the 0.5 magicka bonus granted by The Mage just isn't enough for you,
you can opt for the 1.5 version from The Apprentice, instead. The price you
pay with this sign, however, is a 50% weakness to magicka. This is a sign
geared towards mages, which should be a pretty big hint for you to invest in
some serious spell absorption magic as early in the game as you can possibly
afford it. And as if it even needed to be said, High Elves, who already boast
a 50% weakness to magicka, are additionally cautioned against choosing this
sign, as the effects of the two penalties are indeed cumulative.
o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o
| The Atronach |
o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o
A favorite sign of many Morrowind veterans, The Atronach is possibly the
sign with the largest and most significant impact on any character. While the
2.0 magicka bonus may seem nice at first, the true draw of this sign is the
defensive bonus offered by a constant 50-point spell absorption effect. The
Atronach transcends a mere love of the spell by basing your entire character
around it. Since spell absorption is the only way for a character under this
sign to regain any magicka, it becomes a lot harder to keep a desirable amount
on hand, even with the hefty magicka bonus. It is worthy of note, however,
that blessings from temple altars are candidates for absorption, meaning that
there is a safe, combat-free method of recharging your magical batteries.
o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o
| The Lady |
o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o
Two 25-point stat boosts to endurance and personality are what you get
with The Lady. Of all the stat-boosting signs to choose, The Lady is one of
the better ones, if not solely for the fact that you get double the bang for
your buck. The only drawback suffered by this sign is pretty much the same
one as all the other birthsigns whose main function is to boost a stat: it's
really only useful early in the game, before you have a chance to really boost
your stats. If you read section I.A. of the FAQ carefully, you might have
some idea as to just how easy it is to max your stats out rather early on in
the game, in which case signs like The Lady tend to be of limited use.
o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o
| The Lord |
o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o
Abilities
------------------------------------------
Trollkin 100% weakness to fire
Powers
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Blood of the North Restore health 2 points for 30 seconds on self
This sign grants a character crippling weakness to fire in return for an
extremely weak healing power that is very easily matched or beaten by other
healing spells or potions as early in the game as, well, immediately. As much
as I attempt to remain unbiased in my quest to bring the masses only the best
of in-game strategy, there occasionally surfaces a device which I could not in
good faith recommend in any situation. The Lord is one of them.
o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o
| The Lover |
o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o
Powers
-----------------------------------------------
Lover's Kiss Paralyze for 60 seconds on touch
Drain fatigue 200 points on self
A 25-point agility bonus with a side of uber-powerful paralyzation power
is The Lover. Lover's Kiss, the aforementioned paralyzation spell, is of
limited use due to the fact that it can only be used once per day (the fatigue
drain isn't helping its case too much either, but a decent potion shouldn't
have any difficulty counteracting it). The agility bonus remains useful as
long as you have yet to max out all of your stats. The Thief and The Warrior
each do about half the work of this sign (with a bonus to evasion and a bonus
to accuracy, respectively), but since neither of them actually boost a stat
and therefore cannot be invalidated over time, both are more useful over the
long haul.
o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o
| The Mage |
o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o
Abilities
-----------------------------------------------
Fay Fortify maximum magicka 0.5x intelligence
A simple 0.5 magicka bonus is what is offered by The Mage. Extra magicka
reserves are always nice to have (and damn near mandatory if you want to make
use of many of the game's more powerful spell effects), and your options to
boost them are somewhat limited, especially if signs like The Apprentice and
The Attronach, or races like the High Elves or Breton do not appeal to you.
Aside from playing as a Breton, The Mage is the only method of fortifying
your magicka that will not result in any negative effects.
o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o
| The Ritual |
o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o
Powers
-----------------------------------------------------
Mara's Gift Restore health 100 points on self
Spells
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Blessed Word (10) Turn undead 100 points for 30 seconds on target
Blessed Touch (5) Turn undead 100 points for 30 seconds on touch
The Ritual offers not one, but two different turn undead spells, and a
very potent healing power called Mara's Gift which restores 100 health per use.
For those that didn't already know, Turn Undead spells are probably some of the
easiest, if not the easiest spells in the game to come by and use, meaning that
the only real thing that sets The Ritual apart from all of the other signs is a
once-per-day healing spell which is about as useful as your lack of ability or
incentive to find any better. It's still better than The Lord, though.
o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o
| The Serpent |
o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o
Spells
---------------------------------------------------------------
Star-Curse (5) Poison damage 3 points for 30 seconds on touch
Poison damage 1 point for 30 seconds on self
A lot of people don't like this sign, and I can see why. Not too many
folks are very keen on a spell that poisons an enemy at the notable expense of
poisoning themselves. For better or worse, the damage is dealt slowly over the
course of 30 seconds, allowing both parties involved ample time to do whatever
it is they need to do. If you can either quickly heal, neutralize your poison,
or just be tough enough to take the damage, what you are left with is a quite
powerful and reliable spell that will eat away at your enemy while you're busy
tending to yourself. Of course, it would have been infinitely more useful if
you didn't have to get up close and personal to use it.
o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o
| The Shadow |
o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o
Powers
------------------------------------------------
Moonshadow Invisibility for 60 seconds on self
If you didn't know the subtle difference between the invisibility spell
effect and the chameleon spell effect before choosing this sign, odds are that
you'll find out pretty quickly. While invisibility does render you completely
undetectable to anyone else, it will last only as long as you don't try to do
anything that being invisible might make easier, like stealing something or...
what else do thieves do, anyways? Invisibility makes sneaking past things
you'd rather not fight or sneaking up on something to deliver a critical blow
a great deal easier, but only being able to use a relatively cheap spell effect
(albeit at a high magnitude) once per day is a major setback to this sign.
o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o
| The Steed |
o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o
Quite often, when people play Morrowind for the first time, one of the
most difficult things for them to get used to is the actual somewhat realistic
speed (read: extremely slow) at which their character moves. This often will
prompt them to choose The Steed as a birthsign, in hopes that the 25-point
speed bonus will do something to light a fire under their character's ass.
This decision is usually followed by subsequent bitching that it and even
choosing Athletics as a major skill isn't helping much. My frank advice to
anyone considering this sign is to learn to live with being a slowass and to
choose a sign that will actually convey a useful benefit to them.
o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o
| The Thief |
o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o
The Thief grants extra evasiveness in the form of a constant 10-point
Sanctuary spell. While Sanctuary is somewhat of an easy spell to locate and
cast, at least in the 10-point range, having a constant effect version of the
spell is still far more useful. It's also more useful in the respect that it
is cumulative with other Sanctuary effects you might pick up throughout the
game, meaning that The Thief is one of the few birthsigns that can remain
useful even late into the game.
o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o
| The Tower |
o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o
Powers
-------------------------------------------
Tower Key Open 50 points on touch
Spells
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Beggar's Nose (5) Detect enchantment 200 feet for 60 seconds on self
Detect animal 200 feet for 60 seconds on self
Detect key 200 feet for 60 seconds on self
Like so many other birthsigns, The Tower is only as useful as your
inability to hunt down and duplicate its effects at some point during the game.
Quite unfortunately for it, a 50-point unlock spell is available as early as
Balmora, and is not limited to one casting per day (unless your character is
just ungodly stupid, I guess). The other spell offered by this sign, Beggar's
Nose, is really all this sign has going for it. Yes, it is actually a very
good detection spell- far better than anything you could whip up during the
game. But the question you've got to ask yourself is whether that spell is
worth choosing The Tower as your sign over. I didn't think so, either.
o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o
| The Warrior |
o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o
The only real problem with this sign is that attack is a hidden stat.
Ergo, there is no real way to determine exactly how substantial a 10-point
bonus to it would be. Additional accuracy is always nice, especially in the
early game when you should find it to be significantly lacking. The sign can
remain useful throughout the game based entirely on the fact that it is not
known if it is actually possible to max out the stat, but at higher levels of
weapon skill(s) and agility, the risk of failing to connect with an attack is
infitesimal at best.
For those of you fortunate enough to be playing the PC version of this
game, this section is dedicated to helping you get accustomed to the game's
controls. I also denote several things that the game doesn't make glaringly
obvious to you from its outset, so this section is worth perusing even if you
are familiar with Morrowind's controls.
First things first, let's go over the commands themselves. You have the
ability to set up your controls in any manner you please, so it helps to know
a little something about the commands available to you, as well as which ones
will and won't be helpful to you. The following chart details each command in
the game:
o-----------------------o-------------o--------------------------------------o
| Command | Usefulness | Comments |
o-----------------------o-------------o--------------------------------------o
| Move | Vital | Forward, back, right, and left- your |
| | | basic and obviously vital movement |
| | | commands. The mouse is used to look |
| | | around and to turn, and the left and |
| | | right movement commands can be set |
| | | to either turn or strafe in the |
| | | controls menu. Also note that if a |
| | | controller with a d-pad is utilized, |
| | | the d-pad will serve these functions |
| | | by default and cannot be changed. |
| | | |
| Use | Vital | This is essentially your character's |
| | | all-purpose "attack" command. It'll |
| | | use whatever weapon, item, or spell |
| | | you have readied. If nothing is at |
| | | the ready, this button does nothing. |
| | | |
| Activate | Vital | Used to talk to other characters, |
| | | open doors, take things, and to |
| | | otherwise manipulate your general |
| | | surroundings. It will only effect |
| | | the area covered by the crosshairs |
| | | visible in the 1st-person mode, and |
| | | your range is rather limited barring |
| | | the use of a telekinesis spell. |
| | | |
| Ready Weapon/Spell | Vital | The "ready weapon" command will set |
| | | your character's currently selected |
| | | weapon or item to ready; "ready |
| | | spell" will ready the currently |
| | | selected spell or enchanted item. |
| | | The "use" command will utilize the |
| | | readied equipment/spell, or you may |
| | | press the appropriate "ready" key a |
| | | second time to set your character at |
| | | ease (nothing at the ready). |
| | | |
| Next/Previous Weapon | Handy | Cycles through all weapons available |
| | | to your character. Of limited use |
| | | after you've looted a dungeon or |
| | | armory and are lugging around fifty |
| | | thousand fucking weapons, but it is |
| | | otherwise useful in toggling between |
| | | ranged and melee weapons, assuming |
| | | you have only one of each. |
| | | |
| Next/Previous Spell | Useless | Cycles through a character's list of |
| | | known spells. While not entirely |
| | | worthless, even the lowliest mage |
| | | tends to know quite a few spells, |
| | | which makes selecting them via the |
| | | sub-menu far less of a hassle. |
| | | |
| Jump | Vital | Self-explanitory. |
| | | |
| Sneak | Handy/Vital | Hold button to enter sneak mode, in |
| | | which your character will attempt to |
| | | remain unnoticed by anything nearby. |
| | | Depending on your type of character, |
| | | you'll either use sneak mode a lot |
| | | or barely at all, but it's a command |
| | | worth having access to simply as it |
| | | is useful in determining if anyone |
| | | can see you at any given moment. |
| | | |
| Run | Useless | Hold this button down to run, or so |
| | | the game says. Due to an apparent |
| | | bug, this button more often than not |
| | | won't work, making the "Always Run" |
| | | option your only method of running. |
| | | |
| Auto Run | Useless | Press once to make your character |
| | | walk (or run) forward until told |
| | | otherwise. Only useful if you're |
| | | really lazy. |
| | | |
| Always Run | Vital | Toggles the "always run" option. |
| | | When this option is active, your |
| | | character will always run rather |
| | | than walk. A vital command since |
| | | the basic run command never seems to |
| | | want to work. |
| | | |
| Toggle POV | Handy | Switches between 1st-person and 3rd- |
| | | person view. Hold this button down |
| | | and move the mouse to examine your |
| | | character from all angles. Picking |
| | | up objects and aiming ranged weapons |
| | | are both much easier to do in a 1st- |
| | | person view since a targeting mark |
| | | is provided there. |
| | | |
| Menu Mode | Vital | Pulls up your character's sub-menus: |
| | | stats, inventory, map, and spells & |
| | | magic items. Also pauses the game. |
| | | |
| Rest | Vital | Brings up the rest menu, and also |
| | | pauses the game. |
| | | |
| Journal | Vital | Views your character's journal, as |
| | | well as pauses the game. Press the |
| | | journal button again to exit back to |
| | | the game. Unless you have a super |
| | | memory, you'll need access to this |
| | | command, but it needn't be in a |
| | | readily accessible position. |
| | | |
| Quicksave/Quickload | Handy | Saves to and loads from a quicksave |
| | | file. Frequent saving is highly |
| | | necessary in this game, as crashes |
| | | do occur from time to time. |
| | | |
| Quick Menu/Quick Keys | Handy | Allows you to assign up to nine |
| | | spells, weapons, or items to "quick |
| | | keys" from the "quick menu". 0 - 9 |
| | | are the default quick keys, with 0 |
| | | inable to be assigned to any command |
| | | other than "set weapon: unarmed". |
| | | Highly useful for any player with |
| | | hand-to-hand as a major/minor skill. |
| | | |
| Console | Vital | Pulls up the console, which can be |
| | | used to cheat, fix glitches in the |
| | | game, or both. This command cannot |
| | | be assigned to any key other than ~. |
| | | A list of console commands can be |
| | | found near the end of this section. |
o-----------------------o-------------o--------------------------------------o
Now that we've gone over the various commands available to you, your first
priority should be to organize a controller configuration that you will be
comfortable with. The mouse will invariably factor into your controller setup,
as it is the only method of looking up and down, as well as interacting with
several of the on-screen menus. By default, the game is set up to have you
control it with one hand on the mouse, and the other on the keyboard. Some
players may find that the enjoy this setup, in which case not much adjustment
is necessitated. However, if you're like me and prefer a convenient USB
controller to the awkward settings of a keyboard, let me give you a few
pointers to keep in mind when setting up your controls.
The game is unfortunately kind of glitchy when it comes to setting up
controllers. The best way to set up your controller configuration is to turn
the controller option off, and then to assign all of the commands that will not
be placed on buttons on your controller. This includes commands that will be
assigned to your mouse buttons. Once that is taken care of, turn on the option
that allows for the use of a controller and set those buttons. Even though you
will not be able to see any of the mouse or keyboard assingments, they will
still remain in the position to which they were set unless you change them.
There is a bug in the game, however, where several controller buttons are
preset to certain positions. While these positions may be switched to other
buttons on the controller, they will always revert to their original positions
each time you start up the game. It is possible, however, to assign these
commands to a mouse button or keyboard key and have them maintain the selected
settings in addition to the preset controller buttons. The affected commands
(and buttons) are: Activate, B0; Journal, B7; Rest, B8; Toggle POV, B9.
When selecting button assignments for a configration that involves the use
of a controller, there is first and foremost one major thing to bear in mind.
That is with that one hand on a joystick or d-pad, and the other on the mouse,
there are only so many buttons that are readily acessible without moving one of
your hands to another position (either to the keyboard or the other half of the
controller). Ergo, the most important commands (use, activate, and menu mode)
should be placed in buttons easily accessible from either position. This will
include both of the buttons on your mouse, the mouse wheel (if applicable), and
also any applicable shoulder buttons on your controller (i.e., the L1 and L2
buttons on a mock-Playstation controller). Also note that the sneak and toggle
POV commands are also two major candidates for those positions if you use them.
It's also very important to note that, for controllers only, a button can
trigger more than one command. Assinging two commands that work well together
to one button can be very helpful if done correctly. For example, I enjoy
setting both Sneak and Use to the same button on my controller. Not only does
this help to conserve my available buttons, Sneak and Use are two commands that
are often used in conjunction with one another. Holding my Sneak/Use button
down will command my character to sneak up on her opponent as she prepares to
strike (refer to section II.B. of the FAQ for more information). Sneaking
without hitting something is as easy as putting her weapon away beforehand.
Next up, I'll speak about the console. Pressing the ~ button at any time
during the game brings up the console window, which is basically an in-game
game editor. To use the console window, simply type a command into it and
press enter. There are literally hundreds of commands that the console will
understand, but the vast majority of them fall under the "advanced users only"
category. There are, however, a few basic commands which would behoove any
player to know. Those commands are detailed in the chart that follows:
o--------------------o-------------------------------------------------------o
| Command | What It Does |
o--------------------o-------------------------------------------------------o
| ra | Resets all NPC's and monsters to their default |
| | positions. Useful for moving NPC's that are blocking |
| | doorways or replacing silt strider operators that |
| | have fallen from their platforms. |
| | |
| tcl | Toggles collision. Essentially, if your character |
| | becomes somehow entrapped by his or her surroundings |
| | turning this off should allow you to free yourself. |
| | Thanks for this one, Bec! |
| | |
| tgm | Toggles god mode. When god mode is activated, your |
| | character cannot be damaged. |
| | |
| tfow | Toggles the fog of war. When this option is active, |
| | any part of the map that your character has not seen |
| | will be blacked out on the menu screen. The default |
| | setting for this option is on. |
| | |
| fillmap | Marks every city and indoor location on your map. |
| | The marks are visible even through the fog of war, |
| | and the effect is permanent unless you revert to an |
| | earlier save or restart the game. |
| | |
| filljournal | Adds every possible entry to your journal. It takes |
| | an obscene amount of time, even on a faster machine, |
| | and is only useful to demonstrate just how many |
| | things there are to do and see in this game. |
| | |
| coc "x" | Will instantly transport you to most cities in the |
| | game, where x is the name of the city. |
| | |
| player->setx"y" | Allows you to alter any of your character's stats or |
| | skill levels, where x is the name of the skill or |
| | stat, and y is the desired value. |
| | |
| setpccrimelevel"y" | Sets your character's bounty, where y is the desired |
| | value. Be warned that you will be attacked on sight |
| | by any manner of law enforcement if this number gets |
| | too high, and that the console is the only method of |
| | restoring it to zero past that point. Please refer |
| | to section II.C. of the FAQ for more information. |
| | |
| lock"y" | Allows you to lock any door or container in the game, |
| | where y is the desired lock level. To indicate the |
| | desired target, left-click on it while the console |
| | window is open (its name should appear on the title |
| | bar of the console window). |
| | |
| unlock | Allows you to unlock any locked door or container in |
| | the game. To indicate the desired target, left-click |
| | it while the console window is open (its name should |
| | appear on the title bar of the console window). |
o--------------------o-------------------------------------------------------o
Something I should probably talk a little about, also, is your character's
sub-menu screens. As you should already know, hovering your mouse over any of
your character's skills will yeild additional information about that skill, as
well as your character's progress towards gaining a level in that skill. What
you should have also guessed, but I'm going to tell you anyways is that doing
the same thing to just about anything else in any of your sub-menus will have
the same effect. This is specifically important in helping you idenfity all
that crap you're no doubt carrying around in your inventory.
Speaking of the stuff in your inventory, using it is normally as simple as
picking it up, dragging it over to the portrait of your character, and clicking
on him or her. This is how all manners of weapons and armor are equipped, how
items such as torches and lockpicks are equipped, and how potions and alchemy
ingredients are consumed. It is also how the game's more advanced activities
are initiated, such as creating potions with alchemy equipment, repairing your
equipment with hammers and prongs, or using soul gems to create or recharge an
enchanted item. Occasionally, it may become necessary to discard an item from
your inventory. To do this, merely pick an item up by clicking on it, and then
click anywhere outside the inventory window to drop the item onto the ground.
Lastly, before I wrap this section up, there are actually two more special
commands in the game (besides the console, which I already mentioned), and they
are special in the sense that neither of them are mentioned in the manual, or
anywhere else, for that matter. The first is deleting spells, which can be
very important in reducing unwanted clutter from your spell menu. Simply hold
shift and left-click on any spell that isn't granted by a birthsign to delete
it. The second command enables you to take a screenshot at any time during the
game with your keyboard's "print screen" key. In order to do this, you must
first enable screenshots in the "Morrowind.ini" file. To do this, use Notepad
to open the file, which is located in the game's main directory. Locate the
line that reads "enable screen shot=0", change the 0 to a 1, and then save your
changes and exit Notepad. All screenshots you take will be saved to your
game's main directory.
You've already learned that casting magic and attacking with weapons is
done with the use button. Your currently selected weapon and spell will be
displayed on the lower left-hand corner of the screen, and the "ready weapon"
and "ready spell" commands are used to get your character ready to use them.
This section will delve a bit deeper into the combat system than stuff you
should already know.
As you should also already know, the damage dealt by a your character's
(physical) attacks are a direct result of the weapon used and your character's
strength. Accuracy is tied to your character's skill level with the weapon
used and your Agility stat. However, the third and final factor in this
equation is your character's current level of fatigue, a subject I've only
lightly touched on thus far.
Fatigue essentially represents how tired your character is. Your fatigue
drains gradually as you perform physically taxing actions: fighting, runnning,
and jumping, specifically. Fatigue slowly restores itself over time as you
walk at a normal pace, sneak, stand still, or rest. It can also be restored
with spells or potions. When your character's fatigue is at its maximum, he
or she will operate at top efficiency. As it begins to drain, however, it will
start to adversely affect some of your actions based on the current percentage
of your character's maximum fatigue remaining.
The more fatigued your character is, the less likely he or she is to
connect with a weapon. This is probably one of the least-noticeable effects of
fatigue loss, since the effects generally aren't too severe. This is fortunate
in the sense that fighting is a very good way to make your character tired, and
you'll thus be waging a lot of combat at 0% fatigue. Being completely worn out
won't make you pass out from exhaustion or anything, but it will result in you
getting knocked down if you get hit by an unarmed attack (a punch, basically).
It also makes you easier to get knocked down by other attacks.
However, the most pronounced effect that fatigue will have on you is that
of your spellcasting abilities. On your character's spell menu, each spell is
listed alongside its casting cost in magicka and chances for success if cast,
which is again something you should already know. However, you might notice
that the success percentage for each spell (excepting those spells granted by
birthsigns) will be lowered dramatically as your character becomes more and
more fatigued. The success percentages given at 100% fatigue will be your
character's "true" chances for success.
There are two basic types of attacks and offensive spells: ranged and
melee. I say "offensive" spell because a third type of spell can target the
caster only, but the best amongst those usually aren't offensive in nature.
Bad jokes aside, however, the difference between these two should be readily
obvious; melee attacks strike at something right in front of your face while
ranged attacks will continue until they either hit something or disappear off
the edge of the planet. I mentioned earlier in section II.A. of the FAQ that
a crosshairs is provided in first-person view, which is helpful for melee
attacks but almost essential in ranged ones.
First, let's talk a little about melee combat. There are three basic
types of attacks you can make, each dealing differing amounts of damage
depending on the type of weapon your character is wielding: chop, thrust, and
slash. Chopping is done by pressing the use button when your character is
standing still. Thrusting attacks can be made by using the use command as
your character is moving forwards or backwards, and slashing attacks are made
when moving at an angle. More conveniently, you may go into the preferences
menu in the game options and enable the "always use best attack" option, which
instructs your character to always use the ideal method of attack for his or
her equipped weapon and frees you from the hassle of having to worry about it.
In opting not to do this, be sure to check out your currently equipped weapon
in your inventory to see which method of attack will yield the most damage.
Pressing and holding the use button will direct your character to draw
his or her weapon back, but an attack will not be made until the button is
released. This is important to know in the sense that sneaking up on your
target and attacking whilst they are unaware of your presence will convey a
300% bonus (four times that of a normal attack) to the damage dealt. This is
obviously one of the main benefits of the Sneak skill (which is discussed in
more detail in section I.B. of the FAQ), and furthermore demonstrates the
importance of being able to strike quickly when necessary.
Moving onto magic, spells are essentially equivalent to physical attacks
in the melee/ranged sense, though they do have different names. Spells that
work "on touch" require actual physical contact to made with the target to
take effect, while those that work "on target", much like ranged physical
attacks, will move forth when cast and will not stop until they hit something
or break orbit. And as should be pretty obvious, spells that work "on self"
require no targeting whatsoever to be effective.
Magic also introduces three important new words into your Morrowind
vocabulary: magnitude, duration, and area. Magnitude is just a fancy way of
saying how powerful the spell is (i.e. does this spell do 15 to 30 points of
damage, or 25 points of damage?). Some spells, such as paralyzation spells,
which have certain set effects don't possess magnitude. Duration, conversely,
indicates how long the spell will last. Unlike magnitude, nearly every spell
in the game will possess some form of duration. This includes healing and
direct damage spells, which can continue to drain or restore its target's
health over a period of time. Lastly, area is an effect that will apply only
to ranged spells. When the spell strikes something, be it an intended target
or any other obstacle, it will take effect at that point and cover the entire
range dictated by its area. At area's default (lowest) setting, the spell will
affect only what it hits, and will not be mentioned in the spell's description.
At its highest setting, you can depopulate an entire city in a single blast.
You are thankfully immune to the effects of your own spells, at least the ones
intended for someone else. You can read more about spells and spellmaking in
section III.B. of the FAQ.
Enchantments are also something I will talk much more about later in the
FAQ, but there are several points worth making mention of here. Specifically,
as long as we're on the subject of Morrowind vernacular, there are two more
words that I should go ahead and explain at this time. They are charge and
range. When you use a filled soul gem to create an enchanted item, the value
of the soul contained in that gem governs how many charges the enchanted item
will have. Each time an enchanted item is used, it uses up a certain number of
charges depending on the strength of the item's enchantment. As with fatigue,
an items's charges will restore slowly over time, or you can also use filled
soul gems that, again depending on the value of the soul within, will either
partially or fully restore an enchanted item's charges.
Range, however, is the term I would like to talk a little more about at
the moment. When creating an enchanted item, you are instructed to select the
enchanted item's range. Possible ranges include: cast once, cast when used,
cast when strikes, and constant effect. "Cast once" and "cast when used"
enchantments work exactly like spells do, except that the rules of enchanted
items apply to them rather than the rules of spells. They will be listed at
the bottom of your character's spell menu under the "magic items" sub-header,
will show up in the appropriate slot when you cycle through your character's
spells (even if the enchanted item is a weapon), must be readied as a spell
would be, and is used in exactly the same manner as a spell is cast.
"Cast on strikes", on the other hand, is an enchantment for weapons only.
Weapons with this type of enchantment cannot be used as items with other types
of enchantments can, but rather a weapon with a "cast on strikes" enchantment
will use the weapon's enchantment each time it makes contact with a target, if
charges permit. The end result is obviously more often than not a very useful
weapon which is at the very least far superior to its unenchanted counterpart.
Constant effect enchantments are similar to these types of enchantments, but
differ in that they will convey the benefits of their enchantments full-time
when equipped on your character, and do not use charges. They are an advanced
form of enchantment that are only possible with very powerful souls. For more
on enchanting and enchantments, please refer to section III.C. of the FAQ.
Before I wrap this section up, I'd like to speak finally on the rather
important issue of potions and combat. As with spells and enchantments, this
is an issue I will elaborate much further on in section III.A. of the FAQ, but
there is one point concerning them that should be made now. That point is that
potions are used not in the main game interface, but through your character's
inventory. This is important to note because taking the time to cast a healing
spell in the midst of battle is a difficult and often dangerous thing to do.
Rather, by going to the menu screen (which effectively pauses the game), you
can consume as many potions as you wish instantaneously, all of which will have
a cumulative immediate effect. This is the main reason why I, in section I.B.
of the FAQ, reccommend that the Alchemy skill be included in any character's
skillset- the benefits of potions are clearly obvious!
When the game manual tells you that you can do just about anything you
want to do in this game, it wasn't lying. Of course, quite a few things you
might already be thinking about happen to be illegal in the world of Morrowind,
and are naturally punishable by law. This section is dedicated to exploring
that intricacies of that law, which is just another way of saying that I'm
going to help you break it.
When dealing with the law in this game, there is primarily one thing to
keep in mind about it: everyone else besides you in this game is very, very
stupid. A little common sense will allow even the most brazen and blatant
criminals to walk amongst the masses with barely as much as a slap on the
wrist. And here you probably thought it was amazing when OJ got away with
killing those two people.
Morrowind's legal system is fairly simple. Every character has a bounty,
or a current price on his or her head. Naturally, this value is usually zero.
Whenever you do something illegal and someone reports you for it (you'll know
when this happens as the game will inform you of it), this number will rise by
a number proportional to the crime comitted. If your crime was witnessed by a
law enforcement official, he or she will run towards in an attempt to confront
you about it. Be sure to let them talk to you before wandering too far off,
because they tend to get extra nasty if you leave and then come back.
When you speak with any manner of law enforcement with a bounty on your
head, you will be instructed to pay that bounty, go to jail, or resist arrest
and fight it out. Fighting usually isn't a good idea, since it just makes your
bounty go up even more, and most guards can kick your ass. Dealing with your
bounty is kinda important, because once it reaches a certain point, guards stop
politely asking you to pay your fine and start trying to just fucking kill you
instead. In other words, it works a lot like the legal system in our world.
This leaves us with the options of paying your fine or doing jail time.
In either event, compensation will be taken from you in addition to your fine.
Compensation is just another way of saying that anything you're carrying that
happens to be stolen (in my case, just about everything I own) will be taken
from you. This is obviously a very unpleasant thing to have happen, but it is
also a very avoidable event, as well. For while stolen objects will be removed
from your inventory, nobody bothers to check that huge pile of stolen stuff at
your feet that you dropped just before you were arrested. Again like the real
world, law enforcement individuals are often a lot nicer to you if you strip
naked when they approach- especially if you happen to be female and sexy.
Since the fine is rarely a significant amount of money, you're best off
just stripping naked and paying off the fine whenever faced with dealing with
the law. In the unfortunate event that you are inable to pay your fine, your
only remaining option is to go to jail. Doing time is especially unpleasant in
this game, mainly because each day spent in jail will lower your skill level in
a random skill by 1. It also doesn't help that once they kick your ass out of
jail, the law is never nice enough to give you a ride back to wherever it was
that you were arrested in the first place. To avoid such a situation, try to
always have at least a minimal amount of gold (at least 40 drakes) on hand.
Of course, when comitting crimes, the golden rule still applies. And in
case you forgot it, the golden rule is "don't get caught in the first place".
Unless you need to kill someone in plain sight or steal something under the
watchful eye of a city guard, this actually normally isn't much of a problem.
Most people, when attacked or stolen from, stupidly try to fight you (and will
usually lose) rather than report you. There are still those who will, however.
Shops, guilds, and temples, specifically, are really keen about reporting your
ass for whatever crimes you feel like comitting in their presence, so try to
avoid that whenever possible. Random NPC #368, however, usually won't give you
too much shit when you decide to walk into his house, steal all of his
valuables, and then kill him.
Of course, this raises the question of the hour, "what in this game can I
get in trouble for doing?" Well, I'm glad you asked. Nine times out of ten,
it should be pretty obvious that randomly assaulting people in the middle of
the street and stuffing your pockets with other peoples' valuables is probably
illegal. It doesn't take a fuckin' rocket scientist to figure this shit out.
There are a few crimes, however, which aren't as obvious. As you might expect,
unlocking any locked door or container is illegal, though the fine assessed is
minimal and it's curiously perfectly legal to, say, walk right on inside a
house after paying the fine levied by breaking the lock on the front door.
The other lesser-known crime is sleeping in someone else's bed, which is a
nearly impossible crime to be caught doing in the first place. This is mainly
because as long as you can lie down without anybody seeing you, you don't have
to worry about someone noticing a strange forienger taking a 36-hour nap in
their bed.
As far as fines go, I've said several times already that the majority of
them are ludicrously minimal. Don't expect to pay more than 40 gold for such
petty crimes as breaking and entering, hijacking someone else's bed, or murder.
There are two biggies that you should watch out for, however. The first is,
curiously enough, theft. Should you be caught stealing, your fine will be
proportional to the value of the object you were caught stealing. An object
with any remote level of value whatsoever will most likely run you a bigger
fine than a mere 40 gold, and a Dreugh Shield is probably enough to send you
into death warrant territory. The other, more obvious way to rack up lots of
fines is to go around killing lots of guards.
I'm not sure what kind of ideas you might have gotten from the previous
section, but you'll eventually learn that townsfolk actually do serve purposes
other than target practice. They also exist to offer your character a wide
variety of services, which I'll go over and explain in detail in this section.
From bartering to travelling to offering your character training in return for
a small monetary fee, there's a lot of services to be taken advantage of in the
world of Morrowind.
When you talk to people, a list of conversation topics will appear on the
bar to the right of the message window. At the top of the list, separated from
the list of topics with a line break, is the option to persuade this particular
individual. Below that, there may or may not include a list of services from
which to choose. Select a service in order to initiate dialogue.
First of all, let's go over the process of persuasion. You'll notice that
every character in the game has a general disposition towards you, which is
represented as a numerical value between 0 and 100. Initially, this value will
be based entirely on your character's personality stat. The persuasion menu
offers you four methods by which to alter an NPC's disposition towards you:
admiration, intimidation, taunting, and bribery.
Admiration and bribery are both attempts to raise an NPC's disposition
towards you. Bribery is more reliable, but the minimum alotted bribe is all it
should take for even those of the dullest persuasion to make a friend over the
course of a few minutes of saving and loading. Intimidation is an attempt to
temporarily raise an NPC's disposition, as a successful intimidation will drop
the disposition of an NPC drastically when you stop talking to him or her.
Lastly, taunting will attempt to lower the disposition of an NPC, which is
usually something you should need little help in doing. Its theortical use is
to inveigle people in full public view to attack you, thus saving you from the
legal hassles of assault. However, I've found that a good frenzy humanoid
spell or enchantment is far more reliable and easy to use.
So then, what benefits are conveyed to you by making an NPC like you?
Short answer: the more someone likes you, the better prices you'll get for
goods and services from that person. The other factor is that NPC's will not
respond to topics of conversation unless they like you enough. Normally, this
won't be too much of a problem, since someone has to really hate you for this
situation to occur. But should you encounter such a dilemma, the solution is
as simple as raising his or her disposition towards you. Just don't feel bad
when an NPC alternates between being insulted by your attempts to bribe him or
her and happily accepting your money.
As far as services go, the most prominent service you can recieve from
any NPC in the game is the opportunity to barter. The trading of goods and
cash is not necessarily limited to shopkeepers, though you're probably not
going to find much in the way of selection when trading with random people in
taverns. The barter interface is fairly simple to use, and I'm not going to
insult your intelligence by explaining most of it to you. But I would like to
point to that little price adjuster at the bottom of the screen. At your own
leisure, you can suggest (and usually get) better deals than you are initially
offered. Your chances of getting those deals and the magnitude of the deals
you can get will be determined by your Mercantile skill. I'd also like to
mention that the Tribunal and Bloonmoon expansion packs both added a "max sale"
button that would automatically set the selling price to all of the money that
the other guy is carrying.
Every person in the game, including merchants, has a set amount of cash on
them at any given time. This is meant to discourage you from selling someone
a couple million gold worth of crap, but is offset by the fact that their cash
reserves are reset to normal every 24 hours. With a little patience, you can
get the most out of selling your expensive items by trading them for the most
expensive items in the other guy's inventory, and then seeling them back to him
for more gold, and so forth.
It also is worthy of mentioning that not everyone is interested in buying
anything you have to sell. Rather, people buy the types of items they deal in.
Normally, this is kinda obvious: armorers deal in weapons, armor, and repairing
equipment (hammers and prongs); alchemists deal in potions, alchemy ingredients,
and alchemy equipment; booksellers deal in, quite obviously, books. Outfitters
and traders are two more generalized titles, though the former is usually more
geared towards weapons and armor and neither one will buy or sell lockpicks or
probes. The one type of merchant who will buy anything you have to sell is the
pawnbroker, which makes them useful to have around on that front. Aerille, the
trader from Seyda Neen (the first town in the game) techinically counts as a
pawnbroker, since he will also buy and sell lockpicks and probes.
Another biggie to keep in mind when shopping is that not everything you
can aquire in this game is necessarily legal to possess. You'll know when
you've got contraband in your bag, because about 99% of the merchants in the
game will refuse to do business with you until you get rid of it. Keeping in
step with the gloriously brilliant AI the game possesses, this is as easy as
dropping it on the floor in front of them, and then making sure to take it with
you when you leave (which is something I'm really bad about forgetting to do).
Though you'll find a few different illegal items in the game, I'll mention
the number one offenders here: skooma and moon sugar. The former is a potion
and the latter an alchemy ingredient, but both are generally considered to be
Morrowind's equivalent of narcotics and have been outlawed. Of course, much
like marijuana in the real world, don't expect to have difficulty finding any
skooma or moon sugar just because they're illicit substances. In fact, the
drug-like properties of these substances gives them a rather high street value.
Now, what makes this important to know is that some people actually will
buy your skooma and moon sugar, which translates into big cash profits for you.
"Which merchants?", you might ask. Well, if you'll go back and carefully read
section I.C. of the FAQ, you might notice that I make reference to one specific
race in the game being rather prone towards drug habits. Might I suggest that
you look into doing business with one of them?
Besides bartering, the other major service offered to you in the world of
Morrowind is training. Believe it or not, you can actually pay someone to
raise your character's levels in his or her skills. While this may seem a
little overwhelming at first, believe me when I say that it would likely take
forever to max them all out manually. Even though training isn't cheap, it's
defnitely an opportunity to take advantage of. Naturally, there are a few
limitations to this process that are meant to prevent its abuse, which I
should probably go over right about now.
First, you can only train a skill as high as its governing stat. If your
character's strength is a mere 40, for example, then that's as high as you can
train up, say, your Long Blade skill. Though proper planning should eliminate
this from being much of a problem, the really easy way around this rule is to
make a spell or enchantment that temporarily raises the appropriate stat for
about one second.
The second, more constricting limit to your training capacity is that any
character in the game may only train you up as high as they themselves possess
the given skill. And the really shitty thing about this is that there's no way
to actually know what that limit is until you hit it, though the majority of
trainers typically have all of their skills somewhere between levels 50 and 60.
However, for each skill in the game (excepting Armorer and Medium Armor, both
due to glitches), there exists one trainer in the game who possesses that skill
at level 100. These guys are called "master trainers", and given the large
number of people in the game willing to train you, are rather difficult to
locate. I don't know where any of them are, and even if I did, I certainly
wouldn't talk about it in a beginner's guide. I'm merely letting y'all know
that these guys actually exist.
Aside from what I've discussed already, there are quite a few other
services to be found in the game. Spells are bought separately from other
items, so there's always a special option to buy spells whenever applicable.
The game has a myriad of premade spells available from many different folks,
which is a striking contrast to going anywhere and buying the same generic
"fire 2" spell from everyone you meet. Spellmaking and enchanting are two
extremely important services, as well, and are discussed at length in sections
III.B. and III.C. of the FAQ, respectively. All armorers in the game offer a
service to repair broken or damaged weapons and armor, which is usually a lot
more convenient than doing yourself (as I said earlier in section I.D. of the
FAQ). And lastly, several folks offer various methods of transportation for a
small fee, which is another important service given the ludicrous size of the
world of Morrowind. The first method of transit you'll be introduced to is the
Silt Strider, a giant insect that is a ridden like a horse, but you'll also
eventually come across the chance to travel by boat, and even by teleportation
from one mage's guild to another.
And that pretty much wraps this section up. If I could choose a note to
close on, it would be something I made mention of in section I.D. of the FAQ
under the listing for the Mercantile skill: money is probably the last thing
you need to worry about in this game. That's still no excuse for not knowing
how the system works, however.
As you might have figured out, this FAQ is a constant work in progress.
With that said, please look forward to the following sections in a future
version of this FAQ:
A. A Guide To Alchemy
B. Spells & Spellmaking
C. The Art Of Enchantment
A. Welcome To Seyda Neen
B. The Road To Balmora
C. The Big City & Beyond
Version History
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Version 3.0- yet another major update, this one finishing up the first
half of the FAQ with sections II.B., II.C., and II.D.. With thanks to a good
friend and fellow FAQer (Karpah), I've gone back and added a few important
things to section II.A., so be sure to check that out, as well. I also went
back to section I.D. and made an additional note concerning the Blunt Weapon
skill- nothing to write home about, but still worth mentioning here. I'm not
sure when the next update will be, given that I'd like to start working on
updating my other FAQ's at the moment, but we'll see what happens.
Version 2.0- hot on the heels of my last minor update, I at last bring a
major one to the table. Section II.A. of the FAQ is now finally complete with
the promise of more to come in the near future. I also edited a paragraph or
two in section I.A.. It's nothing major, but worth checking out if you're the
kind of madly obsessed fan of my work that has to take note of every little
thing I do.
Version 1.4- a minor yet important update to the FAQ. I have corrected a
rather prominent error in section I.D. and elaborated a bit further on the
Blunt Weapon and Spear skills, and that's about it. A major update should come
whenever I find time, which is rather difficult to predict, sadly. However, on
a positive note, I am now proudly hosting my favorite two Morrowind mods on my
site (the link is at the end of this section), so be sure to check those out.
Version 1.3- another minor update, this one entailing a few slight changes
in my descriptions of the various races. I give more love for the Dark Elf and
less for the Imperial. And everyone still hates the Wood Elves. Aside from
that, I fixed a few prominent typos, and I'll hopefully be able to get to work
on a major update as soon as I update my website. I'll be hosting both the
Better Bodies and Better Heads mods, so be sure to stop by.
Version 1.2- after wondering why I have yet to recieve any e-mail about
this FAQ, I finally realize that I have placed the wrong e-mail address on it.
Yeah, I'm an idiot. Anyways, that's fixed now.
Version 1.1- following some reader response and further personal research,
I've gone back and slightly re-written a few sections of the FAQ. Mainly minor
changes in this update, but I have significantly changed my stance on the Sneak
and Illusion skills, so those two are worth checking out.
Version 1.0- the initial release of my Morrowind FAQ. I've completed only
the first of four major sections that this guide will eventually contain, but
the completed portion contains enough valid information to merit a submittial.
I've got a lot going on in my life right now, but hopefully the updates
shouldn't be too few or far apart. Here's to ya!
Credits
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There aren't too many people I have to thank for this guide, but I would
like to extend my thanks to Karpah and Mecha for their help in making this
guide possible. Also, whether he knows it or not, Sashanan was the one who
sparked me to actually start writing this thing, so I should thank him, too.
Finally, I thank my friend and fellow FAQer Bill Russell whose support and
guidance has led me to question the very nature of FAQing, which is largely
responsible for the guide you are reading right now.
Contact Information
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Got a question I haven't answered in this guide? Want to host this FAQ
on your site? Bored, lonely, or suicidal, and just want someone to talk to?
Send me an e-mail at BTB_Enterprises@ev1.net and I'll see what I can do.
Please note that I haven't yet finished the game, and no walkthrough-related
questions will be answered. This, of course, will probably do nothing to stop
e-mails of that nature, which makes me wonder sometimes why I even bother.
Legal Bullshit
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Plagarizing is bad, m'kay? It's especially bad in this case, since folks
can usually spot something I wrote from a mile away. If you want to host this
FAQ on your site or something like that, just drop me a line and I'd be more
than glad to chat with ya. Failiure to inform me of your actions, however, is
grounds for an ass-kicking. And please remember that I live in a state (Texas)
where the "he needed killin'" defense is valid, and the death penalty is still
legal.
o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o
| Visit BTB Enterprises on the web at: http://btb2.free.fr |
o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o
Anyways, my friends, that's all for now, so until next time...
