Morrowind - Explain Magic to me

[Eli]

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

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

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

Also, what character should I choose?

[raghar]

Just point and it burn. It's different from first game. Liche fire shield and runnnnn. Or become Liche.

You will need a lots of money for enchanting.

[loinburger]

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

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

[Eli]

loin : thanks.

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

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

[Solver]

Short Blade is better for a mage, IMHO.

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

[Tuberski]

I always paid enchanters. I had so much money that I needed to spend it on something.

ACK!

[loinburger]

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

[Felch]

Should I go for the PC or X-box version? My computer is decent, but are the mods worth it?

[Eli]

but are the mods worth it?

Definitely.

[Eli]

Originally posted by Solver
Short Blade is better for a mage, IMHO.

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

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

[loinburger]

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

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

[Dis]

can some one tell me where the spell book is for morrowind?

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

[Eli]

How do I create potions? Alchemy something? How? Where? With what?

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

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

[General Ludd]

The best thing about Daggerfall and Morrowind is the ability to create your own spells.

You can do some pretty creative things with it.

[loinburger]

Originally posted by Eli
How do I create potions? Alchemy something? How? Where? With what?

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

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