Morrowind experiences vol. 3

[deamon451]

Originally posted by Kc7mxo


oops. . . . i din't need those orcs, did I?

Most likely your graphics professor is like you: lost. Pray to Azura for guidence and to smite down the lazy professor. Or call up the school and ask whats up as grades were due the Friday after Christmas.

Oh, any word on the new roommate?

[Thrawn05]

Originally posted by Kc7mxo


oops. . . . i din't need those orcs, did I?

The outside Mehrunes Dagon shrine southeast of Dagon Fel is only needed for a quest for the Tribunal Temple. The Orcs are of little consquence.

I'm talking about a Daedric Shrine east of Dagon Fel, that I would recommend staying out of for now.

[Thrawn05]

Thrawn05's Guide to Leveling Up

I decided to skip today's issue of Harry the Altmer to give you my tips on leveling up.

The key to making a great character is making sure that not only are all your skills at 100, but also your attributes. I would like to mention that, for the purpose of this guide, Luck will not be considered as an attribute.

Race

Picking your race is very important. Being a Khajiit thief is better then being an Altmer thief. However, this bonus comes at a price. With the bonus in your major and minor skills, you'll have fewer times to increase your attributes. A better thing is to pick a race that has bonuses in a class' miscellaneous pile, so that you'll have a better chance of increasing them. For example, if you want to play a Warrior class, pick a Breton, or Altmer.

Birth sign

Your birth signs help you along your journey. Avoid signs that increase attributes. Signs like the Steed or The Lady are short term effects. Granted, you'll run faster, but when all your attributes are at 100, what effect does the Steed do for you? I recommend picking sign that has a magical effect. One I would recommend is the Atronach, since the bonus in Magicka is great even for none magical classes and races.

Books and Training *1

AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID! Avoid Books that up your skills and avoid training of any kind. They do not add to any bonus Attribute points when you level up. If you are playing as a Mage, wear an Imperial Chain Mail, and carry a Long Sword and whack a Scrib and take a few hits. Do this a few times and watch those bonuses for Strength and Endurance grow. Avoid training for the Magical College skills. Go to an Imperial Alter or Tribunal Shrine, or just stay by your bed if you can restore Magicka that way, and just cast spells. When you run out of Magicka, pray at the shrine or sleep it off. Willpower, Intelligence and Personality will get level up bonuses.

Difficulty Level

This kind of goes with what I said in the Books and Training section. You want to have it at +100 at all times. Your skills will increase faster if it takes three chops with a Long sword on a Scrib then just one. Likewise, the more damage you take, the more your unarmored and light/medium/heavy armor skills will go up.

Endurance and You

Endurance is perhaps the most important attribute to increase, since 1/10 of your Endurance level adds to your Health level when you level up. You should increase skills that are governed by Endurance as much as you can so you can increase your Health ASAP. Now, I know someone out there is going to say "Well Thrawn05, why not get that head start and be born under the birth sign of The Lady?" Good question. You still should not be born under that sign, because again, you want to use a sign that has an effect that can last after your attributes are at 100.

Luck

Luck is the trashcan of excess points. If you can play the game right, your attributes will be at 100 before your major and minor skills. Additional leveling up will be use to increase Luck. Until then, don't bother with Luck.

Jail Time

If all else fails, and you can't level up and a few of your attributes still need help, commit a crime and turn yourself in. I suggest you drop everything in your home or base or whatever, buy just a shirt to keep you clothed and steal something or hit someone on the head and turn yourself in. When you are done, your skills will drop and you'll be able to increase your attributes. Why I say drop everything is because you may or not know it, but something you might have could be owned by someone else, and the Guards will take it from you. Buy a shirt and do the time.

The Ultimate Uber Player

This can be debated, but let us look at what makes an Uber Player.

1: All skills at 100
2: All Attributes (except luck) at 100
3: Health is more then 300
4: Magicka is more then 100
5:Luck is at least 50

If you can satisfy ALL five of the points above without the need of fortify spells, consider yourself an Uber Player. You know the Arts of Combat, Magicka and Stealth. You can easily battle a Bonelord with your axe as you can summoning one. You can cast a Chameleon spell and be stealthy enough to pick Fargoth's pockets.

If you want to know what an Uber Player would look like, here is my Altmer Mage.

* Health: 540
* Magicka: 450
* All Skills at 100
* Attributes at 100
* Luck is 54

This is without countering my enchanted items such as the Moon-And-Star and Necromancer's Amulet (the Amulet will increase Intelligence by 25, so my Magicka when wearing it is now 563, allowing me casting spells like a 100 point for 5 seconds fireball with a 50ft range).

So I hope this little guide can help you on your way in being the god-killing player you should be. Granted, you don't have to follow my advice, but I think you should, save you the "dammit I shouldn't have picked that" in the end game.

EDIT:

*1: Training may or may no actualy give you a level up bonus. AFAIK from playing the game they don't. I suggest saving a game, train a major or minor skill 10 times then if it does give a bonus then go for it, otherwise revert to your prior save and continue on.

[Tuberski]

Thrawn05, you are a genius.

I'm sure this will help a lot of people. Even I learned, or re-learned I should say, the part about books and training.

ACK!

[ravagon]

Vg.

I'll refute the bit about training not conferring level-up bonuses though. It does. This was how I boosted my endurance early on in my current character. Wait until you've levelled up and then train in 10 levels of spear/med or hv armour (whichever you have as miscellaneous skills) and you get the x5 bonus in endurance.

One other point about luck (I think loinburger or one of the others made it earlier) - it helps enormously with random treasure classes.
During one of Ajira's quests (to get the warlocks ring) my game had a ctd.
I reloaded and took a jaunt to the mages guild beforehand this time to have a few luck points enchanted into some clothing (something I'd meant to do the first time but had forgotten about) and went to get the ring again.
This time though, I found 3 grand soul gems in the random crates (I'd previously found none).

[Thrawn05]

Originally posted by ravagon
Vg.

I'll refute the bit about training not conferring level-up bonuses though. It does. This was how I boosted my endurance early on in my current character. Wait until you've levelled up and then train in 10 levels of spear/med or hv armour (whichever you have as miscellaneous skills) and you get the x5 bonus in endurance.

That might be a bug. Because I once spent money to train longsword, a major skill for my old nord char ten times to level up, and I regreted i, since my strength didn't get any bonus points. This was done with the second patch.

One other point about luck (I think loinburger or one of the others made it earlier) - it helps enormously with random treasure classes.
During one of Ajira's quests (to get the warlocks ring) my game had a ctd.
I reloaded and took a jaunt to the mages guild beforehand this time to have a few luck points enchanted into some clothing (something I'd meant to do the first time but had forgotten about) and went to get the ring again.
This time though, I found 3 grand soul gems in the random crates (I'd previously found none).

Luck doesn't determine what you see in crates. Crate contents are governed by your level. Start a new char, goto that cave outside Seyda Neen, save, look in a crate, then go back to your save, use the console to change your level and see what you get. You'll get a few Dwemer weapons and armor, lots of Flin and many Greater and Grand Soul Gems in the end. Sorry.

Luck effects all your skills in a little way. Just look at Gaenor in Tribunal, that little ***** has a spell to fort luck 500 points, on top of his 255 Luck. So he has an insane ability to reflect all your spells and dodge all your attacks. Hell, I threw darts at the guy and he threw one back. *OUCH*!

[Thrawn05]

Originally posted by Tuberski
Thrawn05, you are a genius.

I'm sure this will help a lot of people. Even I learned, or re-learned I should say, the part about books and training.

ACK!

Well thank you Tuber. When I was typing it, I could swearing there some devil on my shoulder saying " ACK!"(R) several times.

[Tuberski]

ACK!

[ravagon]

Originally posted by Thrawn05

That might be a bug. Because I once spent money to train longsword, a major skill for my old nord char ten times to level up, and I regreted i, since my strength didn't get any bonus points. This was done with the second patch.

Um. I don't know what to think. I think I was using either the second patch or Tribunal, although I was only using the first patch when I initially made my character up ...

Fortify luck 500pts hmm? How do I get one of those spells?

[Edit: Actually its working that way for me in the Tribunal version too as I did something similar with the enchant skill to give me an Int boost a few days ago. Another misc skill btw. Unless of course this is a byproduct of one of the many mods I have installed. Not AFAIK but its a possibility]

[Thrawn05]

Originally posted by ravagon


Um. I don't know what to think. I think I was using either the second patch or Tribunal, although I was only using the first patch when I initially made my character up ...

Fortify luck 500pts hmm? How do I get one of those spells?

That spell is built into the NPC, the amulet Gaenor carries only has a 15 point fortify luck constant effect spell on it. Not worth dropping my Necromancer's amulet though.

Tell you what, tomorrow when I have time I will start a new Char using MW v. 1.3 (Tribual) and use the console to add some septims in my poket and train one of my major skills. I'll report my finding just to triple check my observation.

Here is Gaenor's Stats
Level: 50
Class: Warrior
Strength: 155
Intelligence: 100
Willpower: 100
Agility: 100
Speed: 100
Endurance: 100
Personality: 100
Luck: 255

Health: 500
Magicka: 158
Fatigue: 500

Athletics, Long Blade, Heavy/Medium Armor, and Block: 100
Spear, Axe, Blunt, Armorer: 94
Marksmen: 79
Light Armor, Sneak: 20
Acrobatics, Alchemy: 15
REST: 10

Items:
Complete Suit of Ebony Armor with Standard size shield.
Exquisite Pants and Shirt
Gaenor's Amulet (15 Fort Luck Constant Effect)
Ebony Longsword

Spells:
geanor_abilities (Ability, ie Constant Effect)
beast tongue (Power)
resist didease_75 (Ability)

gaenor_abilities
Fortify Luck 500
Resist Magicka 80 - 100
Reflect 50 - 100
Restore Health 1

So let's add his Luck up. 255 + 15 + 500 = 770!!!!

I recall someone asking why Bethesda placed Gaenor in the game, since Gaenor is harder then any Main Quest Boss. Bethesda said that Gaenor was there to show why having Multiplayer in the game is a BAD idea.

[Thrawn05]

Originally posted by ravagon
[Edit: Actually its working that way for me in the Tribunal version too as I did something similar with the enchant skill to give me an Int boost a few days ago. Another misc skill btw. Unless of course this is a byproduct of one of the many mods I have installed. Not AFAIK but its a possibility]

Like I said before I will take a look, perhaps Bethesda inserted this in Tribunal, which I don't like, since I would have some sort of penalty in training beside the 2 hour wait which isn't really a penalty at all.

Oh well. Perhaps after that they should work on the Mercantile bug.

[Thrawn05]

I went ahead and took a look, I started a Dark Elf warrior, went to Balmora, cheated to get 1000 septims and trained Blunt Weapons ten times, I rested.... no level bonus for Strength.

I have no plug-ins running, and I'm running a CLEAN character (IOW, I never exposed my char to plugins at any time, if I did like with Mingapulco, I made a special save, ran the plugin, then went back to that special save).

IDK, could still be a glich, perhaps Master Trainers will let you get away with that.

[Tuberski]

Originally posted by Thrawn05
I went ahead and took a look, I started a Dark Elf warrior, went to Balmora, cheated to get 1000 septims and trained Blunt Weapons ten times, I rested.... no level bonus for Strength.

I have no plug-ins running, and I'm running a CLEAN character (IOW, I never exposed my char to plugins at any time, if I did like with Mingapulco, I made a special save, ran the plugin, then went back to that special save).

IDK, could still be a glich, perhaps Master Trainers will let you get away with that.

I'll check it out tomorrow with a mage and let you know. I thought that I got bonus from training my Major and minor skills.




ACK!

[Thrawn05]

Originally posted by Tuberski


I'll check it out tomorrow with a mage and let you know. I thought that I got bonus from training my Major and minor skills.




ACK!

I guess it's another fundamental flaw in the game. After figureing out how the game works it's a mericale it can at all. Guess this is somthing I want to think about before making games myself.

Do I want a stable program with limited or no modding, or a highly moddable game that could be very unstable?

Oh well, I'm rambling, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

[ravagon]

Originally posted by Thrawn05
I went ahead and took a look, I started a Dark Elf warrior, went to Balmora, cheated to get 1000 septims and trained Blunt Weapons ten times, I rested.... no level bonus for Strength.

I have no plug-ins running, and I'm running a CLEAN character (IOW, I never exposed my char to plugins at any time, if I did like with Mingapulco, I made a special save, ran the plugin, then went back to that special save).

IDK, could still be a glich, perhaps Master Trainers will let you get away with that.

Weird. Do warriors have blunt weapon as a major/minor skill? IIRC all of those I trained in were miscellaneous. I don't think I've ever used master-level trainers though, unless I did it unknowingly so that shouldn't be a factor.
I took a quick look through my plugins (about 50 or so active - Giants and that Wilderness thingummy as the majors) and they're basically fairly standard - Nothing that hasn't been mentioned in the official forums or that isn't available at the main fan sites. None of them say anything obvious about changing the way the trainers work.
I do have a number of "bugfix-types" though and I'm not quite sure what all of those do - Maybe the point bonus was taken out in one of the later versions and the bugfix kept it in for my characters>