I want to like Morrowind, but...

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by bfg9000
I have tried playing two characters - one a n Imperial Bard, and two a Dark Elf custom character. It is unbelievable the difference. What is different is that it is so much easier to interact and barter with the Imperial than the Dark Elf. How would you experienced players make a Dark Elf character more likeable and skilled at bartering in the early game?

I actually like this aspect of Morrowind; the races are actually really different at the beginning, and Imperials are just way more charming than Dark Elves.

But if you really need a Dark Elf who's likeable, you probably need to make one governed by Stealth, with Personality as a governing attribute and either speechcraft or merchantile as a major skill. Then choose The Lady as your birthsign. For example, a Dark Elf Pilgrim born under The Lady would have Personality of 65 and Mercantile of 35, which is good enough to get you started.

The other thing you can do is just bribe merchants. I did this with a Nord character I made who had really low personality and mechantile skills, and it was always worth the money. Try it yourself when you want to buy an expensive item. First, see what the seller wants for it; then slip him 10 gold 5-6 times in a row; then check the price again. For a big-ticket item, the price will have gone down much more than the 50-60 gold you paid him, and his disposition will stay high after the sale.

[Brundlefly]

Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly


I actually like this aspect of Morrowind; the races are actually really different at the beginning, and Imperials are just way more charming than Dark Elves.

But if you really need a Dark Elf who's likeable, you probably need to make one governed by Stealth, with Personality as a governing attribute and either speechcraft or merchantile as a major skill. Then choose The Lady as your birthsign. For example, a Dark Elf Pilgrim born under The Lady would have Personality of 65 and Mercantile of 35, which is good enough to get you started.

The other thing you can do is just bribe merchants. I did this with a Nord character I made who had really low personality and mechantile skills, and it was always worth the money. Try it yourself when you want to buy an expensive item. First, see what the seller wants for it; then slip him 10 gold 5-6 times in a row; then check the price again. For a big-ticket item, the price will have gone down much more than the 50-60 gold you paid him, and his disposition will stay high after the sale.

Bribing merchants can get real expensive - especially early in the game..

I prefer to play under the sign of Atronach, but with a character of less than 40 Personality, I guess it is necessary to choose 'The Lady'.

How does the specialization choice (combat, magic, stealth) affect the character creation?

[Dis]

I have no idea about the specialization choice. It doesn't seem to impact anything. Unless there are some combat rolls behind the scenes I'm not aware of. It doesn't affect your primary stats.

I chose shadow as my sign. I was a thief type class. The thieves guild quests were pretty fun. I like stealing things. . Mainly because I have never done it before.

That's the thing about this game, I really have no desire to do things I have already done. But luckily the game is so big, there are many quests I have not done. Except the main quest. I'm at a point now I kind of have to finish the main quest, and I don't want to. . Actually instead, I'm going to go into the expansion ares for the first time since I bought the goty edition. I should be plenty strong enough for those areas.

[Dis]

well that's interesting, soon as I get into mournhold my optical mouse starts messing up. It's a microsoft opitical mouse (not a wireless). It seems like it only messes up in the game, though if I shake it enough, it'll mess up when I exit the game. It's a few years old, so maybe this mouse has had it.

It's easy to tell because it has a red light on the back of it, and it keeps going out, then coming back on a second or two later. then it goes out again.

[Dis]

strange, it definately seems the game is doing it. I've been surfing poly, and my mouse hasn't went out.

It's strange because I have played many, many hours of regular morrowind, but as soon as I got into Mournhold it started acting up. Though it might have been because I hired a henchman (though I fail to see how that would do it). My henchman is annoying anyways. I have a speed of 100, and he can't keep up. He keeps saying "where are you going".

I'll have to see if I can find some drivers for my mouse.

[DrSpike]

I get this sometimes; I usually whack my mouse (firm, not too hard) on the desk and it works again.

[Dis]

I guess my mouse is dead, I switched mouses, so I'm okay for now (though I don't like the feel of this mouse)

Back to mournhold.

Those brotherhood assassins are impossibly tough. I can maybe take 2 at a time. I don't know what is wrong with my character.

I have a deadrik wakisashi and glass armour. The problem I run into is these guys respawn. I went back into the main area in the manor and there were 7 of them! And they wear down my blade. I'm going to have to come back with some armorers hammers.

What do you guys use for healing? I can't rest everywhere, there are too many enemies to rest. Do you use potions, spells? I only have 98 mana. It goes pretty quick. What kind of tactics can I use? My henchman died pretty quick. And I can't even tell how many hitpoints he has.

My character can easily kill anything in vvardenfall, but I am really struggling with these dark brotherhood assassins.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by bfg9000



Bribing merchants can get real expensive - especially early in the game..

You don't have to bribe that many; maybe one or two in each town. And there's actually a ton of money available very early in the game. You can get up to 700 gold from doing the tax collector quest (even more if you sell off his ring instead of returning it to his girlfriend); another 100 gold from ratting out Fargoth; and another several hundred gold from selling off the spoils of the smuggelr's cave. Plus there's at least two hollow tree trunks in Seyda Neen with nice loot in them (gold and a silver goblet in one, an excellent enchanted ax in the other). It's dead easy to leave Seyda Neen with over 1000 gold and then, once you get to Balmora, you get more gold and expensive gifts from the trainers.

How does the specialization choice (combat, magic, stealth) affect the character creation?

Your specialization adds five points to every skill governed by that specialization. Thus a stealth character gets 5 points added to his speechcraft and merchantile skills, regardless of whether they are major, minor, or miscellaneous, and on top of any added points he may get based on race. That's why an Imperial bard starts with speechcraft of 45: 30 points for having it as a major skill, 10 more for being an Imperial, and 5 more for being a stealth character; an Imperial knight, by contrast, also has speechcraft as a major skill but only starts with speechcraft of 40 because he's a combat character.

[child of Thor]

Originally posted by Dissident
edit....

What do you guys use for healing? I can't rest everywhere, there are too many enemies to rest. Do you use potions, spells? I only have 98 mana. It goes pretty quick. What kind of tactics can I use? My henchman died pretty quick. And I can't even tell how many hitpoints he has.

My character can easily kill anything in vvardenfall, but I am really struggling with these dark brotherhood assassins.

I always play a standard not very magical fighter type, with the only magical abilities being in healing.
I use healing potions for the most part, or things like that magical ring you find near the begining of the game. I try to not use magical armour or weapons though, i find it makes the game much more challanging. Still if something that just looks really nice comes along then i may use it on those 'special' occasions when normal cold steel wont prevail.

[Brundlefly]

What Major and Minor skills are most important for a well-balanced character?
This is what I have come up with:

Major:
Block
Security
Heavy Armor
Speechcraft
Mysticism

Minor:
Long Blade
Alchemy
Enchant
Marksman
Mercantilism

[Solver]

Mysticism as a major skill is always a waste. Money is way too easy to get in the game, so I'd say that Mercantile is also not a good choice. Speechcraft also doesn't give you that much of a bonus. Replace Speechcraft and Mysticism with Light Armor and Alteration, and replace Mercantile with Blunt Weapon - there are tons of those that are powerful.

Finally, the security skill is absolutely useless. So it helps you open locks... but you will get tons of lock-opening scrolls and with any Alteration skill, you'll be able to cast never-failing open spells at a low level... I always forget lockpicks and just use magic for that.

[Brundlefly]

Originally posted by Solver
Mysticism as a major skill is always a waste. Money is way too easy to get in the game, so I'd say that Mercantile is also not a good choice. Speechcraft also doesn't give you that much of a bonus. Replace Speechcraft and Mysticism with Light Armor and Alteration, and replace Mercantile with Blunt Weapon - there are tons of those that are powerful.

Finally, the security skill is absolutely useless. So it helps you open locks... but you will get tons of lock-opening scrolls and with any Alteration skill, you'll be able to cast never-failing open spells at a low level... I always forget lockpicks and just use magic for that.

Substitute Alteration for Security. Interesting. But Mysticism gives you skill with SoulTrap which you can use to enchant items and create valuable gems with trapped souls for sale. Isnt that very important? Also, wont you use primarily just one type of armor and one type of weapon throughout the game? Is it really in your best interest to use more than one major/minor slot for either of these? Heavy gives the best Armor rating adjustment and Long Sword does more damage, so they are better, right?

[child of Thor]

I find i choose the skills that will best fit with the particular character i'm trying to play, i dont mind if they will enable a particular ability or not. Still i always tend to role play these kind of games rather build the strongest character i can.

[Solver]

Substitute Alteration for Security. Interesting. But Mysticism gives you skill with SoulTrap which you can use to enchant items and create valuable gems with trapped souls for sale. Isnt that very important? Also, wont you use primarily just one type of armor and one type of weapon throughout the game? Is it really in your best interest to use more than one major/minor slot for either of these? Heavy gives the best Armor rating adjustment and Long Sword does more damage, so they are better, right?

The problem with Mysticism is that there are very few spells in that category. Soultrap is an easy spell to cast, and you won't fail it often even with a low skill. Besides, I don't think you need to trap THAT many souls.

Using one type of armor and weapon... no no. Heavy armor is... heavy. For instance, a full suit of Ebony armor weighs a lot, and if you have that plus a good weapon, you'll be barely able to carry anything else at all. Also, long swords aren't always the best damage weapons... there are some hammers (some of them quest items) that do huge damage. And, it's about the enchantments and unique items really. There is quite some light armor and heavy armor with very good enchantments, as well as a number of weapons. For instance, SkullCrusher, Sunder, Keening, Wraithguard, Fists of Randagulfs, Mask of Clavicus Vile, those are items with great enchantmens.

Truth is, with the balance in Morrowind the way it is, if you choose to wear a full suit of heavy armor and wield a huge weapon with that, you won't really need any other skills, except an enchanted ring or a spell to open locked doors. A powerful fighter, you'll beat almost anything in the game at level 10.

[Solver]

Originally posted by child of Thor
I find i choose the skills that will best fit with the particular character i'm trying to play, i dont mind if they will enable a particular ability or not. Still i always tend to role play these kind of games rather build the strongest character i can.

Good point... it's actually easy to power-game in Morrowind. Get your character the best skills, that is, both magic and fighting, go make some money, and you will soon turn into a demigod with great magical and fighting abilities. Although I prefer to play mage characters that rarely use weapons, but are extremely powerful with spells.