I want to like Morrowind, but...

[Solver]

You can do everything with spells. Sure potions are powerful, very much so, but a strong mage is able to do basically everything with spells only. Although a mage character should obviously also use scrolls and potions.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by bfg9000
A few more questions since I've been getting some excellent advice:

I just found out that I cant join House Redoran because I'm alredy in House Hlaalu. Without giving me any spoliers, can you tell me if there is a way to switch back and forth between the two? If I have to pick just one to be involved with, which should I pick?

Unfortunately, I don't think you can switch houses. I've never joined Redoran, so I don't know how to compare them. I know Redoran's a house full of moralistic prigs, while Hlaalu is full of greedy sleazebags -- so let roleplay be your guide. I also suspect Hlaalu's teh most profitable house to do quests for but, on teh other hand, they tend to reward you with money rather than nifty enchanted objects.

Someone said that they choose Spear as a Minor skill because it is the only weapon that trains Endurance. Do you think it is worth a minor slot?

No. I don't think it's ever worth having a specialty in more than one melee weapon; if you're not going to use the spear, you're not going to get endurance points -- and if you are going to use the spear, it should be your major weapon. You'd be far better off having medium armor as a minor and wearing one or two pieces; every time they get hit, it'll help your endurance. (Personally, my favorite armor combo is all light armor except for a medium cuirass, medium shield, and no helm; that was, in every battle you have a shot at gaining endurance, and agility points).

How do you correct a situation where you have "Persuaded" an NPC (who is not same race as you) down to zero attitude towards you through failed "Admire" and "Bribe"?

I find bribing can almost always bring them back. Charm spells, as noted, also work. And Telvanni Musk can also be your friend here.

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by bfg9000
A few more questions since I've been getting some excellent advice:

I just found out that I cant join House Redoran because I'm alredy in House Hlaalu. Without giving me any spoliers, can you tell me if there is a way to switch back and forth between the two? If I have to pick just one to be involved with, which should I pick?

You can mod it easily to allow you to join a different house - probably can mod it easily to allow all 3. I don't even mean 'mod' properly - i mean go into the console (` key) and type in a simple command or two.

I don't recall the exact commands atm, as it's been a few months, but basically the whole game is programmed around "Journal Entries", stats, and memberships. You may be able to give yourself membership or remove it through the console, and you can certainly play with the quests via Journal Entries. I suggest going to a morrowind-specific forum site (not the official one, but there are a few really good ones to be found) and *searching* there (not asking, as it's definitely somewhere on the forums if it's a good site, it's a fairly common question). Console editing is generally considered OK for either reversing poor choices made without knowing what you were doing (ie joined the wrong house before realizing you couldn't join them all) and for fixing bugs and/or "features" that you discover on accident. (Of course console editing can be used to cheat too - but it's a SP game, so it's up to you to determine where the line goes.)

Most people consider Hlaalu the best house, if you have to pick - but to some extent remember that a) houses don't matter much, so pick based on RP factor (Redoran = law-abiding, honorable, fighter types; Hlaalu = sneaky, tricky, thiefy-types; Telvaani = mages, sort of in between but more sneaky than not); and b) location of house is probably helpful too. That's why hlaalu is the most popular from my experience - the location of Hlaalu is Balmora.

Without giving a terrible spoiler, though it is a spoiler of sorts ... there is a way to be in 2 houses. Ok, don't read until after the next quote unless you want a minor spoiler.





-----SPOIL------
You can from my recollection join Telvanni (the mages' house) and then 'betray' them by joining Hlaalu as a double agent. It's complicated, but it ends up giving you 2 houses.
-----ANTI-SPOIL-----




Okay, all clear.

Someone said that they choose Spear as a Minor skill because it is the only weapon that trains Endurance. Do you think it is worth a minor slot?

Endurance is ... not so hard to train, imo. If you have a fighter character, you probably have endurance on your armor skill already, and it's simple to train that waaay up (for both medium and heavy). The 'main' armor you use will be trained automatically, easily up to 99 within a reasonable amount of time. To train a 'secondary' armor, I recommend (once you get to a decent amount of HP) just walking with it on (say medium, after your heavy is 99, medium is 15 say) and finding something that doesn't hit very hard, but hits often. A pack of Kwama worms or whatever they're called works well - get 4 or 5. Take a few potions of long-term healing, or better yet a few mana potions, and a made spell that is "Heal 5hp/second for 120 seconds" or something like that.

Then let it hit you for a long, long time.

(And I don't remember if medium armor is endurance, for sure, but I think it is.)

Anyway I don't like spears in the game, so I say no. Training weapon skills is boring - more boring than the above - when they're not weapons you really use ...

How do you correct a situation where you have "Persuaded" an NPC (who is not same race as you) down to zero attitude towards you through failed "Admire" and "Bribe"?

As said above. Charm spells are the best, by far... always have a charm ring or something on you if you go around admiring/bribing people a lot, as the charm spell will help you a lot - just cast it before you even start admiring/bribing.

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Solver
You can do everything with spells. Sure potions are powerful, very much so, but a strong mage is able to do basically everything with spells only. Although a mage character should obviously also use scrolls and potions.

That said, I definitely think potions are overpowered in Morrowind, and spells for many things are unnecessary once you become a grandmaster alchemist (80+ i suppose would do best, although even 60 alchemy is more than enough for most uses.) Only damage really is hard to do with potions; for that you use Destruction. Potions pretty much eliminate alteration (except for open lock, for which there is a scroll) and restoration (otherwise two very useful skills) ... I love my potions in Morrowind, but I hope in Oblivion they tone them down a bit.

[Dis]

Originally posted by bipolarbear
What are your guys's favorite races?

I liek Orc, b/c I get a good physical guy, and I hate having to build up using Mage skills.

With Orc, I can reall pzwn people, adn sell their shizznat for $$$. With money I can upgrade skills.

Orcs are butt ugly, but I like the combat benefits.

Redguard are nice too b/c of the strength thing.

my first race was a wood elf or whatever. I tried using an archer character, but that seemed to hard.

I then went with a redguard long blade guy. I had destruction as a major skill as well, but I found you don't need destruction when you have longblade skill.

My current character is a imperial swashbuckler (custom class). Mostly a fighter/thief type. I kind of got fed up with the low damage of short blades though. So I went to a master trainer so I could use the trueflame long blade sword.

Although I think one reason I'm struggling is I read that these expansions should be played by high level characters. Like 40+. I was only level 35 when I started them.

[Dis]

what difficulty level do you guys play at?

I've been playing at 50, but I've found I've had to turn it down for a couple of battles (noted in a post on the last page). I just couldn't inflict enough damage fast enough otherwise.

And I love the bloodmoon expansion. I like it a little better than Tribunal. Though tribunal did have some impressive graphics for the dungeons and such. It was a nice change from the usual stuff I've been seeing in the original morrowind game for so long.

But I enjoy outdoor areas the best, so I go with bloodmoon

I tried being a werefolf, but it's hard. So I went back to an earlier save. I think you have to be level 40+ to think about beating the expansion as a werewolf. Sure I had 700+ hitpoints, but those were gone in like 2 hits from the guys from the skaal village. I made the mistake of "feeding" on one of the skaal, They weren't too happy about it. Even though I wasn't detected (I think), the whole village was after me (I was in werewolf form at the time).

and how do you get around not being able to use potions and such? No way of regenerating hitpoints. I couldn't even use my shield that I had that regenerates hitpoints constantly.

[Brundlefly]

Funny thing: I sold a steel helm to the armorer next to the Mages Guild in Balmora yesterday and when I came out of the barter and dialogue screens he was wearing the helm.

[Dry]

Originally posted by bipolarbear
What are your guys's favorite races?

The race more natural to me would be the male dark elf (+Speed, -Will -Perso), But I have to confess that I mainly play female bretons.
It is mainly because they are better looking (BB mods) and because the mods I installed contain mainly improvements for female clothes.

Aesthetical choice for me.

Oh, and 50% magic resistance is also nice to have.

[Dis]

Originally posted by bfg9000
Funny thing: I sold a steel helm to the armorer next to the Mages Guild in Balmora yesterday and when I came out of the barter and dialogue screens he was wearing the helm.

yeah I noticed that. especially when I sell back all the dark brotherhood armour I pick up. even the mage at the top of the mages guild in Balmora (she'll buy back armour) is wearing a dark brotherhood helmet.

and the smith in mournhold is wearing a complete set of dark brotherhood armour after I sold it to him. And the guy in the armourers shop in Balmora.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by Dissident


yeah I noticed that. especially when I sell back all the dark brotherhood armour I pick up. even the mage at the top of the mages guild in Balmora (she'll buy back armour) is wearing a dark brotherhood helmet.

and the smith in mournhold is wearing a complete set of dark brotherhood armour after I sold it to him. And the guy in the armourers shop in Balmora.

There are a couple of traders in the game I really dislike: teh Imperial trader next door to teh smith in Balmora, for example, or teh Breton trader in Pelegiad. I always make sure I sell them helms so that I don't have to look at them.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by bfg9000



Are the lack of boots that big of a deal to your armor rating? I dont think so. I decided I wanted to make a character with as many 40's and 50's as possible starting off. Turns out the best race and gender for that is a Female Argonian. Special abilities Strength & Luck. Sign: The Lady.

Meant to answer this sooner...

No, they're not a big deal as far as armor rating goes. But there are some cool one-of-a-kind enchanted boots in teh game, and teh beast races (Argonian, Khajit) can't wear them.

[snoopy369]

And if you can't wear boots then you can't wear Boots of Stamina (+10 stamina/second, i think) ... which allow you to run and jump at will (or close to it)... My single favorite made item in the game...

[Dis]

made item eh. pretty cool. I was just going to ask where those were.

and don't forget the boots of blinding speed. Though I really don't use them much.

But I had to use them recently in the bloodmoon expansion. I ran into a nasty bug. Or at least I think it's a bug.

You are supposed to save this bear from being killed by these little dudes (sorry, can't think of their name right now). I could hear the battle from way out on the lake. But by the time I got there, the bear was dead. And as far as I know, you have to complete all 6 stones as part of the main quest.

I tried console commands, but the quest still didn't complete properly. I was able to use the boots of blinding speed to get to the battle in time to save the bear.

[Solver]

Ahh yes, the Bloodmoon main quest rules .

The potions are extremely powerful because they depend on intelligence. Make a fortify intelligence potion. Drink it. Make another one, drink it. Repeat a few times, and you'll have an intelligence of like 700. Then, make a potion of, say, restore health, and you'll get a potion that basically makes you invulnerable.

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Solver
Ahh yes, the Bloodmoon main quest rules .

The potions are extremely powerful because they depend on intelligence. Make a fortify intelligence potion. Drink it. Make another one, drink it. Repeat a few times, and you'll have an intelligence of like 700. Then, make a potion of, say, restore health, and you'll get a potion that basically makes you invulnerable.

Exactly. That is probably something they'll fix in Oblivion, I hope; perhaps "max effective intelligence" or something like that set at 200. (Or max effective (stat) would be good too.)

Can't remember exactly, but I think i once made a potion of restore like +120 hp/second for a couple of minutes ... made several of course...