Morrowind for the first time; char build?

[Hugh Vagoth]

As the title says. I want something that's effective, but not necissarily a min-max, superpowergaming Batman char. I'm a bit of a storyfag, but want the game to be as mechanically enjoyable as possible at the same time. I hear you can be quite creative with the magic in Morrowind, is that true?

 

[miles teg]

Yes. I'm biased since I love playing mages, but may morrowind really works great with a mage char. But a weapon as minor skill is always good. I suggest a short sword since you can enchant them and the to-hit effect will be applied more often.

Select Conj, Alteration, alchemy and e enchant. as primary skills. Short sword, unarmed, healing spells and speech as secondary and you'll do wonders

 

[Ziem]

i feel like even the slightest bit of metagame knowledge breaks the game so
just play whatever
(and the same is true for most games, part of the fun is finding out what works and what doesnt by yourself. at least i prefer doing that.. instead of being the faggot who metagames in first fallout1 run and then complains about the game being underwhelming )

and yes you can be creative with magic, you can create you own overpowered spells combining the available effects and changing their range/power/aoe/duration

 

[Gozma]

As soon as you figure out one brokenly powerful thing, stop doing that. You'll find a new one in an hour

Don't use Atronach sign, it's a combo of newbie-unfriendly and then later on broken.

 

[Metro]

Avoid alchemy and spell-crafting.

 

[catfood]

And bound weapons.

 

[Luzur]

Are you sure you modded it enough? gotta be certain.

 

[bloodlover]

You can also go for one of the generated classes. Yeah they are all shit compared to a custom class but you won't be able to see that as a first time player. Nightblade is a great class imo since it has some combat stats and magic as well.

First time I played Morrowind with a 2h redguard that had zero magic potential and still enjoyed the game.

 

[Azeot]

My current char is a sort of mage-warrior-thingy custom made, with shield, long sword, medium armor, alchemy out the yin yang and mostly utility spells. It works really well, it's good in all situations and most importantly it's fun to play.
Only mod I would recommend apart from usual graphical improvements is Fair Magicka Regen. Without that playing with magic becomes a pain in the ass (in my opinion).

 

[octavius]

Morrowind is a weird game. If you make your most used skills your Primary ones, you'll get to lvl 20 in no time and the game will be way too easy. In my first game I had Atletics, Blocking and Sword among my primary skills and reached lvl 20 mainly by running around and fending off a swarm of cliff racers.
The game was much more fun when I deliberately nerfed my character.

 

[Cadmus]

Morrowind is way too easy to warrant any kind of preemptive research, just play, role play and have fun.

 

[Snorkack]

Morrowind isn't the type of game where you can gimp yourself too much by choosing wrong starting skills. Anything goes, really. Two things, though:
-Make one weapon skill a primary skill. This way you avoid swinging your swort 15 times at an enemy and not hitting once.
-Replenishing magic points in the field is tough. Potions are scarce and ingredients are even scarcer. If you want to play a pure caster you have to sleep A LOT. Also, take Breton or High Elf, as well as one of the magic increasing birthsings (not Atronach though, because it requires some meta knowledge, too)

 

[Bio Force Ape]

You can also go for one of the generated classes. Yeah they are all shit compared to a custom class but you won't be able to see that as a first time player. Nightblade is a great class imo since it has some combat stats and magic as well.

First time I played Morrowind with a 2h redguard that had zero magic potential and still enjoyed the game.

The pre generated classes are a good option because the game can be so broken and easy if you min-max every last thing via a custom class. Just pick a class from their list that sounds good and play however you wish. Ironically, you'll have a lot more fun if you play a class that doesn't have skills you'll be using often as Major class kills (Athletics, Alchemy, armor and weapon skills). If you do have those as major skills you're level 20 before you know it and 1-shotting everything in the game.

 

[Greatness]

The only thing I'd recommend is taking a race or sign that has the "Fortify Maximum Magicka" effect. Otherwise you end up with a max mana pool of like 150 which severely limits your ability to tinker with custom spells. Of course the game is pretty easy whether you use spells or not, I just think the custom spells/enchants system is the only slightly interesting thing in MW's mechanics.

 

[Helton]

Character advancement is shit in default morrowind. I recommend Galsiah's Character Development. Then its as simple as picking skills you want to use and play the game.You'll never be tempted to look under the hood and fret about min-maxy shit.

 

[Weirdstuffinspace]

install only 1 mod. The cliffracer removal quest.

 

[DarKPenguiN]

...Man , I wish I could play Morrowind again for the first time...

OP, I personally prefer magic Toons and the spellmaking/magic system is a blast to play with. There is SO MUCH to the game and after you play for a bit you will see that, yes,its easy as hell to get way OP but that shouldnt effect your first playthrough.

If I were you I would download and install a graphic overhaul mod since the game can look totally fantastic and (as has been mentioned) remove the cliff racers. In the later to mid partof the game there is nothing more satisfying IMHO than flying around peacefully .

-Have fun.

 

[AW8]

i feel like even the slightest bit of metagame knowledge breaks the game so
just play whatever

Listen to Ziem.

As long as you put some points in at least one offensive skill, any build is viable from the get-go in Morrowind.

Don't read up on mechanics and "builds" - the very idea of builds in Morrowind is ridiculous because of how easy it is. Just play the game with whatever skills and weapons/spells you find the most fun.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Just tried Morrowind and ive gotta say i hated it. I didnt like the design, the inventory screens, the slowness of the character, the combat… I felt like i played an alpha version of Oblivion.

But still many people consider it a very good game. Do you think that because ive played more polished RPGs i became "spoiled"? That my "game taste" for design (its not the graphics, but the design that puts me off) is too high because of what i played?

 

[Whiran]

As the title says. I want something that's effective, but not necissarily a min-max, superpowergaming Batman char. I'm a bit of a storyfag, but want the game to be as mechanically enjoyable as possible at the same time. I hear you can be quite creative with the magic in Morrowind, is that true?

Pretty much any build is solid in morrowind so long as you pick up a combat ability or two.

Caster = fun
Sneaky = fun
Pure combat = fun

Go with whatever you enjoy.

If you like playing tank-y characters do that. If you like magicky characters that's a go.

In my first play I did a sneaky type and really enjoyed it. I believe I went sneaky ability and longswords as my primary weapon skill. I backed it up with enhancement type magicks. You can definitely break the game (in that you can make every encounter trivial) if you want to. If you like doing that go for it. If you do not then just avoid using the abilities that will become clear as you play.

 

[DarKPenguiN]

Just tried Morrowind and ive gotta say i hated it. I didnt like the design, the inventory screens, the slowness of the character, the combat… I felt like i played an alpha version of Oblivion.

But still many people consider it a very good game. Do you think that because ive played more polished RPGs i became "spoiled"? That my "game taste" for design (its not the graphics, but the design that puts me off) is too high because of what i played?

No. I understand...

This explains it IMHO

 

[catfood]

OP don't listen to those faggots advocating for the cliffracer removal mod. Cliffracers are an absolutely essential element for a proper Morrowind experience. If after playing the game for ~10 hours you aren't instinctively looking up whenever the combat music starts you are playing it wrong.

 

[octavius]

OP don't listen to those faggots advocating for the cliffracer removal mod. Cliffracers are an absolutely essential element for a proper Morrowind experience. If after playing the game for ~10 hours you aren't instinctively looking up whenever the combat music starts you are playing it wrong.

You have music on, and you talk about playing the game wrong?

 

[Dalek]

Just tried Morrowind and ive gotta say i hated it. I didnt like the design, the inventory screens, the slowness of the character, the combat… I felt like i played an alpha version of Oblivion.

But still many people consider it a very good game. Do you think that because ive played more polished RPGs i became "spoiled"? That my "game taste" for design (its not the graphics, but the design that puts me off) is too high because of what i played?

I love Morrowind, but many of your remarks are real weaknesses (except inventory, whats wrong?) of the game. But for me, the strong points of resides in the lore laying around making a believable world, and in the mid-endgame, where you start to be good enough that you can work out your first OP spells/potions, your guilds quests goes from fetch me shit to political stuff and assassinations, and traveling around isn't a problem thanks to speed/levitation/mark/etc. All the footwork before also make your feel of belonging to the world bigger I think.
I kinda also loved to search objectives with written indications, making your really search and discovers unexpected things (like, the first time I discovered the morag tong in the sewers of Vivec, after hearing a vague rumor during an unrelated quests, and finding that it was prolly behind that master level lock).
Still the game has flaws, and they're especially annoying in the early game, where it doesn't shine much yet.

So to answer your question: early game is the worst part and I guess that's what you tried, and its possible that not being accustomed to such shitty combat and stat grinding will worsen the effect.

 

[Vault Dweller]

No. I understand...

http://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27284