It's ridiculous how meek enemy spellcasters are in Mor(r)o(n)wind compared to Arena and Daggerfall were fireballs moved to your character almost at the speed of light, a simple wraith in Arena can spam a volley of fireballs in less than 3 seconds, meaning if your character isn't protected = death.
Similarly in Daggerfall liches and vampires spammed not only damage spells, but also poison, silence, paralyze, etc. Again, unprotected character dead in seconds.
Of course, in Daggerfall there existed the spells "Dispel Undead", "Banish Daedra" and "Disintegrate" making all enemies go *poof* at the wave of your hands (this was balanced by the fact that you would get zero loot) and spells actually became more powerful as you leveled up, eventually reaching 100% effectiveness.
While in Morrowind you close in with any mage and bash in his/her skull while the sucker is still waving about his/her hands like a retart. Even supposedly ancient and powerful casters like the Telvanni councilers go down in mere seconds (said casters should of course be equipped with ridiculously powerful enchanted items that either summon an army of Daedric creatures upon being hit, or transport them away upon being hit, or rape your character upon being hit). Fyr lasts a bit longer only because of his Daedric armour.
The only magic danger in Morrowind is when a Dremora Lord appears in your back when you pick a cursed item from a sacrificial altar in a ruin, and only at low levels.