Elder Scrolls XII: Twelve Worlds of Creation

[Aeson]

Caveat: in the long run, your choice of class skills in Morrowind doesn't make all that much difference anyway. By mid-level (10-ish) you'll be able to buy essentially unlimited training in anything you want to catch up on. At that point it's actually advantageous to be advancing non-class skills, because then you don't level too quickly.

It should nevertheless be noted that leveling "too quickly" in Morrowind is nowhere near as bad as leveling too quickly in Oblivion. All grades of equipment are available at all stages of the game as long as you know where to look, training is essentially uncapped, and the vast majority of enemy creatures do not have level-scaled statistics or abilities, so in Morrowind leveling up even more is usually a solution to the problem of running into enemies who are too tough because you've leveled up too quickly whereaes in Oblivion leveling up even more after running into enemies who were too tough for your character at the current level usually ended up making things worse the next time around.

How about taking medium armour as a secondary skill?

The problem with medium armor is that it's kind of lackluster later in the game, especially if you ignore artifacts, are looking for full sets, or don't want the (admittedly fairly minor) issues that come with Indoril, which means that going with both medium and heavy armor leaves you in more or less the same boat later in the game that taking only heavy armor would. Tribunal's adamantium armor (available in Vvardenfell if you installed the Adamantium Armor DLC or possibly through mods) and Bloodmoon's ice (stalhrim) armor help with medium armor's lackluster array of high-tier options, but those sets are mostly more fragile and no better defensively than glass armor is (glass and ice/stalhrim have a basic armor rating of 50, adamantium has a base defense rating of 40 for most of the pieces and 70 for the helm) despite weighing nearly twice as much (45lbs for full glass versus 79lbs for full ice/stalhrim or 84lbs for full adamantium, or 54lbs for glass and 97lbs for ice/stalhrim if including a shield; adamantium doesn't have a shield).

Yeah, heavy armour in Morrowind gets - very heavy, especially the high end stuff. And there's no "worn armour becomes weightless" perk to offset it.

For a character who starts with 55 strength, it's mostly only Ebony and Daedric armors which will be problematic. Iron's 102 lbs without or 117lbs with a shield, Steel and Dwemer/Dwarven are 103lbs without or 118lbs with a shield, and Imperial Steel's 100lbs without or 114lbs with a shield. That'll leave Triax with a useful amount of 'free' encumbrance even after adding the 27+ pounds for a claymore or 32+ pounds for a warhammer in, roughly what a character with 30-40 strength would have available while wearing a full set of light armor, though an early high-tier claymore (81lbs for Daedric) or warhammer (96lbs for Daedric) could cause problems. It's really when Triax starts picking up Ebony (206lbs without or 236lbs with a shield) or especially Daedric armor (309lbs without or 354lbs with a shield, though as a full set of Daedric can be rather difficult to acquire it might not be worth worrying about it) and weapons that encumbrance is likely to start becoming problematic, though if Triax wants to carry spare weapons or a lot of spellcasting trinkets there could certainly be issues earlier. It's probably worth upgrading from Iron/Steel/Imperial Steel/Dwemer armor to Ebony armor despite Ebony being roughly twice as heavy since Ebony's base armor rating is at least three times higher, but I'm rather less convinced by Daedric.

[Triaxx]

Frankly, I don't know where to look, and I'm pretty okay with that, so it'll be a fair while before I upgrade, meaning a chance to boost my strength before I get there.

[veti]

It should nevertheless be noted that leveling "too quickly" in Morrowind is nowhere near as bad as leveling too quickly in Oblivion.

Agreed. But it's still worth paying some attention to your levelling, to get decent stat gains.

The problem with medium armor is that it's kind of lackluster later in the game,

Also true. But in the early game, which is what I was mostly thinking of, it's fantastic. Orcish or Dreugh armour is an excellent (and reasonably common) find for a lower-level character. (And thematically, an Orcish warrior might have a fondness for Orcish armour.) Failing that, even bonemold is pretty decent stuff.

[Triaxx]

Given how prevalent it seems to be I will likely end up in some Orcish anyway on my path to better Heavy. Since the consensus has Alteration as useless, I guess I'll swap to Medium and put Alchemy in place of Hand to Hand then.

[factotum]

and the vast majority of enemy creatures do not have level-scaled statistics or abilities

I dunno how true that is...I *do* know, from looking at the editing tools bundled with the game, that level scaling in Morrowind always has an associated range; e.g. you might have a creature which will level from 15-40, so if you encounter it before level 15 you won't have a nice time and if you encounter it after level 40 it'll likely be a cakewalk. In between it will be levelled to your ability.

[Divayth Fyr]

I dunno how true that is...I *do* know, from looking at the editing tools bundled with the game, that level scaling in Morrowind always has an associated range; e.g. you might have a creature which will level from 15-40, so if you encounter it before level 15 you won't have a nice time and if you encounter it after level 40 it'll likely be a cakewalk. In between it will be levelled to your ability.

What Morrowind does is having a list of creatures you might encounter and selecting which one to use according to your level (though some lists will pick from any creature of your level or lower), it doesn't level up a creature's stats like the later games do.

With one exception being a certain lich in Tribunal - the script is bugged though and it gets 8 times the health bonus it should...

[Eldan]

I have noticed that the main quest especially can get quite easy if you overlevel. The first time I played, I remember being in the high thirties before I started bothering with the main quest, as I just sort of forgot about it. Never felt threatened in combat much after that. (Except Almalexia, for some reason. She kicked my ass a dozen times.)

[LibraryOgre]

Does Morrowind do the thing where premade spells are impossibly more efficient than anything you can create?

No. In fact, I find a lot of the premade spells to be wastefully designed.

For example, Levitate. The Magnitude of the Levitate spell is a speed boost over your normal walking speed... so, with a 1 point Levitate (which is far more Magicka-efficient), you can do everything you do with a 10 point levitate, but only slightly slower. If you've weaseled your way into the Boots of Blinding Speed (and you really should), then the 9 point boost is meaningless.

Play with the spellmaker, see where you can get efficiencies. Check the UESP, since they have some good guidelines and advice.

And as for sign, I would suggest Atronach over Lady. While the stat boosts are nice, Atronach's real strength is when you've spent a good chunk of your Magicka, and so ignore half the spells sent at you. Even if you only use Magicka for healing (easier to do with a 2-handed build in Morrowind than in Skyrim, since you don't need a hand free to cast), you can avoid a lot of pain by absorbing magic.

[Aeson]

Atronach's real strength is when you've spent a good chunk of your Magicka, and so ignore half the spells sent at you.

Spell Absorption works regardless of how much magicka you have; characters under the sign of the Atronach always have at least a 50% chance of ignoring incoming magic. It's true that it becomes more valuable when you've used up some portion of your character's magicka reserves, but that's because whenever Spell Absorption triggers it at least partly refills your own magicka pool if your current magicka is less than your maximum magicka.

No. In fact, I find a lot of the premade spells to be wastefully designed.

For example, Levitate. The Magnitude of the Levitate spell is a speed boost over your normal walking speed... so, with a 1 point Levitate (which is far more Magicka-efficient), you can do everything you do with a 10 point levitate, but only slightly slower. If you've weaseled your way into the Boots of Blinding Speed (and you really should), then the 9 point boost is meaningless.

Play with the spellmaker, see where you can get efficiencies. Check the UESP, since they have some good guidelines and advice.

There's more than one type of efficiency, and I rather think that you and Triaxx have different types of efficiency in mind. I suspect that the efficiency that Triaxx had in mind was magicka cost for a given effect magnitude, duration, area of effect, and range; the efficiency that you have in mind is the minimal cost to obtain a desired effect at an acceptable magnitude, duration, area of effect, and range, which is not the same efficiency. Levitate 1 for 30s on Self is certainly cheaper than Levitate 10 for 30s on Self and the difference in flight speed is fairly marginal, especially if high-magnitude Fortify Speed effects are in play, so in the sense of efficiency as getting a desired effect at an acceptable magnitude, duration, range, and area of effect for the smallest possible magicka cost, yes, the custom spell would be more efficient. On the other hand, you can't make a custom Levitate 10 for 30s on Self spell which costs less than the default Levitate spell and so the stock spell is no less efficient than an identical custom spell would be.

[Triaxx]

I've taken to avoiding Atronach as a sign, but that's because it's too game breakingly good. Especially with Morrowind's ability to cover yourself in Spell absorb gear.

Yeah, if I can't make a spell that does the same for the same cost is what I meant. Oblivion had Finger of the Mountain, which was much more magicka efficient than any you could make your self.

[Celestia]

I've taken to avoiding Atronach as a sign, but that's because it's too game breakingly good. Especially with Morrowind's ability to cover yourself in Spell absorb gear.

Yeah, if I can't make a spell that does the same for the same cost is what I meant. Oblivion had Finger of the Mountain, which was much more magicka efficient than any you could make your self.

You have that backwards. Finger of the Mountain was the least efficient spell in the game. It was hilariously overpriced.

[LibraryOgre]

You have that backwards. Finger of the Mountain was the least efficient spell in the game. It was hilariously overpriced.

I believe that was partially dependent on when you got it... the low-level versions we're a bit more efficient than you could make with the spellmaker.

EDIT:
New thread

[kraftcheese]

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