I've had Morrowind since last year's Steam Summer Sale, and I gave it a few hours (possibly more) but couldn't get passed the clunky behavior, the combat, and the complete lack of understanding the game world / atmosphere / guild system. Everyone praises this game so much, and I'm finally going to attempt to give it all I've got.

Now I know there's a thread on here already (coincidentally at the very top) that deals with this, but I'll see if I can ask for things more specific / different from them.

1) What mods do you recommend? Last time I tried it, the only mod I used was the Overhaul Mod, do you advise using anything else? I don't want to ruin the experience and lose that "Morrowind" feel.

2) What class do you suggest at first? The idea of never-regenerating magicka scares me a large deal, but I'm willing to attempt being a Mage, since they have a large variety of spells in this game, unlike in Skyrim (Oblivion was my first TES game back in 05). However if one class is more "noob friendly" than another, please do share it with me.

3) I want to play on a difficulty that will not make the game a breeze, yet I don't want it to be too high to where I completely hate the game, which setting do you advise for Morrowind?

I have a few more questions than that, but I don't want to spoil the experience.

1. Really, do a vanilla play through the first time. Combat is governed by dice rolls that are in turn governed by the character skills. So, the sword swing is just a graphical representation of the dice roll that is calculated, not an actual hit. Also, use the "Always use Best Attack Option" Sure, you can add some texture mods and such, but don't mess with the balance just yet.

2. After Level 10, your skills and class do not matter unless you screw up your Major and Minors (like taking Athletics and Acrobatics for a Major). Have one Major skill from each governing Attribute for your Majors, and you will level up fairly evenly throughout the game.

3. This game is not level scaled and if you are not ready for an area, it will kick your butt back to the Bitter Sea. Of course, once you reach level 20 to 25 the main island enemies are not as much of a challenge, that is why you have Tribunal and Bloodmoon (levels 30 and 50 respectively are recommended to start those)

Adjust the difficulty as you see fit, but it does the same thing as other game, lowers the damage points you give, and increases the damage points you take.

Probably heard it before, but I'd suggest playing without mods for at least a few hours. I'd also disable Tribunal 'till you're a little stronger.

For class, if you're going for a premade, I'd go for something like the Pilgrim. Which is pretty much the adventurer class; dabbles in a bit of everything.

Morrowind's default difficulty gives a steady progression, with the game being challenging at the start and easing up as you get into the higher levels. No need to change it unless you're finding things too easy or too hard.

1. Personally, I wouldn't recommend too many (any) mods, especially if you're still new to the game. But, if you really want some mods, ones that I would suggest that just seem to add to the game overall but aren't too big would be:

Real time Silt striders and Real time boats. (you can do the fast travel in real time, and dismount at any time or skip the rest of the trip, sort of like red dead redemption's carriages or GTA IV's taxi cabs)

More Red Mountain. (since you are probably doing the graphic overhaul, this mod just makes Red Mountain 1.5times tallers and it looks more like a mountain then a glorified hill, nothing else is changed.)

Morrowind Code Patch. (this has a million little bug fixes and gameplay tweaks that are all toggleable when you install it, it's pretty easy and nice to use)

Bethesda official mods (theres a few of them, like adamantium armor, bittercoast sounds, siege at fort firemoth etc. You can find a list on the UESP wikihttp://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Official_Plug-ins).

That's all that I'd really recommend. Search them up at the Morrowind Nexus or something, they're all pretty easy to find.

2. The more 'noob' friendly classes in my opinion would be the fighter classes. (of course I recommend making your own class) So if you want an easy start into morrowind, make a warrior type of guy. The "best" weapons and armour usually are Longblades and Heavy armour (if you're going for the best of the best and want to make a powerful character). Of course, remember that Fatigue is your number one attribute to be watching when getting into combat, if you got terrible fatigue then you aren't going to have a good time. Fighter classes may be the least interesting classes for late game, but they're the easiest to start and get into the game, at least enough to give you a concept of how the game plays out and whatnot.

3. I'd stay on the regular difficulty level for the time being. I spent many years on this game before changing the difficulty at all (which I made it harder eventually because I knew all the ins and outs of the game)

So yeah, I hope you have a good time with the game. If you really give it a chance, it has the potential to blow your mind.

Hrm... the interesting thing is that the first time I ever picked up Morrowind, I couldn't understand a dang thing about it. I was completely frustrated at the combat system (how I couldn't hit anything if my Endurance ran out, didn't know about resting, etc.), so I tossed it away in my massive Xbox stack not to be seen again for many years.

Then I got Oblivion. The combat was MUCH smoother and didn't rely on the hit-level ratio that Morrowind did. I only kind of floundered for a little bit on Oblivion because I still didn't get the theme of resting to level up, lol. After QUITE a few times through the lands of Tamriel, did I once again lay my hands upon my copy of Morrowind. I decided, like you... "What the hay? I'll give it a whirl again."

The second time through has been MUCH more enjoyable. Although I haven't beaten it myself yet, I would take CCNA's advice and not use any mods for your first time through. Although it CAN make the game easier, it can also cheapen the gameplay and not make it feel worthwhile to complete.

For mods it's kind of subjective, there are mods you should get like MGE and Morrowind code patch, for landmass Tamriel rebuilt is very good and the team are doing amazing work, I recommend rise of House Telvanni and Building up Uvirith's legacy if you play as Telvanni and I also recommend Illuminated order which has a lot of fun quests and deep writing with H.P. Lovecraft references all over the place. Really I suggest you read some of the mod suggestions on the modding forum and read the descriptions to see if you like them.