I've played partial characters in Morrowind, but the only one that really got anywhere was a Nord fighter type. Joined House Redoran & the FG, and then went to Solstheim. Didn't get very high in level.

But it's been awhile, and Morrowind is still relatively new to me.

I just started an Imperial Acrobat (premade class). The Lover birthsign.

I plan to join the Thieves' Guild and do some general loot-hunting.

Any tips for a true "Acrobat" playstyle? Is Morrowind actually friendly to an Acrobat (2nd-story thief)?

I notice that the weapon skills for the class are Marksman (which I intend to use most often) and Spears (backup). Any notes about combat style?

Acrobats also boast Unarmored and Light Armor. Should I mix and match, or go with one over the other?

And Alteration... since I haven't played with Morrowind's magic system really, any tips regarding this skill are appreciated. I know Magicka doesn't regen automatically, so this likely won't be something to use in battle, but probably while I'm thieving, for locks and the like.

Just looking to generally get the most out of this character. Thanks!

In general it's a smart idea to make your own class, as you probably only want one weapon and one armor skill but most pre-made classes have at least several of each.

As for actually playing an Acrobat, yeah there are some interesting methods to utilize the class. Some dungeons have ledges or 'hidden' places that you can only reach through Acrobatics or levitation which contain some amazing loot. You can also use acrobatics to cut down on travel time because it can help you get over mountains or hills that you otherwise would need to go around. Overall, 'Acrobatics' is a pretty useful skill, though I can't think of any place off hand where it would be easier to burglarize the place because you were able to get on the roof or second story by jumping, but I could be wrong.

As for your armor, I'd just use Light Armor. Unarmored is really there as an option for people who want to roleplay mages who just wear robes, or some sort of monk/holy warrior that eschews armor. I don't believe there's any empirical reason to use unarmored over Light armor, unless you just hate carrying around the extra 30 pounds or so of protection.

As for your combat style, Acrobats should try and get on ledges or rocks or something that would make them harder to reach. (Though I stress that being an 'Acrobat' is more about increased flexibility in terms of how you get around obstacles or travel in the world, not fighting or thieving). Your bow is pretty self explanatory, but your spear might give you the extra reach needed to keep hitting people while 'jumping' out of their range. Just be sure that whenever you attack with a spear you're either moving forwards or backwards because this will cause you to 'thrust' the spear when you attack, getting the most damage out of it. If you stood still, or moved from left to right you would 'chop' or 'slash' with your spear respectively, and spears generally have low 'chop' and 'slash' values.

Sneak everywhere u think theirs enemies. The sneak shots from archery after a high lvl will do some dmg anx pepper them til they get close then whack them with the spear. Lvl both because theres gonna be a few situations where the bow wouldny be as good as just breaking out the spear. Thats my advice for combat.

Also use and make alot of poisens.

Thanks!

I hear Unarmored is a bear to level up, for obvious reasons. Seems like a cool idea, but I imagine you're right - light armor seems more practical.

Is it worth pumping up Alteration as well? I think I'll work up Security despite it just being a misc. skill, since Open spells limit the level of lock you can even attempt, whereas you can attempt any level lock with a pick (I think). But apart from Open spells, Alteration seems to have some neat effects. On the other hand, some of those seem to mimic Acrobatics itself... wondering if I should really work it up.

Spears are boss, the best melee weapon in the game IMHO. As others have said, the trick is to make use of their reach. Ledges and high boulders are great for this. If there's no handy ledge available (which is usual), just retreat steadily from opponents while fending them away with the spear. You can actually take on much tougher opponents like this than you would be able to with a shorter weapon because you limit the chances the enemy gets to hit you back.

Alteration - you're right, it does have a lot of good utility spells. Levitate is probably the most useful. Waterwalking and Waterbreathing are handy too. As you say, Jump and Slowfall kinda overlap with Acrobatics so you can avoid those spells.

Security - there is a limit to what locks you can pick based on your skill level, you'll get a message saying your skill is too low if you try to pick a high strength lock with a low or middling skill. Still, it is stronger skill at beating locks overall than Alteration. A 100pt Open spell is both expensive in magicka and difficult to cast.

Sounds great.

One thing I'm noticing (compared to Skyrim, which I'm still playing, and to a lesser extent compared to Oblivion, which I also revisit now & again) is how slow the levelling goes!

Especially since, at the early stages, you sorta svck and can't hit anything very often. Those kwama things were giving me a run for my money at level 1!

Just hit level 2, though, so hopefully the levelling will get easier.

On that note, should I avoid grinding skills since the world levels with me? For example, Acrobatics - I want to get good at it, so I'm practicing on the stairways around Balmora. Should I be concerned if my noncombat skills level "too fast"?

And unrelated - any recommendations for Houses, if any? I plan on the Thieves' Guild, and I'm actually sorta thinking I'll get into the MQ a little bit (seems cool to be an undercover agent, and I guess I owe it to the Emperor). Hlaalu seems like a good fit with those, but I wonder if my Acrobat skills will be useful at all with them.

This is true, Morrowind has a much more deliberate pace than subsequent installments of the Elder Scrolls. And while it does take a little while to build up you're pretty much on the cusp of when everything starts to fall into place and you can be a little bolder with your explorations. What level is your spear, and what level is your marksman skill? And are you being careful to try and always engage in fights only after you've regained full fatigue (usually either by resting, or eating something?)

If you find that after level 2 you still are having trouble hitting things, even with a full fatigue bar, you should consider investing in some training to get your spear and marksman skills up to at least 45 or 50-ish each. Also increasing your agility when you level up will help you hit more often as well (Marksman and Sneak both increase agility if I recall)


Not necessarily. Acrobatics is a strength skill, so for every two times you level it up that's another +1 you could potentially give to your strength attribute, which is very important for dealing damaged. But all in all a balanced approach is much better.


I usually undertake the main quest as an Imperial, and roleplay that being a prisoner sent to Vvardenfell is just my 'cover'. It's actually quite a bit of fun, and the main quest has a very nice build up too. At first Caius tells you that you're too newb to even participate, and then you spend a lot of time actually being a spy - gathering information, paying informants, that type of thing, getting all of the details in order so you and the Blades can begin to get a clearer idea of what's going on.

The Thieves Guild sounds like it would be a good fit for you. I'd also consider the Morag Tong if I were you, which is Morrowind's Dark Brotherhood and a legal assassins guild. They openly have an office in every major city. Plus if I recall their quests aren't usually too hard (at first) but they make you travel a lot, so it would be a great way for you to get familiar with the island.

House Hlaalu also seems like a natural choice, if you have to join one of the Great Houses, but without a speechcraft skill or high personality you may find some of their quests to be difficult. Also, if you're roleplaying you need to figure out if your character is just a greedy fellow looking to become rich, in which case Hlaalu, Thieves Guild, and Morag Tong are all great choices but the Main quest may not be. If he's honorable then the Morag Tong is a great choice because it's very ritualistic, conservative, and in some ways a 'gentlemanly' assassins guild. But House Hlaalu plays pretty dirty.

Just stuff to keep in mind.

Be aware that in the vanilla game the Unarmored skill does not work. You have to wear armor. There is no way around this without mods.





Morrowind does not adapt to the player's level quite the way Oblivion and Skyrim do. Morrowind is leveled but not scaled. When an enemy appears it will always be the same level and always wear the same gear. As you gain levles new enemies will appear, as in the other games.

Therefore, grinding can be effective. In fact, many of my characters hang around Seyda Neen for five or more levels, fighting Mudcrabs and Slaughterfish, ect, before venturing out into the world and doing quests. This can be considered "grinding" if one wants to look at it that way.

Whether you want to do that or not is up to you. To be honest, I wouldn't call it a particularly roleplaying thing to do, myself, except when playing certain characters. It's probably more accurate to say it's more of a powergaming approach. That isn't to say it's bad. Whether you want to do it, as I say, is up to you.

Go ahead and grind out your levels. They only leveled the enemies with you in Oblivion. Go ahead and level up, you'll need to due to the random and spread out 'set' counters. 'Set' meaning every character or monster is already at a set level when you meet or fight them. You'll need those levels, especially later on when you venture deep into things.

Unless you chose the Atronach birth sign, magicka does regen. Alteration school of spells is very useful - levitate, open, water walk, water breathing; those are the ones I use the most but there are several others. Talk with mages and priests; some of them provide spellmaking services. You can pay them to make a customized spell for you if you already know the spell. IIRC, the latest version of Morrowind Code Patch fixes the problem menitoned about the unarmoured skill. IMO, you should use MCP regardless because it fixes a number of things and you can choose if you want the fix or not.

Main tip is to be patient with the combat, stick with your main weapon types and remember it's an(admittedly clumsy) attempt at real-time diceroll combat.

i suggest not being stingy with your money, at all.

always BUY training as often as possible.

and, make sure your health and stamina bars are always full, lol.

buy, buy, buy.

Wearing at least one piece of armor is supposed to make the unarmored skill work, IIRC.

Which is what I said.

Do you know if you still need to wear 1 piece of armor to make Unarmored work in the Game of the Year version? (I'm on PC if that matters, disc version.)

It didn't seem clear; looked like you could have been saying that it doesn't work at all so you need to wear armor.

I'm pretty sure you need MCP to fix that.

The way you play is totally up to you. One poster says "buy as much training as possible"; I say "only buy enough training to bring a miserable skill up to where you can self-train it"; another says "never pay for training". Decide what works for you and how you intend to powergame, roleplay, or steer a middle course. The nice part about MW is that almost any approach works, it just takes a different amount of time.

You can have weaker spells custom tailored for only a dozen Septims, which can be useful and much easier to cast than the "standard" versions; I generally get a 15 second Waterwalk spell made for crossing rivers, sometimes a 25 second 1 point Levitate spell to float across the gaps between the Vivec cantons or onto hilltops and ledges, and a "novice" healing spell for 1 point for 3 or 4 seconds (duration is cheaper than magnitude). These are still quite handy, and bring the casting difficulty and magicka costs down to where you get more successes (and experience) with your limited magica pool at low levels. That's a lot more sensible and believable in-game than spamming spells at a wall for 3 hours, or paying thousands of Septims to raise the skill through training.

Morrowind is "semi-friendly" to an acrobatic playstyle, more so than the later games, but it's still a bit limited in places. A real "climb" skill like in Daggerfall would have helped.

I'd suggest a mix of Light and Unarmored (partially armored), since they both train different Attributes. If you play on PC and get a copy of the Morrowind Code Patch, you can play fully Unarmored, otherwise playing 100% Unarmored is broken, as has been so vehmently pointed out. OK, so an "unarmored" Monk character wears a thick cloth wristband under their robe......obviously the end of the world for some players.

Thanks for the advice everyone.

As an Imperial with the Acrobat premade class, I think my weapon skills may have been in the 30s, which would partially explain the difficulty early on. So I definitely need to buy some training there.

The other thing that was happening was that I wasn't paying a ton of attention to the Fatigue bar. Coming from Skyrim, that green bar is practically useless unless it's entirely empty - and before that, in Oblivion, where it only has a minor effect on damage - I forgot about the whole "chance to hit" being affected by your Fatigue.

Think I'll take my time in Balmora for awhile, maybe get some simple quests around town and slowly begin to explore outward.

Don't rush into the cave just north of Seyda Neen. There's a spell caster that will beat most characters to the curb really fast in there. The spell caster is easy to dodge once you get good at dodging magic attacks and ranged attacks. Speaking of that, it is actually a good idea to practice manually dodging ranged attacks. You will be glad you did.

Bribing is the easiest way to raise someone's disposition towards you. Admire will normally fail more often than just bribing people with 100 gold. Bribing with 1000 gold is probably not going to be more than just a waste of gold, so stick with bribing with 100 gold and sometimes with 10 gold. Khajiit merchants are great sources of money if you sell them moon sugar and skooma, by the way. Khajiit merchants will buy moon sugar and skooma and not just shove you away for having any, even if they claim they don't bother with the stuff. You can't sell these two items to Khajiit merchants that don't sell potions or ingredients, though, so the bookstore owning one will probably not buy those items.

In fact, the game doesn't have a sell whatever to any merchant thing like Oblivion and Skyrim do. This isn't a big deal, though. It actually is pretty easy to understand who sells what in this game. By the way, when stealing stuff in a merchant's house, only steal what they don't sell. If you steal from an armor merchant, only steal things like gold and alchemy ingredients from their house. If you try to sell them the items you stole from them, they will get the guards. They also won't buy said item(s) of which you stole ever again no matter how legally you got the next batch of the same stuff.

The Thieve's Guild quests that involve stealing an item from someone who is also a merchant that buys and sells that exact item can be completed legally just by buying the item from the person instead. You also may want to go to a Dwemer ruin for the quest involving stealing a Dwemer Bowl, Dwemer Tube, and Dwemer cup or something since stealing them from the person who has them will forever become hostile if you steal them.

Stealing in this game is extremely easy in many cases. You can even break into a guy's house and claim it as your house no matter how alive said NPC is. If they aren't in the house and the owner never goes in the house, it's pretty much a free house. If you want to kill someone and claim their house, you can do that if they are always in the house.

Sorry if any of this advice isn't what you wanted. Maybe you'll learn something you never knew, though.

Well I must have been pretty luck with that smuggler's cave N of Seyda Neen, then... the wizard in there gave me no trouble; I just sat back and pegged him with my bow, which staggered him quite a bit. I can't remember if he actually got any spells off.

The first bandit was tough, though, as I was wearing no armor and had a fairly low Spear skill. Had to leave & come back after waiting once or twice.

My wife told me all about the stealing/buying back bug . (I actually bought her Morrowind on a whim as a Christmas present the year we were married, but never really got into it myself (too busy playing Thief). MW's music is incredibly nostalgic for me, though, as I remember reading or puttering around in the room while she was playing the game. Ditto with the voice-acting.) I've got the right now, actually, so I may go the purchase rather than theft route.

Hey, if I were to post a write-up of my experiences through the game, should I do that in the Spoilers section?

If it contains extreme amounts of spoilers, you probably would be best off just posting those experiences in the spoilers section.