» Mon Mar 24, 2014 12:32 pm I just posted to another topic, and http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1496422-how-in-da-h311-do-you-start-this-game/?p=23522559 made me wonder... is it even possible to create a badly built character in Morrowind? What do you think? What kind of builds would be "bad", and why?
I think you can survive in the game with pretty much any build that follows any common sense. You need to be good with at least one weapon type, and possibly one armor type, too.
Below are the rambles for a bad build I ended up deciding posting this topic.
Maybe one bad move would be wasting slots into two skills that basically can get same things done. That is, why pick Security, if you can open locks with Alteration? Why pick Speechcraft, if you can Charm people with Illusion? Also, things get done better, if more one-sidedly, if you stick to one way of doing it instead of many. Kind of min/max. No sense in dividing, for example, your armor proficiency into many parts, especially into something like the unlikely combo of Heavy Armor and Light Armor. The only justification for doing this would be aesthetic/role-playing reasons.
Stuff like Athletics and Mercantile, you really don't need to be effective, so choosing both as major skills is as much a waste as you can do in Morrowind character creation, IMO.
So here are the skills. Notice the armor choice is split into two way different armor types, and both armor pieces still weigh in your inventory (unlike Unarmored would). Also, no favored weapon type at all.
Major skills: Security, Speechcraft, Athletics, Mercantile, Alteration
Minor skills: Heavy Armor, Light Armor, Illusion, Sneak, Block
Illusion is minor instead of Alteration, because right off the bat I would think that the Illusion spells that are in the game are a bit harder and require more mana than ready Alteration spells. Like, Commanding is harder than Opening a lock with as many points, for example. Thus it would be wiser to make Illusion a major skill and leave Alteration to minors, right? So we do the opposite!
Then let's pick a race who gets as little bonuses to those chosen skills as possible. Let's go with a male Nord. Not even a Willpower boost for those two magic schools. Only gives you a +5 to Heavy Armor, nothing else.
The sign is easy to choose badly because there are many poor ones. Our character already has two ways to open locks, so it would be tempting to go with The Tower. Now that would be just EVIL! 
However, the character would get some free Mysticism spells too, and that something we don't want, now is it? They would make too much sense. 
So let's just go with The Serpent, it just is that damn bad. And we have no means to heal ourselves, so, all the worse.
The Steed would've been one good choice, but that, with Athletics as a major, could actually make us able to run away from pretty much everything, even if the Heavy Armor slowed us down. Again, something we don't want - we would be too good!
Favorite attributes would be Strength, as it covers none of our chosen skills whatsoever, and then maybe Intelligence. If we don't want to widen our mana pool though, Luck would be a good bet too. This particular character doesn't do very much with Luck as he doesn't Enchant or do Alchemy.
So let's go with this one.
Race: Nord (male)
Favorite attributes: Strength, Luck
Birthsign: The Serpent
Major skills: Security, Speechcraft, Athletics, Mercantile, Alteration
Minor skills: Heavy Armor, Light Armor, Illusion, Sneak, Block
Even this character manages not to be entirely useless. He's pretty good a defensive tank with okay health (starting Endurance 50 for male Nords) and Heavy Armor and Block. Also, he will be able to get behind locked doors and persuade others, and buy cheap and sell expensive. How he hits anything, though, I have no idea. 
I might try him out some time!
What do you think? Can you make it worse? Can there be bad builds in Morrowind?
