Hi, I'm a returning member and could use some advise. I'm trying to replay morrowind and maximize my leveling, but I keep running into the same problem. Some of the things I want to level up on (such as intelligence) are only in my misc category. How many points do you have to train/advance before you can point-up to get the 5 full marks when you sleep? Thanks for the info! The searches online I've done don't seem to give a clear explanation of this...

Intelligence is governing: Enchant / Conjuration / Alchemy / Security.

To have 5 points to level Intelligence you must have 10 points.

Either 10 points in Enchant, or 10 in Conjuration, or 10 in Alchemy, or 10 in Security.

OR:

Some points in Enchant, some points in Conjuration, some other points in Alchemy and others in Security: For a total of 10 points...

Those 10 points of skills governed by Intelligence will give the 5 points you need to level up in a correct way.

If you have in your major or minor skills a skill governed by Intelligence, be careful not to increase too quickly.

Let's say you have Enchant in your major skills, Conjuration in your minor skill and Alchemy in your misc. skills, be aware not to increase Enchant or Conjuration if you have already increased 10 points in Alchemy. You'll need to increase other skills in misc skills (like short blade for Speed) and then you can increase a major or minor skill governed by another attribute like Strength. I really hope I made it clear...

What you're saying is exactly what the sites I've read say, but it's not how my version of the game seems to work. It's a retail copy, so no funny business going on or mods... If I do all 10 in my major or minor skills, I get the five. That parts seems consistent whether I do it all on one or combine the rest. Say I do 5 points in a minor skill, then try the rest in misc... I've gone as high as 30 additional points and still not raise so much as one point. I just seem to be stuck at 3pts in it when I sleep! The misc. attributes are as if they don't even matter to the leveling system.

Unless what I'm unclear about is this... If I do go over the 10 pts, say by 4, and I do 14. I get my 5 points that level, but the next level from what I gather, those extra 4 don't count right? Or does it mean I start off as negative 4 instead of 0?

This might be a case where you have leveled skills after getting the level up message. They don't count toward the current level.

It's funny, I have just learned something. I have just finished to level up. So I made a test.

I increased Enchant 14 times (misc. skill) then I increased 10 times Armorer (maj, skill). Got the message and went to sleep... Exit: 5 points for Intelligence and 5 points for Endurance.

I returned to increase Armorer 10 times and got the message again. So, before going to sleep I increased my Illusion 2 times and slept. Exit: 5 points for Endurance and 2 points for Personality!! I never realized that we could increase misc skills (Illusion) after we get the message. Like you I always thought it was too late. Try, you'll see:-)

It's perfectly doable to increase the skills after the message.

But if I'm not way of here I might ask Mr Zeppelin if you have patched the game? Somewhere way back in my head there is something telling me that the game could have behaved as you say before the patches..

Tomorow I'll make a few tests. We'll see...

Can you tell me if maybe you have an attribute (Intelligence) over 94 o 95? Because in that case, even if you train to get 5 points, you'll only have 1, 2 or even nothing (bug).