So, I bought Morrowind off Steam, and while I'm waiting for it to download (also downloading the graphic overhaul), I'm thinking about what my character will be. I have played Skyrim and Oblivion before, and planning, developing and advancing my character has always been some of the most fun parts of those games for me.

I'm looking to make a battle-mage style character, with at least conjuration and maybe destruction and restoration as magic skills.

For race, would Dunmer or Breton be best? I understand Bretons get a nice conjuration bonus, and some magic resistance, so I'm leaning towards Breton at the moment.

For the birthsign, I'm really not sure. Atronach seems nice, but how much of a drawback is the stunted magicka? The Lady seems good too, but what else?

For skills, Conjuration, a weapon skill (long blade? axe?), an armor skill (medium or heavy armor?), and maybe destruction and restoration? I could get mysticism, alchemy, enchanting, speechcraft or block (how does block work in this game, exactly?) and athletics as minors.

Any advice?

Edit: general tips about the game are also appreciated.

Lady sign is great for a warrior; makes life easy but if you want use Destruction for Damage or Conjure more than bound weapons and armor, you'll need a magicka boosting sign like Atronach. Atronach can be used with any race to good effect (spell absorption as well as magicka) but it can be a PITA for a beginner because of the stunted part. It's not really that hard to handle with potions and shrines/altars but it can get tedious. An alternative that works well with Bretons is Apprentice because it allows magicka recovery from resting and the weakness is offset by the Breton resistance so it's a natural fit.

edit: a slightly unconventional Battlemage might be a Nord/Atronach. Resistances are top (spell absorption, immunity to frost...) plus you get a big axe bonus so if you have a conjuration major, you can have a bound battleaxe at level one with 80 base damage an an effective 50 axe starting skill. You really can't beat that.

I hadn't considered apprentice before. Sounds like a good choice. Maybe I could pick up Endurance as a primary stat, then, as I'm not getting Lady. What about the other primary stat? Int? Str?

Well, assuming a Breton/Apprentice, Endurance is mandatory because of their 30 start. They have enough INT and WILL so STR is a good choice since it directly affects weapon damage and carry capacity. I would pick INT for a pure mage but Strength for a battlemage.

Thank you very much. So, this is what I came up with:


Male Breton
Birthsign: Apprentice
Specialization: Combat
Favored attributes: Endurance, Strength
Major skills: Axe, Medium Armor, Conjuration, Destruction, Restoration
Minor skills: Athletics, Block, Speechcraft, Mysticism, Enchant

Any obvious problems with that? I'm not certain about three things: medium armor versus heavy armor, mysticism versus alteration, axe versus long blade. Also, maybe I should fit Alchemy in there somewhere... What about block? Is it useful?

Looks good to me. There's no perfect build.

Heavy vs Medium? Most of the available artifacts are Heavy so there's that to consider. On the other hand, the single best (IMHO) cuirass in the game is Medium and Medium Orcish armor is available early. Either works, pick one and develop the other on the side.

Axe vs Long Blade? There's more variety in LongBlade but I feel you can't beat Axe for damage especially since you can get the best axe(s) in the game right at the start.

Block? Only good with a shield so if you go with a Battleaxe (my choice) or a claymore, don't bother.

edit: forgot Alchemy. With Atronach it's a must but otherwise it's just nice to have. I always take Alchemy as a minor for making restore health potions. Their long duration makes them better than healing spells in many situations. You can kick start alchemy with Restoration fortify spells if you want to.

Ok, so I removed block and enchanting, added alteration and alchemy and I'll be chosing Axe and Heavy armor. It looks like this now:


Major skills: Axe, Heavy Armor, Conjuration, Destruction, Restoration
Minor skills: Athletics, Alteration, Speechcraft, Mysticism, Alchemy

With this, I'm not taking any skill that boosts Agility, though. Is that a big problem or can I raise it fine without any major/minor skill?

It's not a big problem because there are several agility boosting enchanted items you'll come across but in this kind of build I would get training in marksman to get it up to 50 or so eventually (that is, 50 marksman and agility). Marksman comes in handy in the later game to do ranged damage against opponents that have magic resistance or reflect.

Conjuration is a tough skill for me to develop in Morrowind. This is probably my ~6th play through, and I am attempting an archer+conjuration (with long blade backup) sneaking rogue-type character, and despite my efforts to roleplay in earnest, I find it hard to utilize the conjuration aspect. I summon whatever I can for my fights so I can buy time to shoot arrows, but it seems to be a pretty trivial piece of the combat picture. I buy myself time for another arrow or 2 which is nice, but any easy opponent would have been no trouble without the summoned creature and any tough character eats up my summoned creature and forces me to use my blade before long anyways. Conjuration is mostly a role-play for me and honestly isn't an essential combat aspect for my character despite my intention to make it an integral part of my gameplay. Perhaps others have had other experiences, but for me, conjuration (not counting enchantments and scrolls) is an underpowered skill.

I understand your point. I use conjuration mostly for bound weapons (more for RP since you can get enchantments to replace spells easily) but I still like it as a skill because it helps build Intelligence and it allows you to have good weapons very early. If you want an effective conjurer, get the Undead:rise from death mod. It makes many undeads very powerful and also the summoned versions of them. The Greater bonewalker with that mod is devastating (of course, if you meet one it'll tear you up too). I have mixed feelings about that sort of game change but it does work.

Thanks for the tip. Despite my many playthroughs, this current one is my first on PC with mods/overhauls. I REALLY wanted to dedicate myself to a 'conjurer with a bow' character build, but it's just not working. I'm basically an archer with a long sword who happens to waste time conjuring. And while I still enjoy it and while I certainly think anyone who hasn't already played the game through 7 times will be entertained, I really wanted to try a different build for this character and it just hasn't worked out. I recognize the fact that part of the beauty of morrowind is that sometimes you dictate what you want to it and sometimes it dictates what it wants to you, but given the fact that I've already exhausted alot of the gamplay magic from the swordsman and archer characters, I am a little disappointed with my failure at my first foray into magic-user world. Next time / later on in this playthrough I may have to switch to pure stealth with mysticisim and illusion to make my stealth battlemage work.

I got conjure as a major but only to use the dagger for rp purposes. Usually to help out, ill practice and summon all my bound weapons and armor before I go to sleep. Adds up but ibe noticed once it hits 40s the bound weapons are almost a 100% chance to work .

I think that taking alchemy as a major is always a good idea if you have any intention of using it, just because you learn more effects immediately. I admit it's not difficult to skill it up quite quickly, but for a new player I think it helps.

Also dont do every quest. Just do what feels right with ur toon. You have the right to deny the quests.
Like my rogue does pretty much any dirty job as long as it dosent hurt his tg morag tong or house. I turn down any quest except the main if theres no talk of septims straight up. The main quest I do BC I rp that im honor boumd to finish the job that I agree to that got me outta prison, BC I sure as hell dont wanna go back for not doing what I came here to do lol.

Yeah, I thought Alchemy didn't fit well with my character, so I just forgot it altogether. Then I made another character, an Argonian with Light Armor, Marksman, Spear, Sneak and Alchemy. I liked it very much, and it quickly became my main character. It is strange, but yeah, sometimes the game really does dictate how you are going to play. I'm already in love with Morrowind, even after just 4 or 5 hours of gameplay. It is more complicated, but it also offers a lot more freedom. Thanks for all the replies.