Sorry if this is the wrong section, but I have recently started a new morrowind game after not playing it for a long time. I have made it to the point where you must go, find, and take the dwemer puzzle box back to the guy at the fighters guild. I am having issues with the enemies at the dwemer ruins. I had a lot of trouble beating the guy on the old dwemer bridge, the guy who keeps summoning the skeleton. I finally beat him just to have three CliffRacers waiting at the end of the bridge. I cannot beat any of them, as my attacks always miss, well mostly cause I only hit like 1/20 of the time when I'm as close as you can get to them. I also tried some spells, but those only make my hands glow red and then nothing happens, not even the failed spell message. I am currently playing an Argonian who usually uses a spear. I tried both a Iron Halberd and a longsword against them and still, really no damage. Any tips or hints on how to fight better, or atleast fight better against those evil CliffRacers?

Whats Your skills in your weapons

And some hints

Dont try and attack things when you have low fatigue (green bar), because it looks like you have used a lot of energy killing that guy in the iron armor, so when you go to fight the cliff racers your tired and cant fight as well.

Also if all else fails run away to town and wait until the cliff racers go away, 3 is a lot for a low level

As archery for my major, I really haven't had too many issues fighting cliff racers. If you like using spears, level the skill up. I believe this doesn't increase how much damage you deal but the percent chance of the attack actually hitting. Try practicing on those Nix-hounds to the south of Balmora.

as weapons skills get better 50, 75, fatigue becomes less of an issue in hitting. until then bring fatigue potions along.

If you're not doing much damage, then perhaps you're spamming the attack button without drawing the weapon back far enough to get a good swing. That can work well for daggers, which have a decent "minimum" damage, but not very well for other weapons that have a big difference between their minimums and maximums.

Another thing is the "style" of attack. Depending on the weapon you use, some have a higher "stab" damage, others have a higher "chop", and still others have a better "slash" effect. If you use the menu option for "best attack", you won't have to worry about your character struggling futilely to chop with a spear or stab with an axe. If you enjoy controlling it yourself, then keep it on "normal".

Note that the asker said he just won't hit. I don't know how much holding the mouse button (= the power behind the hit; the longer, the closer to the weapon's maximum) will affect to hit rate, actually, but it seems that you shouldn't miss 19 from 20, especially if you use a halberd and made Spear a major skill in the beginning of the game, especially with an Argonian's +5 bonus to it. If still so, you just have a very low fatigue. I think everything else is clear except

- what's your weapon skill on Spear and Long Blade? Those govern your Halberd and Long Sword/Blade use, respectively. If they're very low (=you didn't choose them as major skills), you won't hit anything with them.

- how low is your fatigue (green bar, bottom left corner)? If you don't have a spell/potion/etc. to restore it, you can stand still, walk or sleep for it to restore. Running and fighting always bring fatigue to zero instantly, and so you cannot hit anything anymore in lower levels.

- are you sure you're using "(X feet) On Target" spells? It sounds to me that your spells work, but they're "On Touch" spells, meaning you can only hit enemies when you're skin-against-skin with them. On Touch spells usually don't hit Cliff Racers even if they were very close; they still might not be close enough since they hit almost like a spear, from a certain distance anyway.

When I first started, I also had a hard time hitting Cliff Racers. I do not remember which NPC it was, but one of them said to aim for the base of the tail, where it is connected to the body. Worked like a charm, and no more trouble landing blows for me.