I've been reading a lot of the classic Sword & Sorcery fantasy lately (Fritz Lieber, R.E. Howard), and craving a character in that style to explore Morrowind.

It occurs to me that S&S is actually a great fit for TES games, especially if your character avoids the main quest (and major questlines). The base assumption for the games seems to be delving into caves and ruins in search of treasure.

In that vein, I'm picturing a stealth/combat character - a treasure hunter, a thief, motivated by greed and a perverse sense of adventure. Because there's no 'party' system in Morrowind, he'll need to be able to deal with some combat himself, but I want to retain a gritty feel to his adventures, so that running away is a sensible option and backstabbing the best way to get through un-sneak-by-able foes. That will mean keeping health and/or defenses deliberately low, and avoiding overpowered gear. I'd especially like advice on how to achieve this goal of feeling somewhat fragile and threatened.

Secondly, wealth/economy can be an issue in vanilla Morrowind. There's not too much to spend money on (I prefer not to buy training, as I like 'earning' my skill advancements), and you can get rich very quickly. I've often thought it funny that thieves, whose skills are designed to accumulate wealth, need it the least of any class (warriors need gear, mages need spells). So how do you keep your thieves/treasure hunters 'in business', rather than sailing off to retire like some guildmasters I know? Are there any mods that make the economy more suitable to a roguish gameplay, or do you simply devise other motivations to keep your thieves greedy for more?

I tend to favor the human races aesthetically. I'm thinking of either Imperial or Breton. Really, though, this could be anything - I'm more interested in a compelling story than finding the perfect mechanics. I guess right now I'm leaning toward a young Breton who has forsaken his peoples' traditional skills in the arcane arts and instead gone down a path of thievery.

As for skills, maybe something like the following:

Major:

Short Blade

Marksman (the plan is to restrict this to throwing weapons, for fun & variety. Is there any way to increase the odds that I'll recover a thrown weapon from a fallen foe?)

Sneak

Security

Acrobatics

Minor:

Athletics

...

...

...

...

Possibilities include Mercantile, Speechcraft, Light Armor, Unarmored... not really sure, to be honest. Taking Mercantile would fit the concept, but I'd worry about getting rich too quickly. Speechcraft also fits, but I'm never really satisfied with how it works mechanically. I figure I'll end up wearing some mix of regular clothes and light armor anyway; not sure if I need (or want) those skills, especially if I want to keep things challenging.

tl;dr -

1. How would you suggest advancing/building my roguish character in order to keep combat challenging? I don't want to end up having him play like any other warrior.

2. How (via mods or otherwise) would you suggest approaching the 'problem' of the vanilla economy, which ends up making players rich quickly and thus removes one incentive to adventure?

3. Any suggestions in terms of skills for a solo rogue/adventurer?

Regarding mods that make it harder to get rich, there are three I have researched in the past, but I don't use any, since they all have side effects I didn't like.

First, there is Piratelords mod: http://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/42124/? As I reread the description, it sounds pretty good and I cannot remember the specific reason I don't use it. I think there is a comment in the readme that gave me pause, so read the readme carefully before installing to make sure it's what you want.

http://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/42124/?

The other two economy mods are actually different versions of the same mod, one of which was edited by BTB. Hotfusion's Economy Adjuster. I used it briefly and it does a good job of keeping you poor but it also makes it nearly impossible to use speech craft without first paying to train it into the stratosphere. That's the reason I don't use either of these.

BTB's site is worth the read for some good humor about use of nekkid mods, but I won't link it since I dond know if I would get in trouble for linking "advlt" content. Easy to find BTBs site with Google.

I never could find an economy mod I was completely satisfied with, so I don't use one and just exercise some self control about what my characters loot and where and how they sell it. I find that with self control and roleplayer, you can just avoid most of Morrowinds little loopholes and exploits and I don't need mods to close them.

As far as keeping your character weak, just don't use or train spears, medium armor or heavy armor and your character will remain pretty weak for a long time.

Good luck, sounds like a fun build.

If your char is a Breton rogue, he/she might still focus on either conjuration or mysticism. IIRC, Bretons are naturally adept in those skills. Conjuration has the bound armor/weapon spells and are low cost (6 pts or so) for a 1 minute spell). Mysticism spells useful to a thief would be telekinesis, detection, intervention, mark/recall and possibly the absorbtion spells. FWIW, there's a mod that changes the bound armor spells to add specifically to light, medium or heavy armor when in effect. IIRC, in vanilla MW, the bound armor adds 10 pts to heavy armor.

I'd suggest not depending upon recovering thrown weapons after a fight. My experience is that, yes, you may get one or two afterwards from your foe's body, but that the game engine at times has problems with them in your inventory. As a general rule for my games, I no longer loot arrows or darts from the bodies of those I've killed that way; it just seems to mess up the game engine too often for my tastes.

If you stick with using darts, you might also think about block because the darts are one handed weapons such that your other hand is free so that you could stretch the envelope and justify using some type of light shield in tight spaces.

Armorer could be justified as a skill, especially if you think your char will be on extended trips away from the services of a smith. You're still going to need sharp weapons and sturdy armor as you go adventuring. An advantage too is that it contributes to strength, which I think is always useful.

Re: getting rich too quick, I wouldn't sweat it. At worst, build your char's story in a way that he disdains accumulating gold. Maybe a MW Robin Hood? Or perhaps a pious thief who gives away 90% of the cash he makes from selling the loot. Or figures that he's better off as a thief to spend the cash on food, spirits and equipment and get rid of any excess as quickly as possible. Or maybe he's contemptous of those he steals from such that he doesn't want to take the loot he could because that would just make him more like them. Or maybe he's a finicky thief who only wants one type of loot, for example, jewels or weapons or armor.

1. Like Turija said, keeping the endurance down should keep the challenge up.

2. That's a tough one. If you use a mod to give merchants a decent mercantile skill and stay away from the soul gem market, you should be able to avoid becoming instantly rich.

3. Fixing your gear on the field might be interesting, especially since short blades and light armors don't have much durability. So Armorer would be my suggestion.

Right, I forget that Armorer works up Strength in Morrowind. I'm used to it doing Endurance, a la Oblivion. That is a good option.

My last long-term roguish character was actually the first one I really played in MW - it was a default Acrobat class, which was a lot of fun. I used spears a lot, partly for the novelty of it, and found them great weapons - but yeah, that's not what I'm going for here. I'll also stay away from the heavier armor types.

Good points regarding self-control and the economy.

Any other recommendations for a rogue playthrough? I just started using a lighting mod for Skyrim and love how that changes dungeon exploration.... are there any mods for MW that make dungeons darker?