chameleon helps sneaking. get an item or items with about chameleon 50%. morrowind has done justice to chameleon. if the nasties can't detect you when you attack them, they will run from you. in bloodmoon my PC was losing to the werewolves. so i went into sneak mode, backed by chameleon and slowing stalked them. took awhile but i killed them all. if you got the DLC, you might have to change your tactics.

Our hero is currently at level 10. He is a member of Thieves Guild, Great House Hlaalu, Morag Tong, Blades, and Mages Guild. He is also a member of the Fighters Guild, but joined primarily to have easy access to training found there; he will not complete this questline as the Fighters Guild and Thieves Guild are in conflict. Any suggestions as to which of these questlines to work on first?

With Alchemy now at 100, our hero can make as many potions as he wishes, and therefore seems to be making much greater use of magic. With Alteration, Conjuration, Illusion and Mysticism all at 20 or more, he is beginning to experiment with using magic to support his stealthy and death-dealing activities. Making use of the Bound Spear helps keep the encumberance load as light as possible. Does anyone know if bound weapons will hurt ghosts??

Our hero also now treasures his new Daedric longbow, acquired by finding a mine for an influential member of House Hlaalu. Sneak attacks with Daedric bow and steel arrows kill many of the annoying predators that wander the Morrowind countryside. He seems reasonably capable in battle, though he needs more practice and experience than just the starter cave near Seyda Neen.

Adventures await ...

Keep switching to keep your gameplay interesting and versatile. Better get those routine Mages and Thieves Guild quests done early, so that you will have more fun and challenge later on as you evolve on anyway. "Blades" questline basically has most diversity in how hard the quests are. Some at start might be out of the starting character's league at first, some that come later on are more like scouting and delivering stuff. But it generally gets harder all the time though. Not for the very starters I think, but at level 10, you should be fine.

Hlaalu can be pretty challenging, and the same might go with Morag Tong. It depends. Just mix things up. Nothing should be out of your league for now. I just say do those aforementioned Mages and Thieves quests at first. For me they sometimes feel pretty boring and repetative, especially for Mages Guild.



They do. They're Daedric after all.

Have a great adventure with much to do all the time! As certain Caius Cosades will tell you in the near future, have a look at what's behind next ridge. Explore, keep many things going on in the same time. (Although I don't recommend this to the extreme if you don't have Show Active Quests property in your Xbox game's Journal... you might get too confused about who asked to do what.)

Thanks Archmagister! Does that mean Daedric bows hurt ghosts as well (like enchanted bows)? Or more likely, not (probably needs to be the arrows). But one can hope!

I just thought of a min/max question, should anyone know the answer.

For the first 10 levels I made sure to get a +5 for three attributes at every level up. Beginning with Level 11 (our hero's current level) I will add a point to Luck every level. However, I just determined that with two +5's every level that in 28 levels I can have all attributes (except Luck) maxed. In some sense I miscalculated as I had hoped to have Luck maxed by Level 50, and that clearly won't occur -- to do that one must have Luck as a favored attribute *and* add a point to Luck *every* level. Oopsie, but I am not going to restart now.

However, after only 28 more levels, with +5's for every attribute bonus, I can have every attribute maxed at 100 (except the above-mentioned Luck). At this point it would be simple to do. Our hero has more than enough cash to train two Miscellaneous skills by 10 at every level. Level up, train two skills, then play for fun until next level up. Add +5 to the two "chosen" attributes, then rinse-and-repeat. Easy peasy.

If that occurs, will the game prevent you from leveling up?? (In Oblivion I think it would.) The UESP Wiki indicates that maximum level is determined by maxing out all major/minor skills for your character. However, can you still level up even though you are unable to increase three different attributes?

I'm in for the game just for fun - and I'm more of a budding linguist (or, with the most of luck, speech therapist) than anything else so not even academic interest in min/maxing - so can't help you this time other than it's *gasp* about the bow! If the weapon is Daedric, any arrows affect Daedra/undead as well! Which I find kind of stupid. But so it goes.

(I'd still like to know though if maxing every skill, or save 1 or 2, prevents you from leveling up once the maximums are reached. :angel: )

Sorry, but min/max and efficient leveling are total crap. I only use my 10 Major/minor skills and I max attributes just fine by about level 70 without any headaches. If you spend time improving skills that you don’t really need then you are just wasting time that you could use to actually play.
Yes, you can continue to level after you max your attributes. If you are creative, you can continue to level indefinitely.

I may find out. :bolt: :wave:

I agree, 'tis strange about the bow. Certainly, I would hope, enchanted arrows would work with a normal bow. I now also have the Bow of Shadows (see below). I am guessing that will also hurt ghosts, as well. :ph34r:




I won't try to level indefinitely. And my character won't get to level 70 because too many race bonuses were among major/minor skills. But min/maxing is fun for me. It makes leveling up more worthwhile. And our hero uses a number of leveled miscellaneous skills quite regularly, including Athletics, Acrobatics, Medium Armor, Conjuration, Mysticism, Speechcraft, and Mercantile. He will additionally use Block more later in his career when it is higher (and when he has found more lethal Short Blades to use with his shield).


Our hero is now remarkably well-equipped for a character at level 11. He is wearing Assassins Armor that is no longer being worn by you-know-who. He acquired a Daedric Longbow as described in an earlier post. This morning our hero successfully raided the Venim Ancestral Tomb. He went seeking an Orcish Tower Shield rumored to be there (an ugly shield to match his ugly armor), and also found the Bow of Shadows, a weapon so valuable it is considered an artifact. Thankfully our hero had in his possession a scroll which would open a level 100 lock, otherwise his journey might have been in vain. For the near future our hero anticipates journeying without a shortblade or spear, relying upon conjured versions thereof when melee combat is necessary. However, with sneak and marksman above 50, and with two fabulous bows to equip, enemies should fear death from afar. Particularly he has also found a "source" for glass arrows ... .

I am having much more fun questing for gear right now than completing quests in the game. Although our hero has *has* completed the quest for Sheogorath and acquired the Spear of Bitter Mercy, about the only spear in the game that might cause him to retire his conjured daedric spear. After that, he journeyed to Valenvaryon to train conjuration with Abelle Chriditte there. And to purchase a complete Grandmaster alchemy set. What a hike it is to get to her! I had seven skill increases on the way.


"Dress for Success".
It is annoying, in a quite humorous way, to see an NPC wearing the exact same Exquisite Robe that my character is.

A full set of Bound Armor looks absolutely awesome over the Dark Brotherhood armor. Just saying. And it provides my character with Armor of 69. Amazing. I have already used bound weapons and items much more than I ever did in Oblivion. In Morrowind I am an encumbrance miser, very concerned about keeping the load as light as possible because heavier loads slow you down. I think that is why I am making use of bound items much more (that and because they just seem to be better in Morrowind). And keeping inventory as low as possible; when I leave home next time everything in my inventory can be seen on the "All" screen.


Does anyone know if classes of enemies have elemental weaknesses? As in, are Ghosts (for example) weak to fire and immune to frost? More specifically, is there anything that is immune to lightning (in the form of Spark Arrows)?

I have finished my first questline -- the Mages Guild. The benefit of The Atronach will now become more evident -- with the Necromancer's Amulet my character (our hero) now has spell absorption at 75%.


** Does anyone have any opinions on a good CE enchant for this character? **

I have one grand soul/gem. And some exquisite rings. But enchantments are *EXPENSIVE*, so I certainly don't want to waste one. My character has two great enchanted amulets (Necromancer's Amulet and Amulet of Shadows) and some great weapons, but no other enchanted rings or clothing (or armor, for that matter). Any thoughts or suggestions?

The best item in the game to enchant is of course a Daedric Tower Shield found only from random Golden Saints. That wouldn't be very gimmicky, though, I think. Have a minor CE enchantment with an exquisite ring or something; the item only weighs 0.1 units and can take a pretty good amount of mojo into it. CEing good stuff is difficult though, because the CE spells often don't fit the item's enchantment points. How about an Open 100 spell on Touch/Target? I favor those.

Are you aware that there is a relatively easy way to enchant items yourself for free? If you have even moderate skill in alchemy or restoration, you can make a pile of fortify intelligence potions and stack them. With intelligence of about 3000, you can enchant almost anything. Alternatively, you can make just one big enchant purchase and have your enchanter make you a fortify enchant ring. IIRC, you can get 350 enchant for 2 sec on a ring or amulet.

i base my birthsign on my profession. if i plan on using magic a lot, i pick the atronach sign. when i intend not to cast a lot of spells, i go with a different.

magic only regenerates during sleeping. 100 spell points doesn't go very far in the game.

To clarify on the spell absorption, it's one of the few (or only?) effect that doesn't simply add up the various percentages you have. For example, 50% from one item and 25% from another does not equal 75% total. It applies each percentage in series, one at a time. In this case, it first applies 50%, to result in 50% of not absorbing. For that remaining 50% of not absorbing, it will then apply your 25% item. 25% of 50% is only 12.5% of your total. So you therefore only have 62.5% (50% + 12.5%) total chance of absorbing. The only way to get 100%, is to have one single item with 100% spell absorption. And I'm not aware of an item with that superpower.... Atronach is about as good as it gets.

In case my description was confusing, here's how the wiki states it:

"For each active source of this effect, a check is made to see if an incoming spell is absorbed. The check is done on a scale of 100, meaning 1 point equals 1 percent. Unlike Reflect, if you are effected by two spells of 50 point Spell Absorption, the total chance to absorb spells is not 100%. After the initial check of 50%, another check of 50% makes the total chance 75% to absorb."

[edit: grammar]

Of course. I was just talking about that the characters there, in-game, cannot decide their birthsigns. Not even the PC. (S)he's just telling Socius at the start of the game under which sign (s)he was (coincidentally) born; the actual player of the game is the one that decides it. Basically we're just playing Gods to our characters - and why not the others as well if we use TESCS at all. The characters don't have a clue that they're being played or interacted with in a video game - they're just living in their own world and taking it as it comes.

To kmelch/st nickelstew,
I don't know how much more clearer could the Spell Absorption be explained. At least I got it. I knew it beforehand though...

And I haven't heard about any better separate form of Spell Absorption than The Atronach birthsign ability Wombburn is in itself: 50%. I don't know if you need more though, since http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Tribunal:Royal_Signet_Ring#Royal_Signet_Ring pretty much puts the cherry on the cake. Amulet of Shadows the most powerful item in the game? Pshaw!

That is a great idea for a non-thief-ly character! My guy, unfortunately, has Security as a major and so finds himself dropping keys he finds (or is given) on the ground before attempting locks ... just for the practice. :whistling:




Even though I have Alchemy maxed, I have not yet tried to boost Intelligence for purposes of either Alchemy or Enchanting. Perhaps I will soon try.




You know, I knew that at one time, and forgot it. Still, the Necromancer's Amulet has a great batch of CE effects on it, and it will still complement my Atronach birthsign pretty well. But thanks for the clarification!




A CE effect on a ring only gets you 3% Spell Absorption ... a waste of a grand soul. I still like my Amulet of Shadows, though, which is the only piece of jewelry my current character is carrying besides the Necromancer's Amulet. :ph34r: It should prove very helpful when he soon begins the Thieves Guild questline! But I must say, the ring you pointed out is one fine piece of merchandise. :drool:


Thanks all for the responses!