I'm new to Morrowind and I'm planning my first character. I know there are a lot of threads like this one, but I didn't want to intervene into someone else's thread and ask for attention.

Is this a good character build for a thief like character who uses magic too? Or will she be weak?

Race: Dunmer
Birthsign: The Lady
Class: Custom
Major skills: Illusion, Sneak, Alteration, Short Blade, Marksman
Minor skils: Mercantile, Speech, Light Armor, Alchemy, Security
Specialization: Stealth
Attributes: Agility, Willpower

That looks like it would work fine, at least to me. Just a couple notes:

- You might end up a little light on magicka because of a low intelligence and no magicka multiplier, but since you're indicating that the magic use is going to be secondary that probably won't end up being too much of a problem.
- Having Destruction as a major skill, when you already have a ranged and melee weapon skill, is a bit redundant. I'd recommend replacing either it or Marksman with Illusion, depending on your preference.

I agree with Maccabeus. That's a pretty powerful character, but you would get much more use out of illusion than with both destruction and marksman.

And you will run out of magicka fast with that build, so always have magicka potions equipped. I suggest getting rid of Athletics and replacing it with alchemy.

All athletics really does as a major or minor skill is make your character level-up ridiculously quickly. It doesn't really need the boost.

Thanks guys. I did a good thing asking for your advice.

The Lady, don't see that sign often.

I'd probably drop Restoration for something more stealthy, like Security. Though that's just from an RP standpoint, as I don't see a Thief/Mage using healing magic.

One of my favorite characters was a pure thief, but had one skill replaced with Enchant. This thief was greedy for enchanted things, and stole every single ring, amulet, belt, and pair of pants in the land. If it had shiny lights, it was stolen. In combat he had so many tricks up his sleeve that he seemed like a mage, throwing fireballs and shock balls and poison and using levitation and chameleon and every other enchanted thing he had up his sleeves. Always carried around a dozen or more rings and amulets for all sorts of situations.

I thought that since I had alteration, security wouldn't be necessary. But maybe I could add it in case I run out of Magicka.

Open and lock spells aren't terribly expensive, so you could probably get away with just Alteration under most circumstances, plus you'd have access to other useful utility spells like water breathing and such; on the other hand, Security would also give the ability to deal with traps, which Alteration can't do. Unless you want to switch out Alchemy for Security instead, that could be a legitimate choice. Or Restoration, since Alchemy could cover most of the things you'd use that for. Or you could just try to level Security on its own without taking it as a class skill, though that can be rather tedious. That's the nice thing and the tricky thing about this game at the same time, there's certainly plenty of choices.

I changed Restoration with Security. I think it's good actually. The more choices I have to make the more free-willed I feel. I can't wait to play Morrowind.

i say go with alteration. its a nice utility to have.

i bolded that line, because security has no bearing at all on traps. i mean yeah, you'd have to carry some probes, but even the most security impaired nord can disarm a trap in a few attempts with a probe.

Ok, here's what I think in regards to security vs. alteration.

You can get Ondusi's Open Door at level one for cheap, so that's all locks up to 50 points that you can open from the start. There are enough Elkash's lock-splitter scrolls lying around that, with a little effort, you can be opening all locks, pretty early-on, without even improving your learned open-lock spell. Also, as a mage, learning resist magicka will protect you against traps, so you don't even need probes.

Plus, with alteration, you get water breathing, water walking and shield, which are all very useful for a magick-user, because you will have low endurance and speed.

I generally only make security a major or minor when I play a non-magick character.

There is also the option to play the Atronach, then you wan't the trap spell blow up in your face since it will make you refill your magicka. It will also give you a humungous magicka reserve.