Everything was fine in Morrowind, i managed to survive with using only my spells, no weapon skills. I even played on around +30 difficulty, but when i entered mournhold i was forced to reduce it to default difficulty (0) and i still have problems.

First, its the reflect. Gaenor is impossible but thats normal i guess. Second, in sewers there is so many goblins and my magicka gets depleted very fast (im breton apprentice but have 420 magicka). Every 2-3 goblins i kill, i need to rest. And while i rest they respawn. so it can go on forever.

I can imagine that Bloodmoon will be even harder with reflect and all.

So my question is, is it inevitable to train weapon skills as a pure mage in the Expansions?

peace

Yeah, I had the same experience as you on my mage.

So how did you manage it? peace

I found that Tribunal was harder for ANY play style, I have since decided that even though you can get there at lvl 6 it's better to just wait until you are much higher. As per doing this with a mage, I found Illusion to be much more helpful since if it does get reflected it doesn't have as much of an adverse affect if any at all against you. If you don't mind missing out on kills and such then stealth is always an option. using a decent chameleon and a blind spell if will do pretty well I have found. Frenzy and Calm can also be VERY beneficial if you don't have a lot of health.

I learned long blade.

Gaenor just has a lot of luck; you can even the score by chugging a pile of fortify luck potions (about 800 luck should do it)

As to the reflect, I've always trained marksman as a last resort, and yes, it's even worse in Bloodmoon. I was just having a conversation about this a few days ago on this forum and admitted that I couldn't possibly do a 100% pure mage run through the expansions; basic Morrowind, no problem but Bloodmoon, no way.

Ok, you have a couple options:

1. Absorb Health which when reflected doesn't deal damage, with the Code Patch option disabled (if you use it) because reflect as it is implemented is a stupid gameplay mechanic. Reflect should have been reserved for specific boss fights and other powerful foes not sprinkled around like candy.
2. Be quick on your heal spell hotkey. Good for raising restoration.
3. Edit the spell effects with the construction set to something else like Spell Absorption because, as I said, reflect is stupid. This takes like 30 seconds to do.

Combine one or all of these options with summons for tanks and extra damage as needed.

you can enchant some item to constantly restore your magica, that way you won't need to rest all the time.

I was just talking to someone about this the other day as well, There are ways around the reflect. You could focus on summons and beef them up with some restoration and Alteration spells and let them do the brunt of the work and just throw in a couple of spells to weaken the enemy instead of damaging them outright...such as drain attribute spells disintegrate armor/weapon spells. There are always ways around things like that you just have to think about all your options, and if you are playing a pure mage you should be using all the schools to your advantage as well. Mages are not just about blowing things up with flashy destruction (Elemental) spells, there is a strategy there you just have to find it.

Reflect as a constant effect is pretty [censored] in the first place. I wonder if there's a mod to fix this.
Anyway, absorb health spam or summon spam is the way really.

I think there is one or two at planetelderscrolls. It replaces the reflect on daedra and the reflect in expansions with spell absorbtion


This is exactly what im doing but doesnt help much :/ I think i will have to train some weapon skill, thus my question is it inevitable


But there is no restore magicka spell in the game?

I see... were you also forced to train weapon skills as a pure mage n the expansions?

Yes, as I mentioned, I trained marksman and used a bound bow - very effective.

My bad. I'm so used to having a ton of mods installed that I forgot what spells were in vanilla version.

Nice ! Not only it is weightless and boost your marskman skill by 10, it also fits exatcly on glass greaves !

Pure mage is pretty much broken in vanilla Morrowind. There are plenty of mods to make it work "properly" though - Magika Regen & Levelled Magika are a good place to start, along with Taddeus Casting and an attribute cap remover like Madd Leveller. By the time your Archmage is level 30+ with 150-ish int, Magika in the 800s and Destruction up to around 130, destruction spells in the "tactical nuke" category become perfectly possible (not to mention very satisfying!).

I might actually restart my lvl 30 breton apprentice and install some of the mods you mention ... (and using altmer atronach instead)

magicka regen - do you mean http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=mods.detail&id=4991 or http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=oblivionmods.detail&id=75 ?

Leveled magicka - this one http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=mods.detail&id=1849 ?

taddeus spellcasting - i tried to search here http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=User.EntriesListing&id=465789 but couldnt find it ...

Could you *please* post links to these mods ? Much appreciated

You could also try GCD. If you pick your skills right, a Breton/Apprentice will start with about 250 regenerating magicka which makes for a very powerful start. GCD isn't for everyone, though, because it's a little restrictive on skill development and health increases for balance.

Thanks but I dont like GCD. It is too big and script-heavy plus it favours mages in the way i dont want. I prefer ML much smaller and simpler, and i will try to add a coctail of mods Pete mentioned just need his links but thanks!

Sorry, I was at work earlier so got some of the names wrong from memory.

Right, so here's Pete's guide to building a mage that doesn't svck (and by "svck" I mean "runs out of puff after three spells and has to resort to hitting things with a piece of sharp metal like some sort of common thug". I mean, can you see Gandalf doing that? No, me neither).

It looks like you're already using Madd Leveler so I won't bore you about that one.

Mana Regen:
This pretty much does what it says on the tin, regenerating magicka gradually at a rate relative to the character's Willpower. Nothing like as fast as a potion, but nice and gradually without having to actually stop and sleep. A bit like the "Warmth" skill in Diablo II, if you've ever played that.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=1105


Leveled Magicka:
Increases Magicka in line with character level as well as Intelligence, at 4% extra per level. This has a nice side effect for the player of not tying you just one or two birthsigns, as you'll catch up reasonably fast anyway so you can go back to have The Lady and getting that nice fat endurance buff so you actually have enough life to survive being poked with a pointed stick now and again.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=mods.detail&id=1849


Horatio Spellcasting mod:
This one rocks - it makes spells from a given school of magic cost less to cast as you gain more skill in that school, so that fireball that all but exhausted you as a level 1 mage is barely lifting his little finger for an archmagus. (don't ask me where I got "Taddeus" from...I obviously hadn't had enough coffee at that time this morning - hope you didn't waste too long looking for it by that name!)

http://www.elricm.com/nuke/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=Downloads&file=index&req=viewdownloaddetails&lid=2042


Spell Target Speed Mod:
This makes ranged spells fly slightly faster than arrows, so there'll be no more lazily sidestepping bolts of freaking lightning!

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=1504


These mods are all nice and simple to use and don't conflict with each other (or anything else as far as I know) or need MWSE or anything awkward like that.

HOwEVER, and this is why none of these are the outrageous gamebreakers they might seem at first glance, what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander and these effects are for the benefit of magekind not just one selfish player character, so every mage NPC you encounter also has the same adjustments made.

You will respect the Imperial Guild of Mages. You will run in freaking terror from Great House Telvanni!

Have fun.


Oh, depending how mod-savvy you are as it's a bit of a pain to set up, this one is a pretty-pretty-man-on-fire-screaming spell effect graphic replacer which is huge piles of fun:

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=6196

Thank you very much! It will take me some time to go through this info you so kindly posted. Much appreciated !





Yes




Haha no problem

Pete you run these mods with ML ? You reckon they would not conflict with ML uncapper?

They all work a treat with ML. Levelled Magicka uses the same "Extra blah blah" message over the little icon at the bottom right corner of the screen that ML does in fact, so they may well even use similar scripts. I can't say I've bothered to look to be honest, but it definitely all plays nice together.

These mods are a lot more balanced than ML is though, as NPCs don't benefit from the ML uncapping so for example Diavyth Fyr is a level 60 Sorcerer but only has 100 int (limited by the cap) and his magicka is similarly limited, whereas an ML-using level 30 character with an int of 130-ish will almost certainly have more magicka than him. Bung Levelled Magicka into the mix though and his magicka goes through the roof due to being level 60.

Now you're not supposed to be picking a fight with him anyway, but the same principle means you have to start taking Gothren and Trebonius a lot more seriously from now on. This makes a lot more realism sense to me, given how powerful these guys are supposed to be.

Oh, I never add mods during a running game so whether everything will work properly without starting a new character I don't know - back up your saves first if you want to try that!

Oh i see. But is there the same issue with displaying an effect for each fortification (like Madd spell effects - which i will not use anymore) ?

I mean this issue - http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/8537/screenshot118o.jpg

It made me restart my lvl 30 char, so i hope not.


So to sum up my worries, would you use these mods with or without ML? I only use ML base (3 skill levels = +1 attribute), Madd health (for additional health), and the uncapper (removes the 100 cap from skills and attributes)


I have no worries about that Cant wait!



I will be restarting, no worries