Creating A New Character Guide - Elder Scrolls Morrowind
When you first start out in Morrowind you will be tasked with creating a character and choosing which Minor and Major skills you'd like to have. Even if you know absolutely nothing about this game it's typically recommended you do not pick one of the custom classes available because all of the custom classes are crap.
The first thing you need to figure out is what sort of character you'd like to play. If this is your first time playing Morrowind I would recommend you do not play a Mage as they're the weakest class by far in the game. Also, unlike in Skyrim and Oblivion the Marksman skill (aka Archers) are not very powerful either. Furthermore there are very few end game Bows for you to choose from if you go the Marksman route.
Usually most players recommend you start out as a melee character who specializes in Long Blades and Light or Heavy Armor. You'll also want to use some magic too for utility purposes, opening locks (Alteration), teleportation (Mysticism), healing yourself (Restoration). Mysticism along with Alteration and Restoration are the most commonly used magics with Illusion in 4th place and Conjuration in 5th. Don't bother with Destruction unless you want to be a mage.
It's up to you which magics you'd like to specialize in; I personally almost always choose Mysticism as a Minor or Major skill. Depending on the sort of character I am going for I often choose Alteration and Restoration as Minor skills. If you don't plan on using Cast on Use items to heal yourself you'll definitely want Restoration.
Keep in mind that you do not need to Major or Minor in a skill to use it. The only purposes of selecting a skill for the Major and Minor categories is that you'll get a boost to them at the start of the game and leveling them up will count towards your character's level. An example is if you choose Acrobatics as a Major or Minor then you can legitimately level your character by doing nothing but jumping around.
Morrowind has a rather unique leveling system, every time you raise any of the skills that you've selected as your Major or Minor you'll be eligible for a level up. You need a total of 10 skill ups per level up and the skill ups are cumulative across all of your skills. What I mean is if you major in Heavy Armor, Long Swords and Block then during a fight you raise each 3 times you'll be 9/10ths of the way to a level up. Since you spend so much time running around at the start of the game this is why many people take Acrobatics and Athletics.
Taking Athletics as a Major or Minor helps you with the horribly slow movement speed at the start of the game with the skill boost. It also means that all your running around will help level your character up. Many people take Acrobatics for a similar reason -- I personally love jump in Morrowind and how when you max out Acrobatics you can basically run and jump places 100x faster than you can walk there.
Below you will find a list of every skill in Morrowind as well as a little bit of useful information about that skill. If you're someone who doesn't feel like thinkin' and just wants someone to tell them what skills are good and which aren't - use my templates. Since I believe the templates will be in popular demand for this game I have given them their own page on my website too! Morrowind Character Templates
Armor Skills
Unarmored: This armor skill is only recommended for casters and ranged characters. Even then most caster builds typically utilize Light Armor instead of Unarmored. I'd only recommend this for more advanced players who are familiar with the game.
Light Armor: Most people who play Morrowind consider this to be the best armor skill in the game. Light Armor is the lightest of all armors in the game (duh) and it offers you nearly the same protection as Medium Armor. If you're playing an Archer, a Rogue or really any character except a heavy armor user like a Warrior... You'll probably want to choose Light Armor.
Medium Armor: By far the worst armor skill in Morrowind for two main reasons. The first is, Light Armor offers you nearly the same level of protection as Medium Armor -- but Medium Armor weighs more. The second main reason is that there are not many high-end Medium Armor sets in the game. All of the best Medium Armor sets were added in the game during the Tribunal and Bloodmoon Expansion Packs.
Heavy Armor: If you're looking to play the traditional sword and board tank type of character then this is the best set of armor for you. Heavy Armor offers the highest Armor Rating in the game along with the highest Enchantment Values on each piece of gear (if you plan to enchant gear this is a good thing). As the name suggests, the biggest draw back is it's very heavy.
Weapon Skills
Spear: Out of all the available weapon skills in Morrowind this one has the lowest selection of available weapons since there are only 2 end game spears in the game. I would only recommend this weapon skill to experienced players who have already planned out their character and know about this before hand.
Axe: I'd recommend this weapon skill to anyone who is playing a race that starts with +Skill in Axes or anyone who likes Axes and wants to use them. As far as weapon variety goes there are a little over half a dozen different unique end game Axes in Morrowind; this is about average in terms of end game weapons.
Blunt Weapon: Much like with Axes I recommend this skill to anyone playing a race that starts with +Skills in Blunt Weapons or anyone who likes Maces/Hammers and wants to use them. There are a little over half a dozen end game unique Maces and Hammers in Morrowind which is about average in terms of end game weapon variety. It's worth mentioning though, one of the main end game weapons of Morrowind is Sunder which is a mace.
Long Blade: This is the most popular weapon skill in Morrowind because there are about 2 dozen unique end game long blades to choose from. There are far, far more Long Blades than any other weapon type in Morrowind. If you'd like a very large variety of weapons to choose from this is definitely the skill you'll want to choose.
Short Blade: Short Blades are the second most plentiful weapon type in Morrowind and are a good pick for anyone who is playing a melee character that isn't a tank and spank Warrior type. One of Morrowind's best weapons, Keening, is also a Short Blade. Though it's worth mentioning that much like Sunder you'll need to have Heavy Armor gloves, Wraithguard equipped to use the weapon.
Marksman: All ranged weapons (Bows, Throwing Weapons and Crossbows) fall into the Marksman category in Morrowind. There is not a good variety of weapons to choose from if you plan on being a Marksman character in this game and there are only 1 end game Bows for you to find. I'd recommend that if you plan to go this route you'll absolutely want to get Enchanting too that way you can make your own powerful weapon.
Hand-to-Hand: This weapon skill is solely for fisticuffs. In Morrowind there are no fist weapons so keep that in mind. Also, dealing damage with your fists in Morrowind does not damage health - it damages fatigue... At least until the opponent reaches 0 Fatigue and gets knocked down at which point it damages health instead. I don't recommend you use fists in Morrowind for this reason, the only time you'll ever want to use your fists is when fighting an enemy that you can not (or don't want to) kill for a quest.
Magic Skills
Illusion: With Illusion magic you'll be able to turn yourself invisible or give yourself Chameleon which works similarly to Sneak. You can also cast Frenzy Humanoid with this magic skill which will provoke almost any enemy in the game into attacking you first, allowing you to avoid any criminal penalty. You can find or create an amulet like the Amulet of Shadows for Chameleon and you can use the ingame 'Taunt' dialogue option to achieve the same effect as Frenzy Humanoid. This makes Illusion magic one of the less useful schools of magic in the game.
Conjuration: You can summon bound weapons with Conjuration as well as a variety of creatures that can assist you in combat. None of the creatures you summon are permanent unless you use a glitch and the bound weapons become a lot less powerful once you get out of the noobie levels. Conjuration also allows you to use 'Command Creature' and 'Command Humanoid' - both are spells that will allow you to control a target of your choice. You can use this spell to move certain NPCs like the Mudcrab Merchant or Creeper to different locations in the world. It's situationally useful but not worth choosing as a Minor or Major.
Alteration: This is probably the best school of magic in terms of utility. Everything from opening locks, walking on water, breathing underwater, Levitate and buffing your Jump skill all fall under Alteration. You can still do all of these things even if you don't choose Alteration as a Minor or Major don't forget. That said, any character you plan to primarily use magic with, I would recommend getting Alteration.
Destruction: In Morrowind Destruction is the main school of magic that deals damage to enemies. Unless you're playing a mage you shouldn't ever specialize in this skill. Also it's worth noting that mages in Morrowind are one of the worst classes to play because a lot of enemies have spell reflect and Destruction magic doesn't deal all that much damage.
Mysticism: Much like with Alteration, Mysticism is a very useful utility magic in Morrowind. All of the teleportation spells in Morrowind use Mysticism and unless you're a mage they're most likely the spells you'll be casting most often. I end up choosing Mysticism on almost all of my characters as a Minor skill because it's pretty easy to raise and the bonus skill points for it being a Minor skill help a lot at the start of the game.
Restoration: All of the healing magic and buffing magic in this game falls into the Restoration category. If you plan to buff yourself, heal yourself inbetween fights, cure yourself of Diseases or restore any attributes that have been debuffed - Restoration magic is what you will be using to do it. This is one of the more useful magics you can get on your character and I recommend you pick it up if you are looking for another skill to choose as your Minor or Major.
Other Skills
Armorer: Do not get this skill. All Armorer does is allow you to repair your armor and weapons on the fly with hammers and other tools.... You save a very minor amount of money doing this so it's not really worth it overall -- even if you do want to repair your armor on the fly (like I do) you don't even need this skill to do it.
Block: Blocking is automatic in Morrowind and there is no way to do it manually. I see this question asked a lot so I figured I would put a disclaimer here so everyone knows what they're getting into with this skill. With that said, the general advice for this skill I see online is to not get it. Even if you plan to still use shields there are still better skills to pick for Majors and Minors.
Acrobatics: Morrowind is unique and it's probably the only Elder Scrolls game where you'll definitely want to grab Acrobatics as either a Major or Minor skill. The reason you'll want to pick this skill is twofold, the first is because jump in this game is insanely overpowered once you raise it high enough. The second reason is you can level up easier by spamming jump everywhere you go.
Athletics: The Athletics skill in Morrowind determines your movement speed. I highly recommend you get this skill as a Major or Minor because the early game stat boost helps and having this skill as a Major or Minor means it will count towards your level ups. During early game it's nice to have running from place to place help level you up - you can also leave your game on for one night while auto running into a wall if you'd like to level you and your skill up.
Sneak: If you don't plan on using magic or an item with a cast on use Chameleon then you'll need a method of concealing your presence - get sneak. Some people get this skill and play Rogues in Morrowind but I honestly would still recommend magic over the Sneak skill. Unless you want a role playing sort of experience or you're attached to the idea of Sneaking I would recommend alternative methods in this game.
Mercantile: The Mercantile skill helps you get better prices when selling or buying at a merchant and will increase your success rate when haggling. While this skill may sound good - there are far too many ways to get very easy money in Morrowind and most NPCs don't have the gold to buy all of your loot anyway. Having Mercantile also gives you less control over your level ups -- since you can't really sit down and grind this skill I personally don't recommend this one.
Speechcraft: Speechcraft is the skill that governs the 4 different methods of persuasion in Morrowind. Admire, Intimidate, Taunt and Bribe are the 4 options you will get when interacting with most NPCs in the game and the success or fail rate is dependent on your Speechcraft. The only time I would recommend you get this skill is if you plan on not using any magic at all. For some quests you will need to taunt NPCs into attacking you that way you can avoid any criminal penalty, if they attack you first it's counted as self defense. Speechcraft will be your only method of doing without any magic.
Alchemy: Alchemy is the most over powered skill that you can select in Morrowind because there is no limit to how powerful of potions you can make. It's very possible (and easy) to break the game with Alchemy.
Enchant: In Morrowind you can put your own enchants on both weapons and armor with this skill. While there are many powerful weapons and gear you can find in Morrowind the best items will always be ones that you make yourself with Enchant.
Security: This skill is the lock picking skill in Morrowind - if you don't plan on using spells to open locks then you'll definitely need to get this skill.
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