Custom Character Templates - Elder Scrolls: Morrowind
This page contains multiple custom character templates that I have created for Morrowind. I created this page to help new players choose the right skills for the sort of class they'd like to play. Not everyone has the time or patience to do hours of research before starting the game so hopefully this page will give people a decent cookie cutter template for the type of class they want to play.
On this page you'll find a total of 7 different custom characters. I did my best to think up templates for each of the most popular classes in RPGs along with the most powerful classes you can make in Morrowind. My personal choice for the most overpowered classes on this page are Artificer, Warlock and Ranger. All 3 of these classes use cheap ingame mechanics to be OP though -- you may want to play more legitimately.
Each of the templates on this page will have two sections of skills called Changeable and Optional. Changeable skills are Weapon Skills or Armor Skills typically; just because I choose Long Blades or Axes doesn't mean you need to as well. As for the Optional Skills - they're skills that aren't required at all for the class but I chose them because I like them. I call special attention to these two categories of skills because they will give you some leeway when creating your character if you'd like to change a few things up and make it your own.
Changeable Skills: If you don't like the Weapon Skills, Armor skills or whatever else I chose you can swap to a different one -- only if they are listed here
Optional Skills: These are skills I personally chose because I like them. If you do not like them you can choose something else
Artificer
Changeable Skills: Long Blade, Spear, Heavy Armor, Light Armor
Optional Skills: Mysticism
An Artificer is a class from Dungeons and Dragons that specializes in magical items and weapons. This class is arguably the most overpowered class you can play in Morrowind because of the Enchant skill. I've picked skills that allow you to melee if you want to but your main form of damage is going to be through enchanted items.
What makes Enchant so powerful is the fact that any Cast on Use item is instant cast in this game - you're essentially a spell caster with this build except significantly more powerful since you can spam spells. In the time it would take you to cast a single spell an Artificer can unleash 5 - 10 spells. You don't sacrifice quality either for a larger quantity of spells; the spells you cast will be just as powerful as someone who specializes in Destruction magic.
There are a couple of large downsides to this build though. The first of which is you won't be able to create the items you need with Enchant for awhile and once you can make the items you'll constantly have to refill them until you max out Enchanting. Until you can reach these milestones you'll have to focus on your sword and board to carry you - which isn't the worst.
Once you max out Enchant I strongly recommend creating an item that has a Constant Effect +10 Fortify Enchant buff. The reason for this is with 110 Enchant every time you use a Cast on Use item it'll only cost 1 charge. This will help you deal with the other biggest downside of this build, constantly recharging your items.
That's pretty much all there is to it. You're free to choose whatever Weapon Skills you'd like to use and you don't have to choose both Light Armor and Heavy Armor like I did. I chose both Light and Heavy armor because for the first half of the game I used Light Armor but once I got higher level and was able to make Feather Potions I switched to Heavy Armor.
Note: In order to have a 100% success rate when enchanting items you'll need to either do the Morrowind Alchemy Exploit for massive amounts of Intelligence. Your other option is to make a Cast on Use item which buffs your Enchant by +200 for a couple of seconds. 2 or 3 seconds will work just fine, that's all you need. Use the item to buff yourself then immediately open your Inventory - the buff won't tick down and you'll have plenty of time to create the item you want.
Paladin
Changeable Skills: Axe, Long Blade - pick whatever weapon type you want
Optional Skills: Acrobatics and Athletics
The Paladin class is a combination of a healer and fighter; they wear Heavy Armor and carry a shield but can also cast a wide range of spells to assist them outside of battle. If you're looking for a durable and versatile class that can take down the majority of enemies without much of an issue this is probably the one for you.
When I think of Paladin I typically think of a class that specializes in survivability over damage and that's the same approach I took when I designed this one. If you'd like to play a more damage oriented melee fighter try the Warrior or Rogue classes on this page instead.
Paladins specialize in Restoration magic so that they can heal themselves during and inbetween battles. I've also selected most magics as a Minor specialization for them since they'll need to cast a wide variety of spells for utility purposes. Illusion is for invisibility, Alteration is for opening locks, water walking, water breathing and a bunch more utility then you have Mysticism which is mostly for teleportation.
Out of all the classes on this page I would argue that the Paladin is by far the most noob friendly. You'll have no issue standing toe to toe with even the toughest enemies in the game and you will learn both melee and magics from playing this class since he has both specialized. I'd also definitely recommend you choose Redguard as your race for this class. They come with higher than normal Long Blade which will give you a substantial edge early on in the game.
Mage
Changeable Skills: Change to The Mage Birthsign if you don't want to deal with Atronach
Optional Skills: Enchant, Alchemy
Mages are typically regarded as the weakest class in Morrowind because of how crappy Destruction is in this game. To make matters worse, many high level enemies like Golden Saints come with Spell Reflect. If you're hellbent on playing a mage like class I would actually recommend the Warlock or Artificer templates on this page. Both of them cast spells but are built better than a pure mage class like this one.
With all that said, this class is still completely functional and as you level up it becomes much more powerful. During the first dozen or so levels I recommend you focus mainly on raising your weapon skill and letting Destruction take a back seat. The reason for this is if you start out with Destruction right away you're going to be constantly out of mana and it's going to be very unenjoyable.
Another reason you want a high level weapon skill is to deal with enemies that have spell reflect. There are many regular enemies and bosses that come with spell reflect and it's going to be the most annoying part of playing a mage since you won't always be able to avoid enemies like this.
The third way that you can deal damage as a mage is with Mysticism and Absorb Health. Drain Health, the Destruction ability, just lowers the target's overall health and isn't very helpful in terms of dealing damage. Absorb Health is the spell that damages your opponent's health and heals you for the damage caused. You'll still run into the same issue with spell reflect enemies though and casting this spell - so keep that in mind.
If you're having trouble with keeping your Magicka up in this game I would recommend using the Alchemy Exploit to make extremely powerful potions. You can either keep and use the massive Intelligence potions which will give you pretty much unlimited Mana or you can vendor them and purchase regular potions that will restore a couple hundred Mana when you drink it.
There are other tips and tricks for restoring your Magicka easily all of which are listed on UESP. I realize the Alchemy Exploit and other 'cheap' methods may not appeal to everyone in which case you'll need to always be stocked up on the appropriate Magicka potions for your character. During the early levels before you start making a lot of money you won't be able to keep up with the septim cost of so many potions.
Struggling during the early levels will be a reoccuring theme for the mage which is why I do not recommend this class for beginners.
Ranger
Changeable Skills: Short Blade, Medium Armor
Optional Skills: Alchemy, Medium Armor, Illusion, Enchant
The Ranger is one of my favorite classes in games so I decided to recreate one in Morrowind. Much like with the Warlock class I have designed this class around the use of a common in game exploit that allows you to have a permanent pet. I talk about how to do this exploit indepth in my Golden Saint Farming Guide.
Using the aforementioned exploit isn't required but it gives you a much more realistic gameplay experience in my opinion. In every game that I have played a Ranger gets a permanent pet - in Morrowind there is no such thing as a permanent pet without using some form of exploit. You can make pets that last for 1 - 3 minutes depending on your skill level and depending on what spell you're casting but that's about it.
Note: If you don't plan on using the exploit to give yourself a permanent pet I strongly recommend you choose Conjuration as either a Minor or Major skill.
Aside from a pet your main form of dealing damage will be with a bow. If you've never used Marksman in Morrowind before I strongly recommend you pick a melee weapon skill to go with it, Short Blade is the most 'lore' friendly if you ask me for a Ranger but you can pick whatever you want. The reason I recommend you pick a melee weapon skill too is because ranged combat in Morrowind is very lackluster and there's a good chance you will probably change your mind about using it if you don't already know what to expect going into it.
There are a few skills I chose that you could swap out if desired. Illusion isn't neccessary if you decide to get Amulet of Shadows or some other item that can give you Chameleon. Chameleon is different from Invisibility because with Chameleon you can still steal objects/open doors and interact with the world. This is important for some of the quests in this game.
Medium Armor isn't neccessary either, in fact it's the worst armor skill in the game - but I enjoy using it on some characters and it fits well for Rangers in my opinion. Alchemy I use all the time on almost all of my characters because you can make very powerful Feather potions that allow you to ignore weight entirely -- but you can drop it on the Ranger if it isn't your cup of tea.
Rogue
Changeable Skills: Short Blade
Optional Skills: Enchant, Marksman, Speechcraft
I've designed the Rogue class in this game to use Light Armor as well as Short Blades and Marksman (Bows). You can technically swap out Short Blade for whatever weapon skill you want, I chose Short Blade since I felt it better fit a Rogue. Also for this class instead of Illusion and Alteration magic to hide yourself and open locks you'll be using Sneak and Security.
There are no 'special backstab' sort of moves in Morrowind for Rogues and Sneak is insanely inferior to Illusion magic. It isn't hard to cast a 100% Chameleon buff which is effectively a perfect Sneak if you have an Illusion skill of 40 - 60 (which you can pretty easily train up to). What I am trying to say is in Morrowind Rogues are nonexistent. You can make a Rogue-like build, such as this one, but there is no benefit to being a 'Rogue' in Morrowind.
Unless you are playing with max difficulty in Morrowind you'll be fine with really any combination of skills - you don't have to worry about min maxing and getting the best results. So if you want to play as a Rogue and RP being a Rogue don't let my warning stop you.
With all that out of the way, there are 3 skills I picked which you can switch around if you want. They are Enchant, Marksman and Speechcraft. Marksman is typically best used to engage enemies or to kite around enemies that are beating you up too much to handle in melee. Enchant is one of the best end game skills you can get in Morrowind since you can make the best items in the game with it.
Speechcraft is a subpar skill and difficult to raise which makes leveling up your character harder since raising Minor and Major skills is the way to level up in this game. However, it's somewhat useful for a Rogue since we will need to 'Taunt' some enemies into attacking us and bribe enemies to raise their disposition.
The higher your Speechcraft the more successful you'll be with bribing and taunting enemies, both things you'll need to do throughout the game. Even without Speechcraft you'll still be able to do these things but taking the skill as a Minor will give you an increase at the start of the game which is helpful. If you would prefer to try out any other skill that I didn't choose you can feel free to replace it with Speechcraft.
Warlock
Changeable Skills: Blunt Weapons (pick whatever weapon skill you want)
Optional Skills: Alchemy, Restoration, Alteration
Note: Change from the Atronach Birthsign to The Mage if you want to regenerate mana while resting.
Another name for this class could be Summoner because it's essentially a spell caster who uses pets to aid them in combat. In order to play this class the way I designed it you will need to use an exploit that allows any pet you summon to be permanent. I talk about how to do this exploit indepth in my Golden Saint Farming Guide.
Using the aforementioned exploit isn't required but it gives you a much more realistic gameplay experience in my opinion. In every game that I have played Warlocks get permanent pets - in Morrowind there is no such thing as a permanent pet without using some form of exploit. You can make pets that last for 1 - 3 minutes depending on your skill level and depending on what spell you're casting but that's about it.
I've chosen both Destruction and Mysticism for this class which will give you some versatility in how you can deal damage as well. If you want to blow stuff up with Destruction spells you can or if you'd like to drain your target's life with Absorb Health that's an option for you too. Since we're a Warlock I feel that Absorb Health is more fitting for our class; Absorb Health works basically like a drain life spell - it steals HP from the enemy and gives it to you.
There is a Destruction spell named Drain Life but that only lowers the total HP of the target - which is effectively useless if you ask me. We're also able to cast Absorb Magicka too which is a very helpful way of replenishing mana early in the game before you become rich and can afford massive amounts of potions.
For the enemies that have spell reflect you will need to depend on your pet or pick a weapon skill that you want to use. I'd personally recommend you pick a weapon skill to use for your character because even with the permanent exploit pets are more of a meme in this game than anything reliable.
Warrior
Changeable Skills: Long Blade, Axes
Optional Skills: Restoration, Mysticism, Alchemy
Warriors are a pretty self explanatory class so I won't dive into the details about them. If you'd like to use a different weapon skill than Long Blade or Axe feel free to pick whatever one you'd like. Alchemy, Enchant and Restoration aren't required for this build either but I couldn't think of anything better to pick.
Alchemy is one of the most useful skills to pick because potions in Morrowind are super OP and always useful. Since we're a Heavy Armor user I never leave town without a stock of Feather potions in my inventory; without Feather potions you'll be spending a lot of time running back and forth between vendors. You will also need Alchemy for the Morrowind Alchemy Exploit if you plan to Enchant your own powerful items.
Having both Enchant and Restoration is a bit overkill but I use both of them to keep myself alive. Restoration is useful early game before you can start making powerful Cast on Use items with Enchant... Once you can make powerful items to heal yourself you'll probably stop using Restoration as much.
If you'd like to play a Warrior that does no casting at all I would recommend replacing the magic skills I chose with Security and Armorer. Security is very important because you're still going to need to open a lot of locks. Armorer is a skill that will be easy to level up which will help you level up faster.
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