I just bought the game recently and I'm wondering if anyone has some tips for starting out without any spoilers (at least major ones). I have a Wood Elf Thief who is now lvl. 5. I've met Caius Cosades as I've been told and been given the first quest (which currently baffles me, some spoilers on that might be helpful however. I found the place that the contact told me to go to but I don't know anymore than that). I've done a couple of the Balmora Thieve's Guild quests (I'm a footpad now). Is there anything I should know starting out? Should I start over with a new character that may be easier to play or level up since that seems to take forever? What weapon/armor types should I use? How can I as a none spellcasting class get my skills up in magic schools in a semi-reasonable fashion so I can actually have a chance to cast the spells of more than 13%?

Thanks for any tips!
-Jafin

[ 11-05-2003, 03:24 AM: Message edited by: Jafin ]

Here are a few findings of another newbie in Morrowind [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

1. Morrowind is a fight. Be sure that you will face dangerous (at least at low character level) enemies soon. A character class able to fight well will cause you least problems. I recommend redguard for a newbie. Well, any class is playable, not only redguards.

2. Do not hesitate to be an atronach. Well, you cannot regenerate magic, but...
a) If you install the "Balmora Unerground House" plugin, you get a house in Balmora with some chests, where you can store your equipment, and a healing altar, which regenerates hit points, fatigue and spell points even for atronachs. Therefore, even atronachs will be able to train magic schools.
b) The magic in Morrowind is ruined to almost complete uselessness. Don't think that you will be able to cast effective and long lasting spell protections in the game. Only short timed and partially protecting spells! Therefore, the 50% permanent spell absorption of an atronach is a big advantage.

3. As you know, you need to upgrade your essential (major and minor) sills by 10 if you want to level up. Therefore, it's good to know which skills can be trained fast and which can be trained when you want them to train.
a) All magic schools. Every character has an access to spellmaker in Morrowind, not only mages. Go to Mages Guild and create a "training spell" for each magic school. The training spell will be either "cast to self" (heal, light, etc.) or "target at range" (destructive spells, etc.) and it will cost you 1 spell point. Now, start casitng spells (on yourself or into the void). The corresponding magic school is trained. You can get all magic schools at 100 in a short time this way.
b) Athletics. Run in the corner. That means, find a safe place, let your hero to face into a corner, press "always run", press "continuous run" and go to bed. When you awake in the morning, your Athetics will be much better than it was in the evening. Tedious? Yes, but possible.
c) Acrobatics. Jump under a low ceiling. Well, they fixed the jumping algorithm from Daggerfall so that you cannot press the "jump" key and observe how you are losing fatigue and getting huge training in jumping :D . You must press the "jump" key for every jump. But the low ceiling will return you on the ground fast so that you can rattle the jumping key and proceed with your Acrobatics fast. A good place, where you can train Acrobatics, is the tunnel leading to the temple in Balmora.
d) Unarmored and Hand to Hand combat. Rather useless skills but very good trainers of speed. Leave your armor home and put away your weapon. Punch the first scrib you find. It cannot do much to you but it will train your unarmored skill with every hit. Your fists are training the hand to hand combat. Both skills have the governing attibute SPD, therefore, "x5" for SPD will be granted soon. Once it is granted, teleport away. When you return later, you will find an equally upset scrib there and you will be able to continue training.
e) Armor skills and Block. Use the same scrib. Drive it crazy, prepare a heal spell and watch the scrib attacking you. With every successful attack, your armor skill goes up. If you have a shield equipped then you are training the Block skill as well.

4. Get your STR and END to at least 50 ASAP. The carried weight lowers your speed dramaticaly much sooner than it approaches your carrying capacity. With low STR and END, you will be unable to carry armor and you will get overloaded after picking a few items. Unbearable.

5. Get your Athletics to at least 30 ASAP. Until then, your movement will be super slow. . . ..

6. Bribe all essential shopkeeps in Balmora to 100 ASAP. The bribing seems to be permanent. The money you have invested into the traders will return quickly in better prices for you. Bribe the trader, the pawnbrooker (both seem to buy everything), and the alchemist (once you start creating potions for sale, you get your money back many times) at least.

7. If you want training in weapons then go northeast from Balmora into the hills. You will find there vagons of Cliff Racers, Kagoutis, Alits, Rats - well, not only them :D - every time you enter the area.

8. Get your beloved weapon skill to at least 50 ASAP. With lower weapon skill, you will miss too often. Therefore, every not too weak opponent will get enough time to kill you.

This may be a cliche, but along the way you'll find out what kind of character and race suits you best. That may mean you're gonna have to start all over again, but at least then you'll know what you want. Don't worry about stats, ANY character will be able to cast spells as if he was a real mage sooner or later in the game. I always went with the fighter types, but in the end there wasn't a spell i couldn't cast, or lock i couldn't open, or pocket i couldn't pick. Eventually you'll become allround, no matter what class, race, or character you choose.

Troll around here: there are some great 'getting started' threads...

some quickies:
Get a bow, asap. Shoot rats, mudcrabs, etc. every chance you get. The Marksmanship skill will go up fast, and its very useful.

JUMP, don't walk. Watch athletics [and therefore, strength] skyrocket.

Join all the guilds. If you don't want to do a mission, don't: no real negative consequences from leaving most guild jobs unfinished.

Always save before talking to a guild stewart, Cassius, or anyone you meet in the wilderness. Some of the wilderness characters will give you really neat quests, but if you don't accept them when first offered, you won't get a second chance.

Build a low level practice spell [that is, a spell with as low a casting cost as possible] as soon as you can for each school of magic. You can cast these repeatedly to train up your magic spells. Never rest without discharging your magic.

In general, magic in the game does sort of blow: I'm not sure its possible to really do the game as a pure caster class without having pretty good weapon skills as well.

Buy training in mercantile ASAP: higher your merc and personality, higher the prices the merchants pay you, and the less they charge. Using the + and - buttons when you buy and sell will also help your merc increase.

Unless you are very attatched to your character, you may want to start fresh with a custom class: took me many tries to get a character I really wanted to play...

HTH
Oru

Don't start Caius's quests until later in the game. Join some guilds in Balmora and do some of their quests first. When you're ready to work towards the "end", then do Caius's quests. I didn't start his quests until level 10 or so. You can join as many guilds as you want, but can only join one of the three houses. Note if you join a lot of guilds however they may conflict with goals of other guilds. Take your time and enjoy exploring. There are no time penalties and you can always pick up a quest at a later time. At least most of the quests. A few have time constraints, but you'll be advised of them.

thw opnly thing you gotta remmember

you are your own person.
in a game as free as morrowind play it anyway you want. the tips on leveling do come in handy, and its true that without the expansions you become a god around level 30. but always remmember, if someone looks at you funny, urfree to kill them. if your bored of doing cias coasadias's missions, work for someone else for a bit..just, do whatever feels good [img]smile.gif[/img]

Thanks for all of the help, I've taken some of the advice and I'm having a lot better time of it. I have a Redguard Fighter (custom class, loosely based on the warrior) and I'm actually able to cast spells now! Beware my might you nasty kwama's!

-Jafin