Wanted: patient people to help clueless newbie

[johnny]

Do you use mods and plugins Mel ?

[promethius9594]

ugh, johny, dont start mel on mods and plugins, not as a newbie...

give a little time for mel to get aquanted with the REAL game first.

[Melusine]

LOL, thanks Prometheus! Yeah, as you say first I'm gonna get acquainted with the game and play some more (I'm only at the very start now, just talked to Cassius!) and then I'll see about Mods and Plugins. And I'll be sure to come back and pester you guys then about which ones are best!

[johnny]

I only wanted to give you a little tip, get a house of your own. It doesn't have any influence on the game itself, it just comes in handy to store your goodies. Imho, in this game a place of your own is a must.

[Nanobyte]

A tip: work up your sneak skill. It helps when you want to avoid say, cliff racers. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

edited: Also, alchemy can prove to be quite valuable if you have decent tools and a moderate skill level. Especially for those beginning levels, when you're forced to sell Chitin daggers just to make a few coins to last you through the day.

[ 04-29-2004, 09:20 PM: Message edited by: Nanobyte ]

[Aelia Jusa]

Originally posted by johnny: I only wanted to give you a little tip, get a house of your own. It doesn't have any influence on the game itself, it just comes in handy to store your goodies. Imho, in this game a place of your own is a must.

Yes, I definitely concur. You really need somewhere to stash the piles of junk you have that you either need to keep for later, or can't sell just yet because the merchants simply can't afford to buy from you. Keep in mind that you can put stuff anywhere - in the middle of the street if you want, and it will never disappear - not really great for role-playing of course . Either find an empty house as Johnny suggested, or find some out of the way boxes in a city to put stuff in (not where there are guards or they'll attack if they see you removing stuff from them - even if it's stuff you've put in yourself). Especially with your character with her limited strength - with only one person, it's tough to carry all the stuff you need.

[promethius9594]

Originally posted by Melusine: Right. [img]smile.gif[/img] Breton female, level 3 Healer Sign: The Lady Strength: 35 Intelligence: 50 Willpower: 62 Agility: 32 Speed: 45 Endurance: 55 Personality: 77 Luck: 40 Major Skills - Restoration (45) - Mysticism (45) - Alteration (41) - Hand-to-hand (30) - Speechcraft (30) Minor Skills - Illusion (26) - Alchemy (29) - Unarmored (27) - Light Armor (24) - Blunt Weapon (22) Plus some skill in Enchant (10), Destruction (11), Conjuration (20).

Okay, since youre not very far, i'd recommend you restart and rebuild your character. here's why:

General Good Skills to have:
Sneak, Security, Acrobatics (because it increases quickly, hence, levels you up), Armor (light or heavy, not medium), some others i cant think of.

General skills worth beans (ie, not worth having):
Hand to Hand, unarmoured, speechcraft, blunt weapon (i'll explain why below), and mercantile.

why is blunt weapon a skill worth beans? well, blunt weapons dont do a whole lot of damage, which is fine if you arent planning on fighting with your weapons often, but early in the game you sometimes have to. i'd recommend taking a sword skill, because swords are more common, do more damage, and are generaly faster (and most allow you to also carry a sheild). I have short blade as my primary weapon skill, and both marksman/longblade as minor skills and it hasnt hurt my abilities at all, but you just have to make sure to spread the wealth in your other skills. but, even with those being my weapons, i have 100 pts in the blunt weapon skill (from trainers). Staff are the best for enchantment, so later in the game they will become much more useful, but it will make it hard to start with.

also, go for sneak and security. no having to cast spells or find keys to open things, just carry a good lockpick (you get ALOT if you take care of the *bad people* (ask me if you want the spoiler for that). and sneak lets you avoid lots of bad guys. i can push sneak and end a fight because the enemy cant see me (good for if im wounded, but doesnt work on golden saints).

need more tips?

[theGrimm]

I want to slightly disagree with promethius, and slightly agree...

I don't think it's necessary to have sneak, or security as skills. In particular, you could use invisibility / chameleon (from the illusions skill) or invisibility potions (alchemy) do achieve a similar effect.

In fact, it's rarely necessary to have any skill, because there are so many different ways to do things. For example, you have mysticism as a primary skill, and there are mysticism spells that can kill (absorb health). Build the character the way you want. Promethius likes thieves who can be very powerful, but I hate sneaking around, so I rarely take sneak. That's what's cool about morrowind.

However, I would at least consider rebuilding your characterm, and rest assured most people do. There is no reason why a healer cannot be succesful in the game, but it would be useful to have, as a primary skill, either a good weapon or a magic type such as destruction, as well as an armour type. Hand to hand and unarmoured CAN be used, but they are very difficult, especially if you are new.

Now...if you're attached to your character and want to continue, might I suggest the following:

-Work on blunt weapon skill (training / kill mudcrabs)...blunt weapons aren't the best, but they can be good enough.
-Work on restoration, and learn some fortify skills (fortify strength, etc). Go to a spellmaker and have an easy spell made (restore health 1 pt on self for one second) and keep casting it. Sleep. Repeat. Watch how your restoration improves and you level up... (Easy spells = Better chance of success and uses less magicka)
-Work on speechcraft, you can avoid a lot of fights if you charm your way through the game. 30 is a bit low, try training it up to about 40-50 and then keep trying persuade on ppl.
-Work on alchemy, and make potions (fortify strength, invisibility, etc.) Buy or collect ingredients, and make lots of potions. You'll fail often, but your skill will improve and eventually you will make nice potions.
(-In fact, if you get your illusion high enough, you can even paralyze creature, so it won't matter what weapon you have).

If you like talking your way through the game, your healer should be fine. Work on speechcraft especially, you personality is high enough.

If you LIKE fighting and killing things (I guess not or you wouldn't have picked a healer?), then you probably need to rebuild.

Oh, in case it hasn't been mentioned...to make potions, get a mortar and pestle. Drag it from your inventory onto your character. Click on the blocks to select ingredients. Choose one or more ingredients with the same effect (?? for effects mean your alchemy isn't high enough to know the effect), and make a potion. Try Saltrice and Crab Meat. You may fail often, but buy lots of ingredients and keep trying. See what you get?

Have fun!!!

[Oruboris]

My advice is to get the multi-mark mod asap. Barring that, learn recall as soon as you can, buy mark potion/scroll if need be, set your mark in the balmora mages guild. This gives you access to all the other mage guilds [and, essentially, fighter's guilds] for a single price.

I use the basement of the Balmora guild as home base for storing items as well, sorting them into different piles on the floor, bed, etc.

Learn Bound longbow QUICK: the bound bow can kill a golden saint with poor arrows in only a shot or two. Its your best way of getting by those early tough combats. Iron and lesser arrows still do damage to undead [etc] not normally effected by them if they are fired from a bound bow.

And locate Creeper on the top floor of a house full of orcs in caldera: He and the Mud crab are the only merchants who pay full price. [Mud Crab harder to find].

Don't belive the routine about the merchants who like you best paying you best: this is very often NOT the case.

ENJOY!
Oru

[theGrimm]

I never knew that about bound longbow...cool. Uhm, but if you have poor marksman skills, will bound longbow help any?

While merchants who like you most might not pay the most, they WILL pay you more if they like you more, no? But you're right, mudcrab and creeper pay pretty much the most, and it doesn't matter how much they like you. But they can't make spells, enchant, train...