The Dungeons of Morrowind (Newbie Enquiry)

[CerebroDragon]

My first post to this rather quiet seeming part of Ironworks,

So hello to all Morrowind veterans/newbies alike.

After completing Arx Fatalis for the second time and enjoying the wonderful dark grimness of it all, I've found myself keen for yet another FPS style RPG to immerse myself in. A logical choice is Morrowind with the expansion a friend has kindly loaned me, Tribunal. I haven't started it yet, but I'm slowly gathering my forces/information to give it a shot.
So just a couple of questions to get me even more enthusiastic essentially about the dungeons:

A) What are the dungeons generally like in Morrowind? I mean visually, how well are they designed, what kind of purpose do they hold other than holding monsters to kill?

B) Are there lots of classic riddles and puzzles to look forward to? I hope so...I loved the Crypt from Arx for example, and just exploring the other levels in general was a joy.

C) Are any dungeons themselves memorable? Do they hold many fascinating encounters?
A little tasty intro/appetiser on your favourite dungeon would be appreciated here.

D) Would you say Morrowind's Dungeons/exploration style is similar to the kind of adventuring one might be used to from Might and Magic VI-VIII? As much as I enjoyed those games, I don't have particularly strong memories of the dungeons,even if they were still fun to explore.

E) What percentage of your time would you spend exploring dungeons to roaming overland in Morrowind? Is there enough incentive to explore them all even if one has done the majority of the quests?

That will do for now. I'm rather dungeon-obsessed at the moment.*Sigh*
Can't wait for Arx II!

Cheers,
Cerebrodragon

[Radek]

A. Not bad but small (most of them). Most of quests will send you into some dungeon.

B. No.
C. No.
D. Yes.

E. 60% in the wilderness, 40% in the dungeons. Exploring all dungeons is a heroic task - there are bags of dungeons in the game. The "science" in Morrowind cosists in the knowledge, which dungeons are worth of exploring and what you can find there

[Kakero]

A ) Dungeons in Morrowind are pretty much the same. You've been to one you've been to all of them. Example you've been to one tomb you've been to all the tombs. So this might hamper you to explore most of them. Though the only thing that you might still wanna explore them is to get tresures.

B. No. But finding the crank to open the dungeon doors is the only puzzle type you'll be finding.

C. No. If You find some nice treasure than that's nice. 70% of the dungeons that you'll explore don't hold anything worth mentioning.

D. No. M&M dungeons is walk a few feet, fight swarms of monsters. Morrowind dungeon is walk walk walk and " BAB! " Oh, a monster just hit me. One swipe of your weapon at it and it'll be dead.

E. 70% wilderness, 30% in dungeons. Due to the fact that dungeons are pretty much the same. I prefer to stay outdoor as much as possible.

[Bozos of Bones]

I tried to stay out as much as possible. I liked the shrines, but the dungeons an the Dwemer ruins I just loathe. Nothing better than to get the FPS optimizer, and jump around(for 3-6 load points/jump) to look at the scenery.

[armageddon272]

The dungeons are caves for the most part, with some daedric (evil) shrines, and some dwemer (dwarven, high-ish tech) ruins to explore that hold some tough daedra and other monsters that may be hard to kill without some form of magic or silver weapon. They often have goodies (either at the statues or right on the bodies of the guardians). If you go to some daedric shrines and try to steal the stuff laid out before the statue, occasionally you will trigger a trap which will cause a dremora to appear with a kick-butt weapons and magic to destroy you with. A lot fo the time, in caves mostly, you will find bandits who attack you onsight, sometimes their cargo and barrels, chests stc have some decent enchantments or sould gems.

Actually, as for the puzzles, I lent my friend my GotY edition and he says that when his character was level 3, he found a cave with 3 astronaches of different types. Each one cold not be killed, and they each had a riddle. It was somewhat like a sphinx, you answer it right, you go one, you answer it wrong, they kill you before you make it to the door. Unfortunately I was too stupid to ask him what he got when he finally answered everything. Also I once found in an ancestral tomb a cool maze that was sprinkled with skeleton warriors. Once you found your way to the center, you go to a room filled with treasure and gems on a little boat with a dead skeleton. Now THAT'S a burial.

The memorable dungeons would be the Sixth House dungeons and the Daedric shrines, their pretty cool, though to get through as well. Of course, in the Tribunal expansion you go through the sewers, you DEFINETLY remember that. On the main quest, the last dungeon is of ourse the coolest.

And I would certainly prefer roaming the dungeons as they for the most part hold the tough enemies and the better goodies, although you'll have to do plenty of overland exploring to find the good dungeons.

[Seraph]

Unfortunately I was too stupid to ask him what he got when he finally answered everything.

You don't get much, like most of the temple quests (Which is what that cave is for) you get some sort of blessing that wears out in a few days.

[Lox]

Most of the dungeons aren't memorable, but there are some good ones. The Puzzle Canal hasn't been mentioned....It's been a long time since I was there, but I recall it as being a fairly good maze puzzle. The one with the boat burial was good too.

Now days, I probably spend about 70-75% of my time outside of dungeons. There is a lot to explore in the great outdoors, and there are a lot of interiors that aren't dungeons (Vivec Cantons, guild halls, etc.). As has been mentioned, there are a few "templates" of dugeons, and these get repetitive after a while. While the layout and exact details differ, the textures, monsters and treasure is very very similar. There are some dugeons (like the one under Ebonheart) that have some interesting side-quest stories involved with them and yield very valuable loot.

The first time you enter a Sixth House base will be very memorable.

Morrowind's strength is definately not it's dungeons, it's the open-endedness and the character progression system. You can be (almost) anything you want, and while there are some problems with the system, it's the best I've encountered in my (limited) experience.

[CerebroDragon]

Thanks for the responses, chaps.

I wasn't utterly turned off playing the game from these reports, but I was a little concerned when my first few sessions of the game weren't as addictive as I was hoping.

Thus far I've only explored a couple of caverns and one ancestral tomb, so no dungeons yet as such.

But I'm learning slowly and have finally made it to level 3 with my Khajiit Monk. I've a few questions about his development for those who may have played monks in the past:

1) Is it much of a sacrifice to abandon all armour skills and concentrate on the unarmoured skill alone? At the moment I'm still wearing light armour in the thought that later in the game, having a high unarmoured skill might not be enough. So is it worth utilising both or should I specialise?

I've noticed that even the Khajiit gets odd responses about walking about naked.
I've got fur damnit!

2) What are some of the more likely guilds a Monk would join early in the game for some healthy experience? This is more of a roleplaying question rather than emphasising what guilds I simply can join. For instance, I won't join the Imperial Guard on religious grounds. (and plus the armour would make my Khajiit fur itch!)
So far I've only joined the Fighter's Guild in Balmora. I've heard rumours about the Imperial Cult - many quests to be found here?

3) I'm using a sparksword at the moment, but ideally I'd love to be able to cope without a weapon and just into combat claw to claw. By what level usually is this an efficient killing method and are there any other bonuses in giving up weapons altogether?

That'll do for now.
Cheers,
Cereobrodragon

[Radek]

1. Don't do it! The unarmored skill won't give you enough protection later in the game. Moreover, training an armor skill gives you "points" for AGI and END (it depends on the armor) when you level up.
Train Light Armor if you want to be a monk. There is a splendid light armor (the Glass Armor) in the game. There is no good medium armor in the game (unless you install some mods and except one cuirass) so that bad value for medium armor is no problem. There is an even better heavy armor (the Daedric Armor) in the game. Well, you will need STR over 100 if you want to wear Daedric Armor, moreover, a monk in a plate mail is a bit strange.

2. You can join the Fighters Guild, the Imperial Cult, the Temple, well, why not, the Mages Guild. Monks are always a bit mages. You can also join the Telvanni House (the house of mages) or the Redoran House (the house of fighters). The rest of the guilds are assassins, thieves, or knights, which you don't want to be most likely.

3. Don't do it! in a plain game. There are some mods around, which enhance the hand to hand combat but the hand to hand combat in the plain game is completely unsufficient for fighting. Install the mod or you will need a weapon.
You can use staves or maces, if you want to be a "monk-priest", you can also use exotic weapons, for example katanas. Why cannot a monk from far east use katanas?

[Stratos]

CerebroDragon, if you play a monk character and find it too difficult later on I would recommend this page. It's give some useful info on playing a monk as well as offering some good plugins if you want to up the strength of hand-to-hand and unarmored a bit. Nothing overpowering, but still very useful.