A Fresh Start

[booklord]

Starting again. After a long break I decided to start playing Morrowind again. I had shelved the original X-box version of the game. I got the game of the Year version over Christmas with Bloodmoon and Tribunal and decided to give it another chance. ( All my previous save games had been destroyed by a toddler who thought that going though x-box save memory and deleting whatever he found was a cool game in itself ) I decided to restart with a variation of my old Nord character.


PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE
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Previously I had played three characters.... A Breton mage (HLaalu), a dark elf Telvanni ( Telvanni ), and a Nord Barbarian ( Redoran ). Well the Breton didn't last that long. I had made several mistakes during character creation. ( a big one was choosing all Willpower skills for major skills ) The dark elf went all the way but he ended up offending many of the factions as he stole everything in sight, and was a well known murderer. ( It was particularly irking that he never did manage to figure out how to become head of House Telvanni ) Finally I created the barabarian who was designed to join every faction he could. Unfortunately I made a big mistake with this one. I abused the potion system ( fortify int potions ) and created a series of restore health-restore fatigure-fortify luck invinciblity potions. Well a potion that restores 60 Health per second and raises your luck by a few thousand for the next 6 minutes effectively makes you invincible. But with absolutely no risk the game became bland and boring and I gave up.

CHARACTER CREATION
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The first thing I did was design a character that would start with as low as possible minor and major skills while still having a skill in the major or minor category from every stat. ( I wanted plenty of room for advancement )

Race: Nord
Major Attributes: Strength, Luck
Specialization : Stealth
Minor Skills: Spear 20, Atheltics 15, Armorer 15, Unarmored 15, Block 15
Major Skills: Conjuration 30, Alchemy 30, Alteration 30, Restoration 30, Illusion 30
Sign: Astronach

GROUND RULES to make the game more fun
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1) Under no circumstances can this character cast or use any item or spell that temporarily fortifies any attribute. As far as this character is concerned they don't exist. The exception to this rules is constant effect items.
2) For all practical purposes soul gems have no retail value. ( Can't soul and sell them )
3) Make no effort to go to areas for the sole purpose of collecting items this character shouldn't know exists yet. ( For example no trips to Tel Fyr for the Curiass of the Saviour's Hide until I actually have a reason to go there )
4) At every character advancement screen, 1 of the stat increases must be luck.
5) This character shall never wear a skirt or robe unless absolutely dictated to during a quest. ( The other Nords would laugh at him)
6) This character shall only wear open face helms. ( Similar reason, I'm going for a certain "look" )
7) This character shall join every guild possible. ( and choose House Redoran [Personal Opinion:Telvanni's for pure spellcaster types and Hlaalu's for thieves] )
8) Swords are for pansies. Give this character a spear, halberd, mace or axe. Shall not use a sword unless absolutely required to by a quest. ( Again I'm going for a "look")
9) Upon discovering a new cave or enemy area, I'll check my guide book to see if its part of a quest. If not I raid it.
10) With the exception of buying the Devil Spear, this character shall not spend money on armor and weapons and instead use what he finds or is given.

SKILLS THAT ROSE QUICKLY ( Character has made it to 15th level )
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Well as you might imagine this character has had it rough during the early levels. Alteration, Restoration, Illusion, Conjuration, Armorer have increased at a snail's pace. Even though the character is now 15th level they have only risen a point or two. The following skills have raised quickly:

Acrobatics: One I needed a skill I could pump up when I raised my character's strength. ( Often intiated by a single point increase in Armorer ) Being a good jumper makes this game easier.

Alchemy: Despite my attempts to limit its effectiveness. I really do like Alchemy.

Atheltics: Lots and lots of running. A strong speed and athletics makes this game more playable. I'm still debating whether I want to use the Blinding Boots of Speed.

Mysticism: Raising quickly.

Unarmored: Early adventuring using only the heavy armor I could find resulted in this attribute rising really fast. I now have a full armor set and this skill has stopped rising.

Spear: At about skill level 35 spear exploded. I started hitting a lot more often, became far more dangerous and it started rising really quickly. Personally I like the spear. With its reach you can strike first and keep a really powerful enemy at a distance ( limiting his ability to strike you ) But most of all its an Endurance skill. And Endurance is one of the most important attributes.

Heavy Armor: The character wears heavy armor. Most of which he has gotten from the imperial legion with a few odd pieces I've picked up at various locales.

Speechcraft: I gave it two major boosts early on while raising this character's personality to 40. Yes, you can generally use money to make up for a low personality and speechcraft. But its embarassing and frustrating to FAIL to give a person a 100 drake bribe.

FACTIONS
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What can I say? Visiting caves and such can really slow down the questing. Except for a quick trip to Wolverine Hall this character hasn't gone any further east than Vivec or North than Ald Velothi.

Blades - Low rank
Mage - High rank
THief - Low rank
Temple - 1
Cult - 1
Redoran - Low rank
Fighter - Low rank
Morag Tong - Low rank
Legion - Medium rank

EQUIPMENT ( at 15th level )
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As for equipment, my armor consists mainly of imperial legion gear with a few odds and ends. I did pick up the Mentor's ring and Denmaster's ring. And I was surprised both times I'd found them. I've created a ring of Knock ( 100 unlock, targeted, 4 ft radius ) for a little over 30,000 drakes. ( which rendered me near penniless at the time ). The joke of it is that the very next area I hit was a huge bandit cave system west of Gnisis. ( Abinshihi ) and among the haul was 4 100 unlock scrolls.

My current weapon of choice is a steel halberd with the devil spear as a back-up in case I need a bound spear to hit silver or magic only oppoenents. ( or in some cases just really tough opponents )

Examples of Close Calls
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So far I've had a fair amount of success at keeping it dangerous. It was very dangerous at the beginning as nearly everything could kill him.

Addamasartus - Yes the starter dungeon near Seyda Neen. Did I mention this character had a weak start?

Nimawai Grotto West of Seyda Neen - The druegh keep coming, My water breathing is used up, The devil spear is nearly out of charges, I can barely navigate through all these plants and I can't find my way out!

Thelas Ancestral Tomb - Early tomb, early character almost an early death.

Gnisis Egg Mine - Two kwama warriors and an orc legionaire made for a big fight.

Oran Flerun - The first Morag Tong hit put up a helluva fight.

Assernud - Done at an early level. The ork nearly killed me. After casting Woad, bound spear, and ancestral ghost it was still a close fight.

Abinshihi - A dark Elf with a glass jynxblade. Those things hurt even with spell absorption stopping the paralysis 50% of the time.

ARkinghand - surrounded by centurions, metal spiders, and ghosts. I had to summon the bound spear to kill the centurion which kept knocking me down. Meanwhile the others were knocking down the health fast.

Kudanut - Yet another ork! And this one happened recently. I thought things were going well but my health kept dropping. Killed the Ork. Still taking damage! Looked around and saw the archer.

[ 02-03-2005, 08:08 AM: Message edited by: booklord ]

[Aelia Jusa]

Good on you for imposing rules upon yourself (and sticking to them lol )! I find it so annoying when people complain about a game because it has an allowance for the character to do something that makes it too easy when the only thing they have to do to make it less easy is... not do whatever is making it so easy . Oh I could put the game difficulty down to beginner and monsters would hardly do any damage on me! What a stupid game for letting me abuse the system

[booklord]

Remembered a Ground rule I forgot.
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11) No long distance. This character has no interest in killing long distance. ( and thus no real reason to learn Marksman or Destruction ). There's no honor in killing from a distance. This keeps to the character's theme and also denies the use of the levitate and kill from a distance tactic. ( which is so cheap! )


More Close Calls
--------------------------
Last night was a rough one. Two more close calls.

Fjol - This one surprised me. I thought for sure he'd be a push over. Instead he kept knocking me down and hitting me far more often then I hit him. Is this guy's strength level dependent? Because I've killed him far earlier than this in other games without that much trouble. Had I known I would have summoned a bound spear when I faced him.

Council Club Bloodbath - Six to one. Probably would have lost, but the Astronach sign kept the spellcaster at bay.

[Seraph]

Fjol is actually fairly tough. He has 80+ strength, and a fairly tough weapon (axes in general are a pain to face due the knockdown feature).

[Kakero]

Originally posted by booklord: More Close Calls -------------------------- Last night was a rough one. Two more close calls. Fjol - This one surprised me. I thought for sure he'd be a push over. Instead he kept knocking me down and hitting me far more often then I hit him. Is this guy's strength level dependent? Because I've killed him far earlier than this in other games without that much trouble. Had I known I would have summoned a bound spear when I faced him.

Could be you change difficulty. Could be you are lower level than previous game. Could be your skills are underdeveloped than your previous game.

edit : test sig

[ 02-03-2005, 06:24 PM: Message edited by: Kakero ]

[booklord]

An Update....... [ Careful Spoilers below ....... ]
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Skills ( now level 16 )
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Medium Armor: Upon gaining 16th level my nord maxed out his endurance. ( 100 ) Well no longer restricting myself on gaining endurance skills ( so I could keep getting the x5 attribute bonus on level up ) the character was free to raise the Medium Armor skill as much as possible using the trainer in the Balmora Fighters Guild. ( I used to have a list of all master trainers but I've decided not to use it for this game. Only trainers I've found myself ) The cost put off the characters next magic item for awhile. ( No fortify potions effectively renders makes self-enchantment extremely difficult meaning I have to pay for it. )

Close Calls
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Ashurnihibi - Legion trooper held hostage in Daedric ruin. Time for a real fight and I got one. Outside the ruin I was attacked by two orcs and a DEmora lord. Well the first orc and the demora were tough but not exceptionally so. Then the other ork arrived decked out in a full suit or orcish armor. Now he meant business! Survival became the better part of valor as I ran for my life. ( and I had my bound spear summoned. ) Fortunately they chose to annihilate my summoned spirit and give me a chance to heal and catch my breath. Casting Woad, recasting bound spear and summoning a new spirit. I charged. Manuevering out of fully armored orks attack until I had killed his companions, I finally faced the fully armored ork in battle. It was very close, but I won. Now that was a fight! Inside the Shrine was actually kind of a letdown after that.

Velfred the Smuggler - Never met this guy before. The map said he was a Hlaalu quest so I didn't have to worry about messing anything up. First person I met seemed friendly enough. Moved on to Valfred. Few conversation topics. "Ash Statues" maybe thats a Misc quest?
---"Hey what do you know about ash statues?"
---"Ash Statues? You've seen the ash statues? Now you must die!"
Well he was fairly tough, but the real problem came from behind. His companion opened up on me with a series of fire spells to the back. She got lucky too, because my spell absorption stopped none of them. A few seconds later I'm on my back ( having been knocked down ) with my health down to critical levels.

Chest in Ebonheart Caverns - Getting a little arrogant. Unlocked the chest but ignored the trap. More often than not I simply absorb the effects as magick anyway. The poison dropped my health FAST. Would have killed me but while I'm arrogant enough to kick open a chest with a lethal posion trap, I'm not so arrogant not to carry cure poison potions on me.


Equipment
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A LOT of new armor.

Orcish Armor: Ashurnunihibi was loaded with Orcish armor. ( including a full set ). Better than anything I was wearing at the time. So put most of the legion armor into storage and went with Medium Armor.

Druegh Helm & Shield: Trying to sell off the mass amount of loot from Ashurnihibi led me to bartering for a Druegh Helm and Shield from the Balmora Armorer shop. Medium armor better than Orchish armor. It also looked a lot better on the character than either the orcish or legion armor.

Lord's Mail: I never completed the Legion quest so I never did the final quest and I never read about it either. So here I am in Ebonheart and I'm looking for this guy to talk to about the Dark Brotherhood assassination attempt. ( I know NOW he's standing in the middle of the freaking courtyard ) I started from the Imperial Cult temple and was working my way east. Found a couple of locked doors and used my 100 unlock targeting ring to open them right under the noses of the guards. Went in but found nothing of value. Cursing myself for wasting the ring charges I spotted a heavily locked secret door. Of course nothing is capable of with standing the unlock ring. So in I went and into some underground caverns. Found this trooper by a campfire, and stopped by to say "hi".
---"Hail, fellow legionaire"
---"You'll never take me alive copper!" ( or something to that effect )
---"What? Again! What is it with you people?"
But he was weak. Surprisingly weak given the equipment I found on his corpse. The Lord's Mail! Well I recognized the name and that got me looking in my guide book to see if I had disrupted some quest and had to reload. But I decided to let it stand as having gotten the armor early didn't seem to risk hurting the quest and the idiot attacked me after all. Oh and the best part of Lord's Mail? It counts as Legion armor so I'm not out of uniform.

[ 02-07-2005, 10:01 AM: Message edited by: booklord ]

[Seraph]

Upon gaining 16th level my nord maxed out his endurance. ( 100 ) Well no longer restricting myself on gaining endurance skills ( so I could keep getting the x5 attribute bonus on level up ) the character was free to raise the Medium Armor skill as much as possible using the trainer in the Balmora Fighters Guild. ( I used to have a list of all master trainers but I've decided not to use it for this game. Only trainers I've found myself )

The list wouldn't have done much good as there is no master trainer for medium armor.

[johnny]

There SHOULD be one though. He was supposed to be on the Tel Fyr docks, but for some reason he's not there, or anywhere else for that matter. Must be a bug.

[booklord]

Been awhile since my last update......

CURRENT LEVEL
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I'm two short naps away from becoming level 23 and 1 short nap from becoming a vampire. ( Which will make travel a bitch so I don't suspect I'll remain that way too long. ) Spear skill is almost maxed out (98), so I suspect I'll move onto another weapon soon. Since I'm getting a healthy bonus soon it will probably be a one-handed blunt weapon.* Now that I think about it, perhaps I should look into enchanting myself I decent mace weapon before I grow fangs. ( My self-imposed rule against any spell, item, or potion temporarily enhancing attributes effectively means that I've got to pay for enchanting since any decent enchantment is generally out of my ability ) As for other areas. Strength and Personality have been growing lately. I've been using Calm Humanoid and Speechcraft to deal with those renegade ashlanders. ( And its paid off. They've given me some valuable info. ) As for strength well having a high Acrobatics is very useful.

(*)I'm leaning toward enchanting an exquisite shirt with a constant effect bound mace enchantment + a strength enchantment. High end maces are heavy. Even for a high strength. A bound mace would be like a 40 point feather enchantment with a 10 point fortify skill enchantment. In addition I suspect that the only mace in my growing collections of weapons that I can't sell because they're too expensive does not contain a deadric mace. ( only Ebony ones ) [Note: My current self-imposed rules deny me the right to just go out and grab an artifact mace like Skull Crusher. I can only gain weapons and armor that I find during the natural course of exploration. No grabbing of goodies that I shouldn't know the location of.]

CURRENT STRATEGY
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Having explored much of western Morrowind, I've begun working my way up the northern coast. This has led me to Quarra headquarters. I've been infected and have put off visiting the Urshilaku camp. I'm going to service-less for a while afterwards so I'm making sure I'm adequately prepared. ( for one thing I'd like to turn into a vampire right after gaining a level. )

For long term strategy I'm thinking of doing the Bloodmoon areas after I do the vampire stuff. [Note: I'm unspoiled for the Bloodmoon stuff ] followed by the Tribunal stuff. But I may go and become leader of the Mages guild first. ( Once you kill Trebonis and root out his spy assitant then the entire main floor of the Vivec mages Guild is unoccupied and you can move in without a problem. )

NEW TOYS
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Ebony Pauldrons, Bracers, Greaves
Crom's Pants of Spetral Might : Exquisite Pants -> constant effect Bound Boots, + small Fortify Strength
Crom's Spear of Thunder: Daedric spear with 45 point lightning damage on strike. ( 13 charge out of 400 per strike )
Crom's SCUBA ring: Exquisite Ring -> constant effect Water Breathing and 90 point Light spell.
Edoril's Shield ( artifact )


GOOD FIGHTS ( Note : There were several Ancestral Tombs, smuggler caves, rogue soreceror homes and Dwarven Ruins, and even one Daedric Shrine that did not make this list )
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Maelkashishi - This Deadric Shrine provided one of the better battles. But not from the critters. From the cultists.

Andastreth - The archers were troublesome up top and surprisingly there was one bag guy in the bottom that gave me a headache as well. But mostly I suspect my character's problems come from a growing sense of arrogance.

Yasammidan - Daedric Shrine located northwest of Gnisis. Suddenly the Demora Lords became much stronger. It might have something to do with the massive weapon upgrades they got. One of them carried a Deadric spear. ( That I have since enchanted ) I can only theorize that my level had reached such a point that the randomly generated enemies were now allowed to carry really valuable weapons.

Ashalmawai - Upon reaching Ald Velothi I started a cascade of Redoran quests. The last of which was going into the basement of this shrine. Where an enemy in Ebony Armor gave me a run for my money. His greaves, bracers, and Pauldrons became part of the character's "improved" look.

Bthungthumz - No quest directed this "Redoran" character to this Dwarven Ruin. But a good fight nonetheless. One Centurion is easy. Two start to get problematic. Three and you've got a good fight going. Add is a ghost...

Druscathi - Hey! I found the headquarters of the Quarra! I challenged one of their members to a boxing match. After knocking him unconscious I decided to leave them in peace. The cattle seemed perfectly happy. But I've been feeling a little under the weather ever since I punched that guy in the face. Ah well, I'm sure if I wait a few days it will go away.

Ibar-dad - Never been in here before. Boy did I miss out on a bueat. This place was loaded! But a quick question. Are summoned creatures weaker than their non-summoned counterparts? A golden saint gave me a true run for my money. I've faced golden saints before though ( okay I've summoned from scrolls then killed them for their souls ) and this one was stronger by a factor of 10.

Assurdirapul - The shrine and its defenders were not a problem. But I had forgotten how tough Favryn's bodyguards were when I came hunting for him at Gnaar Mak after receiving the Daedric quest.

[ 02-22-2005, 02:18 PM: Message edited by: booklord ]

[Seraph]

Are summoned creatures weaker than their non-summoned counterparts?

I think that the summoned and non-summoned monsters are basically the same. The only difference between the summoned and normal golden saints that I can find is that summoned golden saints don't have alchemy ingredients on them.
I suspect the reason you had a problem with the golden saint is the same reason you had a problem with the Dremora Lords, their equipment possibilities will improve as your level goes up.

[ 02-22-2005, 07:30 PM: Message edited by: Seraph ]