Morrowind for Dummies(newbs guide to morrowind)

Hi, my name's Liam, and im a recovering Morrowind addict.

I decided to write this Morrowind guide for beginners because of this thread http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=259410 .
So many people seemed to have quit this AWSOME game just because of the steep learning curve, and the dauntingly large map.

So i decided to write a breif guide to this game from my memory (refreshed a bit by looking through a few maps etc).

If anyone really finds this helpful and wants more I'd be happy to reinstall the game and do a little more research for a more extensive guide. I just don'twant to waste the time if no-one's going to find it useful .

The first thing i suggest for Morrowind is deciding upon what kind of character you want. In the long run it doesnt make too much of a difference what class you choose, as the leveling is so openended you pretty much end up becoming a mixture of all classes anyways. Personally, i chose a stealth-oriented character, as i tend to prefer roleplaying a thief. Morrowind also offers some really good opportunity for doing so, so i didn't regret my choice.

What i DID regret however, is my choice of race. If you can, download a few skin mods, or choose a good looking race. I chose a wood elf. Should have chosen a Dark elf...but oh well. Dark elf i think is the best race, with a 75% resistance to fire. check out this site

http://www.gamebanshee.com/morrowind/races.php

for some info on all the races. They also have a very detailed walkthrough if you get stuck on any of the main quests.
Don't pick argonian or khajit. both are "beast" classes, and can't use boots or helmets. in the long run, you would REALLY regret this, as theres so many kikass of both out there. in the end you re left with just dark elf, wood elf, breton, redgaurd, imperial, nord, high elf, and orc
nords, redguard, and orcs make the best fighters. Bretons and high elves make the best mages, wood elves and dark elves make good thieves ( as well as archers), and imperials are pretty good all around. Dark elves are IMO the best all around. i picked an ugly wood elf for my character tho . Not that it really matters in the long run again. But when you re starting off, a bad race choice for your personality is a really bad idea. You end up wanting to do things you cant, such as running your wussy wood elf thief into a cave full of nasty undead monsters (did that a couple of times). So pick wisely. Dont worry too much about the stats, again they only really matter in the beginning. focus more in their special abilities (found in the guide on gamebanshee).

And finally, before you start, make sure to download a few key mods. A house mod is key. I find balmora ones the most useful, as you spend an unproportional amount of time in this city. Later in the game, you will be able to get a house of your own, but they re all so far away from anything.

And lastly make SURE you download a mod that will lower the aggressiveness of the wildlife. The wildlife in morrowind is rather aggressive, and will literally chase you across the entire map for no reason at all. And when you re just starting, and can be killed by just about anything (especially those pesky rats), then this mod is invaluable.
Also, you might want to find a no-cd hack. Morrowind checks to make sure your cd is still inserted, and is a valid cd, every few minutes. This can decrease performance.

Now for starting the game. After starting in the boat and giving your name, and the brief walk to the customs agency, you will be given the opportunity to create your character. You have the choice of using premade classes, or making your own.
I strongly recommend making your own class, but if you feel uncomfortable with this, then you can create your own. If you choose to use premade classes, then you will be answered a series of questions. You will be given a situation, and given three possible answers, a stealth-thief type answer, a violent-fighter type answer, and an intelligence/magic-mage type answer. Choosing different combinations of the three answer types will give you a wide array of character classes.

If you make up your own, you will be given a list of skills and attributes and asked to choose. From the long list of possible skills, you may choose 5 major skills, 5 minor skills, and the rest become misc skills. Your major skills will start at 50, while your minor skills will start off at 30. (correct me if im wrong there). As you use each of your skills, a status bar (for each) will slowly accumulate until it gets to full and you gain another point in that skill. Once you have gained 10 such points, you will gain another character level once you go to sleep. Only points gained in major and minor skills count towards gaining levels (which is why this is such an important part of character creation, as bad major/minor skill choices can drasticly change your character's level progression)
This also ties in with how your character's stats progress. Each skill has a governing attribute, for instance the athletics skill has a governing attribute of speed, while longblade skill has a governing attribute of strength, etc. . When you go to sleep, you will be given a short explanation of your characters revelations upon his newfound...i dont know what. What really matters to you is the stats it will list. You will have three points. Each point may be put towards raising a certain stat by one. Depending on the skill points you accumulated towards your current attribute, you will gain a multiplier in the governing attribute of that skill, which will help you increase your stats faster by raising them by more than one point.
For example, if you did a whole lot of fighting with your longblade, and all ten points you gained were in your longblade skill. Longblade is a strength skill, so when you go to choose your stat point placements, there will be a 5x or so multiplier next to the Strength choice. So you will gain 5 points in strength (if you put one of your point choices in strength), and 1 point in each of the other stats you choose.
once again, use gamebanshee to read up on all the different skills, as im not going to use up space here to list them all.
http://www.gamebanshee.com/morrowind/skills/combat.php
one skill you SHOULD pick however, as one of your minor skills, is acrobatics. The skill of jumping. Jump EVERYWHERE you go in morrowind. its massively useful for travelling (especially once you get good at it. at max jump skill, with not too much of a load in your inventory, you can jump absolutely massive distances, often you can hop right up the side of a mountain and down the other).
plus, having such an easy skill to level up in makes you level a whole lot faster. Also, make sure that at least one of your major skills is in a weapon class, and at least one is in an armour type. If you plan on being a mage, put a spell class or two in there too. If you plan on being a fighter, shields are always useful. If you re going to be a thief, sneak and security are musts. Mercantile or speachcraft are also good for major/minor skills. The better you are at mercantile, the better buy/sell rates you will get from merchants. And the better your speechcraft skill, the more people you meet will like you. and the more they like you, the more readily they will give up information. And if at first they dont like you, you can always flatter them with a fairly high rate of success. saves alot of money bribing officials for information for quests

now that you ve chosen all your stats, you can start the game.
you re given a mission to go to balmora. From where you start in Seyda Neen, its northeast. You can either follow the marked roadsigns, or you can go up near that giant flea shaped thing you see. Those are called stilt striders. Talk to the man/woman standing next to it and they will let you travel to different destinations for a small fee. You can travel on boats in the same way. This is the fastest mode of travel available to you if you are not part of the mages guild. As a part of the mages guild, you may also use mage guild guides that teleport you to different mages guilds scattered all over the island.

At first level, its difficult to do much of anything. Once you get to balmora, find Caius Cosades. Hes the guy ur supposed to go to. He will start you off on the main quest, as well as help you out. Try doing some of his missions in Balmora, and following his advice. He's scripted by the game-makers to help you newbies out, so listen to the man
Also, make sure you join the guilds. The thieves guild is in the South Wall Corner Club (same side of the river as Caius), while the mages guild and fighters guild are right next to each other near the stilt strider. The missions given by these guilds are also very good for beginners. Most of them are simple fed-ex missions too, so not very complicated.
If you re a fighter, you could also take the stilt strider up to Gnaar-Mok, and join the legion. The legion is VERY good for beginner fighters, offering you a wide supply of good equiptment to start off. The guild supply chests near the entrance of each guild is good too. They re always being restocked, and you can make good money off selling those goods.

If you're having trouble killing things in your weak, newbie stage, then the best approach to killing enemies is the hit and run approach. Use a bow, or another fast weapon to hit your enemy, then run away from them, using healing spells/potions you have saved in quickslots. Lure your enemy to an area load door, and go outside once you re in desperate need of healing. Rest until your hp/edurance is healed, then quicksave and go back in for another round of fighting. This approach can let you slowly kill just about any enemy in the game.

Once you re strong enough, its looting time. Buy a cheap dagger with paralyze, this thing will come in handy. Then take the strong weapon of your choice. Join the thieves guild if you havent already, then head for the trader in Balmora. Ra'Virr the trader in Balmora is my favourite kill. Hes got loads of crap in his little house, and after i kill him i tend to use that as a semi permanent residence. Hold down the sneak button, move in behind him, then backstab him with your paralyze weapon. Then switch quickly to the big guns and take him out. IF you can kill him before he can take out his big nasty axe, it makes all the difference. Make sure you saved before you do this.
Ra'Virr has some amazing weapons in his stash. Once you ve killed him, quickly run to the thieves guild and down into the basement and talk to the guy wearing the funny blue shirt. For half the price of the bounty on your head (the downside of committing crimes in morrowind), he will clear up your problems with the authorities for you.
If you could not join the thieves guild, then drop everything you have and find a guard. Talk to him, and pay off your fines with him. If you have anything on you that is stolen, it will be taken from you. If you accidently lose an item this way, then head down to your local legion depot and make your way down to the basement. Theres a locked chest named "evidence" that holds anything they've confiscated.
Once your legal troubles are all cleared up, head back to Ra'Virr's and pick up your new loot. He has several swords worth up to 9000 dollars, and lots of good equiptment for you. Go sell what you dont want to buy some equiptment for yourself, and go back to doing quests. Hint: never kill a merchant who has more than 300 or so dollars to buy items off you, or will buy all types of items. Finding merchants who will take your goods are invaluable.
Making the most of the merchants in morrowind is another large facet of the game. In Pelegiad, one of the manors (cant remember which), has a house full of orcs. If you travel up to the top, you ll find al ittle gremlin dude. He will buy anything off you for up to 500 bucks at as close to its actual buy/sell rate as you can find in the game. Just sell him some small things first. Then go to sleep for 24 hours so he replenishes his money. Then you can go back and sell him more stuff. Once you get to your big items, buy all your small items back off him until he has enough money to buy your expensive item off you. Then sleep and replinish his money and sell all your small items back.
The only better merchant in the game is the mudcrab. He's on the islands just to the east of Vivec. Hes just labeled as a regular mudcrab, so good luck finding him. I had trouble doing it myself.
That's all the information i could think of at the moment. I'm really tired and i think im gunna go to bed in a bit. If anybody else has any more info to contribute, just pm/email me and i ll stick it in here (and give you some credit for it ). Or if anybody has anything they want me to cover do the same.

Happy adventuring!

More, MORE!!!
Man you should be Dungeoun Master or something =) Guide is great... If you are open for suggestions I would like to see links to mods I should install, and a little how-to install them!

Great work mate!!!

I wote sticky!

Very nice guide! Just reading it makes me want to go play though it again!!!

Mod linkage would be good!

Nice work, I can't wait for your tips on theiving.

Yeah, good guide. I quit playing Morrowind because I got frustrated over it...think I wasn't ready for the vastness. Now I gotta start a new character because I have no idea where I backed up my saves. Bah...

Mods

crap, i just wrote a list of all the mods people should get, but it wudnt let me post it so now i have to rewite it.
arg, thats really annoying

i had a huge list of links before i had to rewrite this post, so im only gunna post a few, and you can search morrowind files for the rest of them.
try to stay away from mods that take away too many restrictions on something, or give you merchants with extra money or items that are way too good. these tend to ruin the game and you ll regret having used them.

http://morrowindfiles.com/modules.php?name=Downloads

morrowind files is the best website i ve found for downloading mods. this is the download section.

to install, download the mod, and extract it into your morrowind/data files folder.
esp files are plugin files, and go in morrowind/data files. textures go in morrowind/data files/textures, meshes in the mesh folder there too, icons in the icons folder.
To activate the plugin files, go into the Data Files section in the autorun menu, and check all the modules you want to activate.

make sure to create a new save after all the modules are activated, as if one of them corrupts a quest and you need to go back, its easier if you dont have to go ALL the way back to the beginning and start over



http://morrowindfiles.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=getit&lid=161

This is the best house mod i ve found. It gives you some really nice storage rooms, an alchemy room with labelled bottles for all your ingredients (labelled with name AND picture of ingredients).

also has a dummy for wacking with your sword to train your skills, and whole ton of manikins for storing your armour. They actually wear the armour you put on them, and it looks REALLY cool when they re all full. i spent several days finding them all.

the official plugins (http://morrowindfiles.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownload&cid=1) all help alot.

before you download the patches tho, consider this.

it fixes a few cool things you can do.
You can no longer drop bound items. Bound items are created with an item ability or a spell. Item ability bound items replace the item with a bound item of the same type (usually). Bound items are really good items that give you +10 to the skill in question, weigh nothing at all, and do alot of damage. Ra'Virr (who i suggested you kill and loot), has several of these. If you use the spell to create the bound item, then drop it, you can pick it up and it will stay forever, instead of going away in a minute or so.

Also fixed is the item fury. It used to permanently damage your armour skills, which is a pain in the a**...unless you have them as major skills. then you can train them back up to where they were before and level up a TON.

Theres a few other fixes, but those are the most important ones.


the miscellaneous mod section ( http://morrowindfiles.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownload&cid=12 )
is by far the best section.

make sure you download a few of the extra creatures mods, some of the quest fix mods, the mod that makes wildlife more docile, as well as any others that suite your fancy.

if you find any links to other good mods, pm them to me. avoid posting them please unless you have a really long list of them, as id prefer this post to stay fairly clean so that people needing to use the guide dont have to look too far for information

thanks

Thieving

Being the master morrowind thief, i thought it might help a few people to hear me give some advice on thieving in morrowind.

Of all the games i ve played, morrowind gives by far one of the best thieving experiences out there.

Make sure to join the thieves guild, obviously lots of good thieving opportunities here.

If you wanna try being an assassin too, join the morag tong. You will need to travel to vivec to do so. Its in the colluseum canton (or the stadium one..or whatever its called i cant remember). You travel to the bottom floor and find your way into the water works. On one side theres a door into the storage room. In here is a good bit of loot, as well as a few rats. You will also find a very well locked trap door. Unlock and untrap it (use an ekrash's locksplitter scroll if you re not good enough to pick the lock. You can find these in the smuggler dens found all over the wilderness in caves and mines). inside is the main guildhall of the morag tong, the official assassins guild of vanderfell. Talk to the dark elf on the very top floor to get missions. the other guys in the guild have some good thieving things to sell you, as well as good training opportunities (pay them money to increase a skill by one point each time).

Vivec is also the best place for thieving. In each house canton, you can find a treasury. Each treasury is a well guarded safe house, full of tons of very valuable items. In order to break into these, you re going to need a good sneak skill, a good telekinesis scroll/spell/item, a good lock pick with a good security skill level, and a bit of patience.

The easiest i found was the house hlaalu one. The treasury consists of two well locked doors, and very well guarded. You re going to need to get by both guards, and pick both locks, to get in.
One of the people i had to kill for a morag tong writ had a key to the first level door i beleive. He's in one of the manors in the hlaalu compound. Use his key to unlock the first door, then hit sneak. Sneak past the second guard so he doesnt turn around, then turn to make sure nobodies looking. Still holding down sneak, unlock the second door, either with your scroll or with your pick. Then go into the treasury room.

Now i beleive theres still two guards in this room. leave the door open and try to herd them out the door, or just wait until they leave. Once they re out close the door. Now carefully steal everything you can where they cant see you. For the remaining stuff, hide in the corner of the room where they cant see, and use your telekinesis to take all the items and unlock all the chests. If you become encumbered, then use a mark scroll/spell to mark the place where you re standing. Then use the teleport to your house (the one in the mod listed in the last post), or use a scroll of divine or alimsivi intervention. This will take you to the nearest imperial shrine or temple. Drop all the loot here, or take it to one of your houses, before using a recall spell/scroll to return to the place you marked in the treasury. These spells also come in very handy for when you re looting dungeons, or even just doing quests (mark the quest giver so that when you re done you can recall back to them, finish the quest, and get the next one).

Once you ve finished transporting all the items out of the hlaalu treasury, then you can calmly walk out of the building with none the wiser. Foolish hlaalu's.

The telvanni treasury is much the same. Pick the locked door without the guards seeing, then go in. Be careful, because this door will take you into a tiny hallway guarded by a storm demon dude (storm avatar? i cant remember what they re called). Kill him, then go out the second door. Now you re in a tiny little room full of two guards, tons of stuff, and one ONE door out... :S . Damned telvannis and their magic.
Use the telekinesis to take everything in the room from the corner where the guards cant see. i suggest teleporting out once you have everything, as leaving will make you fight another one of those demon dudes. might as well avoid it if you can.

The redoran treasury is the hardest. Two locked rooms, both with guards everywhere. Nowhere where they cant see you.
I used an invisibility spell, and a really high sneak skill to pick the locks right in front of them without them seeing, then sneaking by them and taking all the items. You can also find the keys hidden within the canton, but i was never able to find them.

If your sneak skill is not high enough, then theres a really easy trick for training it.

Just find some really stupid peasant somewhere in the game that doesnt move around at all. Then walk in behind them (without them turning around) and quicksave. Now put some kind of weight down on the sneak button in behind them.

Now leave the room.

Go take a shower, eat, do your homework, go out, mod your other computer , or something else.

come back in a few hours and your sneak skill will have gone way up.

Using this same method you can train your athletics. Download the latest morrowind patch, then find a small pool with no fish in it, or swim WAY out into the ocean where theres no nasty little fishies (make sure you have an intervention scroll for this one). Or, find a corner.

Now hold the forward key into a corner of the pool that you ll keep swimming into and wont move. Or point out into the middle of the ocean. Or run into the corner of the wall. Now hit Q to keep heading in that direction. Leave the game for a few hours as well, and come back to find your skill increased.

Jumping everywhere will also increase your acrobatics skill. Its also a far faster way of travelling than walking is.

With your newly increased sneak skill, you can steal just about anything in the game. Having a high acrobatics will help too. Holding sneak, you can usually steal just about anything you want to without people seeing. If you're unable, then find somewhere were they cant see you and use a telekinesis spell to take it. Using your acrobatics skill to jump to places you cant be caught also helps (plus its good for missions with really nasty baddies. Just jump up onto a tree or rock and shoot arrows/spells at them until they die).

If you have anywhere where you want to steal something, and need some help, pm me with the location and i ll try to find a way. Or any additions to this guide pm me as well.

Happy thieving

Very good guide. Btw, you got PM.

awesome guide man.

when I was playing morrowind, I went through all the grassland area and got tons of sweet stuff. I stopped plaing cause I had to go back to school and the workload is over- whelming.

man I miss that game. definately on my top 5 games i ever played

I was once a Morrowind addict as well. And about every 4 months I start to play and become an addict over again lol. Have beaten the game over three times I still need a guide for things I miss for forget. So often I go to here.
http://www.elderscrolls.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php
You can find patchs and new items here.
http://www.elderscrolls.com/index.php

more

heres some more info for the guide, courtesy of Papier

A few quests in Seyda Neen.

The very first quest you do is get the ring (that game forced you to take) and give it to forgath or whatever his name is. You'll get a major discount at the local store from now on.

Go talk to the guy that has all the questions that made your character, birth signs and so on. Ask him about a tax collecter and he'll say that one hasn't come back in a week. He'll the ask you to go find him (SAY YES!). The location of the dead tax collecter is west of Seyda Neen. Just follow the shore and you should find him. Get the money off of him and tax records (very important). Before you go back to that guy, go to the lady that lives in the light house. She's on the very top floor.Tell him about the tax collecter and she'll give you some potions if you find his killer. Now go back to that guy, give him the money and go after the killer. Bring up the tax records, read which one has not paid and ask around. You should be given instructions to his house. Be prepared to kill him. Look on his body for the ring and take it back to the lady. Now go back to that guy and get your reward money. You can now also use the killer's house as your own for now.

To get a discount on the silt rider, talk to a guy that's in the village (forgot his name. if anyone knows, please post) and ask him a few questions. Then he'll say mention his name to the silt rider and you'll get a discount. There is also another quest if you talk to the silt rider about the man whom you just talked to.


Also a note on beast races. For Kajiit, they make the perfect thieves. On my first thief as a kajiit, I managed to get 75 agility at lvl 1. I had no troubles stealing alot of stuff from the first building you begin in.

Argonians make for very good Alchemists and/or thieves. They are completely immune to poison and disease so you can raid most of the tombs in the game without having to worry things like corpse rot and so on. And since they have high agility (and high intelligence if you're a female argon) they make good thieves too.

*Spoiler for the Purists* Beast races can wear helmets, but not all. One of the strongest helmets in the game that beast races can wear is glass helmet. Glass armor is preferred by thieves and classes that has light armor.

Finally, here's some resources for pretty much everything Morrowind.

www.rpgplanet.com/morrowind
www.morrowindfiles.com
www.gamefaqs.com
http://www.elderscrolls.com/index.php
http://unforgottenrealms.net/downlo...string=Astarsis (Some very beautiful faces here)

Would anybody be able to post some info on beginning as a fighter/mage? I never went this route, so im not very knowlagable on it.

I never really liked the fighter/mage so I don't know much about 'em.

I think I'll add some more to your guide.

Some ways of gaining money... the honest way. Honest!

Like shifty said, you get the most gold and items by stealing. "But papier, I'm a good-doer two footer (Yes all good-doers are dwarfs )", in that case I'll write you some tips on getting some money.

Items to sell

There are several items that you can find in dungeons or old dwarf places that you can find good stuff. One big seller is Dwarf Coins. Dwarf coins are wort 50 gold a piece and they don't weigh much. If you're higher up, this isn't really a good option but if you're lower level then it's good.

If you have alot of strength, another item is Ebony. There is a mine south of Balmoria that is an Ebony mine. This is actually a quest. Find the mine, then go to Vivec. There is a haunted mansion inside one of the canteens that everyone talks about. Go there and find a Hlaalu official. You'll get some VERY nice rewards for the info you give him.

Hunting down Golden Saints and taking their items is profitable.

Remember to go to Caldera and find a Scamp. He'll be in a 3 story mansion with orcs in it. You can sell high-dollars items to him.
To sell some very high dollar items, sell him a few good items that are worth a grand or two. Then rest 24 hours so he can get his 5 grand back. Keep doing this untill you sold enough items that are equal to the cost of the item you're trying to sell. Then buy back all those items and finally sell that high-piece item. Tada, you're rich!

If you're an enchanter, you can make alot of money selling soul gems with creatures inside. Just remember though that you can't really sell golden saints' souls.... they're worth over a 100k gold!

An alchemists can have a very steady supply of gold by finding a town that constantly sells ingredients to make potions (go to gamefaqs.com and do a search on which shops that always sell an item.). In Balmoria, going to the mage guild's alchemist will sell you two items to make potions. Make them and sell them back for a profit. Keep doing this untill you're happy (or you're bored).

That's all I can think of for now. If anyone wants to add some stuff, go ahead!

Thanks for the great info, I just have a quick question.


I'm going to start over with the new info and want to steal stuff from some venders to get started. How do I steal items off shelves in stores when gaurds are around?

Is it just a matter of getting sneak up and getting where people have their backs to you? Or can you steal things from under their noses with a high enough sneak?

Also, what would be a good combination of thief/fighter (primarily thief) and most importantly, should I take magic skills for telekinesis and all those other spells mentioned?

ps, I am playing the Xbox GOTY edition, so I can't DL user made conent.

It's just a matter of sneaking around where people have their backs to you. Once your sneak is really high, then you can start stealing stuff from under their noses. But until then, its all about being a pro at stealing while they re not looking.
The redoran manor is a good place for stealing stuff too.

Taking magic skills as a thief/fighter isnt a very good idea. Too much multiclassing waters down your skill in each. Its best to pick just one and go with that, then multiclass as you start to get really good at your chosen class.
When you re low level, magic skills are basicly useless. You need to have a really good skill in the magic to have a good chance at success. Try to find a ring/amulet/sword etc with the magic power youre looking for.

If you really want, you could try going for a thief/mage and put a few mage skills into your major skills if you really want though. It'd work, but i dont know how well, having not played the mage much.

Personally, id just go for a thief and get the magic items for the magic.

ooh, another thing i remembered.

If you ever end up finding those "boots of blinding speed", dont sell them, whatever you do.

For those not familiar, the boots of blinding speed make you run super super super fast, at the coast of your vision (100% blindness constant effect).

Thing is, if you re partway through the main quest and have found the Cuirass of the Saviours Hide, then you re in luck. Wearing this makes you 60% immune to magika, which includes the magika of the boots. So therefore wearing the cuirass then putting on the boots makes you super fast...minus the blindness.

So you end up with a pair of boots of not-quite-so-blinding speed

using that linked with a high acrobatics skill jumping everywhere makes you go like stink. Like im talking straight up mountains and over the other side in no time. You end up just using the map to point where you wanting to go and going straight forward, no thought of obstacles in mind.

Oh man !
Things you guys mentioned: maxing and finding stuff, selling, thieving, pursuing quests, being mage-fighter-thief all at once, economy and buying yourself free is what mede me buy this game with all of it expansions =) ( And this was before they gave out Gold Edition )
But as I said in other thread those rats, oh those rats =\

Anyhow I'm determined to play this game again as soon I got some free time on my hands...

One question for now
Can you be member of several guilds at the same time? And what happens if you leave your guild ?

Thank you for your time!

I recommend the gamefaqs.com boards. They don't suck too bad.

I'd like to add that magic is a huge asset in this game, especially when thieving.

Yes, you can be a member of all the guilds at the same time - as long as you don't annoy your guildmates, you'll be fine.

Firstly, one of the best modifications that you can make to this game is to increase the wealth of merchants - creeper in particular. This way you can actually sell valuable loot and make decent use of it.

Secondly, magic/enchantment is incredibly useful, and surprisingly cheap. In order to enchant something (either by yourself, or by paying someone) you must first know a spell that has the effect which you want to enchant. Then, you need to have a soul gem with a soul inside it. I can't remember the name of the spell effect that lets you capture souls, but I know it's mysticism.

All you thieves might like to get a ring/amulet that opens any lock
-just learn a spell that 'opens' something, and then you can enchant something with 'open 100 points on touch'. It will take a bit to recharge, but will open anything.

Levitation is also very useful, and very cheap. 1-2 points for ~25-30 seconds per use is usually what I start out with. If you need to stay levitated you can just use the item again whilst airborn.

Telekenisis and chameleon are also very useful for thieves and assassins. Keep in mind that if you attack someone from behind while sneaking, and they don't notice you before you attack, your damage is increased quite a bit.

Later in the game when you start capturing golden saint souls, you can start making constant effect enchantments - which is where the fun starts.

As a side note, an easy way to use the Boots of Blinding Speed with little or no penalty to sight is to make a spell or enchantment that grants you 60-100% magic resistance for 1-2 seconds. As long as you don the boots while the spell is active, your sight should be good. Nighteye also helps.

I'll also be around from 9-5 if you want to PM.

using the cuirass of the saviours hide is better

i found that chameleon was never really that effective. People always saw me anyways. i suppose you have to be sneaking while you have chameleon on? never tried that.

Invisibility is better. You can buy good potions/spells/items that will give you good invisibility.

If you wanna try for the chameleon, you can either buy a cheap ring or you can finish a quest for larrius varro in the legion fort near balmora, which includes killing everyone in the club near the stilt strider (and then taking all their stuff when you were finished )

i found nighteye was kind of a waste. If it really gets so dark that you re having trouble seeing, just turn up the gamma on your monitor, or the brightness of the game . using a constant effect nighteye might help too.


ENCHANTING

When you re good enough to start capturing golden saints and enchanting things, find and exquisite robe. Enchant it with a heal constant effect. I was only able to fit heal 1 point constant effect. doenst sound like much but this effect will heal you 1 hp every second, which saves you lots of trouble healing yourself all the time. Doing the same thing with exquisite pants/shirts might help too, but i beleive they dont have as good of an enchant value.


In order to enchant items, you must either have a really high enchant skill, or find a merchant who will do it for you (100% success rate but very expensive). Then you must find a soulstone. Theres different qualities of soulstones. Lesser, common, greater, etc. The more powerful the soul of something you re trying to trap, the better soulgem you will need. Golden saints have the best enchant power, with the soul expection of vivec (but killing him interrupts quests).

Once you have enough good, empty souljems, you should go out hunting. In earlier versions of the game, you only need to kill the creature, then use a capture soul spell or item effect to capture the soul of the creature. But in later patches you must cast it on the creature while its still alive, THEN kill them. For these later versions, its better to find a weapon that will cast it on hitting the creature. Only monsters, not humans, can have their soul captured.

Once you have the soul captured, then you can enchant something. The power of the soul you have determines how much power your item will have (how much charge until the item is drained). Then you have to choose an item to enchant. Different items can hold a different amount of enchantment(called enchant value). The more powerful the enchantment, the higher the enchant value. You must balance out the power you want with the enchant value of the item, with the charge it will take to the charge available in the soul gem. The best items to enchant are daedric weapons, or the ebony staff if you re a wizard.

For an example, i enchanted two swords with enchant value 20. The souls i had trapped gave me 200 charge (i beleive, they were golden saints). I made one sword that did 66-100 fire damage, and one that did 66-100 cold damage. i made two in case either one ran out, or i found a creature immune to one of the two damage types (such as nords who are immune to cold). Fire and cold are opposites, so i assumed that any creature immune to one would not be immune to the other. I also enchanted my glass shield to heal me 300 points of health (for those nasty fights where they hit you for aLOT of damage), and my cloak for 1 point constant effect.

*****make sure you check the activation for your spell effect.
-Constant effect takes up aLOT of enchant value, and costs alot of money from an enchanter, and its effect lasts forever, or happens every second (such as in my healing cloak, healing 1 pt per second).
-on hit effects activate only when you hit a creature/person. Best for weapons (obviously).
-on target are ranged effects. You must specifiy a range for these spells as well. This is the default, so you often find yourself accidently making an on target effect spell instead of the constant effect or on hit you were looking for. LOOK OUT
-on self i beleive is the last one. This one you just have to specify when to use it, and it will only affect you. These are for healing spells etc.


A good way to increase your enchanting skill is to make a ring or something that deals 1 point fire damage to you, and heals you one point on self. so dealing damage and healing you at the same time. Useless item for anything other than training your skill. If you have a golden saint as the charge, this item will get tons of uses. Just keep casting it until it runs out, then sleep until its recharged. Your enchant skill will slowly increase (increases when you enchant items, or use enchanted items).

Hope this helped

any more topics people want covered?

i eneded up quiitting it becasue i got halfway through with my main house (the theif one) and ended up just installing house mods and sucha dn oign crazy with all the cool mods and not actually moving forward in the game...