Morrowind experiences vol. 2 - Page 2

loinburger · August 30, 2002, 19:57

Quote:

Originally posted by Jon Miller
I don't plan on putting any points towards sneak or security with that character

Aye, that's the way to do it. I used the Security skill for crappy locks (level 5 or 10) and kept a few lockpicks handy for them, but for high level locks I either looked for the key or else used an Open spell (I carried nine Open spells on me whose power was in increments of 10, from Open 20 to Open 100, calling them Open1, Open2, Open3, etc. so that I could quickly locate them in my spellbook--this way I minimized the magicka cost of opening doors. I trained and practiced my Alteration skill up until I could cast Open at 100 power without any chance of failure, and then didn't bother making Alteration any more powerful--Open 100 is the most powerful Alteration spell you'll ever need). You'll want to have Sneak at a decent level, because while Chameleon and Invisibility will help you sneak, they're not guaranteed unless your Sneak skill is also moderately high. (Sneak is easy to power-practice, though, so even if it's a Miscellaneous skill you can still work it up to a moderate level fairly easily. Also, the guy who can train your Sneak skill up to 100 for you is lousy at Mercantile, so his services are pretty cheap.)

loinburger · August 30, 2002, 20:10

Quote:

Originally posted by Jon Miller
so it might be worthless for me (I know no spells?)

You can always buy a cheap spell and delete it when you're done enchanting with it (hold down the SHIFT key and click on the spell in your spellbook). The power of the spell (or even whether you can even cast the spell) is irrelevant when you're Enchanting--if you have a spell that restores 1 health point, then you could still enchant an item to restore 100 health points if that's what you wanted to do.

Quote:

what is a simple way I could see? (could I have the spell in scrolls and enchant from that?)

Use the Enchanting service from somebody, there's no risk involved until you actually click the "enchant item" button when you're in the Enchanting menu. (The only thing to bear in mind is that when you select an item for enchanting, you automatically unequip the item, so remember to re-equip all of your items that you were toying around with in the Enchantment menu).

Quote:

how do I get a soul?

Buy/find/steal a suitably powerful soul gem, cast Soul Trap on an appropriate creature (using a spell, scroll, or item, it doesn't matter which), then kill the creature before the Soul Trap expires (or before the creature Dispels the Soul Trap; Golden Saints have a bad habit of doing this to me, I'll be about to kill one when it suddenly casts Dispel on itself and I lose the soul).

Soul gems come in five different flavors--Petty, Lesser, Standard, Greater, and Grand, in order of weakest to strongest. Weak soul gems cannot contain powerful souls, for example a Petty soul gem cannot hold the soul of a powerful creature like a Storm Atronach, although it could hold the soul of a weak creature like a Giant Rat. The most powerful souls (Dremora Lords, Golden Saints, Ascended Sleepers, and Winged Twilights, to name a few) can only be contained within Grand soul gems, which are exceedingly rare. If you kill a creature while it has a Soul Trap spell cast on it, and if you have an appropriate (empty) soul gem in your inventory, then a text box will appear on screen saying "You have successfully trapped a soul," and your soul gem will reflect its changed status in your inventory screen. You can use a filled soul gem to recharge an enchanted item at any time, by dragging the soul gem over your portrait in the inventory screen. This uses your Enchant skill to determine whether or not you were successful (if unsuccessful, the item will not be recharged but you'll still have used the soul gem). Soul gems that are used to recharge an item or that are used to create an enchanted item are destroyed (with the exception of Azura's Star, which has been mentioned a few times on the last thread), so be sure to use your rare empty soul gems (Greater and especially Grand) to trap the most powerful creatures possible.

Jon Miller · August 30, 2002, 20:20

thanks

possibly I will do that then (I would like to enchant my admantium armor)

Jon Miller

loinburger · August 30, 2002, 21:07

Quote:

Originally posted by Jon Miller
possibly I will do that then (I would like to enchant my admantium armor)

If you aren't in a money crunch, then everything you own should be enchanted. I started enchanting my pants and shirts after I finished enchanting my armor and rings. If your items aren't enchanted then you aren't using them to optimal effect.

Jon Miller · August 31, 2002, 01:22

I just saw how expensive it was

to put a simple cure spell on a ring it cost 7000 dollars, I could buy a ring with cure on it for les than 100

why do you have to recharge enchantments

and how much does it cost?

(I bought a rat in the smallest gem BTW)

Jon Miller

loinburger · August 31, 2002, 01:38

Quote:

Originally posted by Jon Miller
I just saw how expensive it was

Yeah, enchanting's only for those who aren't in any kind of money crunch. (Or for those with obscenely high Enchant skills.)

Quote:

why do you have to recharge enchantments

and how much does it cost?

Items/weapons that are "cast when used" or "cast when strikes" have a limited number of charges on them. These charges slowly rebuild on their own, but for those of us who are in a hurry they can be recharged much more quickly by expending filled soul gems. The stronger the soul, the more the item is recharged.

The cost is equal to the cost of the soul gem, assuming that the recharge is successful. (You need a decent Enchant skill if you're going to manually recharge your items, because if you fail in the recharge then the gem is wasted. In your case, just let the item recharge on its own.)

Note: Items/weapons that are "constant effect" never need to be recharged, but they're extremely rare, cost a fortune to create, and can only be made with the most powerful (and difficult to obtain) souls.

Jon Miller · August 31, 2002, 01:54

hmm, OK

(so I do not need to worry about recharging that is good)

yah, I thought I had plenty of money (I can buy most anything, I have several thousand)

but a good enchantment is a lot....

Jon Miller

Jon Miller · August 31, 2002, 13:01

hey Nov

youa re back online, why don't you give the rest of the info about your character

(I spent a couple hours last night and mine has gone up a bit, it seems like nothing in the beginning will increase your fame, but later on your fame increases faster)

Jon miller

loinburger · August 31, 2002, 14:58

Some guilds' quests increase your fame more quickly than others'. House quests will increase your fame, as will Temple and Cult quests. Fighter's Guild and Thieve's Guild quests won't increase your rep by very much (if at all).

In general, the "go find this person and kill them" or "go make this delivery" quests won't increase your rep, while the "go find this incredibly powerful item" quests will shoot your rep through the roof. Another rule of thumb is that the more you're getting paid for the quest, the less your rep will increase. Fighter's Guild and Thieve's Guild quests give out fairly high monetary rewards, while many Cult and Temple quests actually cost you money to complete.

Jon Miller · August 31, 2002, 15:00

hmm

maybe I shold do some more almoners quests (I said I doubled how much I collected, so I paid a lot (also I did not collect all that much))

Jon Miller

Jon Miller · August 31, 2002, 15:08

are either of you playing with additional plugins?

Jon Miller

loinburger · August 31, 2002, 15:28

I created a plugin (after I beat the game) to put a chest full of books in my stronghold at Tel Uvirith, and I put a copy of every book in the game in the chest. I've been catching up on my reading since then.

loinburger · August 31, 2002, 15:30

Quote:

Originally posted by Jon Miller
maybe I shold do some more almoners quests

The Oracle quests give you oodles of reputation points (an average of about 3 or 4 per quest), but they're also quite difficult. If you're after reputation then do the Oracle quests once they're available to you (and after you're strong enough to complete them).

Chowlett · August 31, 2002, 19:30

Quote:

I created a plugin (after I beat the game) to put a chest full of books in my stronghold at Tel Uvirith, and I put a copy of every book in the game in the chest. I've been catching up on my reading since then.

Which reminds me. Is it possible to edit my character to put that amulet I mentioned earlier on him? Or should I just edit the region where i currently am to have one on the ground, and then pick it up? I'm sorry, but a "Cast Ancestor Ghost" amulet is too good to turn down...

I'd also entirely forgotten you could recharge items by dropping your soul gems on them. That'll provide a use for my petty gems with rats and such like in them, easing my fighting and lightening my load!

Jon Miller · August 31, 2002, 19:35

why would you want a soul gem with a better soul in it?

and what if you get a really powerful soul and all oyu have is petty gems

Jon Miller

Chowlett · August 31, 2002, 19:55

Better gems give more charges when you enchant items with them. Also, as Loin pointed out, only tht top two souls allow Constant Effect. In addition, better souls are worth more.

If you try to trap a powerful soul in a small gem, it just doesn't work. I know, I tried.

Loin - with no points in security, how do you disarm traps?

Jon Miller · August 31, 2002, 20:00

it told me that it traps the soul int he smallest gem I have

does that mean that I have to get rid of petty gems if I catch a soul that can't fit in them but can in another gem I have?

Jon Miller

Chowlett · August 31, 2002, 20:03

No, the information is incomplete. It traps the soul in the smallest empty gem you have that is large enough, if any. I guess they figured that wasn't snappy enough. Or perhaps gems were all one size when the manual was printed.

loinburger · August 31, 2002, 20:07

Quote:

Originally posted by Chowlett
Loin - with no points in security, how do you disarm traps?

Telekinesis. Stand a few feet away, cast a telekinesis spell (or put on your telekinesis ring that you've enchanted), and open the trapped item. Trap goes off, you're unhurt. (Haven't tried this with the patched version, though.)

Most of the time I deliberately set off the trap without taking any precautions, though. It's a good way to recharge my magicka using the Atronach's absorption ability.

loinburger · August 31, 2002, 20:09

Quote:

Originally posted by Chowlett
Which reminds me. Is it possible to edit my character to put that amulet I mentioned earlier on him? Or should I just edit the region where i currently am to have one on the ground, and then pick it up?

I've never tried editing my character directly, but editing the region is fairly simple to do. I have trouble placing items directly (they tend to want to float in the air), but you can put the item in a container instead.

November Adam · September 1, 2002, 00:04

Hey Jon, haven't had time yet, had to go to a wedding.

But I will get all of the stats on my character as soon as I can.

I was thinking, can a summoned creature follow you when you are invisible?

If so why not summon a creature, cast soul trap on it, and then wander into an area with bad guys. Your creature dies, and you trap it's soul, all the while being safe and sound in your colak of invisibility!

loinburger · September 1, 2002, 00:48

Quote:

Originally posted by November Adam
If so why not summon a creature, cast soul trap on it, and then wander into an area with bad guys. Your creature dies, and you trap it's soul, all the while being safe and sound in your colak of invisibility!

My summoned creatures don't appreciate having a Soul Trap cast on them. They won't necessarily attack me, but they'll almost certainly run around like chickens with their heads cut off. (That's what Golden Saints tend to do, anyway, at least until they Dispel the trap. Other summoned creatures may behave differently, I can't say for sure since Golden Saints were the only summoned creatures that I cast Soul Trap on.)

I'm pretty sure they follow you when you're invisible, though. I never noticed any problems with my summoned creatures losing track of my location, and I'd be casting Chameleon spells all the time.

Jon Miller · September 1, 2002, 02:56

would getting rings of mark and recall be worth while?

Jon Miller

Jon Miller · September 1, 2002, 02:58

(I am refering to buying the spell, then putting it on the rings (it will be sure to cost a bunch)

I don't even no how to use them, but they sounded interesting...

Jon Miller

Jon Miller · September 1, 2002, 03:11

current enchanting items I am looking for (if I can find one to buy that would be better though since what I could buy for 15 dollars o so would probably cost thousands)

heal HP
soultrap (how long do you want to put it for, is touch or target better?)

ones I am thinking about:

Mark
Recall (is there going to be anything I need to do with these, the spells themselves only had 1 sec timers (I haven't bought them yet))

these things would all go on rings and the like (currently I have rings, amulets and shoes which boost speed, personality, speechcraft, and strength among other things I find useful)

what I would want on my armor and clothes is stuff to give me resistances and other thigns which aer constant effects

oh, one more thing, I used my last scroll of flight, is there anywhere where I can get more (or something that can do something similair?)

I thought feather did something similair but it doesn't

Jon Miller

loinburger · September 1, 2002, 10:54

Mark and Recall are extremely useful spells. Mark places a marker in the world, and Recall instantly recalls you to that marker. Very useful for ferrying large quantities of loot around. (Place a Mark spell where you've made your loot pile, and use Divine or Alsimvi Intervention to transport a handful of loot to the nearest city with a fast-travel option. Then Recall back to your loot pile, and repeat this process until you've transported all of your loot out of the dungeon and into a convenient city.) I'd suggest that you either enchant an item in order to be able to cast these spells (or find an enchanted item, I found one or two rings of Mark and Recall in my game), or else carry some scrolls around with you that let you cast the spells.

With the patched version of the game you can see how many hit points an opponent has left, so Soul Trap spells really only need to last for 10 to 20 seconds. Keep an eye on the enemy's health meter, and cast your spell when the enemy is near death. You might as well use a Touch spell, since you'll be up close and personal with the creature anyway.

There is nowhere to get new scrolls of Icarian Flight, and the only semi-equivalent spell in the game is Levitate.

Jon Miller · September 1, 2002, 11:03

so how long does the mark and recall spells need to last for (and thanks on the mark and recall bit, I will create them first I think)

Jon Miller

Jon Miller · September 1, 2002, 11:04

shoot, I wish it was possible to make Icarian Flight, that was useful...

Jon Miller

loinburger · September 1, 2002, 12:45

They're both instantaneous spells. The Mark stays around indefinitely (or until you cast another Mark, which wipes the old one out), but the actual spell has an instantaneous duration. Same with Recall.

Jon Miller · September 1, 2002, 18:22

hmm, a question for you two

I just joined Hlalu, but am having second thoughts

basically I want to know which hosue fits my two cahracters better

Character 1 has been described

shares 3 or 4 things in comon with Hlalu, shares 6 in common with Rendoran

has a focus in imperial life (cult and legion)

character 3 has been described

shares 3 things in common with Rendoran

shares 3 things in common with Hlalu

I was planing on giving him a focus on the temple and fighters/theives guild (But apparently those two are fighting so that will be hard to do)

I want to cover the complete range of quests with the three characters so I want to cover every guld well (if I do theves over fighters now I wil do fighters over theives later)

character 1 is not as much of a theif as character 3, but character 1 stands by his side (and so takes theives guild over fighters guild since he is at war with Camon Tong) so perhaps character 3 will have to be more fighter's guild oreinted (or so it appears)

so basically that paragraph said that even though my character (1) is not a good theif (merely competitent), he is being a good member of the theives guild

meaning that character 3 will have to be in the fighter's guild (despite being more of a theif)

help me put these characters together in a way that I get all the guilds focused on in 3 games, and my characters are true to themselves

Jon Miller