Morrowind - Explain Magic to me

[Solver]

Blinding Speed boots are damn great for running away from monsters.

Actually, if you create a 2 sec Resist Magica 100 spell, cast it, and immediately equip boots, you get no Blind.

[loinburger]

Bretons (and Orcs) just need to keep trying to equip the boots until they stick without the blindness. Natural magic resistance: it's a good thing.

I was tempted to go for a High Elf sorceror (spell points out the wazoo!), but in hindsight I'm glad I went with a Breton.

[raghar]

You neet to buy spells to learn effects. aka how can I learn levitation?
second problem, how can I cast levitation.

Actually they could use better system, I mailed them in time, but they ignored my mail.

[Eli]

How do I use telekinesis? I bought some telekinesis spell, 5 seconds 25ft on self. How does it work?

And where can I get the Alchemy set?

[loinburger]

Telekinesis allows you to open things from a distance, or to pick things up from a distance. E.g., your telekinesis spell will allow you to steal things from 25 feet away, or to open chests from 25 feet away. It's useful for opening trapped doors/chests (the trap won't hurt you if you're far enough away), for hiding around corners where the guards can't see you while you steal stuff, etc. It was such fun that I eventually made myself a constant effect telekinesis enchantment.

I forget whether or not the spell also allows you to pick pockets from a distance.

[Eli]

So I cast it and go stealing everything I want?

[loinburger]

Yup, but you still aren't allowed to steal in plain sight -- if you're standing in the middle of a room and steal something from the opposite end of the room, and a shopkeeper has his eye on you, then you'll get caught. You've gotta sneak around a corner out of sight of the shopkeeper, then steal whatever you're after.

[BustaMike]

I swear... some of the things said in this thread make me wonder if you guys have played the game before.

NOTE - THIS POST PROBABLY CONTAINS SPOILERS

Bretons (and Orcs) just need to keep trying to equip the boots until they stick without the blindness.

The boots will equip the same everytime. Your magicka resistance isn't a random number. You will always be blinded to some degree unless you make a resist magicka spell (like someone mentioned... just make one that has 100 resist magicka for 1 sec.) or get items that resist magicka ala Curiass of the Savior's Hide, Ring of Phynaster, etc.

Whoops, the artifact I was thinking of was the Mace of Molag Bal.

The Mace of Molag Bal has absorb magicka, not regen magicka.

Enchant is a pretty useless skill once you find Azura's Star, but it's a huge money-saver otherwise

That's completely absurd. Enchant is one of the best skills to max, and it has nothing to do with creating your own items using the skill. The higher your enchant skill, the less charges items use and the faster they recharge. This is very important when using items that take a lot of charges - for example and ebony staff enchanted with 100% weakness to fire for 2 sec and 100 fire damage for 2 sec (likely the toughest weapon).
Also, even with super high intelligence and a max enchant skill it is very VERY difficult to successfully make good enchanted items whereas paying for it give you a 100% chance of success. ALWAYS pay to make enchanted items unless you feel like wasting stuff or reloading forever. NOTE - It's possible to get around this by making a billion fortify intelligence potions, but you can also give yourself millions to every stat doing this and I consider it cheating.

Having money problems?
Buy the summon Dremora or Summon Golden Saint spells in Tel Branora. Summon one and kill it. Click on it before the corpse vanishes (do it quick). Take the weapon and sell it to the Creeper or the Mudcrab. Tons of money. NOTE - you can also create a spell with soultrap on target and summon whatever on self for one sec, cast it while walking forward in 3rd person, and create a permanent summon whose corpse won't dissappear when it's killed (kind of cheating but good for money or a laugh).

If you're born under the sign of the Atronach then the only way to regenerate spell points is to either have somebody cast a spell at you (you've got a chance of absorbing the spell points) or to drink a potion that restores spell points.

The best way is to go to a shrine and pay the 25 bucks or so for a blessing. Rilm's grace gives back over 400 magicka points when it's absorbed usually. The restoration blessings are pretty good, too. Obviously this only works if you have spell absorb (which the Atronach does).

You may want to restart under an easier sign, like the Mage or the Apprentice

Why would you ever do that unless you're purposely trying to make your character weaker? The Atronach is waaay better and ample restore magicka potions are available in the Mage Guild supply chest (and don't forget using shrines is an easy way to get all your magicka back for cheap, too.)

My thoughts on a Mage Character:
First of all, pure magic attacks in morrowind are far inferior to melee attacks in terms of both damage and ease of use. It's a game balance issue. Early on you'll have to use a weapon to kill things. Later on, high level destruction spells should be able to kill things.

If you use destruction, fire and frost should be your first choices. Shock is more expensive and comparable poison damage costs about twice as much. If you consider using a staff weapon for a mage to be ok (seems fine to me), you should definately create the ebony staff I mentioned above, as it is ridiculously powerful (kills Golden Saints in one hit). BUT, it uses charges like mad so you must have a high enchant skill and you must create it with a high level soul (Golden Saint or Ascended Sleeper). Even then it might still run out if used too often, but the power is worth it.

Alteration is the most important spell for you early on. The open spell allows access to many of the games best items early on, especially those in Tel Fyr. Create an open 100 pts spell ASAP and as soon as you have a decent chance to cast it run to Tel Fyr and loot the Curiass of the Saviors Hide for good defense and 60% magicka resistance.

The best character in the game fighter, theif, or mage is a Breton Atronach. Go grab the Saviors Hide and already you have 110% magicka resistance making you immune to all but elemental spells (many of which the Atronachs spell absorb will catch anyway).

Alchemy is fun, but it isn't really useful.
Mysticism should be raised until you can cast Mark and Recall consistantly. It has no other use.
Destruction is cool, but needs to be high level to do anything really.
Alteration is the most important magic skill (Open, Levitate, WaterWalk, etc...)
Illusion is cool for Chameleon and that's it, but there are items you could use, too (like that amulet by Gnisis).
Restoration is useless as far as I'm concerned.
Conjuration doesn't do to much either, but it's nice to be able to summon a Golden Saint and loot it.
Enchant is VITAL as far as I'm concened, see what I said above.

[loinburger]

Meh, I found that the only enchanted items I'd use in the middle-to-late stages of the game were the Constant Effect items (and a high Enchant skill doesn't help with them) and Goldbrand (which has such a fantastic natural charge efficiency and recharges so easily that the Enchant skill doesn't really assist in its use). The skill is such a pain in the ass to improve that I just didn't find it worthwhile to make it a major/minor skill -- it was easier to just use a spell in lieu of an enchanted item, except in those rare cases that I'd use my uber-power enchanted items (like the artifacts that I looted off of the Ash Vampires) for a particularly tough fight.

Alchemy is by no means a necessity, but it has a nice pseudo-cheat associated with it -- the power of your potions is dependent upon your Luck and Intelligence attributes (as well as on your Alchemy skill), so you can create a potion that improves your Luck and Intelligence, drink it, create a more powerful potion that improves your Luck and Intelligence, drink it, create a yet more powerful potion, etc. In a relatively short amount of time you're so bloody Lucky and Intelligent that you're creating potions that give you near-Godlike powers that have tremendous durations. It's a pseudo-cheat and I wouldn't recommend playing through the entire game under the influence of your uber-potions, but it's damn fun to Godify yourself from time to time and, say, clean out an entire vampire stronghold without breaking a sweat.

[Eli]

Originally posted by loinburger
Yup, but you still aren't allowed to steal in plain sight -- if you're standing in the middle of a room and steal something from the opposite end of the room, and a shopkeeper has his eye on you, then you'll get caught. You've gotta sneak around a corner out of sight of the shopkeeper, then steal whatever you're after.

But I can do this even without telekinesis.

BustaMike : Thanks for the tips.

[Qilue]

Constant effect items can virtually replace Alteration and Restoration. Water breathing, water walking, levitate, night eye, restore fatigure and restore health are expecially worthwhile.

An exquisite ring has enough space for 40 pts of night eye and 8 points of restore fatigue (I think, it's been a while since I played). Never get tired and always be able to see.

An expensive amulet with water breathing and you never have to worry about drowning.

An expensive amulet with 1 pt of levitate. Put on when you want to levitate and take off when you don't.

Another enchantment that I found extremely usefull. With the dwemer spear you find in the first Caius quest dungeon, enchant it with -
"Spell trap, cast on touch for 50 sec" (I named mine Soulcatcher)
Hit once and switch to a real weapon

Why? It's faster to change from a weapon to a weapon than it is to change from a spell to a weapon. Golden saints are very rude and wont wait for you to get a weapon ready.

[Solver]

Enchant is indeed very, very useful. I had it as Major, and spent quite some bucks on training it, but I don't regret. Then I enchanted one blade with Soultrap, and I try to deal the killing blow with it... I have quite some charged souls all the time, therefore. Either those of low-level creatures, that I can sell, or a few nice Golden Saint/Dremora souls. With a high enchant skill, I can then do whatever I want .

BTW, while talking about enchanted items, such a shame that the Moon-and-Star ring is so useless .

[BustaMike]

BTW, while talking about enchanted items, such a shame that the Moon-and-Star ring is so useless

No kidding. You'd think that by beating the game you'd get something cool

[Eli]

I cant find the god damn Destruction master trainer. I know it's Leles Birian east of Pelagiad, east of Piernette's farmhouse, but I just cant find neither her nor the damn farmhouse.

[BustaMike]

Yeah, she's kinda standing in the middle of nowhere. It took me a while to find her. Maybe open up the Editor and go FIND - Leles Birian. It'll zoom in on her and then you can get a look at where she is so you can find her in game.

... you know what's fun to do with destruction spells. Get a massive fire spell, raise your acrobatics to 100, and pretend you're playing quake, jumping around enemies and blasting rockets at them (stupid but fun).

... you know what's even more fun... create a jump 100 pt. for 1 sec. spell for yourself. Use it, jump, watch the ground dissappear, and wait to die from the fall . With high strength and max acrobatics I got my guy airborn for around 20 seconds.

[BustaMike]

Originally posted by Qilue
Constant effect items can virtually replace Alteration and Restoration. Water breathing, water walking, levitate, night eye, restore fatigure and restore health are expecially worthwhile.

An exquisite ring has enough space for 40 pts of night eye and 8 points of restore fatigue (I think, it's been a while since I played). Never get tired and always be able to see.

An expensive amulet with water breathing and you never have to worry about drowning.

An expensive amulet with 1 pt of levitate. Put on when you want to levitate and take off when you don't.

Another enchantment that I found extremely usefull. With the dwemer spear you find in the first Caius quest dungeon, enchant it with -
"Spell trap, cast on touch for 50 sec" (I named mine Soulcatcher)
Hit once and switch to a real weapon

Why? It's faster to change from a weapon to a weapon than it is to change from a spell to a weapon. Golden saints are very rude and wont wait for you to get a weapon ready.

All of that is true, but why would you want to waste your amulet or ring space on something as trivial as water breathing? Those spells are wasteful when used as constant effect enchantments. I would much rather use the Necromancer's amulet or the Ring of Phynaster than have constant effect water breathing and night eye or whatever else you enchanted onto it.

As for constant effect levitate, an exquisite belt can hold the 1 pt. you need with a couple pts. of fortify attribute (40 slots) instead of using an exquisite amulet (120 slots).

[Eli]

20 seconds.

20 seconds. This is the time that passed between my decision to give up on the search for Leles Birian and my stumbling stright into her.

[Solver]

Necromancer's Amulet is absolutely goddamn fantastic. NO item in the game can actually hold this much enchantment, and wow it helps me in battles! Spell Absorbtion, weapon resistance, AND health regeneration? Whew! Just don't forget to re-equipt it after using some other enchanted amulet.

On topic of more enhcantments. I found the Amulet of Shadows to be possibly the best item I own (you get in after a quest). It provides 1 (or 2?) minute Chameleon 80%, which is really, really a lot.I was training my Sneak skill a lot, and so that I had it at over 50 when I got the item. Well, use it and Sneak, and you can get anything. Now my Sneak is 65, I think, and I'm able to take stuff right from shopkeeper's table, or open a door 1 metre from some guy... awesome. Or, I can cast it before a tough battle, and most enemies will just be running around like idiots looking for me, while I can take them out with ranged spells.

Another enchantment I hold, on a belt. It's old good Night Eye spell, that has quite some points and duration. Simply put, no dark places.. Even the darkest of Dwemer caves are turned into not-too-dark places.

Weapons. As a mage character, I mainly rely on magic to do stuff for me, but I do keep a range of weapons with me, though. My main one is Short Blade, high skill. Secondary is anything ranged, decent skill. So, I walk around with a wide range of blades, and they're mostly pretty light, like a Glass Dagger doesn't really weigh much. So, they're enchanted with different damage spells, like Shock or Frost. Another blade has Damage Fatigue 20 and Absorb Fatigue 20 on it, quite useful. Of course, the good old jinxblade is in, too. Paralyze 20 secs, fortify attack 5 pts. Kinda overpowered on guys without reflect, because in 20 secs you can kill anyone. Souldrinker, a really light blade that does, nonetheless, have 30 second soultrap and some little frost, forget what, enchanted to it.

Bows... using a Dwarven Crossbow that does damn good damage, and also keeping quite some arrows with me all the time, but no bow. That's because the Bound Longbow spell is only 6 magicka, which is nothing for me. Much better to relieve myself of the extra weight. Gotta love conjuration... can create a weapon for myself, can create meat shields...

Oh, and finally my big, honking weapon. A Daedric Shortsword that has as much Shock Damage added to it as it can hold. Very, very formidable.

So, more enchantments for rings/amulets. Constant effect water breathing isn't a good idea, you can probably put a simple cast when used ring water breathing, and it will recharge quickly enough to allow you a few minutes underwater easily.

A real fun idea is to grab an Exquisite Amulet and put up quite some summoning spells there. Not exactly sure how many can be held, but something like summoning two Frost Atronachs seems a nice idea.

If you've got an extravagant ring, you can enchant it with a nice duration Summon Golden Saint, 20 secs or more. A good meat shield, and superb for getting souls.

This one comes from elsewhere... undead replusion. A shirt or something, Turn Undead 60 points on touch, maximize area... woo hoo, you've just created an area where those damn corpses fear to enter.

Remember that if you have a suit of armor, it's good to enchant it with constant effect, too. Sanctuary is some of the best to do it, and it adds up. So, two Pauldrons with 3 Sanctuary, and a shield with 10 sancrtuary will be 16 sanctuary... you get the idea ?

[Eli]

What sanctuary does?

And the Amulet of Shadows is great. I got him couple hours ago and it already helped me to win one tough battle against 3 Dremora Lords and some other human.
I couldnt defeat them using the conventional way, so I sneaked behind the human using the amulet... Bang, one hit with my Dwarven Hammer and he's dead. I ran away and repeated the procedure three more times.

[loinburger]

Sanctuary reduces the chance that you'll be hit in melee combat. 100% Sanctuary == immune to melee attacks. (I think it works against missile attacks as well, but I'm not sure.)

[BustaMike]

Sanctuary is good, but it doesn't mean immune. I don't know why, but against big enemies like Dagoth Ur or that Firemoth Lich or some later enemies from the Giants mod, even having over 100 sactuary will not protect you from all melee attacks.

I like enchanting a Daedric Tower Shield (225 slots) with 1-89 Sanctuary. Reequip it until the number is in the 80's and laugh as stuff tries to hit you and can't.

Hey, don't forget that you can get a good daedric weapon of your choice by going to the Vassir Disandat mine south of Balmora and then talking to that dude in the St. Olms Haunted Manor.

All this discussion actually made me start another game . I'm using Giants 2, Wilderness Mod, MW Advanced, etc. for new creatures. I also started using Drakonis' Voice Mod and it's great. I'm looking forward to becoming the head of the Imperial Legion so I can have personal guards following me around all the time. In the mean time, I've hired a mercenary from the Fighter's Guild. After I gave him a weapon with life steal (and upped his speed with the console so he keeps up) he's been great fun.

Here's me

[loinburger]

I think that if somebody has an enhanced Attack skill that it will negate some of your Sanctuary skill, so like if you've got 100 Sanctuary but a powerful enemy has a magically enhanced chance to hit in melee then your Sanctuary isn't completely effective.

[Dis]

anyone know how to get different spell effects? I can creat spells, but it only allows me to do fire and healing I think.

There is so much about magic I don't understand. I just keep casting fireball . But that isn't that powerful of a spell.

I have a fighter/mage so I'm mostly a fighter. I just use range attacks until the enemy closes in.

[Tuberski]

Originally posted by Dissident
anyone know how to get different spell effects? I can creat spells, but it only allows me to do fire and healing I think.

There is so much about magic I don't understand. I just keep casting fireball . But that isn't that powerful of a spell.

I have a fighter/mage so I'm mostly a fighter. I just use range attacks until the enemy closes in.

To get different spell effects, you have to buy the spell effect first.

For example:

If you want a custom Levitate spell, you have to buy the premade Levitate spell first.

ACK!

[Dis]

ahh thanks. I did see something about buying spells. I'll have to do that.

[Tuberski]

Originally posted by Dissident
ahh thanks. I did see something about buying spells. I'll have to do that.

If you want to make a spell that restores an ability, strength for instance, you only need to BUY one restore ability spell.

Same with increasing abilities.

ACK!

[pg]

are there any good mods for this game now that improve gameplay and difficulty significantly? btw, i don't know why anyone would want to be a mage in morrowind as using hand held weapon is much easier, and more powerful.

[BustaMike]

Originally posted by pg
are there any good mods for this game now that improve gameplay and difficulty significantly? btw, i don't know why anyone would want to be a mage in morrowind as using hand held weapon is much easier, and more powerful.

To answer the 2nd question - because the game is ridiculously easy and it gets boring. Being a mage changes it up a little.

To answer your first question here's the mods I recommend:

Giants
Wilderness Mod (by PumaMan)
Duncann's Atmospheric Sound Effects (version 4.0 is SWEET!)
Morrowind Advanced by WormGod

The Adventurers Plugin and SuperAdventurers mess with a lot of the game armor, spell, weapon, etc values making the game much more balanced but I don't like using it because it really nerfed some stuff it shouldn't have (Open Spells are worthless now, Daedric Weapon damage is nerfed, etc.). Also, all the new NPC's rape my framerate in places. You might give 'em a try though.

[Dis]

I'm not sure if the game is that easy for me yet. I was in a tomb the other day and these skeleton shooting arrows messed me up. Although I might have done better had I just started whacking him with my sword. I tried fireballs, but his magical arrows hurt me faster than I could hurt him.

There are a couple areas I have wandered in from the wilderness that seemed very tough. I was probably too low a level for those places. But I like to explore the countryside. I don't take the striders all that often. I like walking a lot.

[Solver]

I'm not sure if the game is that easy for me yet. I was in a tomb the other day and these skeleton shooting arrows messed me up. Although I might have done better had I just started whacking him with my sword. I tried fireballs, but his magical arrows hurt me faster than I could hurt him.

It's later in the game when it gets easy. When you're an uber guy with so much armor that you're tough to kill, have a huge Ebony Mace enchanted for more damage, and your skill at it is 80, and you have a ton of decent items with you... do anything you can .