Tips for playing a mage in Morrowind, (caution...might be SPOILERS for some!!!) Options

[Renee]

Playing a mage character in Oblivion and Skyrim is pretty straightforward. You pick a few Destruction spells and blast away. You pick a few Conjuration spells and let your summons do the work. You pick some Illusion spells. Most of these are not really all that tops until the mage gets to Journeyman level, and that's when Invisibility and Chameleon kick in. Control and frenzy spells too!

It doesn't take that long to get to this level of magedom if some spells get spammed, though. Only if (let's say) somebody is totally new to the game, or if somebody is going for something unconventional, like a non-confrontational-type of mage, might they need to plan ahead.

Morrowind is nothing like the others. I don't know about Daggrefall yet, but MW is definitely more difficult to approach than Arena is, even with Arena's forced classes. And I've had to rethink a lot of ways I'd normally game, just to make my mage successful in this game.



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Tip 1: Restore Magicka potions seem like they're almost extinct in this game. Even as an alchemist at Journeyman level (three effects can be seen when making potions) I still haven't figured out what to mix with comberries to make dozens of these potions!

I did not know that all Mages Guilds have a respawning chest though, called Mages Guild Supply Chests. These include 10 free mana-restoring potions. I'm not sure how often stuff respawns in this game, but still, 10 potions per guild is a lot better than scrounging around in merchant shops. Merchants seem to sell every damn potion in the game except magicka potions, sometimes.

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Tip 2: The Spellmaker is a mage's best friend. This becomes more apparent especially as the game levels upward higher and higher. My opinion now: I never really found the Spellmaker that useful in Oblivion. In that game, it can be merely used to make some spell effects more creative, effective, and/or efficient. But in my opinion, I never actually needed to use the Spellmaker in Oblivion. It's more of a convenience than a necessity (in my opinion).

Well in Morrowind, you really are going to NEED to make your own spells, and you'll also need to know how to use the spellmaker. Thank goodness we don't have to get into any university just to create our own spells. Nor do we have to be a Mages Guild member. There are some temple-dwellers, and probably a few other NPCs out there, who can help us make spells. All we need is some gold, and also to know the effect we're trying to work with.

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Tip 3: Conjuration levels up slowly in this game. MUCH slower than in Oblivion. In OB, those who spam this school will be guaranteed to hit Journeyman level within a month, if they play frequently enough.

And this seems to be a reaction against Morrowind, in which Conjuration levels upward extremely slow, especially if it was started as a Minor skill rather than a Major.

And here comes my very first use of the Spellmaker. There's a reason Conjuration moves upward so slowly: it's because a lot of the default Bethesda-made spells (Summon Bound Dagger, for instance) last 60 seconds each. Once the spell is cast, we have to WAIT that entire 60 seconds before it can be cast again. Unless we cast the summon, cast dispel, cast the summon, cast dispel, etc. Tedious work to go back and forth like that.

Each time that dagger is cast, 3 points get added toward the Conjuration level-up of 100. Doing the math, this means that somebody diligent enough to keep casting this spell will spend thirty-three real-time minutes (I think I got my math right...) doing nothing but waiting to recast that silly spell over and over.

BUT, a trick I learned is to simply make a Bound Dagger spell which lasts 5 seconds, not 60. Voila. When this version is cast, have a look at the number of Conjuration points the game gives toward 100. It's still 3 points per summon! This means two things: you'll be able to level this skill up much faster, but the overall level of the game will also level up faster, too.

Still though, if you are like me, and want to see your character become a conjuring fool in no time, this is a good way to go.

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Tip 4: Last one for today. Also deals with Conjuration.

A lot of default Conjuration spells, lasting 60 seconds each from Bethesda, will have rather high magicka costs, not to mention some pretty dismal success ratings. For instance, the Bound Dagger spell is pretty light. My mage could cast it with 95% success, and it only cost maybe 5 points when it was still a 60-second spell.

But a more advanced spell, such as Summon Lesser Bonewalker, cost my mage almost 40 points of mana, with a really [CENSORED]ty 61% percent spell success rating. That's just too unreliable to be useful. And let's remember my mage has been using Conjuration for several months now.

The way to fix this is to use the Spellmaker again. Make a Summon Bonewalker spell which lasts maybe half as long. Matter of fact, I made a spell for my mage which summons this undead for 25 seconds instead of 60. Voila. Magicka cost went way down to just 17, and the spell failure rate is just 3%.

Time for some pwnage!

This post has been edited by Renee: Oct 7 2018, 03:43 AM

[ghastley]

Batteries not included.

The one big omission in this is the enchanted items you can carry that will provide you with spell power. When you cast a spell from an item, it uses the item's reserve, not your own, so you can switch rings, for example, and cast some more. Expensive rings are best magic-to-weight ratio, I think, or it might be amulets. Absolute numbers aren't as high as armour pieces, but you can carry more.

You may also want to plan your mage for maximum magicka. I have an Altmer Atronach that has close to 500 points available. She can go a long time between refills, which as SubPosa points out, you can get at a shrine. (Hint, set a recall marker near one) Her atronach absorb usually cancels out the Altmer weaknesses.

Like Oblivion, there's a loop effect you can exploit with crafting fortify potions to increase your alchemy, to make stronger potions to increase your enchanting, to enchant items to increase your alchemy etc. It starts slowly but really accelerates after a while. There's probably some fortify intelligence in that, I forget all the details. Some attributes aren't capped, and your numbers can get silly. You may consider that cheating.

In general it seems that Oblivion corrected the learning curve of Morrowind. In TES III, you start slow, but speed up faster as you go along and get overpowered at the end. Oblivion tried to start you off faster, and bring in diminishing returns at higher levels. That means anything you can do to get a quick start in Morrowind really pays off. Grabbing a good weapon/spell/enchanted item early is a must!

Slaughterfish are best killed with one of the cloak spells. Just enter the water and let them come and get it.

This post has been edited by ghastley: Sep 21 2018, 03:08 PM