I'll try and keep this brief. Suffice to say I've been browsing web FAQs for answers and can't find any:

1. Is there a level cap in the game? So do I have to get all my attribute raising and hit point raising done by a certain level?

2.Is it possible to make a critical hit with a long blade? IN DandD it's short blades only.

3.What things reduce your sneak value and by how much? I've noticed that as a level one wood elf I can sneak around witrh a short sword in my hands but I can't sneak around with a long sword?

4. Heavy armour? Does it reduce the sneak value?

5. When I raise my intelligence does my Magicka go up to?

6.What stops me from being hit? Agility and armour, but how do they combine and by how much? And does my moving around while fighting reduce it? When I've tried moving around it's only reduced the amount of times I hit the creature (I have a hard time sidestepping and keeping the crosshairs trained).

7.What kind of health score is adequate through the levels? Playing a wood elf- mixing stealth and magic I don't really want to waste a maj/min skill on heavy armour. Say I raise Endurance up to 50 through training and get 5 points every level - is that going to give me a low health or high (I've got nothing to compare it with - having only played Dand D based RPG's before).

8.I can't decide whether to take short blade as a maj/min to help raise my speed ability, or fight with a long blade and raise strength. How important is speed in the higher levels? Does it help in a fight or is that only agility? But I also don't want to dump my four magic skills.....

9.Strength increases the amount of damage done is that also true when using
short bladed weapons?

Thanks alot.

First off WELCOME TO IRONWORKS!!

Now. To the business matter.
1) As with just about any computer game there is a cap on the max exp. level you can reach. It ties directly to the major and minor skills you acquire.
2) As long as you attack in sneak mode without the victim noticing then a crit hit is almost assured.
3) The little icon in the bottom of the screen does not accurately determine whether or not you're sneaking, but at early levels you'll find it difficult to successfully sneak. Either sneak a lot to raise the skill or find money and train in the skill.
4) Last time I checked, no. Heavy Armor does not impede sneaking; however, it weighs a ton so if you're going thief I'd suggest light or medium armor (preferably light).
5) Yes.
6) For better accuracy switch to 3rd person view. Unless you are using ranged in which case attack untill they get close then run really fast.
7) I wish I new. I just build my character as I go. Never liked planning too much
8) Depends on your profession and what kind of person you are trying to roleplay.
9) I'd suggest seeing the main stat involved with each skill to find what effects what. (e.g. short blade -> agility, athletics -> speed, you get the picture)

Finally, this is only mediocre help. We now know you are woodelf, but without knowledge of profession and potential course of action through the game there is only so much help anyone can provide.

P.S. You probably could have posted this in the other Total Newbie thread but that's ok, your new and I've made many worse mistakes than you.

1. Is there a level cap in the game? So do I have to get all my attribute raising and hit point raising done by a certain level

No level cap, you can go as high as you want

2.Is it possible to make a critical hit with a long blade? IN DandD it's short blades only.

You can make critical hits with every melee weapon, provided that you sneak towards the enemy and press left mouse button to attack them.

3.What things reduce your sneak value and by how much? I've noticed that as a level one wood elf I can sneak around witrh a short sword in my hands but I can't sneak around with a long sword?

It depends on oh high your sneak skill, and how high level the npc you try to sneak upon

4. Heavy armour? Does it reduce the sneak value?

No, since it gives the highest AC so I recommend you to wear that

6.What stops me from being hit? Agility and armour, but how do they combine and by how much? And does my moving around while fighting reduce it? When I've tried moving around it's only reduced the amount of times I hit the creature (I have a hard time sidestepping and keeping the crosshairs trained).

it depends on your AC, or any spell that can make your defense tougher. Luck also play a role but not much.

7.What kind of health score is adequate through the levels? Playing a wood elf- mixing stealth and magic I don't really want to waste a maj/min skill on heavy armour. Say I raise Endurance up to 50 through training and get 5 points every level - is that going to give me a low health or high (I've got nothing to compare it with - having only played Dand D based RPG's before).

If you can make your endurance up to 100, then it's good. For your HP a 250 hp is adequate , why? because this has something to do with the main quest. ;)

8.I can't decide whether to take short blade as a maj/min to help raise my speed ability, or fight with a long blade and raise strength. How important is speed in the higher levels? Does it help in a fight or is that only agility? But I also don't want to dump my four magic skills.....

Take long blade as there are some good long blade in the game that does good amount of damage, and if your weapon skill is 100 you don't need to worry about agility. this is not a D&D game.

9.Strength increases the amount of damage done is that also true when using
short bladed weapons.

It effect all weapon, whether it is melee or range

You see, you need to unlearn your d&d stuff to play morrowind. Morrowind will give you a whole new exerience in gaming. good luck! [img]smile.gif[/img]

:You see, you need to unlearn your d&d stuff to play morrowind. Morrowind will give you a whole new exerience in gaming. good luck!:

I'm trying to unlearn hard - I've been getting bored with NWN. I started playing MRWD this week and WOW. It seems to blow the pants off NWN.

I like the site by the way. Good luck with it.

1. ONe of you says there is a cap, the other says there isn't???? I'm confused.

4. Does anything impede sneaking apart from a characters ability and the npcs ability?

6. OK. AC stops me from being hit but in the player guide it talks about agility determining your ability to dodge attacks?
And what about actually physically moving around, does it help? (I'd try moving around my bedroom too but the computers a bit heavy and my mouse lead doesn't stretch that far.

7. Endurance 100??? Hmm. I was planning on leaving it low.

8. What I meant was, what good is speeed? Apart from being able to run fast - which is pretty damn good, as it stands.

QUestion about archery I forgot to ask earlier:
What's the difference between steel, iron and chitti arrows (apart from the fact that steel are heavier) Does steel do more damage?


Character (well, you asked for it - so it's a FULL break down):

Wood elf specialising in stealth but mixing magic and stealth.
Though I'm raising strength and endurance to 40 at start.
Enchant and alchemy because I want a chance to try out such a cool gaming feature. Alteration because I want to fly, mysticism because teleporting is also pretty cool and illusion because I'm curious to test chameleon.
Sneak and security because there's only so much D and D a died-in-the-wool burglar can unlearn. I love a good backstab and pickpocketing and no matter what anyone says, casting magic to open a lock is just not as dignified, sophisticated, impressive, or darn right skillfull as slipping out the plastic and snaffling it between the jambs.
MArksmanshhip - because hey, those crosshairs look damn cool, and the arrow arcing is even cooler and because I'm a thief, damn it. If I planned on taking alot of body hits I'd be poncing about in all that testorone induced armour and eating steaks. Give me a shadow and I'm happy.

So then comes the stuff I can't decide:
An armour skill: well, I don't need light armour to increase agility (marksmanship is doing that)- but I'm not a chest beating Tarzan with a mountain of muscle and never want to be....so I'm kind of stumped by that heavy armour raising the endurance issue because light is where I feel comfortable.
Weapon: long or short. Short is speed (at least I thought it was) and I like moving fast (And I have no speed driver). But long blade is strength and I've already experienced what a bummer it is not being able to carry even a thimble of loot.
And then there's Speechcraft which would be the skill I would take if I was really role playing but it got dumped because of all the cool magical stuff that seems to be going on in this game. Enchant and potion making..YES PLESASE. It's all about stuff after all, and this magpie likes collecting it.

SO I was just reading the other newbie thread about the hard core fighter.
Someone mentioned mysticism not being that necessary because there's a lot of scrolls about for teleportation. I want to use the gem stone soul spell to for enchanting items - is that easily availabale on scrolls?

1. No level cap, This is because someone has got a level 500 before.

4. Tose two are the biggest actor governing your sneak success.

6. yeah, agility helps but not much. I don't understand what you mean by "physically moving around" ?

7. It's best if you have all stats at 100. thus you can train all your skill to 100. remember that stat govern skill. let's say that your endurance is 50, you can only train your heavy armor up to 50.

8. well, speed determines how fast you are with the weapon, ie your recovery time before you can land your next blow.

Check your arrow damage, it stated there if you put your mouse cursor on it.

patch your game, if you patch your game you can gain multiplier for your stat from your misc skill too, in this way where you put your skill is not important.

6. I mean moving backwards and forward in the world of Morrowind as you fight - I know it changes the type of swing you make but I was wondering whether it actually made it more difficult for the monster to get a swing in.

7. Now I understand. I didn't know that-guide writers, what are they like? Now you've told me it makes perfect sense...hmm. It makes the skill selection harder.

8. Now I understand - so a good speed is good for fighting...

patching the game... I don't know. I'm not into power gaming. I might try it without the patch until I get frustrated..I guess I'm just going to have to dump one of the magic skills. possibly mysticism, though I'd like to soul cpature.

Thanks for the help.

Originally posted by Windy Entwhistle:

1. ONe of you says there is a cap, the other says there isn't???? I'm confused.
[qb]

To gain a level you must advance 10 points in your minor/major skills. If those are at 100, you cannot advance anymore. But whenever you commit a crime, you get the option to goto jail or pay a fine. If you go to jail, your skills decrease... so if minor / major decrase, you can level up again. Repeat at will.

4. Does anything impede sneaking apart from a characters ability and the npcs ability?

The directions the NPC is facing: sneaking from behind is better that from directly under sight. Also critical hits from behind are easier to achieve.
I guess lighting plays a role too, but I am not that sure.

[qb]6. OK. AC stops me from being hit but in the player guide it talks about agility determining your ability to dodge attacks?
Agility determines ability to dodge, ac determines how much damage you are dealt, not the chances of being hit. Speed might play a role as well. Luck definitely helps, as people who cheated that up to 100 said you cannot be hit.
Also you can learn to block with a shield: this damages the shield but gives you no damage from the physical blow. Magic effects cannot be blocked.
There is also a spell (sanctuary) that allows you to dodge. 100% sanctuary means you cannot be hit.

Moving away from the enemy helps as well. It's not D&D where you get hit anyway. If you get away from the range of the weapon, you are safe. Obviously the same is true for your enemy - you must be in range to hit, otherwise you'll chop thin air. If you can jump high enough, you can also evade upwards.

7. Endurance 100??? Hmm. I was planning on leaving it low.

You can get up to 15 points for attributes at each level. That means every attribute will soon get to 100. Obviously you should privilege those you need most.

8. What I meant was, what good is speeed? Apart from being able to run fast - which is pretty damn good, as it stands.

Speed is priceless for the evade tactics I talked about above: evede hit, move in and chop, go back again. Or even avoid the encounter altogether, just run...
And getting around fast isn't that bad either, Morrowind is a huge land, and there is no helicopter or car.

QUestion about archery I forgot to ask earlier:
What's the difference between steel, iron and chitti arrows (apart from the fact that steel are heavier) Does steel do more damage?

Steel does more damage than iron and chitin. To hit daedra and undead you must however use silver arrows (at least: glass, bonemold, ebony and daedric will be even better) or enchanted arrows.

Character (well, you asked for it - so it's a FULL break down):


You needn't have major / minor skills governed by an attribute to get multipliers. misc skills count as well. So you needn't any speed or strength driver, unless you want to. I suggest long blade, as long blades rock, but there is also a great short blade around, though you will get it only late in the game.

About the soul trap spell: you can learn it (easy and not that costly to cast), or get scrolls (costly). In both cases it's on touch. But you can enchant an amulet or a ring to make the spell ranged, and then kill with arrows. It's a bit more costly if you pay a NPC for enchanting, but since you plan to be an enchanter, well, do it yourself.