So I'd like to start a Magic playthrough

[Captain Skinny]

So I've just finished up my first playthrough, and WHAT AN EXPERIENCE.

I was an axe wielding Orc, heavy armor, Imperial Legion and Cult, house Hlaalu, the standard for a sword and board first run. I only used magic to mark and recall, but carried about 80lbs worth of enchanted items to help me fly and such.
Had a great time but was one-bonking most things at level 15 due to 80 str and Daedric axe. Still had a great time, made great friends, and saved the world.

Now I wanna try a wholly different run.
I'm deadset on a magic character, and 95% convinced I want to be a dunmer.

What's an ideal way to set up this character in a way that I can still become one of the most powerful entities in Vvardenfell but I didn't achieve this through cheesing?
What do I need to know about spellmaking, potionmaking and enchanting, and how can I let my character 'learn' how to abuse these elements within the setting of the game?

[The Flying Rodent]

I am hopefully days away from finishing a stupidly long guide on Morrowind's magic system, so with any luck when that's done you can put that to good use.

In the mean time, here's a copy of a guide that TedTheViking published on reddit around 5 years ago. He has since deleted his account, but some people managed to save a text version of the guide and post it to Steam before that.

Should contain plenty of 'mage' info!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2586392289

[WingedKagouti]

Originally posted by Captain Skinny:

I'm deadset on a magic character, and 95% convinced I want to be a dunmer.

The only reason to pick anything other than Breton or Altmer for a magic based character is roleplaying. The choice for birthsign is Atronach for either of them or possibly Breton Apprentice. I would not do Altmer Apprentice outside a challenge run and the Mage is not worth the pick in comparison to Atronach or Apprentice.

Breton Atronach is one of the safest characters against opposing mages while also being a very good mage themself.

[The Flying Rodent]

Originally posted by WingedKagouti:

Originally posted by Captain Skinny:

I'm deadset on a magic character, and 95% convinced I want to be a dunmer.

The only reason to pick anything other than Breton or Altmer for a magic based character is roleplaying. The choice for birthsign is Atronach for either of them or possibly Breton Apprentice. I would not do Altmer Apprentice outside a challenge run and the Mage is not worth the pick in comparison to Atronach or Apprentice.

Breton Atronach is one of the safest characters against opposing mages while also being a very good mage themself.

Dunmer, Nord and Orc Atronach mages are also viable, though they take a bit more work to get moving in the early game (to be honest, ‘any’ race with the Atronach is viable as a mage, though these 3 moreso because…). These 3 races come with additional magic resistances (similar to Breton), which makes it easier to deal with Reflect, by achieving 100% resistance to various magic types (Fire/Frost/Magicka).

But for a ‘first attempt at a mage’, I would probably go Breton Apprentice or Breton Atronach. Atronach mages have to deal with the fact that they cannot rest to regenerate Magicka (which isn’t ‘hard’, it’s just ‘different’), so Breton Apprentice is easier to manage for a first time mage.

[Charlie Kelly]

Atronach can be "cheesed" by summoning creatures that attack with magic, IE ancestral ghost. This is almost necessary in the early game as magic enemies are few and far between. you really will need magic efficient spells, aka nothing that a vendor sells and everything that you have made for you.
A magicka efficient, effective early spell to use is Black Hand
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Black_Hand_(Spell)
this can take you about halfway through the main story.
From the rip you will want to do the Telvanni Questline and do your best to acquire:
https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Cuirass_of_the_Savior%27s_Hide
If they break through the atronach sign then they also have to defeat this check. Basically you almost become immortal to magic attacks.
Atronach is wholly broken.

[The Flying Rodent]

Originally posted by Charlie Kelly:

Atronach can be "cheesed" by summoning creatures that attack with magic, IE ancestral ghost. This is almost necessary in the early game as magic enemies are few and far between. you really will need magic efficient spells, aka nothing that a vendor sells and everything that you have made for you.
A magicka efficient, effective early spell to use is Black Hand
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Black_Hand_(Spell)
this can take you about halfway through the main story.
From the rip you will want to do the Telvanni Questline and do your best to acquire:
https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Cuirass_of_the_Savior%27s_Hide
If they break through the atronach sign then they also have to defeat this check. Basically you almost become immortal to magic attacks.
Atronach is wholly broken.

Atronach is arguably the most broken star sign in the game, yes. There are 'inventive' methods that they can use to restore magicka (Ancestor Ghost, various Shrines), and even for non-spellcasters, it prevents 50% of spells cast at you from doing anything. And for anyone even 'slightly' interested in spellcasting, it provides 3xInt Magicka reserves.

Fire & Frost Bite are slightly more efficient than Black Hand (15-30 pts for 6 magicka vs 10-24 pts for 7 Magicka), but Black Hand is not resisted by many opponents, at least.

Resistance to Magicka is fun as a Mage, at it also provides resistance against spells reflected back at you. 100% Resistance to Magicka = immunity to Damage Health/Attribute spells, and 'non-Apprentice' Bretons can obtain it simply with the Savior's Hide Cuirass. Other races have to work a little harder, but it is possible to obtain 100% Resistance to Magicka, using Base Game items for any race besides Altmer/non-Breton Apprentice mages (Cuirass, Phynaster Ring, Mara's Blouse, Wraithguard).

And in a few days time hopefully, I will have published a ~40,000 word guide that outlines all of these things. We're almost there, lol.

[Archo]

Overall even if you will use primary skills that you gonna actually use - youll be fine. You dont need any cheesing to win in morrowind. Avoid cheesing if its not your fun or you will ruin your fun. Magic, alchemy and enchanting is cheesing paradise btw.

Dont take mage sign, its only 50mp increase for 100 INT, even basic artifact will give you ~20mp or just use cheap mp potion.
Spells - a lot of named spells from merchants are better or worse than your manually made.
Ingame spellbook is terrible, need mods, openmw have only basic builtin features and dont have mods to improve it.
Alchemy is easy money(potion prices scaling from your skills\stats, not from effect\ingridient) and overall is very powerfull.
Enchanting is like all schools in 1 skill but you will be limited by numbers of quipment and need some work, its something like this - with 50 skills enchanting you can enchant 50 skill spell from another school, may be a little bit weaker, but it will be free and instant to cast. Also good money saving cause enchanting merchants is gonna suck you dry on this. You cant sell enchanted items for profit.

Be mindfull of. Original game is focused on 1-20 lvls. May be use some mods to allevate that problem, especially for random items. Also there a lot of spells that doing the same function as spell from another school, so may be focusing on 2-3 schools will suit you better to have more powerful spells than a lot of mediocre. Think about your class gameplay, what do you want? Something like paladin with buffs, or dark knight with debuffs, summoner(buff\debuff) or just wanna play mage and see how it goes, decide later. Lvling up magic is tedious cause youll get 1xp per cast(100th skill needs 100 exp, in total 5k casts rfom lvl 5, depends), its ok for your main school like destruction but for supporting schools its a nightmare.

[Captain Skinny]

Thanks for all the advice.

This is who I've made, a Dunmer, INT and WIL, rocking the Atronarch sign (slightly worrying in the first few hours)
I chose Destrc, Rest, Alter, Conj and Short blade as majors and Athletic, Mystc, Illus, Alch and light armor as minor.
So far, I'm pretty self-centered and conniving. Normally I;m a goody two shoes. I plan on Temple, Mages guild and morang tong as major guilds.

Did I do good or will I be making another character after 10 hrs?

[The Flying Rodent]

Originally posted by Captain Skinny:

Thanks for all the advice.

This is who I've made, a Dunmer, INT and WIL, rocking the Atronarch sign (slightly worrying in the first few hours)
I chose Destrc, Rest, Alter, Conj and Short blade as majors and Athletic, Mystc, Illus, Alch and light armor as minor.
So far, I'm pretty self-centered and conniving. Normally I;m a goody two shoes. I plan on Temple, Mages guild and morang tong as major guilds.

Did I do good or will I be making another character after 10 hrs?

You'll be fine.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2834812759

If you want more info, I just published my 'Morrowind Magic System Encyclopedia'. Should be plenty of 'Early Game' info and tips in there to help out, as well as how to manage Magicka as an Atronach character.

Good luck!

[Innocent]

Originally posted by Captain Skinny:

Thanks for all the advice.

This is who I've made, a Dunmer, INT and WIL, rocking the Atronarch sign (slightly worrying in the first few hours)
I chose Destrc, Rest, Alter, Conj and Short blade as majors and Athletic, Mystc, Illus, Alch and light armor as minor.
So far, I'm pretty self-centered and conniving. Normally I;m a goody two shoes. I plan on Temple, Mages guild and morang tong as major guilds.

Did I do good or will I be making another character after 10 hrs?

You'll do fine. Morrowind is such a vast game, it always saddens me when people say you can only pick two races and two signs for mages. You can totally play an Orc mage if you want, as long as you're a little bit prepared.

Since you have the Atronach, you'll do plenty fine as a mage! Dunmers are great races to play and are great for rolepaying too.

[The Flying Rodent]

Originally posted by Innocent:

Originally posted by Captain Skinny:

Thanks for all the advice.

This is who I've made, a Dunmer, INT and WIL, rocking the Atronarch sign (slightly worrying in the first few hours)
I chose Destrc, Rest, Alter, Conj and Short blade as majors and Athletic, Mystc, Illus, Alch and light armor as minor.
So far, I'm pretty self-centered and conniving. Normally I;m a goody two shoes. I plan on Temple, Mages guild and morang tong as major guilds.

Did I do good or will I be making another character after 10 hrs?

You'll do fine. Morrowind is such a vast game, it always saddens me when people say you can only pick two races and two signs for mages. You can totally play an Orc mage if you want, as long as you're a little bit prepared.

Since you have the Atronach, you'll do plenty fine as a mage! Dunmers are great races to play and are great for rolepaying too.

I can confirm that Orc mages are busted, particularly if you go for the 'Absorb/Damage Health/Attribute' spell angle with 100% Resist Magicka route (which they get a 25% leg up on), which then removes all the negative effects of the Berserk power should you choose to go melee.

I used an Orc Mage to help write the guide linked above. It was fun.

[Captain Skinny]

Originally posted by The Flying Rodent:

Originally posted by Innocent:

You'll do fine. Morrowind is such a vast game, it always saddens me when people say you can only pick two races and two signs for mages. You can totally play an Orc mage if you want, as long as you're a little bit prepared.

Since you have the Atronach, you'll do plenty fine as a mage! Dunmers are great races to play and are great for rolepaying too.

I can confirm that Orc mages are busted, particularly if you go for the 'Absorb/Damage Health/Attribute' spell angle with 100% Resist Magicka route (which they get a 25% leg up on), which then removes all the negative effects of the Berserk power should you choose to go melee.

I used an Orc Mage to help write the guide linked above. It was fun.

Little known fact, in Morrowind, cast spells and I believe even ranged weapons move in scale to the casters size. So Orcs, as the largest race, have their cast spells move faster than say a bosmer's spells.
Orc spellswords and battlemages are underrated.

[The Flying Rodent]

Originally posted by Captain Skinny:

Originally posted by The Flying Rodent:

I can confirm that Orc mages are busted, particularly if you go for the 'Absorb/Damage Health/Attribute' spell angle with 100% Resist Magicka route (which they get a 25% leg up on), which then removes all the negative effects of the Berserk power should you choose to go melee.

I used an Orc Mage to help write the guide linked above. It was fun.

Little known fact, in Morrowind, cast spells and I believe even ranged weapons move in scale to the casters size. So Orcs, as the largest race, have their cast spells move faster than say a bosmer's spells.
Orc spellswords and battlemages are underrated.

Interesting. I wonder if that’s tied into weight or not.

I will have to test that now!

Also, I guess to shamelessly plug it again:

Originally posted by Captain Skinny:

What's an ideal way to set up this character in a way that I can still become one of the most powerful entities in Vvardenfell but I didn't achieve this through cheesing?
What do I need to know about spellmaking, potionmaking and enchanting, and how can I let my character 'learn' how to abuse these elements within the setting of the game?

There are sections in the guide that are designed to answer these questions.

Specifically, Chapter 13 (character creation, and looking at your character it looks pretty in line with the guide info), Chapter2 then Chapters 6-16 (spellmaking in bits and pieces), Chapter 3 (Magicka management & Atronach sign tips) Chapter 4 (alchemy), Chapter 15.4 and 16.4 onwards (Enchanting), and then Chapters 14-16 (putting all the knowledge together).

Enjoy =)