Good beginning class

[Rotanixel]

Anyone know some good builds for someone relatively new to morrowind?

[selewi]

Try to avoid spells for a first instance, try with physical combat builds, like long sword, short sword classes. Maybe you can introduce yourself to spells improving your restoration skills, and then destruction, illution, and the rest, you know...

[Dutchgamer1982]

It is better to learn a bit, rather than just follow blind instructions, therefore I give you hereby a small introduction lesson :

-you get to select
*a race
*male/female
*a birthsign
*a class (meaning 5 major skills, 5 minor skills and 2 atributes)
*a prime focus

You wonder what to select, well lets first do a small introduction in how things work :

Chapter 1 :Statbars
(this are your 3 most essential stats, they are calculted by your other stats)

1.1 Health :
This is for you the most important stat, if it gets to 0, your character dies, and that means you will have to reload from your last savegame. More health therefor really helps you out.
You get more health from the following factors
- any new character gets 50% of its Strenght+endurance as starting health, since some have more strenght & endurance to start with those would for a new player be wiser to pick, in late game having 20 more health may not matter, in early game that can make a lot of difference.
- after this, every time you level-up , you recieve 10% of your endurance as healthboost.
(since endurance is an atribute, and those max out at 100, the maximum boost you can get per level gaines is 10 health)
- Theoretical there is no real level limit in morrowind, as such there is no health limit either, but were talking new char here.

1.2 Fatique :
This may be important to you, when you run, swim, jump, or get hit, it lowers. When moving, it hitting 0 just means you move a little slower. And while more a nuisance, movement for early chars is already slow.
However, there is a more important factor to fatique : when in a fight your ability to land a hit, is much higher when you have full fatique.
This is because part of your change to it is calculated by the % of your max fatique you have left of your max amount, this leads to the effect that at 0 fatique, your change to land a succesfull hit, is only 60% of what it is at max fatique.
Thats right, for this change to hit what your maximum amount of fatique is does not matter, only the percentage left, however when you have more to start with, the change that percentage left is higher when you have to fight, is a bit higher, especially when running around a lot.
Your fatique is determined by the sum of your Strenght + your Endurance + your agility +your willpower, both at startup and later in the game.
-as most are weak in 1 of those and high in others, the difference between different races and sexes in starting stamina is marginal, I would not bother trying to select a race to max it.
-when you later level up, every point you add to any of those 4 atributes, will also increasy your stamina. (and as every atribute has a maximum of 100, your max stamina is 400)

1.3 Magic
This is your general pool of "Mana" for casting spells.
Every spell has a pricetag in mana, and casting them will draw this cost from your remaining reserves. When your magic hits 0, or gets lower than the cost of the spell you want to cast, no more casting spells, and you will have to sleep or drink a potion to replenish reserves.
Your mana is just the same as your intelligence, and this has a max of 100.
*as such you cannot ever cast any spell that costs more than 100 mana normally.
-However there are races and birthsigns that increase this with a multiplier, increasing your maximum reserves, some do stack, alowing a maximum mana upto 450, allowing more powerfull spells.
-usually however you will use these extra reserves mostly to be able to cast longer, rarely you will cast 1 massive spell that will drain all your reserves.
-should you bother this stat? perhaps. While Morrowind does not lend itself well to becoming a full flung mage, especially not for a starting character, having a few backup spells at hand will serve any character. Spells are however expensive to buy, and thus as a beginning character you won't have many usuefull spells, where a fairly decent weapon can be bought for much less. A multiplier as such is nice, but not at the expence of anything essential as health for you.

Chapter 2 : Atributes
*this are the 8 mayor factors for your character, the raw setup sort of speak.
*they determine what your health, fatique and magic is, as well as other factors.
*While they all max out at 100, having a few points extra in one stat may make startup for you just a tad easier.
*every time you level up you get to increase 3 atibutes by 1-5 points.
*every skill, except luck has a specific atributed tied to it, you cannot train an skill above it's atribute.
*when you increase skills belonging to a specific atribute, you get bigger increases in that atribute, here is how :
0 skill-levels gained beloning to that atribute : +1
1-4 skill-levels gained beloning to that atribute : +2
5-7 skill-levels gained beloning to that atribute : +3
8-9 skill-levels gained beloning to that atribute : +4
10 or more skill-levels gained beloning to that atribute : +5
*it is best when you level up to fist max out endurance, and since luck has no multipliers, also add 1 to luck, so get +5 to endurance, +1 to luck, and +5 to whatever you like, untill endurance is at 100.
*after that just keep adding +1 to luck, and +5 to 2 atributes you like.
*if you don't get +5 for a stat at levelup, you might wanna reload and first find a trainer and pay for some training to get a better atribute increase.

2.1 Endurance -> determines how much HP you gain at level up, making this THE most important atribute, it also gives a little more stamina.

2.2 Agility -> Mayor factor in your change to land a succesfull hit, as well as a little more stamina, and it determines your change to dodge an attack, as well as making you slighly better in sneaking around, also a very good one.

2.3 Strenght -> You hit harder, and you can carry more items, as well as a little more stamina, good one to have.

2.4 Willpower -> Gives a better change to succesfully cast a spell, gives a better defence against spells cast at you, and adds a little endurance, pretty good one.

2.5 Luck -> Gives a little better change to land a succesfull hit, gives a littler better change at hitting harder, helps a little in interacting with other characters, gives a little better change of succesfully casting a spell, and gives a little better loot, quite a good stat, hard to level up though, thats why you must always add +1 every level to this, else you cannot max it out.

2.6 Intelligence -> dertermines your total mana pool, as well as how long you will have to sleep to regain mana, decent skill.

2.7 Personality -> makes it easier to make people like you, saving you money on bribes, as well as getting better prices from merchants, an ok, skill I suppose, though it has to little an effect to really matter.

2.8 Speed -> only thing this does is making you move faster, pretty useless if you ask me.
Unless you want to use weapons whoes skill use this atribute, make this low priority.

Chapter 3 Skills
There are 27 skills, each befitting a specfic group of items, and most are fairly similair, so I will explain them in groups

3.1 Weaponskils
*the 7 skills fitting this group are :
-Axe
-Blunt weapon
-Long Blade
-Spear
-Marksman
-Short Blade
-Hand to Hand
*All these skills only do 1 thing : they increase the change to hit with a speccific type of weapon(s). As such, it is totally bogus to use ALL of them, better focus on one, to get good with that one.
*the skill applies on all weapons in it's group, both 1 handed and 2 handed variations, 2 handed weapons cannot be used together with a shield but in general have better range and hit harder.
*Special hints, hand to hand is a pain to use, as a beginner you do not want to use that, of the others, just pick whatever you like and stick to it.
*if you want to be able to fight with1 handed weapons, you will want to select axe, blunt weapon, shortblade or longblade, as no 1 handed spears or bows excist in the game.

3.2 Armorskills
*the 5 skills fitting this group are :
-Heavy armor
-Medium armor
-Light Armor
-Unarmored
-Block
*All these skills (ecept block) do only 1 thing : they increase the protection you recieve when wearing armor pieces of that specific type. In general the heavier the better the protection, but also more weight (and such less space to carry other items (aka loot).
*Block determines your change to block an attack with an shield.
*As an beginning character I would say go with light armor, thats fine for you, and you need the inventory space. later in game you can always pay for heavy armor training.
*if you plan to fight with 1 handed weapons you also want to pick block.

3.3 Magicskills
*the 6 skills fitting this group are :
-Ilusion
-Conjuration
-Alteration
-Destruction
-Mysticism
-Restoration
*All these skills do only 1 thing : they increase the change of succesfully casting a spell belonging to that type.
*when selecting one of these skills as your mayor or minor skill you also recieve a free spell (that you otherwise would have to buy)
*as a beginner restoration is one you should take (if picked as mayor skill it comes with a free spell enabling you to heal yourself).
*If you picked short blade skill, you may also wish to take conjuration skill, if selected as mayor skill, it comes with a nice summon dagger spell that is a very strong weapon and will help you get on the way.
The other magic groups are or no interest to you as an beginner.

3.4 Personality skills
*the 2 skills fitting this group are :
-Speechcraft
-Mercantile
*speechcraft increases your changes to talk people into liking you (saving you the money of having to bribe), this is most handy to get better merchant prices, and for certain quests where people will have to like you for the quest to succeed.
*Mercantile just improves the prices you pay or recieve from merchants.
*as a beginner speechcraft might be nice (making early quests a bit easier), but Merchantile has to little an effect to be considered.

3.5 Movement skills
*the 2 skills fitting this group are :
-Acrobatics
-Athletics
*both have 1 purpuse : improving your ability to move around (just like speed does)
*athletics makes you better in running and swimming, where acrobatics makes you better in jumping and reduces damage from falling.
*as a beginner you might wanna pick both, but thats upto you.
acrobatic to prevent early falling damage. (it only hurts health a few points but you don't have much to start with)
Atheltics helps moving around faster and thus running away better from something you cannot handle.

3.6 Assisting skills
*the 3 skills fitting this group are :
-Alchemy
-Enchant
-Armorer
*all those skills have 1 thing in common, you only use them outside of battle, patching up yourself.
*Armorer is the most usefull of the 3, it allows you to repair your own armor and weapons, both use fuctionality when damaged, so keeping them in fine condition, helps, certainly as a beginner, sure you can always pay a blacksmith to repair your stuff for you at little expense, but there aint always time to walk all the way back to a town.
*Alchemy allows you to brew your own potions, as a beginner this allows you to turn ingredients in potions, and those sell for a lot more than those ingredients would have, giving you some extra money to spend. Home brew potions later in the game outclass anything that can be bought.
*Enchanting allows you to enchant items, the usefullness of this is creating an extra mana pool to draw from, and spells cast from enchanted items never fail. In late game you also can create good permament effect items, making you even more godlike.
Sure you can pay others to enchant for you, but thats SO outragiously expensive you won't do that.
Besides : both enchanting yourself as paying for it requires souls, to gain them you need to buy or find soulgems and gain the soultrap spell, to do that you would have to find somebody selling it and pay for it.
As such enchanting is a nice endgame skill, but of little use to you as new player.
--For a beginner I would advice picking armorer, and if you like also pick alchemy.

3.7 Thieves skills
*Sneak
*Security
-These 2 skills are in fact very usefull, they not only help you be a better thief (though thats their main goal), but they also help you sneak by nasty enemies, do a sneak-attack on them, or open locked containers and doors for various reasons.
-Sneak is the skill that helps you sneak around, when stealing be sure to always be in steak mode, if caught stealing items, you lose all stolen items, have to pay a fine, and have a change to go to jail, better sneak skill helps you prevent that more often, saving you a couple times save-reload.
-Security allows you to open doors and other locks, certain high level locks will just no open unless your security skill is high enough, it also allows you to pickpocket items from others, and thats needed for a couple of skills, and handy in most cases.
-as a beginner I therefor would really advice taking both these skills.

Now you have a general idea, lets go create a character :

Chapter 4 : creating a character.

4.1 Picking a Race and Gender
Now you want a race, what race you say, well aside from looks, races differ in 3 regards :
slighly different artibutes, a boost to a few skills, and a special ability.
=
The Gender also has an effect, the atributes between the male and female variantion of a race are different, however their skillboost and special ability are the same.

Lets see, what are the effects for each race :

4.1.1 ALDMER :

Altmer-Male
-10 strength
+10 intelligence
-10 speed

Altmer-Female
-10 strength
+10 intelligence
-10 endurance

Skills :
+10 to destruction
+10 to enchant
+10 to alchemy
+5 to alteration
+5 to illusion
+5 to conjuration

Special Ability:
75% change to resist common disease
50% weakness to fire
25% weakness to frost
25% weakness to shock
50% weakness to magicka
+150% max magicka (max it to 2.5x intelligence, rather than the standard 1.0x intelligence)

Aldmers lend themself very well for alowing max level, and have the potential to be the strongest mages there are, however those weaknesses makes them die sooner, and that lower starting strenght aint helping either. Their boosted skills are also of no use to you. Don't get me wrong though, Illness is bad, and 75% resistance against it is nice even for a starter, but there is just to much weakness against it to be it worth your while.
No matter how much I enjoy aldmer, for you as a beginner, this is not a wise pick.

4.1.2 DUNMER

Dunmer-male
-10 willpower
+10 speed
-10 personality

Dumber-female
-10 willpower
+10 speed
-10 endurance

Skills
Destruction +10
Short Blade +10
Light Armor +5
Marksman +5
Long Blade +5
Athletics +5
Mysticism +5

Ability
*Resist Fire 75%
*Ancestor Guardian spell, reflects almost all damage for 60 seconds (can be used once a day)

Dunmer are a good allround race, most suited for those who wish to fight allround, with a combination of attackspells and spells to detects and get around, as well as boosts in both short and longblades, marksmanship to shoot an arrow, the ability to resist fire, to run a little faster, and a good spell to get out of sticky situations, they are very versatile, the price they pay for this however is that they lack somewhat in atributes, that -10 endurance for dunmer females is just bad, and the males have nothing speaking for them in that regard
Still this is a fairly good choose for a beginner, Picking a dunmer-male is a totally valid option for you, But do NOT pick the female variation.

4.1.3 BOSMER

Bosmer-male & Female
-10 Strength
-10 Willpower
+10 agility
+10 speed
-10 endurance

Skills
Marksman +15
Light Armor +10
Sneak +10
Acrobatics +5
Alchemy +5

Ability
*Resist Common Disease 75%
*Beast Tongue Spell : command smaller creatue for 600 seconds (can be used only once a day)

Bosmer are basicly made for one thing, to be archers and nothing else. They have good skills, if you want to fight using bow and crosbow, but are not good for anything else.
They are unique in that both male and female have the same atributes, to bad those atribues are really bad, with a cut in both strenght and endurance, these have one of the lowest staring health of all races, even less than many of the magical races. The ability to command a creature for upto 10 minutes is nice, and would alow you the much needed range to fire at while it takes the hits, but the fact you can only command small creatures and the fact it can be only cast once a day, nullifies that advantage.
And while again diseases are bad, and 75% resistance against them is quite nice, overal bosmer are just lacking to much in other regards.
I would not advise a beginner to select this race, even if they want to become an archer, other races are a better pick.

4.1.4 ORC (Orsimer)

Orc-male
+5 strength
-10 Intelligence
+10 Willpower
-5 Agility
-10 Speed
+10 Endurance
-10 Personality

Orc-female
+5 strength
+5 Willpower
-5 Agility
-10 Speed
+10 Endurance
-15 Personality

Skills :
Armorer +10
Block +10
Heavy Armor +10
Medium Armor +10
Axe +5

Ability :
Resist Magicka 25%
Spell : Berserk (+20 Health +200 Fatique +100 Attack, -100 agility) for 60 seconds, can be used only once a day.

Orcs are clearly made as warriors, heavy armor axe wielding warrios that is, pure and raw power. Their atributes are quite good, (only second to nord and redguard males) with a boost in both strenght and endurance. The ability to resist magicka also is nice, and berserk totally rocks! to bad it can be used only once a day. Orc skills however are a little off, considering what we look for, as we want to use lighter armortypes, but with the extra starting strenght, we might be able to compensate.
For a starting player orcs are an excelent chooise to start with, with the males being a slighly better chooice than the females, though only so slighly, so feel free to pick an orc female if you like that better than the male.

[Dutchgamer1982]

4.1.5 BRETON

Breton-Male
+10 Intelligence
+10 Willpower
-10 Agility
-10 Speed
-10 Endurance

Breton-Female
-10 Strength
+10 Intelligence
+10 Willpower
-10 Agility
-10 Endurance

Skills :
Restoration +10
Conjuration +10
Alchemy +5
Alteration +5
Ilusion +5
Mysticism +5

Ability :
+50% Resist Magica
+50% to max magicka (max it to 1.5x intelligence, instead of the standard 1x intelligence)
Spell : Dragon Skill (50 shield, for 60 seconds, (can only be used once a day)

Bretons clearly are the a weaker, human variation of a mage, or better put a version of the altmer without their weakness, but also less of their power. IF a beginner would play as a mage, breton would a more sensible starting position. Their Restoration skill is nice, as is conjuration, the rest however is of little use to us.
Their ability's are also quire sound, resist magicka helps a lot, and that extra manapool size also helps, and dragonskin is indeed a nice in case of need press this spell.
However they pay for this with rather bad stats, a -10 cut in endurance is NOT what we look for, and the female added -10 strenght is even worse. Therefore I would advice against playing breton as a beginner, and advice keeping them in mind for later, bretons might be a nice 2d or 3d char, when you already know the game a bit.

4.1.6 Imperial

Imperial-Male
-10 Willpower
-10 Agility
+10 Personality

Imperial-Female
-10 Agility
-10 Speed
+10 Personality

Skills
+10 Speechcraft
+10 Mercentile
+10 Long Blade
+5 Light Armor
+5 Blunt Weapon
+5 Hand to Hand

Ability
Spell : Star of the West : Absorb 200 Fatique (can only be used once a day)
Spell : Voice of the Emperor : Charm 25-50 for 15 seconds (can only be used once a day)

Imperials are clearly ment to be characters that live a more urban playstile, and hence are more aimed at NPC interaction, than fighting. Their ability's are fine, no strenghts or weeknesses, though for a beginner -10 agility is not what we looking for. Their skills are decent but not optimal, we have light armor, can pick from 2 weapontypes, and have a bit of speechcraft. Their ability's however are utterly useless, absorbing fatique while in battle may increase you change to hit while lowering theirs but not all that great if you have to cast it while they are hammering down on you. Charm is all fine but really only comes in handy a couple times in the entire game, and the ingame spell that can do the same better, without that once a day limit, aint expensive. Overall nothing wrong with an imperial, but they lack something positive.
As a beginner, I would say, don't use this one, because of the agility nerf, and lack of something usefull to put against that.

4.1.7 Redguard

Redguard-Male
+10 Strength
-10 Intelligence
-10 Willpower
+10 Endurance
-10 Personality

Redguard-Female
-10 Intelligence
-10 Willpower
+10 Endurance

Skills
Long Blade +15
Short Blade +5
Axe +5
Blunt Weapon +5
Athletics +5
Medium Armor +5
Heavy Armor +5

Ability
75% resist common disease
75% resist poison
Spell : Adrenaline Rush (+50 Agility, +50 Endurance +50 Speed, +50 Strength, +25 Health) for 60 seconds (can be used only once a day)

Clealy redguard are ment as warriors, and good onces! The boost in strenght and endurance gives redguard males the highest starting HP of all races. Their ability's are sweet (though they don't block blight diseases, like other races to, it still is nice to have disease protection, and adrealine rush is a very nice attack spell, only second to berserk.
The only negative point would be their skills, so mutch different weapon types, and you only gonna use one. however that also gives you a more free chooise what weapontype you will want to use later (hard to pass up that nice +15 longsword boost though)
Like orcs, having only medium and heavy armor is not that nice, but with the extra strenght, you should be able to manage.
Clearly redguard would make a good beginners race, with the male being even better, the female lacking that 10 strenght boost, will have a harder time using that heavy armor, and startrs with 5 less Healthand that does matter. As such, as a beginner, better pick the male-redguard. Picking the female still is valid though, if you absolutely want a chick, you are giving yourself a stat-nerf for tiitiies look though.

4.1.8 Nord

Nord-male
+10 Strength
-10 Intelligence
-10 Agility
+10 Endurance
-10 Personality

Nord-female
+10 Strength
-10 Intelligence
+10 Willpower
-10 Agiility
-10 Personality

Skills
+10 Axe
+10 Blunt Weapon
+10 Medium Armor
+5 Heavy Armor
+5 Long Blade
+5 Spear

Ability
100% Resist Frost
50% Resist Shock
Spell : Woad : +30 armor for 60 seconds (can use only once a day)
Spell : Thunder fist : 25 Frost attack spell (can use only once a day)

Basicly Nords fit somewhere between redguard and orc, rought and touch.
The Nord males like Redguard males have excelent ability's, sadly the nord females lack the endurance boost, so dont be a nord female. Their skills are also more useless than those of redguard, weapons and armor, thats it, and since we will only use one type of each. heavy armor only here too, but nord have the strenght to handle that. Their ability's are nice, resist frost and shock will help against a lot of enemies, and the spells are not overpowered but a nice extra in sticky situations with one to defend and one to attack.
Nord may be a sound pick as a beginner, nord males that is, better not pick nord female.
However I would have to say that redguard are slighly better overall.
Still a nord male is a fairly good chooice if you like the looks of him.

4.1.9 ARGONIAN

Argonian-male
-10 Willpower
+10 Agility
+10 Speed
-10 Endurance
-10 Personality

Argonian-female
+10 Intelligence
-10 Endurence
-10 Personality

Skills
+15 Athletics
+5 Spear
+5 Medium Armor
+5 Unarmored
+5 Illusion
+5 Alchemy
+5 Mysticism

Ability
75% resist common disease
100% resist poison
spell : Water breathing 120 seconds for 5 mana (can be cast as often as liked)
Cant wear helmets
Cant wear boots/shoes

Argonians are a strange kind, that can better be explained from lore, than from a playing style. As such they have a strange blend of skills and such, that you will find hard to put to one focussed use. Their main skill is athletics, well running is nice, but to say it is really usefull? And having medium and unarmored, but not light, also does not fit a beginners way of gaming well, Spear we can use, though if we so please, but overall skills are only remotely usefull. The Atributes for agonians are just bad, ok, the agility boost for argonian males may be nice, but having -10 endurance just is a big nono, and both have it. And than the ability's resistance to disease as always is nice as is resist poison, and the water breathing spell can be nice for some early game pearldiving.. to gain some income. (later in the game you can buy other water breathing spells no matter your race) But no helmets and boots, that just means less armorrating, and complicates things, something we cannot use as a beginner.
So as a beginner, do not play argonian.

4.1.10 Khajiit

Khajiit-male
-10 Willpower
+10 Agility
-10 Endurance

Khajiit-female
-10 Strength
-10 Willpower
+10 Agility

Skills
+15 Acrobatics
+5 Athletics
+5 Light Armor
+5 Security
+5 Sneak
+5 Short Blade
+5 Hand to Hand

Ability :
Spell : Eye of Fear :makes humanoid run away fro you for 30 seconds (can be used only once a day)
Spell : Eye of Night : 50% nightvision for 30 seconds (can be used once a day)
Cant wear helmets
Cant wear boots/shoes

Khajiit are clearly aimed to be the cloak and dagger types, thieves. However their atributes are sadly not what we are looking for either a -10 cut to strenght or endurance means less health, and that we don't want. Though the Khajiit-female -10 strenght cut, is the lesser of those two evils. Their skills on the other hand are not to shabby, exept hand to hand, all is usefull. Those two spells in their ability's are ok, though many times you won't fight humanoids, it still is a potent power. The ability to not wear helmets or boots however is crap! This combined leads that beginners should stay away from Khajiit. However A Khajiit female is the least worse of all he beast chars and may be a nice challenge for a 2d or 3d character, if you want to play something out of the ordinary
Beginners should just stay far away from even thinking of selecting a khajiit.

4.1.11 Conclusion

As a beginner you will want to pick from these options :

Best :
Redguard-Male
Orc-Male
Orc-Female
Dunmer-Male

Possible :
Nord-Male
Nord-Female
Redguard-Female

[Dutchgamer1982]

Originally posted by Rotanixel :D!:

Thanks man for that post

your welcome, took a couple hours to write it all, including the remaining part below.

[Dutchgamer1982]

Chapter 5 : Birthsign

Next in character creation you will be asked to select a birthsign, but which ones are good?

5.1 Best Birthsigns
This are the signs you will have to chooice from a beginner, and that for most other characters also are the one.

5.1.1 THE WARRIOR
+10 fortify attack (better change to hit)
-> this stays usefull, and helps a bit in the much heared beginner problem "it is hard to hit"

5.1.2 THE THIEF
+10 sanctuary (better change to dodge attack)
-> less likely to get hit, helps you die less sooner, also handy.

5.1.3 THE MAGE
+50% to max mana
-> free extra mana is always welcome

5.1.4 THE LADY
+25 Personality
+25 Endurance
-> that extra endurance means more health when leveling up, and faster maxing out to 100 endurance, giving our char a permanent healthboost, and the personality helps in dealing with people.

5.2 Good Birthsigns
This are the signs that may not be suited for beginners, as they require more skill to use, but still are just as good as the best birthsigns.

5.2.1 THE APRIENTICE
+150% to maximum magicka
+50 Weakness to magicka
-> the weakness is bad, but the +100% more than mage has might just be worth it, but not for beginning characters.

5.2.2 THE ATRONACH
+200% to maximum magicka
+50% spell absorbtion
Stunned Magicka
-> 150% more magicka than the mage gives, and 50% of all mana costs of spells cast by others on you will go to your manapool, Stunned mana however means your mana won't grow back when sleeping (so you will need to use potions or other means) While relatively easy to play with, for beginners this extra complication is not advised.

5.3 Acceptable Signs
This are the birthsigns that add little of use, their effects are fine when just starting a game, but their effects are similair as effects you can gain by just leveling up, or buy or craft some spells. As such causing thse signs to eventually be a waste of your bithsign.

5.3.1 THE RITUAL
Spell : Restore 100 health (once a day only)
Spell : Make undead monsters run away from you for 30 seconds (once a day only)
Spell : Make undead monsters run away from target for 30 seconds (once a day only)
-> all 3 are decent spells, the extra healing spell is nice. and many early dungeons have undead in them, this helps in that regard. though only 3 spells that also can be bought/made later ingame, just aint that impressive.

5.3.2 THE LOVER
+25 Agility
Spell : Paralise target for 60 seconds, -200 fatique on self. (can be used only once a day)
=> the extra agility helps hit better for early characters, more than the warrior would, but the effect of the warrior is permanent, while the lover eventually loses it's value, and where the lady still has a permanent healthboost to show off with, this one has only a remotely decent spell calling for it.
Being able to paralise is nice (helps getting away, but if your fatique is lowered at the same time, that running wont go fast)

5.3.3 THE SHADOW
*Spell : Invisibility for 60 seconds (only once a day)
-this causes nobody to see you, alowing you to get in or out of a situation undetected, and helps stealing stuff right under somebody's nose.
Still why waste a birthsign on a spell that also can be bought and used by your regulair npc vendor.

5.3.4 THE TOWER
*Spell : Detect animal/key/enchantment for 60 seconds (only once a day)
*Spell : Open lock upto 50 (once a day)
-> little unimpressive, the open lock spell is nice but only very early in game, when you don't have bought the regulair version that is quite easy to cast. And the detect anything spell just isn't of much use all that often, might just a well do with the regulair detect spells.

5.4 Useless signs
Signs whoes effect is just useless, avoid these!

5.4.1 THE STEED
+25 Speed
->speed does nothing usefull for us

5.4.2 THE SERPENT
Spell (+3 poison per second on other, +1 damage per second in yourself) for 30 seconds (can be used only once a day)
-> an attack spell that hurts ourself? useless!

5.4.3 THE LORD
Spell : Restore 2 health per second for 30 seconds (can use only once a day)
+100% weakness to fire
-> double damage from fire attacks for only a small once a day healing spell? No thank you!

Chapter 6 Selecting a Class

When selecting a class you get to pick from 3 options, ALWAYS select "fill it out yourself" this alows us to better finetune our character

6.1 selecting our 2 prime atributes
-the 2 atributes you select will each get +10 at game start, it goes without saying endurance should be one of them (because higher health)
The second one should be either luck of strenght, strenght will give us +5 health at startup as a permanent healthboost, luck can be only increased with +1 per levelup, and as such selecting it, helps us maxing out level earlier, and helps us land a hit better.

6.2 Selecting our 5 Mayor and 5 minor skills.
-selecting a skill as a mayor skil gives you a +25 boost in that specific skill.
-if the selected Mayor skill is a magic skill, you also recieve a free spell
-selecting a skill as a minor skill gives you +10 boost in that skill.
I already talked about what each skill does, you should be able to make a fine pick yourself.

Here is how :
Mayor
1 Restoration (this one should be mayor in any build)
2 Light Armor or Heavy Armor (whatever matches your choocen race)

Now option 1 (you pick shortblade, limited yourself to 1h combat only, very good beginner option)
3 Shortblade
4 Block
5 Conjuration

Option 2, no shortblade, but you will want to be able to fight both 1 handed as well as 2 handed.
3 Longblade/Axe/blunt weapon (whatever matches your choocen race)
4 Block
5 *one random pick

Optopm 3 you wish to fight 2 handed
3 longblade/axe/blunt weapon/spear
4 *one random pick
5 *one random pick

Minor
1 Sneak
2 Security
3 Acrobatics
4 Armorer
5 *one random pick

For random picks you can select either from
-alchemy
-marksmanship (2d weaponskill so you can swap between range and melee)
-Light/Heavy armor (whatever you did't already picked)
-Athletics

6.3 Selecting an afilliation
*you can select either magic, stealth or combat, doing so will add +5 to all skills belonging to that group.

Select the afiliation where you have the most mayor and minor skills in (as those will be the skills you will mostly use) if you followed the last paragraft, that will be either stealth or combat.

Selecting Magic :
+5 to Unarmored
+5 to Restoration
+5 to Conjuration
+5 to Alchemy
+5 to Enchant
+5 to Alteration
+5 to Destruction
+5 to Mysticism
+5 to Illusion

Selecting Stealth :
+5 to Light Armor
+5 to Marksman
+5 to Sneak
+5 to Security
+5 to Hand to Hand
+5 to Short Blade
+5 to Mercantile
+5 to Speechcraft
+5 to acrobatics

Selecting Combat
+5 to Long blade
+5 to Blunt Weapon
+5 to Axe
+5 to Spear
+5 to Medium Armor
+5 to Heavy Armor
+5 to Block
+5 to Armorer
+5 to Athletics

Thats all, your done, character made, ready to play!

[Clover]

I was going to post something but Dutchgamer1982 covered everything you need to know, really.

Pssst, Redguard + Long blades is a really, really good pick as you start out with a very high skill in long blades

[Coffee?]

can we get this marked with yellow text? This really deserves it.

[Clover]

Originally posted by Jorgen Von Smoothie!:

can we get this marked with yellow text? This really deserves it.

Agreed. Maybe get this pinned? We have threads like this often, and Dutchgamer gave a great explanation that every new player should read.

[Coffee?]

pinned i mean.

[Lord Griswold]

Look up all this information at the UESPWiki. It has information on everything about the game. EVERYTHING! It's the wiki that all Elder Scrolls players have used at least once. It explains everything clearly and even has a starting guide perfect for beginners.

[Coffee?]

does the morrowidn forum even have moderators?

[Lord Griswold]

Here's a link--> http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Morrowind

[Lord Griswold]

I don't know if it does.

[Coffee?]

ya, with permission we could just copy over dutch gamers guide to the description. wait...MAKE A GUIDE DUTCH GAMER LIKE 10 OR SOMETHING!

[Quaalopec]

Just ues UESP or many of the other Morrowind Guides. We don't need to go messing up the Morrowind Steam forums with pinned guides like the Skyrim forums.