Offensive Mage early game, viable?

[MaximB]

Hi,
Never played Morrowind before (but played Oblivion and Skyrim), and I heard that the combat sucks in this game - so playing a fighter can be a lot of pain and frustration.
Also I hear that Morrowing has a lot of great spells, so my question is:
Would it be better/more fun/less frustrating to play an offensive mage instead of a fighter? shooting fire and lightning bolts?
And if so, how should I start? (race/stats/spells)

I heard that there is a "combat mod" which will make the combat like Oblivion/Skyrim - however I don't want to repeat the same combat mode again.

[Sam90]

Early in the game I see fighters fare better in the game. Mainly because Magicka doesn't regenerate but only by resting or drinking potions and the chances are high that you will fail casting your spells and second you start the game with pretty low Magicka. Everything in this game is dice-roll including spells, but the non-regenerating Magicka early in the game and the dice-roll mechanic make it a not very good build early in the game. I think it is better to play as a spellsword instead of a pure mage.

[Daft Gamer]

If going pure offensive mage, it will be slow going at the beginning since you'll have limited resources. I might suggest throwing in a little alteration and illusion as well for easier leveling at the beginning and greater survivability throughout the entire game. Remember, you only increase your skill if you successfully use an ability and that means, for offensive magic, you have to hurt something with your spell.

If you are min/maxing your build, be sure that you place at least one ability for intelligence as a non-major/minor skill so you can boost your modifier. Save your gold to buy training(be sure to bribe magic trainers to increase their disposition so cost of training won't be so outrageous) and do the starting mage guild quests in each hub city when you can(they won't require combat or as much exploration for the starting ones) to also increase your standing with the guild.

As far as races, it all comes down to what you are wanting to be(except for cats and lizards since they are missing some equip slots that you could have placed an enchanted item in). I've always preferred Dark Elf for mage since you have increased resistance to fire(the main element that your enemies will throw at you), a plus to destruction school to help you start to get over that hill of failing spells, and you have Ancestor Guardian(temp buff to decrease melee damage) to summon occasionally if you find yourself in a tight spot. Breton is another good race since you'll start with a higher Magicka pool than most other races(high elf has the highest but the tradeoffs are terrible).

Birthsign needs to be Lady. I know that it doesn't give you any extra mana but the extra Endurance(more health) and Personality(lower costs and easier to bribe for less gold) are invaluable. If you must choose one that gives mana, do NOT choose Atronach. Not being able to regen Mana during rest will make you too dependant on potions.

Be careful at the beginning. You will have the ability to choose a House(think of it as a ruling council) to join and once you join it, you won't be able to join a different house during that playthrough. Each one is based around a particular type of gameplay. Telvanni is magic, Redoran is melee, and Hlaluu is stealth.

Keep in mind that, if you are going for a pure build, even Mages in fiction keep a dagger or staff handy for when they run out of spells. Follow their lead.

Every skill has a master trainer that can increase your skill up to 100 with paid training. There is only one that you need to be aware of and that is Enchanting. The dude is not in a town and starts out aggro'd to you. You won't run into him for quite a while in game but it might be handy for you to google him so you don't kill him when you do get to the area.

[Smoking Tiger.]

seems so many people have mage questions for morrowind or seems stuck in there ways (you cant do this you MUST do this) guess its time for me to go back to guide writeing :P (will post it here to once done)

[Zenith]

Originally posted by Daft Gamer:

Every skill has a master trainer that can increase your skill up to 100 with paid training. There is only one that you need to be aware of and that is Enchanting. The dude is not in a town and starts out aggro'd to you. You won't run into him for quite a while in game but it might be handy for you to google him so you don't kill him when you do get to the area.

Good advice. That's what I like about this game, that there are lots of mysteries and secrets hidden about and it's not all handed to you with quest markers.

[Brandybuck]

Originally posted by MaximB:

Would it be better/more fun/less frustrating to play an offensive mage instead of a fighter? shooting fire and lightning bolts?
And if so, how should I start? (race/stats/spells)

Having played a pure mage in Morrowind, here's the problem: magicka does not regenerate unless you sleep, and if you take the atronach sign, it won't regenerate at all. And magicka is capped, so unless you take that atronach sign, you're never going to have very much of it. This makes mage builds incredibly difficult.

There are two solutions to this. The first is alchemy, where you augment your magicka with potions. Unfortunately the ingredients aren't that common in low level areas. The second solution is one I did, and that's to get a mod that regenerates magicka. It's a cheat, but the one I used tried to be balanced by making the regeneration fairly slow. It keeps you from having to go home and sleep between fights.

p.s. I get the sense that pure mages were discouraged in the game, as without mods you really need to engage in some exploits (or a mod) to manage.

[Brandybuck]

Also, enchanting is very strange. Don't expect to be making a lot of constant effect items without using exploits (like the stacking effect of fortify potions) or finding a steady source of grand soul gems (yeah, right).

But that said, you'll end up with a lot of enchanted items as loot. One trick to being a pure mage is to NOT use your own magicka, but use enchanted items. You have a lot of clothing/armor slots, and staves have a lot of enchant capacity, so you'll spend a lot of time casting from your items and scrolls.