Miscellaneous skills

[jfhopkin]

I prefer the sneak/bow style of play,but somehow when I created my character I missed the Marksmanship skill and it's down in my Miscellaneous. Being new to the game, I didn't even realise until I'd put in many hours.

How difficult is it to make a Miscellaneous spell into a speciality? I guess there's no way to promote it to a major skill, so how much of a handicap do I have?

[Oceanic]

I've got this problem too. Started out with a warrior, then made myself into a mage. Now I've got all my important skills like Conjuration, Mysticism and Enchanting in my miscellaneous section. So far as I know, the two of us are stuck. That is, unless you don't care about your spells. If that's the case then you're in luck. Just go into the console and type enableclassmenu, then change your skills as much as you want. For some reason you have to do this twice sometimes, but it works. Like I said above, for some reason this deletes all your spells, but seeing as you're a thief this shouldn't be a problem. Cheers!

[Rydychyn]

As Narwhals stated, the only way to change your class would be through the console. I play stealth characters to, although I've began experimenting with spells, which are mostly misc skills for me. I'm level 5 now, so I'm just going to continue how I am.

[CoronusAtrus]

Major/Minor skills are mostly important for leveling. If you want to level more effeciently it can be desirable to have skills you use constantly as miscellaneous. These skills often level up due to frequent use and can force a level before you have acheived decent skill development in any other attribute. So depending on your leveling strategy it may be a plus that you started that way.

[feralgal]

jf, as coronus says, your major and minor skills are important for leveling. otherwise, increasing a miscellaneous skill is the same as increasing a major or minor skill. you'll start from a lower level (but bc of that, you may gain skill points in marksman a bit faster since you may have to shoot more to get the same damage) but each time you successfully attack with your bow or throwing weapon, you slightly increase your marksman skill. that's true whether it's a major, minor, or miscellaneous skill. http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Marksman

IMO the main concern with marksman not being a major or minor skill is that you may level more slowly. but, as coronus says, that may be an advantage if you'd otherwise shoot/throw enough so that you weren't getting at least a +4 to three attributes (or two attributes if you want to increase luck + 2 attributes). ideally, no other attributes will be eligible for much of an increase.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Level explains efficient leveling. (IMO it's good to understand this but it's not as critical as it was in Oblivion where your enemies leveled with you. i use it as a guide but i expect to mess up sometimes and don't worry about it.)

narwhals, i'm playing a mage and i only have one skill from willpower (mysticism) as a minor skill and one from intelligence (conjuration) as a major skill. i don't have any other magic skills as minor or major skills. i try to make sure that i have an easily controllable skill for each attribute as a major or minor skill so that i can have better control over my leveling. (i really shouldn't have used conjuration for a major skill bc i have the atronach birthsign and often summon and attack an ancestral ghost in order to refill my majicka. i could instead drink potions as i'd planned to do when i created my character but i'm lazy.) you can add spells via the console if you want (e.g., to give yourself back any spells you lost).
e.g., use player->addspell "summon ancestral ghost" to add that spell.

[jfhopkin]

Thanks for the explanations - an interesting dilemma. I could use the console, because so far I don't have much in the way of spells anyway.

However, I think I'll leave things as they are - as far as levelling goes, I have sneak, light armour, short blade, alchemy and enchanting as major skills and (judging by my prior experience of Oblivion and Skyrim) they'll be getting plenty of attention anyway.

Loving Morrowind so far, by the way. It's so different, and I can already see why so many people view it as superior to IV and V. And with the Overhaul mods, it's absolutely beautiful to look at too.

[Rydychyn]

Be wary of Sneak though, levelling it up is hard/slow if you expect to level it by going by your every day activities in Morrowind. I leave my guy behind the emporer whilst I get a drink or something so I gain Sneak XP.

[jfhopkin]

Yes, sneak certainly is proving hard to level. And it's so slow to move while sneaking (at least at my level) that I can't really sneak everywhere all the time like I did in Skyrim, and to a lesser extent in Oblivion. But I'm reluctant to go too far to grind skills if I can help it.

[Rydychyn]

Sneaking everywhere doesn't gain you extra XP, you gain Sneak XP by being in detection range of an NPC (or creature) but without being detected. The movement speed in Morrowind had always been the worst aspect IMO, the default is just so slow...

[jfhopkin]

Agreed, but sometimes (at least in Skyrim and Oblivion) I found that by sneaking all the time I was more likely to be near a NPC/creature that I might not otherwise have detected. And especially in Skyrim, it's not that much slower than normal movement anyway.

The default speed in Morrowind horrified me at first, and it's still frustrating, although in a way it does impose some sense of slow-paced calm on the experience. Cloud, meet silver lining ...

[Amycus]

I seem to always have trouble with sneaking in this game (which is a shame, because I love everything about it, even the combat. It's certainly DIFFERENT, but fun), it seems so random whether I'm detected or not, that I'm almost suspecting that I'm doing something wrong.

I have lv 43 in sneak now (after getting lucky and sneaking behind a lizzard thing successfully, and then waited there a VERY long time). Shouldn't that be enough to at least be able to continue "grinding" my sneak skill on human NPCs? Yes, I'm supposedly out of their line of sight.

[feralgal]

Amycus, i don't grind sneak so others may have better info but are you sure that you're in the NPC's detection range? sneak skill won't increase if you're not. just because you can see the sneak icon, doesn't mean that your sneak skill is increasing.

how high is your agility? that (and your luck) also affects the chance of sneaking successfully. if you have a chameleon or invisibility spell, you can cast that to make it harder to spot you. pickpocketing also raises your sneak skill (faster than sneaking but i think that would be hard to grind).

there are some tips here, including sneaking up on squibs or cliff racers to improve your sneak skill. http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Sneak
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind_talk:Sneak