Well, I basically want someone who talks well, is smart and has some common sense and experience. Trade skills would fit, but aren't necessary. Something between a D&D fighter or paladin and a swashbuckler but not necessarily a magic wielder. More on the mental side than a brawler, but still a warrior.

As for physical abilities, I don't want cheese but I'd rather be able to survive without too much reloading. I'd rather avoid sneak attacking, backstabbing etc, although I sort of prefer fencing to the grab-the-biggest-weapon-and-armour style and it would be nice to be able to deal with traps if applicable. Ah, and either Imperial or Breton in race, so far as I've seen, I don't feel like playing anything else.

Any suggestions? (Note: I know of the early game character creation quiz but it doesn't do the job for me. ;) )

[ January 24, 2006, 00:56: Message edited by: chevalier ]

Race: Imperial
Class: Combat
Preferred Attributes: Speed and Luck
Sign: The Lady
Major Skills: (Light Armor)(Weapon of choice that builds strength - Long sword, axe or blunt)(Marksman)(Speechcraft)(Alteration)
Minor Skills: (Armorer)(Block)(Short Blade)(Conjuration)(Alchemy or Mysticism)

With these selections you can have a nice blend of adequate fighter and magic user and your skills are balanced enough to leave you open to join many different factions.

Also...every attribute to train needs to be covered by one of your major and minor skills.

Never take Athletics or acrobatics as a skill...you run and jump and level up too fast and find that your attributes get out of balance for an all purpose character.

Just my two cents. Have fun.

Well I'm always happy to help :) I've just gotton into this game agian this week so its all fresh in my head....

My recommendation would be:

Race: Breton
Class: Magic (to boost skills I am not putting in the major/minor
Preferred Attributes: Endurence (higher hps) and Luck (can't get multipliers)
Sign: Either the Lady or the Antronoch depending on whether you want a magic user.

Major Skills: Heavy armour, (str-weapon1), Speechcraft, Security, Armourer

Minor Skills: (weapon2 - rec. shortblade), Marksman, Alchemy, Restoration, Mysticism

Heavy armour because it provides the most protection both early and late game. Steel armour is obtainable at the beginning easily and would give 14 or so defence whilst the majority of light armours easily obtained would provide only 1 defence maybe 2. Plus, heavy will give you the endurence multiplier which is advisable to get up first because it means more hp in the long run.

If Antronoch star sign is chosen, i strongly recommend alchemy as making your own restore magicka potions is a money/time and weight saver (potions you make weigh less ;) )

Restoration and Mysticism as minors fit with a paladin type i think.

Security for helping with the early locks and traps. There is no bash method which has always bothered me :(

Armourer to save cash on repairs and its a pain when your weapon dies on you in the middle of a trek.

If anything the one I would say is mostly expendable is marksman, but bows can be handy at times :)

Every attribute does not need to be covered in your skills. If you get increases in your misc skills, it still gives a multiplier on level up.

Hope that helps Chev

I made a mistake on my reccomendation. I thought that "Block" trained endurance. It trains agility, so you need to include something to train endurance. I would suggest swapping "block" for "spear". I like to have at least one of my major or minor skills train an attribute because your selected skills train faster than misc. ones.

Malovae, I've found that you get almost the same degree of protection from a full suit of chitin armor with skills in light armor as you do from a full set of steel armor with skills in heavy armor. It's true, some of the late game heavy armors offer incredible protection but they're also incredibly heavy. With your strength at 100 you can carry 500 pounds. A full set of Daedric or ebony armor will weigh around 300 pounds. Throw in a Daedri di-katana and you've only got around 125 pound capacity for carrying.

I found it very frustrating to be a "heavy armor" character and have to leave so much behind, but that's just me.

Atronarch is definitely a challenge to play as you will never regenerate magika without potions or outside sources. I've never tried it, but I'd think you'd need alchemy as a major skill to insure that you're able to make quality restore magika potions. I've often considered trying a character much like you described just to see if I could do it.

"Marksman" may seem weak at first, but at higher levels it can pick off enemies before they even reach you. It also becomes more fun when you add in the "Area effect arrows" mod.

Speaking of mods...I highly suggest the "better bodies" mod and any of the hair and face mods by the same people. "Balmora Expansion" and "Balmora Underground" are excellent. I haven't tried it yet but I understand the "Children of the Night" mod is great if you get into that whole play-as-a-vampire thing.

I'll have to check the Chitchin out, its always been 1 Armour for me.

vampire embrace mod is the best vamp based addon ive found.. Balmora Expansion is a must for my games now as well. Suran Underground is a very fun guild to play and i reccommend that Hacken Slash :)

Okay with your comments, i'll amend my creation:

Race: Breton

Class pref.: Combat (changed: because i've moved weapons down to minor, they will need a little extra boost)

Preferred Attributes: Endurence (higher hps) and Luck (can't get multipliers)

Sign: Either the Lady or the Antronoch depending on whether you want a magic user.

Major Skills:
Heavy armour
Marksman
Alchemy or Unarmed
Speechcraft
Armourer

Minor Skills:
Longblade/Blunt/Axe
Short Blade
Security
Restoration
Mysticism

Im not budging from heavy because light is for thieves and other light fighters and not paladinesque characters imo. I never use daedric armour anyway ;) mainly because I like the look of the remodelled ebony i have installed, and its not that heavy when combined with a few strength enhancers.

If the Antronoch is taken i've moved alchemy to major like Hacken said because those potions are a must. Its a really fun way to play, especially as a mage when resting is even less necassary! As an alternative, ive offered up unarmed as it will add to defence where there is no armour. In my games this is handy because I never use hemets. Also helps out at the start when you have no armour at all ;)

Marksman moved up. Mainly because of Hacken's reasons.
Security down because the locks early on arent that tough.

Moved the main weapons down to minor because at lower levels they will get better faster, meaning you will get one or two levels quicker at the start, whilst not being totally deficient in them.

I bet i change this again!

Actually, there is another way that works well to recharge your magicka when using the atronach. Summon a ghost and attack it. It will defend itself with magic, most of which is absorbed, and you should be able to easily shrug off what isn't. I admit, this doesn't work in the middle of battle, but usually, it is enough to make you last longer on your potions. I usually put alchemy as minor skill, as it is easy to raise. Just make lots of potions, and it skyrockets. And in the early stages, where it's too low, you can get potions from the supply chests in the mage guild. I really like the atronach, it's my favorite sign, but mainly because I use magic as support, like casting fly, heal and teleportation, never to attack.

To do that take cojuration as a skill so it gives you the summon spell at the start, but i didnt think it fitted in with the build so i put alchemy instead. Its also more fun to have to make a potion than summon a ghost.

Depends. If the character becomes really proficient in conjuration, it can use the armor summoning spells. That way you look like a heavily armored (anti-)paladin, but without the constant weight. On top of that, the conjured armor gives you bonusses. As well, I found the conjured weapons nice, especially in the beginning. They are magical weapons, even if they don't do magical damage, and as such can let you damage enemies immune to normal weapons.

I think the lesson in all of this is that it's pretty difficult to get a "bad" character out of Morrowind.

Even if you realize you've neglected a critical skill, you can still use it to train in it, or even purchase training...you reach the point where you have more money than you can dispose of...why not train in everything ;)

Just to let you know, I've taken the following:

Imperial
Combat
Intelligence & Personality
The Lady

Medium Armour, Longsword, Speechcraft, Armourer, Shield

Acrobat, Athletics, Barter, Alchemy, Marksman

Does it look screwed?

Also...every attribute to train needs to be covered by one of your major and minor skills. Actually, seeing he has the expansions, it means this isn't necessary, you are required to do this for vanilla Morrowind, but with expansions it will add a multiplier even if the attribute trained isn't in your major/minor skills. For example, you will get a 5 multiplier on level up for your endurance if 10 skills of this attribute were raised before leveling up, even if they are in misc skills, major/minor in this case only determine when you will level up, and they still raise faster then misc. So now you can create the type of character you wish for, since you will still be able to raise all attributes no matter what.
Just to let you know, I've taken the following:

Imperial
Combat
Intelligence & Personality
The Lady

Medium Armour, Longsword, Speechcraft, Armourer, Shield

Acrobat, Athletics, Barter, Alchemy, Marksman

Does it look screwed? Long blade is a good choice of weapons, as there are many good long blades in the game, marksman is a good ability as well, if you train it that is, it won't really be good untill about 50 in it, seeing the way the game works, but once it's high then you can easily take down most before they reach you.
Speechcraft is a very good choice, mainly for taunting NPCs when you need to assassinate one as a quest or simply take out your anger on one (taunt untill they attack, after their first attack, wack them all you want, you wont get a bounty since they're the ones who started the fight). Mercantile is useful only at the beginning, you'll be able to get so much money later on you won't even need it, plus, you can get much better equipment from exploring then buying.
Alchemy is... a powergamer's best friend, if you know the trick you can easily create potions that boost your stats way high, perhaps propelling them to over the thousands, of course, the boost is only for a limited time, but you can easily avoid using it for that purpose.
Armorer, I can't exactly say much on that, it certainly is useful if you constantly travel and usually in areas with no smith around.
I've got nothing to say about your armour choice, I think all three types got some good ones (that and the mail I consider the best is medium as well).

I would consider perhaps taking alteration magic, I find this to be the most useful type of magic the game has, since it has waterbreathing, open lock, etc. Then again, you could always train it as a misc skill, trainers are a plenty in the game.

Some more questions:

Do predefined classes make any deference, i.e. does it make any difference that you're a paladin or knight or archer or something?

Is Unarmoured really as good as an armour skill, supposing the character has enough strength and endurance for a medium armour?

Predefined classes are just a particular arrangement of skills given a name. You could do it yourself with the custom class creation and it would be exactly the same, both in skill and how people perceive you. People sometimes make generic greetings ("Hello, <Class>!") but that's it.

Unarmoured is mainly useful for people who want as little encumberance as possible. Faster movement and less expenditure are the big reason to choose unarmoured, as well as the ability to carry more loot.

Is that better than increasing your HP through Endurance by wearing medium or heavy armour? What kind of armour class can you get?

Not exactly, if I remember right, the maximum ac you can get is 60 with unarmoured at 100, correct me if I'm wrong, as I didn't use that skill in a while, I always thought using armours was better, add to that that some armours are enchanted, which can be useful at times (especially for characters with low magicka). As for faster movement, the higher the medium and heavy armour skills increases, the faster you become, I never noticed much of a difference between the two outside of unarmoured being faster when low. It does help for looting, but I find that carrying strength boosting potions or strength boosting spells do the trick just fine.

Also, you can raise your endurance without wearing armours, just search for a trainer that teach you those skills, there are many around, the higher you train a skill however, the more it will cost, and you can't train the skill further then the NPC's skill (so trying to get 51 from training like that from someone who only has 50 in this skill isn't possible).

I've heard that Unarmoured increases nicely as a minor or major skill if you don't have a complete set of armour. Would it be a good idea to put it there for a better Agility multiplier and wear a limited number of very high AC armour parts until one can afford the whole thing?

Well, it should work fine like that, you are forced to at least equip one heavy armour part for the unarmoured skill to work correctly anyway, it's a bug that was never fixed for some reason. There are a few mods that fixes bugs anyway, surely one of them address this issue.