Trouble with Stealth character

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.morrowind (More info?)

After a year of playing Morrowind with a straight-up Warrior, I started a
new game with a heavily Stealth-based custom character class. (Bosmer Spy,
Agility & Personality, with a little bit of everything... Short Blade,
Marksman, Sneak, Security, and Speechcraft major, and Light Armor, Illusion,
Alteration, Alchemy, and Athletics minor.) After several hours, I'm still
flailing around trying to find something to do, because I'm having such a
hard time being *able* to do anything. Not sneaky enough yet to pilfer
anything, not charismatic enough to charm my way through the first few
faction missions I've received, and very fragile, so even rats are taking a
(big) chunk out of me in combat.

Maybe it's just normal starting-character teething pains, and I'm too used
to my Warrior who could cleave in two anyone who even looked at her askance.
Any advice for getting a Stealth character up and running?

Brad
--

 

[wj]

Archived from groups: alt.games.morrowind (More info?)

"Brad Bethke" <bbethkeDEL@ME.wi.rr.com> wrote in message
news:ywKsd.85067$ye4.13454@twister.rdc-kc.rr.com...
> After a year of playing Morrowind with a straight-up Warrior, I started a
> new game with a heavily Stealth-based custom character class. (Bosmer
> Spy,
> Agility & Personality, with a little bit of everything... Short Blade,
> Marksman, Sneak, Security, and Speechcraft major, and Light Armor,
> Illusion,
> Alteration, Alchemy, and Athletics minor.) After several hours, I'm still
> flailing around trying to find something to do, because I'm having such a
> hard time being *able* to do anything. Not sneaky enough yet to pilfer
> anything, not charismatic enough to charm my way through the first few
> faction missions I've received, and very fragile, so even rats are taking
> a
> (big) chunk out of me in combat.
>
> Maybe it's just normal starting-character teething pains, and I'm too used
> to my Warrior who could cleave in two anyone who even looked at her
> askance.
> Any advice for getting a Stealth character up and running?
>
> Brad
> --
>
>
>

Small stealth characters do have that challenge; they're kind of fragile at
first. In the long run, I really like them though. I've played wood elves,
and am currently playing the Gailith mod character, unarmored. I had to be
careful earlier on, but now she's so agile and fast she eats Orcs for
breakfast. A few things you can do...

Get a bow. Your relatively high initial marksman skill will allow you to
knock the edge off enemies before they get to you. You'll probably find
yourself relying on distance weapons a lot. Also, try to get your hands on
a glass dagger early. I found one for sale in Vivic that was heavily
damaged, so I had to pay very little for it (yeah yeah; some thief, huh?).
They're light and fast, and your short blade skill will go up quickly when
you use it. A really helpful weapon early on is to get a dwarvish short
sword and have it enchanted with a few points of cast-on-strike absorb
health. It doesn't cost much to cast, so you get a long-lasting weapon that
boosts your health at your enemy's expense during battle. Such a deal.
I've since retired the dwarf sword, but have the same spell on a Daedric
tanto for my main weapon. Absorb health can't be reflected like some of the
other enchanted attacks. When you're up to it, doing the Mehrune's Razor
quest will get you another vicious, deadly little dagger. Another thing; do
the hooker-with-the-invisible-accomplice mini-quest up above Gnisis to get
the Amulet of Shadows. There are some bad guys you just aren't going to be
able to play fair with, so make yourself invisible and whack away. Resist
the urge to carry any but the lightest loot items, and dump them regularly.
A big strong character can bull through a battle, but if you're relying on
speed and agility, you'd better have at least half of your available
encumbrance free going into a tough fight. If you're all loaded down, your
agility won't help you and you'll get hit a lot. Finally, get all the light
or unarmored training you can afford, and just...tough it out until you
toughen up.

Cheers,
Walt

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.morrowind (More info?)

Brad Bethke wrote:
> After a year of playing Morrowind with a straight-up Warrior, I started a
> new game with a heavily Stealth-based custom character class. (Bosmer Spy,
> Agility & Personality, with a little bit of everything... Short Blade,
> Marksman, Sneak, Security, and Speechcraft major, and Light Armor, Illusion,
> Alteration, Alchemy, and Athletics minor.) After several hours, I'm still
> flailing around trying to find something to do, because I'm having such a
> hard time being *able* to do anything. Not sneaky enough yet to pilfer
> anything, not charismatic enough to charm my way through the first few
> faction missions I've received, and very fragile, so even rats are taking a
> (big) chunk out of me in combat.
>
> Maybe it's just normal starting-character teething pains, and I'm too used
> to my Warrior who could cleave in two anyone who even looked at her askance.
> Any advice for getting a Stealth character up and running?
>
> Brad
> --
>
>
>
I'm trying to force myself into a role as a female breton mage type
character - I'm also used to playing a typical Nord warrior - but I
find that got too easy and uninteresting running round killing stuff.

the best way for you is to join the thieves guild and level up your
skills for them, then maybe you'd want to consider being a morag tong
assasin or something - the focus isn't on killing up close, you'll have
to rely on your markmanship and sneakiness to survive out in the wilds -
focus on speed, agility, marksman, illusion (?) and try to generally
level up peronsonality through clever bartering.

or start a new warrior and try to eliminate every non-respawning NPC on
the map (always a fun 'afterquest')

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.morrowind (More info?)

As yet another alternative, I play my stealth characters as charismatic
charmers rather than as fighters. This works very well in MW. Rather
than stealing from merchants, I buy and sell goods and charm them out
of all their cash. Which I use to get better equipment so I can
survive.

Non-warriors are more fragile early in the game, and cannot just charge
into battle. They need an alternative. If they do have to fight, they
might use a cheap ring of invisibility to sneak/rush up behind someone
and strike from behind, for example.

Fast weapons (short blades, spears and staves) seem to work well for
them. Slash someone apart and let them bleed out. Building speed
helps here. Someone fast with a staff or spear or knife can hit an
opponent so often that they never have a chance to hit back. Start
with mudcrabs, not those big guys with axes.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.morrowind (More info?)

Brad Bethke wrote:
>
> After a year of playing Morrowind with a straight-up Warrior, I started a
> new game with a heavily Stealth-based custom character class. (Bosmer Spy,
> Agility & Personality, with a little bit of everything... Short Blade,
> Marksman, Sneak, Security, and Speechcraft major, and Light Armor, Illusion,
> Alteration, Alchemy, and Athletics minor.) After several hours, I'm still
> flailing around trying to find something to do, because I'm having such a
> hard time being *able* to do anything. Not sneaky enough yet to pilfer
> anything, not charismatic enough to charm my way through the first few
> faction missions I've received, and very fragile, so even rats are taking a
> (big) chunk out of me in combat.
>
> Maybe it's just normal starting-character teething pains, and I'm too used
> to my Warrior who could cleave in two anyone who even looked at her askance.
> Any advice for getting a Stealth character up and running?

Steal all the unattended stuff you can find (Redoran manors are good
candidates for this) and buy some combat training - stealth chars are a
PITA to get going, but fun once you get off the ground.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.morrowind (More info?)

Pete MC wrote:

> stealth chars are a PITA to get going, but fun once you get off the ground.

Agreed. My first Morrowind character was a vanilla Nightblade - my
favourite class from Daggerfall. I remember the first levels were quite
difficult, especially as I didn't know my way around. But later on that
char was much fun.

I've tried a couple of other class combinations, but so far mage/thief
is my favourite. The vanilla Nightblade class isn't bad, though I prefer
to swap some of the major/minor skills. They won't get as powerful as a
mage/warrior character, but the idea of a Nightblade or an Assassin is
to avoid combat until you get to your actual target.


Peter