Morrowind:Morrowind for Oblivion Players

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Contents 1 Main Characteristics 2 Factions/Guilds 3 Combat 4 Leveling and Training 5 Magic 6 Potions 7 Stealth 8 Transport 9 Speechcraft 10 Merchants 11 Items

Guideline: This article should only contain the major differences between the two games accompanied with links to relevant articles in the Morrowind namespace, and provide useful tips for adapting.

This is a list of differences to help you start your adventures in Vvardenfell on a good note. For more tips, see Hints and Starting out.

[edit] Main Characteristics

• No quest compass showing you where you have to go. You'll have to note directions to various places, use the sign posts or a bit of searching to find where you have to go.
• No scaling and much more limited leveling. Many caves and ruins have fixed-level inhabitants. The creatures that get spawned and the loot you find in crates depend on your level, but all creatures and attributes have a static level and higher level creatures never completely replace the low level ones. As a result, low level characters will have a much harder time, but high level characters will actually have it easier.
• Fatigue and Luck are much more important and play a role in almost anything you do: Combat, spell casting, creating potions, even trading goods.
• Travel is quite different, as there are no horses or fast-traveling. There are various means to get you from A to B quickly, though these can be limited in destinations, see Transport for information.
• All rewards in form of gold, Artifacts and Items are level-independent, and therefore fixed.
• No AI dynamics and schedules. NPC locations are almost always fixed within a limited radius, and NPCs, even ones in combat with the player, cannot leave their cell unless they are following you.
• Guards will not come to your aid if you are attacked by a human NPC, but will come to your aid against monsters.
• Skill Perks are absent (with the exception of Alchemy), though stat/skill increases in general are worth more.
• Running drains fatigue.
• You can actually kill essential NPC's in Morrowind. They won't fall unconscious and revive after 10 seconds like in Oblivion, but instead they'll die for good and a "disturbing" message will appear on your screen. You're free to ignore it or reload a saved game.
• If your bounty reaches 5,000 gold or higher, you are given a death warrant. Guards will attack you on sight. The only way to get rid of this is through the Thieves' Guild.

[edit] Factions/Guilds

• There are many more joinable Factions to choose from in Morrowind than in Oblivion.
• Familiar Factions you will recognize from Oblivion that feature in Morrowind are: the Mages Guild, the Fighters Guild and the Thieves Guild. Also The Blades (in terms of the main quest in both games). Owners of Mehrunes' Razor may remember a single member of Morag Tong.
• Factions from Oblivion that you will not encounter are: The Dark Brotherhood (although members of the faction do appear in the game, and play a large role in the Tribunal expansion pack), The Arena and The Knights of The Nine (only available through the plug-in of the same name). The Morag Tong effectively substitutes for the Dark Brotherhood as an 'Assassin's Guild', although with some differences (primarily the fact that the Morag Tong are an entirely legal organization in Morrowind, and do not fulfill the same 'evil' role that the Dark Brotherhood does in Oblivion).
• Factions unique to Morrowind that the player can choose to join include: House Hlaalu, House Redoran, House Telvanni (only one of the three Houses may be joined with a single character), East Empire Company (only available through Bloodmoon), Imperial Legion, Morag Tong, Tribunal Temple, Imperial Cult, Aundae Clan, Berne Clan, and the Quarra Clan (only one of the Vampire Clans may be joined with a single character, and all have a comparatively limited amount of quests and progression available).
• Unlike Oblivion, Morrowind Factions have a compatibility score that modifies the disposition of NPCs that are part of a different Faction to yours. For example, if you are a member of the Mages Guild, members of House Telvanni won't like you and have a lower disposition towards you, and members of the Fighters Guild will like you more and have a higher disposition towards you.
• Advancement in guilds depends upon skills as well as quests. Without good magic skills, you are forbidden to get a high rank in the Mages Guild, for example. In addition, rank advancement isn't the result of a linear quest progression, as in Oblivion. You don't have to do all the quests. If you don't like the quest you're given (because it conflicts with another guild membership, for example), try going to another town and trying something different.

[edit] Combat

• There are more skills regarding weapons and armor (including the unarmored skill). For example, daggers and longswords are not governed by the same skill.
• Combat skill does not modify the damage, but the chance to hit. Because of this, it is vital that you choose at least one weapon skill as a Major Skill, especially if you are starting a game for the first time. You will generally also have to forego the use of weapons that you are not skilled in the use of, even if they are vastly numerically superior to your own.
• In unpatched versions of Morrowind, there is no health bar indicating your opponent's health.
• Random encounters with hostile monsters, particularly low-level ones such as cliff racers, are much more common. Conflicts with multiple creatures are common. At low levels, this can be particularly troublesome.
• Blocking attacks occurs automatically; it is not controlled with a button as in Oblivion, although your position affects the rate of blocking. You cannot block with a weapon, you must have a shield equipped. Your block skill, agility and luck will determine how often you block, and a successful block absorbs all damage.
• You can perform 3 different attacks, depending on which way you are moving when you hit the attack button. Each attack does different amounts of damage depending on the weapon. There is also an option to always use the best attack for your weapon, set under "Options".
• There are no power attacks, holding the attack button will simply cause a successful hit to reach the higher damage range of your weapon. In other words, bring your weapon back fully before release for full damage.
• There is no possibility of yielding in combat. The only way to stop combat other than killing the opponent is to cast a calm spell.
• Your fatigue affects your chance to hit and cast a spell.

[edit] Leveling and Training

• The skills are different, and even for skills that appear in both games, the governing attribute is frequently not the same.
• Trainers are much more common (although a larger fraction of the trainers only offer services to guild members). Trainers have a certain level to which they can train you, with one 100-skill "Master Trainer" per skill.
• There is no limit to the amount of training you can do per level, unlike Oblivion where you can only train 5 times a level.
• In Morrowind you choose 5 Major Skills, which receive a large bonus and 5 Minor skills, which receive a smaller bonus. The remaining skills are miscellaneous skills and receive no bonus. You get a level by getting 10 skill ups in any combination of major and minor skills.
• Skill increases after you reach ten major+minor skills continue to count towards that level's attribute bonuses, making it easier to get high multipliers. You can train an unlimited number of times per level. For details, see Level.
• You restore your health/magicka by sleeping, not waiting. You do not need to use a bed to rest, you may do so simply by resting outside city limits and out of range of hostile enemies. The amount of health and magicka restored is determined by how long you sleep and your stats. While resting out in the wild, your sleep may be interrupted by a hostile creature attacking you.
• You do not need to sleep in a bed to level up in Morrowind. All you have to do is to "heal" (on the waiting menu).

[edit] Magic

Although the magic in Oblivion is very similar to that of Morrowind, some spells and effects were changed in Oblivion. Key differences include:

• Significant spells that are not present in Oblivion: Mark/Recall, Levitation, Jump, SlowFall, Lock and Divine/Almsivi Intervention.
• Magicka doesn't regenerate constantly, it is replenished by sleeping, potions or absorption, making pure magic a less viable alternative to physical combat. Playing a Mage depending solely on Destruction for killing will take careful planning. See here for a detailed strategy and helpful balancing mods.
• Casting spells can fail, unlike in Oblivion, failure rate is influenced by your skill rating in the relevant school of magic, your Willpower and your Fatigue. Instead of the cost of spells, skill level influences the chance of spell failure, using the following formula:

( [Luck / 8] + [Willpower / 4] + [Spell Skill * 2.5] - [Magic Cost * 1.25] ) * ( 0.6 + [0.4 * Current Fatigue / Max Fatigue] )

• Spell effectiveness is not decreased by wearing armor. However, being more encumbered will make you tire faster when running, which makes spells fail more often.
• Spells are available to anyone that is willing to pay their price, largely independent of Rank or Faction. See Spell Merchants, some of which are Spell makers for custom spells.
• Spells take much longer to cast. They must be readied just as a weapon must be drawn, and they must cast just as a weapon must attack.
• There are no altars for enchanting or spellmaking in Vvardenfell. Instead, enchant is a skill which you can use yourself anytime, anywhere and for free, but with a chance to fail, or you can pay Enchanters to do it for you.
• Most magical items apply their effect when you use them, rather than having a constant effect.
• You can delete spells in Morrowind by Shift+clicking on the spell in the magic menu.
• Though each enchanted item also shows up in the inventory box, it must be readied to be "(cast when) used" by selection from a list of enchanted items in the spells box.
• Telekinesis does not physically move objects around but rather allows things to be "activated" from a greater distance (eg. traps or items one might pick up)

[edit] Potions

Overall, potions and alchemy can be far more powerful in Morrowind than Oblivion.

• You can drink an unlimited number of potions at the same time, in "Inventory Time". These potions stack as well.
• Potion strength is influenced by your Intelligence; boosting Intelligence past 100 is a well-known exploit that can be used to create super-powerful potions.
• You can fail at creating a potion in Morrowind. The higher your alchemy the less the chance this will happen.
• You can make potions using the unknown effects of ingredients.
• Similarly to Oblivion, you can collect samples from plants and animals. Restocking Merchants can be pushed to have unlimited supplies.
• In Morrowind plants are containers, which makes harvesting take somewhat longer. Also, plants take 4 months to respawn, much longer than in Oblivion.
• Poisons affect the player if drunk, and can't be used to poison weapons.

[edit] Stealth

• There are no red icons warning you that you are about to commit a Crime, so you have to be much more careful when you pick something up.
• If you join a guild, taking anything from the guild hall still counts as theft.
• No minigame-style security, lock-picking chances are based on your agility, security level, luck and lockpick quality. Many options for use of spells, scrolls and enchanted jewelry to open locked areas and chests, as well as many Keys. Doors/containers can be trapped as well as locked; you need a probe or telekinesis to remove traps.
• Sneak is toggled on/off differently. Xbox: double-click the left control stick. PC: You cannot toggle sneaking - hold down the Ctrl key instead. The sneak indicator from Oblivion, the eye, is not present in Morrowind, but another indicator is. If you are not successfully sneaking, the indicator near the magic icon disappears. It's very similar to Oblivion.
• Stolen goods can be sold to any merchants -- but trying to sell an item to the merchant from whom you stole it, along with any other item of the same kind (e.g. if you steal rat meat from a person you can't sell any rat meat back, even if you got it legally somewhere else) will cause them to attack you, and incur a bounty for which you may be arrested. This applies to any items that are flagged as belonging to the merchant, such as items in the merchant's bedroom.
• Additionally, merchants who belong to a faction will do the same if you try to sell them an item stolen from that faction, even if it was in another city on the other side of the map. It's generally best to avoid selling things to faction-affiliated merchants, just in case.
• Trespassing is not illegal, you may sleep in any bed, provided you are not seen attempting to do so.
• You will get more than one use to a lockpick i.e. in Oblivion one pick = one attempt, Morrowind one pick = 25 attempts

[edit] Transport

There is no Oblivion-style fast travel in Morrowind: it is not possible to freely travel instantaneously in real time between any two known exterior locations. There are also no horses. Therefore, you'll potentially spend more time walking in Morrowind. However, there are several alternative means of transportation:

• Paid travel services between fixed locations: silt striders, boats, gondolas.
• Instant travel between Mages Guilds is available through Guild Guides.
• Instant travel from any location to nearby "safe" spots: Almsivi Intervention, Divine Intervention (these work from interior locations, too).
• Mark and Recall are spells that are much like instant travel to certain spots.
• A network of Propylon Chambers surrounds the island, with instant travel, if you have the right index.
• Custom Jump and Levitation Spells can make for very fast travel.

[edit] Speechcraft

Persuasion is very different in Morrowind compared to Oblivion. First of all, there is no persuasion mini game. Second, it is much more dependent on your speechcraft skill. With a speechcraft skill of 5, you are not going to successfully admire anyone. When you want to persuade someone, you have 4 choices:

• You can admire an NPC. If done successfully, this will permanently raise his disposition. If it fails however, the NPC will like you less.
• You can intimidate an NPC. Just like Admire, successfully doing this will raise his disposition. The NPC will pretend to like you because you are intimidating him. The stronger you are, the better is the chance of success. However, once the conversation is over and you talk to this NPC again, his disposition will have dropped to even less than what it was before you intimidated him.
• You can taunt an NPC, to anger him. Taunting, no matter if you fail or succeed, will lower the NPC's disposition towards you. If you manage to do several successful taunts the NPC will end the conversation and attack you. Because the NPC attacked you first, you will not get a bounty for killing him. The guards, unlike the ones in Oblivion, won't come to help you however.
• Bribing is similar to Oblivion's bribing, but there are some differences. Instead of a fixed amount, you can choose between 10, 100 and 1000 gold. Also, there is still a chance that the NPC won't accept your bribe, and his disposition will drop. You can bribe an NPC as often as you like, as long as you have the money. Larger bribes can mean a larger success rate and a large boost in disposition.
• Most conversation is done in text instead of the prerecorded dialogue of Oblivion. This results in Morrowind having a higher number of topics and NPCs.

[edit] Merchants

• Merchant's gold is not a fixed amount, it goes up and down when you buy and sell, respectively. So if you sell an item that is worth 600 to a merchant that has 600 gold, you will be unable to sell anything to them without first buying something or waiting for the gold to reset. A merchant's gold resets every 24 hours.
• Shops never close for the night.
• There is no "Haggle" option in Morrowind. Prices are set after choosing items to buy/sell, instead of said percentages shown on a slider. If the price you offer is accepted or not depends on your mercantile skill and the merchant's disposition towards you. Note that the disposition of the merchant will decrease if the offer is refused, and will increase if the offer is accepted.

[edit] Items

• In Oblivion, clothing and armor are more or less interchangeable, and may not be worn at the same time. In Morrowind you can equip both clothing and armor at the same time, except on hands and feet. The items show up on your character (e.g. shirt under the cuirass).
• Argonians and Khajiits in Morrowind cannot wear any kind of shoes or boots, or full helmets. (Helmets which do not obscure the face can still be worn.)
• In Oblivion, item quality has no effect on how much of an Enchantment it can hold. In Morrowind, higher quality items can hold more powerful enchantments. Additionally, your Enchant skill determines how many uses you can get out of enchanted items. Unlike in Oblivion, enchanted items recharge over time.
• In Morrowind "useless" items like spoons or vases still hold a monetary value and therefore can be collected and sold, making a merchant or thief type of character a more viable option than in Oblivion.
• In Morrowind, many items are not leveled; for example, you can find Daedric weapons at level 6, but the items will remain just as rare at level 6 as at level 60. The reason for this is that Morrowind has a certain fixed amount of items placed within the game. The exception is weapons carried by high level daedra which can only be recovered by a higher level character (although a near unlimited amount of these random items can be recovered over time).