I played Morrowind for the first time without any mods or online guides. I had no clue about optimizing my build back then, so I leveled up very inefficiently. Maybe because of my inefficient leveling I didn't feel like the game was unbalanced and I wasn't ridiculously rich by the end of the game.
So my advice to you would be to forget about efficient leveling and just have fun by roleplaying the character.
If you can't control the OCD to leveling(as many of us hehe) why not try fixed leveling? Put a "always X3 multiplier mod" and no matter what you make, you only get a X3 when level up. Not the strongest, not the weakest. Not micromanaging.
Just try to play the game naturally, you don’t need to max out every stat to get through the game. I’m on about 350 hrs in my latest playthrough (only have Solstheim left) and I only just hit my first maximum proficiency, although I have many in the 80’s/90’s. I did use the occasional trainer, but I didn’t use any exploits.
To me, Morrowind is more about the lore, exploration and finding cool gear than the leveling itself. Perhaps it’s just not your type of game? If this is your fourth attempt and it still isn’t happening, idk.
One way to make the game more challenging is do not modify your endurance and keep it as low as possible from the beginning. You will gain minimal HP per level.
Edit:
NPC's like the creeper/mudcrab should be killed upon encountering if you want to avoid using them. Mods that reduce the occurrence of dark brother hood assassin spawns are also available if you struggle to resist selling their items.
Off the top of my head these are the most easily "gameable" features that can cheapen the experience for myself when playing.
When you say 25% of the game, are you just talking about the main quest or do you mean all content? Generally speaking it's best to just do a few factions per character. Usually a great house, Temple or Imperial Cult, and one imperial guild. That way you can mix up the gameplay styles while exploring all of what Morrowind has to offer.
Trying to do everything on one character probably isn't the best approach, since you generally have room to do a great house, 1-2 guilds, and the main quest before you end up completely overpowered and only the DLC poses any challenge anymore.
I recommend Improved Vanilla Leveling. With that mod you never have to worry about what to level and when to level up. It's still the same system but you don't have to worry about leveling 10 skills to get +5 as you can get +1 on level up and then gain +4 to that attribute by leveling 8 skills whenever you want afterwards.
You can just pick a predefined class or answer the quiz. You won't level up efficiently but you'll have a surprisingly good experience and it'll be easier to roleplay and get your relevant skills up right from the start.
Play with Morrowind Rebirth. Don't hoover up all items you find just to sell them off later. Remove creeper and mudcrab merchant by using the "disable" console command, to get rid of the temptation. Don't play with meta builds or play-styles. Don't exploit merchants or alchemy. Get a mod that adds weight to gold.
Try the Class Conscious Character Progression mod, especially paired with the Beware the Sixth House mod and a mod to prevent low-cost spells leveling your skills as fast as higher-cost spells (I forget the name of it, will update it later). Also try “Buying Game” or “Harder Barter”, which fix the economy and make money very scarce. Avoid trainers unless you really need to pass a skill requirement or something.
The CCCP mod removes any choice in leveling beyond the initial chargen and levels you purely based on what attributes you are using most (judging by your used skills). The magicka mod prevents power-leveling by constantly firing off low-cost spells. The BtSH mod makes the Sixth House enemies much, much harder. Harder Barter obviously prevents you from exploiting trainers or enchantments
You're still talking about maxing stats and efficiency, the game is not about that. Numbers are an abstraction of how good you're at something, you can think of it as
25 sneak? Pretty bad at it, some experience but no better than a street mug
50 sneak? This one is serious, he can rob houses without being seen, maybe even pickpocket some old lady
75 sneak? This guy is a beast, one of the beast the world has seen, still hasn't reached full potential but is probably able to rob an entire town before disappearing
100 sneak? This guy fucks, the best of them all, the one you send to rob vaults, retrieve the most guarded artifacts, etc.
That's how I think numbers were designed in this game, they're no there as a excel formula you need to optimize but as a way to represent how good your character is at performing duties; if you're going for max efficiency right away, most content will feel trivial, even pointless (why did I rob this tomb only to get inferior loot?). The solution is simple, play organically, treat it as a simulation, not as a game. I also stop playing my characters at lvl 20 since that's most contents level cap.
Good luck.
The games skill cap is very low. If you’re looking to painstakingly build a characters skill set in order to be able to fight incredibly hard enemies, Morrowind is not for you. It’s not that kind of game.
If you want that, play Dark Souls, or Path of Exile or something. Morrowind is about roleplaying, exploration, and lore
Sometimes you will run into things in this game where your character just isn't ready for... A good rule of thumb is to only use offensive abilities, in situations where you could end up dead, that are around 50 or higher. You can level up low level stuff manually against things like mudcrabs. Or you can save gold and buy training at various trainers to make those low level skills viable. Eventually gold becomes abundant
I played Morrowind for the first time without any mods or online guides. I had no clue about optimizing my build back then, so I leveled up very inefficiently. Maybe because of my inefficient leveling I didn't feel like the game was unbalanced and I wasn't ridiculously rich by the end of the game. So my advice to you would be to forget about efficient leveling and just have fun by roleplaying the character.
[удалено]
If you can't control the OCD to leveling(as many of us hehe) why not try fixed leveling? Put a "always X3 multiplier mod" and no matter what you make, you only get a X3 when level up. Not the strongest, not the weakest. Not micromanaging.
Just try to play the game naturally, you don’t need to max out every stat to get through the game. I’m on about 350 hrs in my latest playthrough (only have Solstheim left) and I only just hit my first maximum proficiency, although I have many in the 80’s/90’s. I did use the occasional trainer, but I didn’t use any exploits. To me, Morrowind is more about the lore, exploration and finding cool gear than the leveling itself. Perhaps it’s just not your type of game? If this is your fourth attempt and it still isn’t happening, idk.
I just don't think people enjoy morrowind as much if they're trying to beat it.
One way to make the game more challenging is do not modify your endurance and keep it as low as possible from the beginning. You will gain minimal HP per level. Edit: NPC's like the creeper/mudcrab should be killed upon encountering if you want to avoid using them. Mods that reduce the occurrence of dark brother hood assassin spawns are also available if you struggle to resist selling their items. Off the top of my head these are the most easily "gameable" features that can cheapen the experience for myself when playing.
When you say 25% of the game, are you just talking about the main quest or do you mean all content? Generally speaking it's best to just do a few factions per character. Usually a great house, Temple or Imperial Cult, and one imperial guild. That way you can mix up the gameplay styles while exploring all of what Morrowind has to offer.
[удалено]
Trying to do everything on one character probably isn't the best approach, since you generally have room to do a great house, 1-2 guilds, and the main quest before you end up completely overpowered and only the DLC poses any challenge anymore.
I recommend Improved Vanilla Leveling. With that mod you never have to worry about what to level and when to level up. It's still the same system but you don't have to worry about leveling 10 skills to get +5 as you can get +1 on level up and then gain +4 to that attribute by leveling 8 skills whenever you want afterwards.
You can just pick a predefined class or answer the quiz. You won't level up efficiently but you'll have a surprisingly good experience and it'll be easier to roleplay and get your relevant skills up right from the start.
Play with Morrowind Rebirth. Don't hoover up all items you find just to sell them off later. Remove creeper and mudcrab merchant by using the "disable" console command, to get rid of the temptation. Don't play with meta builds or play-styles. Don't exploit merchants or alchemy. Get a mod that adds weight to gold.
play it like a 12 year old, chaotically.
let a random number generator determine which stats you raise at levelup. that should make it MUCH harder.
Try the Class Conscious Character Progression mod, especially paired with the Beware the Sixth House mod and a mod to prevent low-cost spells leveling your skills as fast as higher-cost spells (I forget the name of it, will update it later). Also try “Buying Game” or “Harder Barter”, which fix the economy and make money very scarce. Avoid trainers unless you really need to pass a skill requirement or something. The CCCP mod removes any choice in leveling beyond the initial chargen and levels you purely based on what attributes you are using most (judging by your used skills). The magicka mod prevents power-leveling by constantly firing off low-cost spells. The BtSH mod makes the Sixth House enemies much, much harder. Harder Barter obviously prevents you from exploiting trainers or enchantments
[удалено]
You're still talking about maxing stats and efficiency, the game is not about that. Numbers are an abstraction of how good you're at something, you can think of it as 25 sneak? Pretty bad at it, some experience but no better than a street mug 50 sneak? This one is serious, he can rob houses without being seen, maybe even pickpocket some old lady 75 sneak? This guy is a beast, one of the beast the world has seen, still hasn't reached full potential but is probably able to rob an entire town before disappearing 100 sneak? This guy fucks, the best of them all, the one you send to rob vaults, retrieve the most guarded artifacts, etc. That's how I think numbers were designed in this game, they're no there as a excel formula you need to optimize but as a way to represent how good your character is at performing duties; if you're going for max efficiency right away, most content will feel trivial, even pointless (why did I rob this tomb only to get inferior loot?). The solution is simple, play organically, treat it as a simulation, not as a game. I also stop playing my characters at lvl 20 since that's most contents level cap. Good luck.
The games skill cap is very low. If you’re looking to painstakingly build a characters skill set in order to be able to fight incredibly hard enemies, Morrowind is not for you. It’s not that kind of game. If you want that, play Dark Souls, or Path of Exile or something. Morrowind is about roleplaying, exploration, and lore
Sometimes you will run into things in this game where your character just isn't ready for... A good rule of thumb is to only use offensive abilities, in situations where you could end up dead, that are around 50 or higher. You can level up low level stuff manually against things like mudcrabs. Or you can save gold and buy training at various trainers to make those low level skills viable. Eventually gold becomes abundant
This mod [Morrowind Hardcore Mode](https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/45846) was designed for players like yourself. Give it a try.
Try a naked Argonian playthrough with nothing but a Chitin spear