INTRODUCTION

Greetings, N'Wah so you wish to play morrowind? Well you better learn about it's working than, before you just stumble into your own grave, can't have that, to many false Nevarines already.

This first Beginners Guide will help you though the process of creating your first character, and help you trough all the steps neccecairy for that.
Since you apear to have suffered a little memory loss, I'll start by explaining the inner workings of your stats, atributes and skills, before we get to the point of you selecting them.

Well lets go shall we?

Ah you are listening, good good, well now if you look at the bottem left of any ingame screen you see 3 small bars, a red bar representing your health, a green bar representing your fatique, and a blue bar representing your magicka, got that, well now what are they all doing you wonder?

Paragrapf 1.1 Your healthbar

This is for you the most important stat, It basicly sais how many hitpoints you have left, and what your maximum number of hitpoints is.
Every time you recieve damage this bar will empty a bit, representing this. Likewise when you heal, the bar gets full again. If this bar ever reaches 0, your character is dead, game over, well reload from your last savegame actually, but you get the point don't get this to 0.
If you have more health to begin with, you can sustain larger hits and stay longer in a fight before it hitting 0, therefore more health is very good.
In this game there are 3 mayor ways to heal yourself, by sipping a potion, casting a healing spell, or by sleeping. While you can use all 3, they al have their pro's and cons : You cannot sleep while enemies are nearby, sleeping out in the open can cause enemies to surprise you in your sleep. and when in towns you are forbidden to sleep on the streets and must find a bed that is not owned by somebody. Potions on the other hand can be use anywhere even in the middle of a battle, but they waste valueble inventory space and cost money to make. Healing spells can be also used in the middle of a battle while also free and not using inventory space, but the enemy may land a couple hits on you before your cast is done, and to make matters worse your cast may fail and your drawing from your limited pool of mana reserves.
Clearly you get the point : having lots of health allows you to do battle without or with less healing, than sleep, and move on, and thats good.
Now how is your maximum health determined you may wonder?
- any new character gets 50% of its Strenght+endurance as starting health, since some races, or genders have more strenght & endurance to start with those also start with more health than other races and genders. Having this 20 extra health in late game matters not much, but in early game it can make a lot of difference wheither you start off with 30 or with 50 health.
As such you as a player new to the world of morrowind would be wise to pick one of the races and genders that gives this extra health.
- after this, every time you level-up , you recieve an increase of your maximum health of 10% of your endurance.
(since endurance is an atribute, and those max out at 100, the maximum boost you can get per level gaines is thus 10 health)
-Needless to say, as a result you will want to get endurance high very fast to recieve the maximum possible boost in health, races that start off with more endurance thus not only recieve more starting health, since they also max out their endurance earlier, their advantage over those with less endurance actually increases.
- Theoretical there is no real level limit in morrowind, as such there is no health limit either, but practically a character will max out somewhere between level 50 and 60, however we are talking a new character here.

Paragraph 1.2 Your Fatiquebar

This bar represents your ability to endure fysical tiresome tasks, and it may be important to you.
As you may espect, everytime when you run, swim, jump, or get hit, part of the bar is depleted.
When walking, standing or resting it will grow back, in this it is unlike magicka and health, that it can grow back without having to sleep, cast a spell or drink a potion.
It still will grow back when you sleep though, and you may also cast a spell or potion to regenerate your fatique faster, but you don't have to.
The effect of this bar hitting 0, aint very drastic when running, swiming or jumping, sure it will cause you to run and swim a little slower and jump a little less high, but still you will be moving faster compared to walking. Still while more a nuisance, movement for early chars is already painfully slow.
However, there is a more important factor to fatique : when in a fight your ability to land a hit, is much higher when you have full fatique.
This is because part of your change to it is calculated by the % of your max fatique you have left of your max amount, this leads to the effect that at 0 fatique, your change to land a succesfull hit, is only 60% of what it is at max fatique.
Thats right, for this change to hit what your maximum amount of fatique is does not matter, only the percentage left of your maximum amount, however when you have more to start with, the change that percentage left is higher when you have to fight, is a bit higher, especially when you move around a lot.
Your fatique is determined by the sum of your Strenght + your Endurance + your agility +your willpower, both at startup and later in the game.
-as most are weak in 1 of those and high in others, the difference between different races and sexes in starting stamina is marginal, I would not bother trying to select a race to max it.
-when you later level up, every point you add to any of those 4 atributes, will also increasy your stamina. (and as every atribute has a maximum of 100, your max stamina is 400)

Paragraph 1.3 Your Magicbar

Now the last of the tree bars, this blue bar is your general pool of "Mana" for casting spells.
This bar can only be restored by sleeping or drinking potions, as casting a spell would draw from the very manareserves you wish to replenish and that is counterproductive.
Every spell in this game has a pricetag in mana, and casting them, succesfully or not, will draw this cost from your remaining reserves. When your magic hits 0, or gets lower than the cost of the spell you want to cast, no more casting spells, and you will have to sleep or drink a potion to replenish reserves.
By default the maximum size of your magicbar is just the same as your intelligence, and since intelligence max out at 100, so does your magicbar.
*as such you cannot ever cast any spell that costs more than 100 mana normally.
-However there are races and birthsigns that increase this with a multiplier and those do stack, together having the potential to increase your maximum mana reserves from the default 1.0xIntelligence = magicbar to anywhere between 1.5x and 4.5x intelligence, alowing a maximum mana upto 450, allowing for more powerfull spells.
-usually however you will use these extra reserves mostly to be able to cast more spells before having to sleep or drink potions, rarely you will cast 1 massive spell that will drain all your reserves.
-should you bother this stat? perhaps. While Morrowind does not lend itself well to becoming a full flung mage, especially not for a starting character, having a few backup spells at hand will serve any character. The price for learning new spells in this game is however expensive, and thus as a beginning character you won't have many usuefull spells, where a fairly decent weapon and a nice set of basic armor can be bought for much less. As such for you as a beginning player a multiplier for magic is nice, but not at the expence of anything essential as health.

Welcome back outlander, can I offer you some flin while we contique your lesson, or perhaps some nice well cooked ratmeat? All set, lets contique.

When you open your character window, the first thing you will notice below your self-portraint are 8 words with a name to the right of each of them. Those big 8 words are called your attributes, they are the main factors that determine anything concerning your character, from the sizes of your statbars, to how well you fight, how fast you jump, or how much other people in the game like you. Each one does affects a slighly different area, and I shall therefore specefi to you what each atribute does.

Paragraph 2.1 General Information

Each atribute has a maximum level of 100, and eventually you will max them all out, but having a few points more in the right one will make startup for you just a tad easier.
Every time you level up, you get the ability to select 3 atributes of your liking that will than be increased by 1-5 points.
The default increase is +1, but you can get all the way to +5 by increasing the right skills before you level-up.
Every skill, except luck has a specific atributed tied to it.
When you increase skills belonging to a specific atribute, you get bigger increases in that atribute when it is one of the 3 you select by your next level-up, here is how :
0 skill-levels gained beloning to that atribute : +1
1-4 skill-levels gained beloning to that atribute : +2
5-7 skill-levels gained beloning to that atribute : +3
8-9 skill-levels gained beloning to that atribute : +4
10 or more skill-levels gained beloning to that atribute : +5
If you don't get +5 for a stat at levelup, you might wanna reload and first find a trainer and pay for some training to get a better atribute increase, keep in mind though it is not possible to train a skill higher than it's corresponding atribute.
Well now Because luck has to skills tied to it, you always get get only +1 for luck, making luck much harder to max out, for this reason luck should ALWAYS be one of the 3 atributes you select when leveling up.
And because the importance of endurance, you should aim to get +5 for it every level, untill it is at maxed out at 100.
So for the first couple levels you gain, just add +1 to luck +5 to endurance, and +5 to whatever you like.
After you maxed out endurance, just do +1 to luck and +5 to two atributes you like.

Paragraph 2.2 Endurance

As already said 50% of starting endurance+strengh is your starting max-health, and you gain 10% of your current endurance as max-health increase at level up, making this THE most important atribute. Finally every point of endurance will also add 1 point to your max stamina.

Paragraph 2.3 Agility

Agility is the mayor factor in your change to land a succesfull hit, as well as determines your change to dodge an attack, making this one of the most important fighting atributes.
On top of this all, increasing agility also makes you slighly better in sneaking around.
Finally every point of agility will also add 1 point to your max stamina.

Paragraph 2.4 Strength

As already said 50% of starting endurance+strengh is your starting max-health, when ingame, having more strenght alows you hit harder, and alows you carry more items.
Finally every point of strength will also add 1 point to your max stamina.
Overall a good atribute.

Paragraph 2.5 Willpower

Willpower is a good magical atribute, it gives a better change to succesfully cast a spell as well as giving a better defence against magical attacks.
Finally every point of Willpower will also add 1 point to your max stamina.

Paragraph 2.6 Luck

Luck is the strange duck in the atributes, it improves almost everything a little bit :
It gives a little better change to land a succesfull hit like agility, gives a littler better change at hitting harder like strength, helps a little in interacting with other characters like personality, gives a little better change of succesfully casting a spell like willpower, and on top of that gives a little better loot, quite a good stat, hard to level up though, thats why you must always add +1 every level to this, else you cannot max it out.

Paragraph 2.7 Intelligence

Intelligence is the other magical atribute, it determines only two things, the maximum size of your magicbar, and the time you need to sleep to regenerate it.
decent skill, but not top priority for you as beginning player.

Paragraph 2.8 Personality

This skill could also be called charisma or peoples skills. The main focus of this skill is interacting with other people. Having higher personality makes people already like you more by default, and makes it easier to talk them into liking you even more.
This helps in saving you on bribes, and getting better prices from merchants, as well as making certain quests a little easier, as they requare NPC to like you at least a certain amound.
An ok, skill I suppose, though it has to little an effect to really matter.

Paragraph 2.9 Speed

The only thing this does is making you move faster, nothing else, pretty useless if you ask me.
Still as moving speed is PAINFULLY SLOW at gamestart, it has it's place, but there was a reason this atribute was removed from later TES games.
Unless you want to use skills that use this atribute, make this low priority.

Still there? Haven't had any disturbing dreams lately did you? You did? Well I'm sure I had nothing to do with them, shall we continue our lesson?
What shall we talk about this time, ah yes skills.

When you openen your character window last time you must have noticed that on the left side was a massive wall of 27 little words, each with a little number to the right of them, well those would be the infamous skills. After all you didn't think you could wield a sword because you have high strength do you? It takes skill!

Paragraph 3.1 General information

Skills can be increased while ingame in 2 ways : by using the thing tied to the skill, you use swords, you get better at longswords, an axe, better at axe, repear your stuff, better at armorer, really straightforward.
If you are wealthy enough and don't want to learn things this hard way. you can always try to find an NPC offering training. Each trainer NPC offers training in 3 different skills from, and for a small financial contribution they instantly will increase the skill you selected from those 3 by +1, However you cannot train a skill higher than it's atribute, and most trainers only train untill a certain level, they can't learn you more than they themself know. Good luck finding the rare trainers that can train you to 100!
There are alse a couple books in this game that can learn you something, reading them will also add +1 to 1 skill, but this effect will ofcours only happens once, \not many of those books are around, and you have no controll in what skill will be increased, the book after all already has a topic.
You can select 5 skills as your mayor skills and 5 as your minor skills, Everytime you get a +1 inrease in any minor or mayor skill you get +0.1 levelup, get 10 of those levelups, and next time you sleep you'll gain a level.
Skills can be divided in diferent groups, where the skills in a group do about the same, I therefor eshall learn you about them per group, to save you valueble time.

Paragraph 3.2 Weaponskils

All these skills only do 1 thing : they increase the change to hit with a speccific type of weapon(s)
The 7 skills in this group are :
-Axe
-Blunt weapon
-Long Blade
-Spear
-Marksman
-Short Blade
-Hand to Hand
For any player it is totally bogus to use all of them, better focus on one, to get good with that one.
In this game you have bare handed, 1 handed, 2 handed, and ranged weapons to fight with.
Hand to hand is the only one to use bare handed attacks, and is a pain to use, instead of doing direct damage, you first have to empty an enemy's fatique bar, only after than your hits start doing damage, all the other weaponskills do their damage directly to the oponents healthbar, so as a beginner don't pick hand to hand, pick any of the others and stick to it.
As for the other skills, they apply on all weapons of their type, both the 1 handed and 2 handed varieties, 1 handed weapons can be used with a shield, while 2 handed weapons have better range and hit harder.
However Spears don't come in 1 handed versions, and shortswords don't come in 2 handed versions, so take that into accound while making your chooice
Marksman is the only skill in this group that has ranged weapons, the others are all melee, ranged weapons consume ammo, making them more expensive to use, taking more inventory space, and you can run out of ammo, leaving you unable to fight, be sure to always have a small backup weapon on you when picking this skill.

Paragraph 3.3 Armorskills

All these skills ecept block do only 1 thing : they increase the protection you recieve when wearing armor pieces of that specific type. Block determines your change to block an attack with an equipped shield.
The 5 skills fitting this group are :
-Heavy armor
-Medium armor
-Light Armor
-Unarmored
-Block
In general the heavier the better the protection, but they also take more inventory space, and as such decrease your space to carry other items (loot).
It is totally possible to combine pieces of multiple armor types, each will than have it's individual armor rating calculated by it's corresponding skill, but is is better to pick one class of armor and stick to it, to become good with it.
As an beginning character you should go for light armor, unarmored (meaning no armor whatsoever) just is to hard, and going any heavier just takes to much of your limited inventory space. Later in game when your strength is higher you can always pay for heavy armor training and swich
If you plan to fight with 1 handed weapons you also want to pick block, it really helps prevent some hits.

Paragraph 3.4 Magicskills

All these skills do only 1 thing : they increase the change of succesfully casting a spell belonging to that type.
The 6 skills fitting this group are :
-Ilusion
-Conjuration
-Alteration
-Destruction
-Mysticism
-Restoration
When selecting one of these skills as your mayor skill you also recieve a free spell (that you otherwise would have to buy)
As already said magic is hard and not advisable for you as beginner.
Still, restoration is a skill you should take as major, it comes with a free healing spell, and thats handy.
Also if you pick short blade as your weapon of choice, or marksman (and you need a backup weapon), you may also wish to take conjuration as a major skill skill. It comes with a nice summon dagger spell that gives you each time you cast it for 60 seconds a very strong weapon and a +10 boost to short blade skill. This will help you get on the way and out of many sticky situations.
The other magic groups are or no interest to you as an beginner.

Paragraph 3.5 Movement skills

Both these skills have 1 mayor purpuse : improving your ability to move around (just like speed does)
The 2 skills fitting this group are :
-Acrobatics
-Athletics
Athletics makes you run and swim faster, where acrobatics makes jump higher, as well as alowing you to fall longer without taking damage.
Acrobatics is the most usefull of the two for you, because it prevents and lowers falling damage, and at gamestart that basicly already occurs when you bump your toe, quite a nuisance. Sure falling damage usually only hurts health a few points but you don't have much to start with.
Atheltics only helps moving around faster like speed, and is of less use, but it does help running away from something you cannot handle.
As a beginner you might wanna pick both, these skills usually level up without training quite fast, and hence are good ways to gain a few levels early, helping you get on the way.

Paragraph 3.6 Thieves skills

These Skills are in fact very usefull, they not only help you be a better thief (though thats their main goal), but they also help you sneak by nasty enemies, do a sneak-attack on them, or open locked containers and doors for various reasons.
The 2 skills fitting this group are :
-Sneak
-Security
Sneak is the skill that helps you sneak around, when stealing be sure to always be in steak mode, to prevent getting caught stealing and get a fine on your head. If you are caught with a fine on your head, all items on you that are stolen are removed, you will have to pay a fine, and if you cannot pay that fine, even go to jail, sitting in jail lowes some skills.
Sure you can just quicksave, reload as often as you like untill you manage to take the item undetected, but better sneak makes that job a lot easier.
Security allows you to open doors and other locks, certain high level locks will just not open unless your security skill is high enough. Securiy also allows you to pickpocket items from others, and thats needed for a couple of quests, and a good way of getting back your bribemoney.
As a beginner I therefore would really advice taking both these skills.

-
Oh my, I seem to have run out of paper, follow me to the next page for the rest of this chapter.

Well that was embarishing, who is that nasty "steam" person dictating the length my writing anyway? well onwards :

Paragraph 3.7 Personality skills

These skills like personality serve only to increase your interaction with NPC's.
The 2 skills fitting this group are :
-Speechcraft
-Mercantile
Speechcraft increases your changes to talk people into liking you (saving you the money of having to bribe), Having people to like you more results in better merchant prices, and is neccecairy for certain quests.
Mercantile improves the prices you recieve from merchants, while having them like you a few points more, has a larger effect, at the same like-level, people with a higher mercentale skill will get a better price.
As a beginner speechcraft might be nice (making early quests a bit easier), but Merchantile has to little an effect to be considered.

3.8 Assisting skills

All those skills have 1 thing in common, you only use them outside of battle, crafting or repaiting items.
The 3 skills fitting this group are :
-Alchemy
-Enchant
-Armorer
Armorer is the most usefull of these 3, it allows you to repair your own both armor and weapons. When weapons are used to hit somebody, or you get hit while wearing armor, they condition gets damaged, both lose functionality when damanged, so keeping them in fine condition does help a lot in battle, certainly as a beginner, as low end gear looses condition faster.
Sure you can always pay a blacksmith to repair your stuff for you at little expense, but there aint always time to walk all the way back to a town. To bad repair hammers take a LOT of inventory space, and have a limited number of uses. Every time you use a repair hammer one of these uses is consumed, you better make sure every hit you make with them counts. a repair attempt is not always succesful, but a high armorer skill improves your succesrate considerably.
*Alchemy allows you to brew your own potions, as a beginner this allows you to turn ingredients in potions, and those sell for a lot more than those ingredients would have, giving you some extra money to spend. Home brew potions later in the game outclass anything that can be bought.
*Enchanting allows you to enchant items, the usefullness of this is creating an extra mana pool to draw from, and spells cast from enchanted items never fail. In late game you also can create good permament effect items, making you even more godlike.
Sure you can pay others to enchant for you, but thats SO outragiously expensive you won't do that. Besides : both enchanting yourself as paying for it requires souls, to gain them you need to buy or find soulgems and gain the soultrap spell, to do that you would have to find somebody selling it and pay for it. As such enchanting is a nice endgame skill, but of little use to you as new player.
For a beginner I would advice picking armorer, and if you like also pick alchemy.

Thats all there is to know in basic information, you must have gained +1 in intelligence, now onwards to creating your first character!

Yes, yes finally you awoke, you gave the scarred idiot your name, but auch what a headache, shouldn't have drunk so much Sujamma celebrating your unexpected release.
But now you can't remember what you are... well lets try to help you in that regard.

You will want to start by selecting a race and a gender, but what is a good one you ask?
Well aside from looks, races differ in 3 regards : slighly different artibutes, a boost to a few skills, and a special ability. And the race that has the best of these, may help you just survive that 6th house attack.
As for gender, thats also not entirely estetic either, while all members of a race share the same boost to skills and special ability's, the atributes of male and female specimen of a race often differ a bit.
Lets see, what are the effects for each race :

Paragraph 4.1 ALDMER :

Altmer-Male
-10 strength
+10 intelligence
-10 speed

Altmer-Female
-10 strength
+10 intelligence
-10 endurance

Skills :
+10 to destruction
+10 to enchant
+10 to alchemy
+5 to alteration
+5 to illusion
+5 to conjuration

Special Ability:
75% change to resist common disease
50% weakness to fire
25% weakness to frost
25% weakness to shock
50% weakness to magicka
+150% max magicka (max it to 2.5x intelligence, rather than the standard 1.0x intelligence)

Aldmers lend themself very well for alowing max level, and have the potential to be the strongest mages there are, however those weaknesses makes them die sooner, and that lower starting strenght aint helping either. Their boosted skills are also of no use to you. Don't get me wrong though, Illness is bad, and 75% resistance against it is nice even for a starter, but there is just to much weakness against it to be it worth your while.
No matter how much I enjoy aldmer, for you as a beginner, this is not a wise pick.

Paragraph 4.2 DUNMER

Dunmer-male
-10 willpower
+10 speed
-10 personality

Dumber-female
-10 willpower
+10 speed
-10 endurance

Skills
Destruction +10
Short Blade +10
Light Armor +5
Marksman +5
Long Blade +5
Athletics +5
Mysticism +5

Ability
*Resist Fire 75%
*Ancestor Guardian spell, reflects almost all damage for 60 seconds (can be used once a day)

Dunmer are a good allround race, most suited for those who wish to fight allround, with a combination of attackspells and spells to detects and get around, as well as boosts in both short and longblades, marksmanship to shoot an arrow, the ability to resist fire, to run a little faster, and a good spell to get out of sticky situations, they are very versatile, the price they pay for this however is that they lack somewhat in atributes, that -10 endurance for dunmer females is just bad, and the males have nothing speaking for them in that regard
Still this is a fairly good choose for a beginner, Picking a dunmer-male is a totally valid option for you, But do NOT pick the female variation.

Paragraph 4.3 BOSMER

Bosmer-male & Female
-10 Strength
-10 Willpower
+10 agility
+10 speed
-10 endurance

Skills
Marksman +15
Light Armor +10
Sneak +10
Acrobatics +5
Alchemy +5

Ability
*Resist Common Disease 75%
*Beast Tongue Spell : command smaller creatue for 600 seconds (can be used only once a day)

Bosmer are basicly made for one thing, to be archers and nothing else. They have good skills, if you want to fight using bow and crosbow, but are not good for anything else.
They are unique in that both male and female have the same atributes, to bad those atribues are really bad, with a cut in both strenght and endurance, these have one of the lowest staring health of all races, even less than many of the magical races. The ability to command a creature for upto 10 minutes is nice, and would alow you the much needed range to fire at while it takes the hits, but the fact you can only command small creatures and the fact it can be only cast once a day, nullifies that advantage.
And while again diseases are bad, and 75% resistance against them is quite nice, overal bosmer are just lacking to much in other regards.
I would not advise a beginner to select this race, even if they want to become an archer, other races are a better pick.

Paragraph 4.4 ORC (Orsimer)

Orc-male
+5 strength
-10 Intelligence
+10 Willpower
-5 Agility
-10 Speed
+10 Endurance
-10 Personality

Orc-female
+5 strength
+5 Willpower
-5 Agility
-10 Speed
+10 Endurance
-15 Personality

Skills :
Armorer +10
Block +10
Heavy Armor +10
Medium Armor +10
Axe +5

Ability :
Resist Magicka 25%
Spell : Berserk (+20 Health +200 Fatique +100 Attack, -100 agility) for 60 seconds, can be used only once a day.

Orcs are clearly made as warriors, heavy armor axe wielding warrios that is, pure and raw power. Their atributes are quite good, (only second to nord and redguard males) with a boost in both strenght and endurance. The ability to resist magicka also is nice, and berserk totally rocks! to bad it can be used only once a day. Orc skills however are a little off, considering what we look for, as we want to use lighter armortypes, but with the extra starting strenght, we might be able to compensate.
For a starting player orcs are an excelent chooise to start with, with the males being a slighly better chooice than the females, though only so slighly, so feel free to pick an orc female if you like that better than the male.

4.1.5 BRETON

Breton-Male
+10 Intelligence
+10 Willpower
-10 Agility
-10 Speed
-10 Endurance

Breton-Female
-10 Strength
+10 Intelligence
+10 Willpower
-10 Agility
-10 Endurance

Skills :
Restoration +10
Conjuration +10
Alchemy +5
Alteration +5
Ilusion +5
Mysticism +5

Ability :
+50% Resist Magica
+50% to max magicka (max it to 1.5x intelligence, instead of the standard 1x intelligence)
Spell : Dragon Skill (50 shield, for 60 seconds, (can only be used once a day)

Bretons clearly are the a weaker, human variation of a mage, or better put a version of the altmer without their weakness, but also less of their power. IF a beginner would play as a mage, breton would a more sensible starting position. Their Restoration skill is nice, as is conjuration, the rest however is of little use to us.
Their ability's are also quire sound, resist magicka helps a lot, and that extra manapool size also helps, and dragonskin is indeed a nice in case of need press this spell.
However they pay for this with rather bad stats, a -10 cut in endurance is NOT what we look for, and the female added -10 strenght is even worse. Therefore I would advice against playing breton as a beginner, and advice keeping them in mind for later, bretons might be a nice 2d or 3d char, when you already know the game a bit.

---
I guess some evil deadra god of madness must work at this steam, run out of paper again, follow me to the next page once more for the rest of this chapter
---

Paragraph 4.6 IMPERIAL

Imperial-Male
-10 Willpower
-10 Agility
+10 Personality

Imperial-Female
-10 Agility
-10 Speed
+10 Personality

Skills
+10 Speechcraft
+10 Mercentile
+10 Long Blade
+5 Light Armor
+5 Blunt Weapon
+5 Hand to Hand

Ability
Spell : Star of the West : Absorb 200 Fatique (can only be used once a day)
Spell : Voice of the Emperor : Charm 25-50 for 15 seconds (can only be used once a day)

Imperials are clearly ment to be characters that live a more urban playstile, and hence are more aimed at NPC interaction, than fighting. Their ability's are fine, no strenghts or weeknesses, though for a beginner -10 agility is not what we looking for. Their skills are decent but not optimal, we have light armor, can pick from 2 weapontypes, and have a bit of speechcraft. Their ability's however are utterly useless, absorbing fatique while in battle may increase you change to hit while lowering theirs but not all that great if you have to cast it while they are hammering down on you. Charm is all fine but really only comes in handy a couple times in the entire game, and the ingame spell that can do the same better, without that once a day limit, aint expensive. Overall nothing wrong with an imperial, but they lack something positive.
As a beginner, I would say, don't use this one, because of the agility nerf, and lack of something usefull to put against that.

Paragraph 4.7 REDGUARD

Redguard-Male
+10 Strength
-10 Intelligence
-10 Willpower
+10 Endurance
-10 Personality

Redguard-Female
-10 Intelligence
-10 Willpower
+10 Endurance

Skills
Long Blade +15
Short Blade +5
Axe +5
Blunt Weapon +5
Athletics +5
Medium Armor +5
Heavy Armor +5

Ability
75% resist common disease
75% resist poison
Spell : Adrenaline Rush (+50 Agility, +50 Endurance +50 Speed, +50 Strength, +25 Health) for 60 seconds (can be used only once a day)

Clealy redguard are ment as warriors, and good onces! The boost in strenght and endurance gives redguard males the highest starting HP of all races. Their ability's are sweet (though they don't block blight diseases, like other races to, it still is nice to have disease protection, and adrealine rush is a very nice attack spell, only second to berserk.
The only negative point would be their skills, so mutch different weapon types, and you only gonna use one. however that also gives you a more free chooise what weapontype you will want to use later (hard to pass up that nice +15 longsword boost though)
Like orcs, having only medium and heavy armor is not that nice, but with the extra strenght, you should be able to manage.
Clearly redguard would make a good beginners race, with the male being even better, the female lacking that 10 strenght boost, will have a harder time using that heavy armor, and startrs with 5 less Healthand that does matter. As such, as a beginner, better pick the male-redguard. Picking the female still is valid though, if you absolutely want a chick, you are giving yourself a stat-nerf for tiitiies look though.

Paragraph 4.8 NORD

Nord-male
+10 Strength
-10 Intelligence
-10 Agility
+10 Endurance
-10 Personality

Nord-female
+10 Strength
-10 Intelligence
+10 Willpower
-10 Agiility
-10 Personality

Skills
+10 Axe
+10 Blunt Weapon
+10 Medium Armor
+5 Heavy Armor
+5 Long Blade
+5 Spear

Ability
100% Resist Frost
50% Resist Shock
Spell : Woad : +30 armor for 60 seconds (can use only once a day)
Spell : Thunder fist : 25 Frost attack spell (can use only once a day)

Basicly Nords fit somewhere between redguard and orc, rought and touch.
The Nord males like Redguard males have excelent ability's, sadly the nord females lack the endurance boost, so dont be a nord female. Their skills are also more useless than those of redguard, weapons and armor, thats it, and since we will only use one type of each. heavy armor only here too, but nord have the strenght to handle that. Their ability's are nice, resist frost and shock will help against a lot of enemies, and the spells are not overpowered but a nice extra in sticky situations with one to defend and one to attack.
Nord may be a sound pick as a beginner, nord males that is, better not pick nord female.
However I would have to say that redguard are slighly better overall.
Still a nord male is a fairly good chooice if you like the looks of him.

Paragraph 4.9 ARGONIAN

Argonian-male
-10 Willpower
+10 Agility
+10 Speed
-10 Endurance
-10 Personality

Argonian-female
+10 Intelligence
-10 Endurence
-10 Personality

Skills
+15 Athletics
+5 Spear
+5 Medium Armor
+5 Unarmored
+5 Illusion
+5 Alchemy
+5 Mysticism

Ability
75% resist common disease
100% resist poison
spell : Water breathing 120 seconds for 5 mana (can be cast as often as liked)
Cant wear helmets
Cant wear boots/shoes

Argonians are a strange kind, that can better be explained from lore, than from a playing style. As such they have a strange blend of skills and such, that you will find hard to put to one focussed use. Their main skill is athletics, well running is nice, but to say it is really usefull? And having medium and unarmored, but not light, also does not fit a beginners way of gaming well, Spear we can use, though if we so please, but overall skills are only remotely usefull. The Atributes for agonians are just bad, ok, the agility boost for argonian males may be nice, but having -10 endurance just is a big nono, and both have it. And than the ability's resistance to disease as always is nice as is resist poison, and the water breathing spell can be nice for some early game pearldiving.. to gain some income. (later in the game you can buy other water breathing spells no matter your race) But no helmets and boots, that just means less armorrating, and complicates things, something we cannot use as a beginner.
So as a beginner, do not play argonian.

Paragraph 4.10 KHAJIIT

Khajiit-male
-10 Willpower
+10 Agility
-10 Endurance

Khajiit-female
-10 Strength
-10 Willpower
+10 Agility

Skills
+15 Acrobatics
+5 Athletics
+5 Light Armor
+5 Security
+5 Sneak
+5 Short Blade
+5 Hand to Hand

Ability :
Spell : Eye of Fear :makes humanoid run away fro you for 30 seconds (can be used only once a day)
Spell : Eye of Night : 50% nightvision for 30 seconds (can be used once a day)
Cant wear helmets
Cant wear boots/shoes

Khajiit are clearly aimed to be the cloak and dagger types, thieves. However their atributes are sadly not what we are looking for either a -10 cut to strenght or endurance means less health, and that we don't want. Though the Khajiit-female -10 strenght cut, is the lesser of those two evils. Their skills on the other hand are not to shabby, exept hand to hand, all is usefull. Those two spells in their ability's are ok, though many times you won't fight humanoids, it still is a potent power. The ability to not wear helmets or boots however is crap! This combined leads that beginners should stay away from Khajiit. However A Khajiit female is the least worse of all he beast chars and may be a nice challenge for a 2d or 3d character, if you want to play something out of the ordinary
Beginners should just stay far away from even thinking of selecting a khajiit.

Paragraph 4.11 Conclusion

As a beginner you will want to pick from these options :

Best :
Redguard-Male
Orc-Male
Orc-Female
Dunmer-Male

Possible :
Nord-Male
Nord-Female
Redguard-Female

---
So you know again whats between your legs, and how it came there? Save me the details, when your done playing with yourself, you can find me in the next chapter.

Your late in class, I hope you did wash your hand, so we can do something productive and fruitfull, namely learning you all about birthsigns.
You REALLY should not use this much skooma, if you even forgat your own birthday, especially with so many strange people in morrowind wanting to get entry in your front or backside, or both.

Well we can all talk long about this, about all the wonderfull lore behind it and how you can look at the sky when walking ingame and seeing the very constalations these birthsigns represent in the sky, but for now it all bottles down to, what boost do they give and is it of any use to you?

Paragraph 5.1 The Best Birthsigns

These 4 birthsign are the signs you will have to chooice from a beginner, and even by most experienced characters will be the ones to use.

THE WARRIOR
+10 fortify attack (better change to hit)
-> this stays usefull, and helps a bit in the much heared beginner problem "it is hard to hit"

THE THIEF
+10 sanctuary (better change to dodge attack)
-> less likely to get hit, helps you die less sooner, also handy.

THE MAGE
+50% to max mana
-> free extra mana is always welcome

THE LADY
+25 Personality
+25 Endurance
-> that extra endurance means more health when leveling up, and faster maxing out to 100 endurance, giving our char a permanent healthboost, and the personality helps in dealing with people.

Paragraph 5.2 Good Birthsigns

These 2 signs are just as good as the best 4, but come with a catch, and as such require more skill to use. Beginning players like you should not use them, try them later on your 2d or 3d character, when you are more experienced.

THE APRIENTICE
+150% to maximum magicka
+50 Weakness to magicka
-> the weakness is bad, but the +100% more than mage has might just be worth it, but not for beginning characters.

THE ATRONACH
+200% to maximum magicka
+50% spell absorbtion
Stunned Magicka
-> 150% more magicka than the mage gives, and 50% of all mana costs of spells cast by others on you will go to your manapool, Stunned mana however means your mana won't grow back when sleeping (so you will need to use potions or other means) While relatively easy to play with, for beginners this extra complication is not advised.

Paragraph 5.3 Acceptable Birthsigns

These 4 are birthsigns that add little of use. Sure their effects are fine when just starting a game, but they add nothing to late-game experience, as their effects are similair as effects you can gain by just leveling up, or by buying or crafting some spells. As such causing those signs to eventually be a waste of your bithsign. Experienced players never use these, and Beginners would be wise to do the same.

THE RITUAL
Spell : Restore 100 health (once a day only)
Spell : Make undead monsters run away from you for 30 seconds (once a day only)
Spell : Make undead monsters run away from target for 30 seconds (once a day only)
-> all 3 are decent spells, the extra healing spell is nice. and many early dungeons have undead in them, this helps in that regard. though only 3 spells that also can be bought/made later ingame, just aint that impressive.

THE LOVER
+25 Agility
Spell : Paralise target for 60 seconds, -200 fatique on self. (can be used only once a day)
=> the extra agility helps hit better for early characters, more than the warrior would, but the effect of the warrior is permanent, while the lover eventually loses it's value, and where the lady still has a permanent healthboost to show off with, this one has only a remotely decent spell calling for it.
Being able to paralise is nice (helps getting away, but if your fatique is lowered at the same time, that running wont go fast)

THE SHADOW
*Spell : Invisibility for 60 seconds (only once a day)
-this causes nobody to see you, alowing you to get in or out of a situation undetected, and helps stealing stuff right under somebody's nose.
Still why waste a birthsign on a spell that also can be bought and used by your regulair npc vendor.

THE TOWER
*Spell : Detect animal/key/enchantment for 60 seconds (only once a day)
*Spell : Open lock upto 50 (once a day)
-> little unimpressive, the open lock spell is nice but only very early in game, when you don't have bought the regulair version that is quite easy to cast. And the detect anything spell just isn't of much use all that often, might just a well do with the regulair detect spells.

5.4 Useless Birthsigns

The 3 signs that have a totally useless effect, avoid them at all costs!

THE STEED
+25 Speed
->speed does nothing usefull for us

THE SERPENT
Spell (+3 poison per second on other, +1 damage per second in yourself) for 30 seconds (can be used only once a day)
-> an attack spell that hurts ourself? useless!

THE LORD
Spell : Restore 2 health per second for 30 seconds (can use only once a day)
+100% weakness to fire
-> double damage from fire attacks for only a small once a day healing spell? No thank you!

-
So you have gazed enough at the starts to remember your date of birth, or did you just roll a dice, nevermind, just keep away from the skooma from now on, just look at your pathetic mainquestgiver to know why!
Well anyway I'm off to class!
-

Welcome little silk strider (this game has no grasshoppers), are you ready for this class class?
This will be the last lesson you will have to learn before you get to enter the world and are ready to slay, steal and quest to your hearts delight, I really hope your brain is more open for this last chapter than the Guar-ish look in your eyes implies, well I'll start anyway :

When asked to selecting a class you get to pick from 3 options, select from a list, answer some questions, or fill it out yourself. For this guide we select fill it out yourself, and experienced players always do this, because it alows us to better finetune our character

Pargraph 6.1 Select 2 prime atributes

If you look to the botten left you see 2 atributes listed, you can select any 2 from all 8 atributes as your prime atributes, those 2 will get +10 at game start, it does nothing else.
Since I have point out the extreme value of endurance many times now, it goes without saying at least one of those 2 prime atributes should be endurance, as this will result in more starting health and more health-increase when leveling up.
As your second prime atribute, you should pick either luck of strenght, your chooice.
Strenght will give us +5 health at startup, and helps you carry a little more stuff, both handy features. While luck can be only increased with +1 per levelup, and as such picking this is worth 5 upgrade-tokens, rather than the 2 upgrade-tokens it would be worth for any other skill. Selecting luck therefore helps us reach our maximum potential at a lower level that would otherwise be possible, and having higher luck improves amongst other things our change to land a succesfull hit, that is usefull for a new character.
So strength or luck, the chooice is yours.

Paragraph 6.2 Select 5 Mayor and 5 Minor skills

Of that long list of 27 skills you get to select 5 as your mayor skills, and 5 as your minor skills.
Aside from determing what 10 skills will be used to earn your level rank ups, selecting a skill as your mayor skill will add +25 to that skill, and selecting a skill as minor skill will add +10 to that skill. Also as said before, selecting a magic skill as mayor skill also has the benefit of granting you a free spell.
While I already talked about what each skill does and you should be able to make a fine pick yourself, here is a little assistance :

Mayor
1 Restoration (this one should be mayor in any build)
2 Light Armor or Heavy Armor (whatever matches your choocen race)

Now option 1 (you pick shortblade, limited yourself to 1h combat only, very good beginner option)
3 Shortblade
4 Block
5 Conjuration

Option 2, no shortblade, but you will want to be able to fight both 1 handed as well as 2 handed.
3 Longblade/Axe/blunt weapon (whatever matches your choocen race)
4 Block
5 *one random pick

Optopm 3 you wish to fight 2 handed
3 longblade/axe/blunt weapon/spear
4 *one random pick
5 *one random pick

Minor
1 Sneak
2 Security
3 Acrobatics
4 Armorer
5 *one random pick

For random picks you can select either from
-alchemy
-marksmanship (2d weaponskill so you can swap between range and melee)
-Light/Heavy armor (whatever you did't already picked)
-Athletics

Paragraph 6.3 Selecting an afilliation

The last thing that remains to do is selecting one of the 3 possible afiliations, having the chooice between magic, stealth or combat afiliation.
All 27 skills are grouped under one of these 3 affiliations, and all 3 afiliation have exactly 9 skills belonging to them
Selecting an adilliation will add +5 to all 9 skills belonging to that group.

To make sure we put that afiliation to good use, select the afiliation where you have the most mayor and minor skills in (as those will be the skills you will mostly use). If you followed the last paragraph, that will be either stealth or combat.
To help you decide here is listed what skills each afiliation affects :

Selecting Magic :
+5 to Unarmored
+5 to Restoration
+5 to Conjuration
+5 to Alchemy
+5 to Enchant
+5 to Alteration
+5 to Destruction
+5 to Mysticism
+5 to Illusion

Selecting Stealth :
+5 to Light Armor
+5 to Marksman
+5 to Sneak
+5 to Security
+5 to Hand to Hand
+5 to Short Blade
+5 to Mercantile
+5 to Speechcraft
+5 to acrobatics

Selecting Combat
+5 to Long blade
+5 to Blunt Weapon
+5 to Axe
+5 to Spear
+5 to Medium Armor
+5 to Heavy Armor
+5 to Block
+5 to Armorer
+5 to Athletics

-
So you did it, your all done, your character is made and you are ready to play, I be putting on my black armor and get ready to surprise you in your sleep, to see how well you prepared preventing your demise, untill then, N'wah!
-

hey psstt.. you still here?
you want to do something illigal and play as a magic-class?
even though I said specificly that beginners should not consider that?
and now you want my help in picking a magic character?
neve... ohh gemstones for me?.... well ok than!

You want to play as a mage, well first i ask you how badly do you want too?
All characters can use magic, and all start of with at least 30MP and max out at 100MP
(this is because you will recieve only 1MP per 1 intelligence, and intelligence is capped at 100)
and for most players this limited manapool is just fine, like i said most spells cost considerably less than this, spells you often use will be cheap, as in around 10MP to cast and sleeping once will complety fill up your manasupply for free)

however it is possible to custom make INSANELY powerfull spells (buffs or area attacks) that drain more than 100MP, and hence are only possible to cast by mage-characters.
likewise if you cast slighly expensive spells in the 25-45MP range, having 100MP or a little more matters in the number of times you can cast them before sleeping.
if you need more mana for either of those two reasons you gonna want to increase your manapool.

but how you ask?
well there are 2 methods :
*you pick as birthsign either the mage, the aprience or the autronarch
*you pick as race breton or aldmer

breton gives a +50% boost in MP
aldmer gives a +150% boost in MP
mage gives a +50 boost in MP
aprience gives a +150% boost in MP
autronarch gives a +200% boost in MP
*the effects of race and birthsign do stack.

a boost means that instead of the normal 1MP per 1 INT you get more.
50% more, means 1.5MP per 1INT, 100% more means 2MP per 1INT and so on.

however a permanent boost in MP always comes at the price of a permanent reduction in HP, and possible other disadvantages compared to other options.
-it is this very low HP that makes magic characters unplayable for beginners.

as a starting example I presume you pick a redguard-male, select endurance and strenght to get +10, that will give you 60STR 85END en 30INT.
that will result in your starting stats being 72HP/30MP
if you level up perfectly, you will max out END at level 4 and INT at level 15.
at level 15 you will have 208HP/100MP
if you level up after level 15, your HP will continue to increase by +10 per level, but your MP will be stuck at 100 as explaned.

Now what would be the effects on starting HP/MP,. level needed to max out HP/MP and level 15 HP/MP of picking a different race or sign?

for that I give this list of races and signs.
(while presuming you still pick strenght and endurance as prime atributes)
(should you pick endurance and luck instead, all HP values get -5)
(since the females these races result in lower HP I picked only males)

Redguard-Male + lady
start 72HP/30MP - maxEND lvl 4 - maxINT lvl 15 - @lvl15 208HP/100MP
Redguard-Male + mage
start 60HP/45MP - maxEND lvl 9 - maxINT lvl 15 - @lvl15 180HP/150MP
Redguard-Male + aprientice
start 60HP/75MP - maxEND lvl 9 - maINT lvl 15 - @lvl15 180HP/250MP
Redguard-Male + atronarch
start 60HP/90MP - maxEND lvl 9 - maINT lvl 15 - @lvl15 180HP/300MP

Breton-Male + lady
Start 57HP/75MP - maxEND lvl 8 - maxINT lvl 11 - @lvl15 181HP/150MP
Breton-Male + mage
start 45HP/100MP - maxENDlvl 13 - maxINT lvl 11 - @lvl15 143HP/200MP
Breton-Male + aprientice
start 45HP/150MP - maxEND lvl 13 - maxINT lvl 11 - @lvl15 143HP/300MP
Breton-Male + atronarch
start 45HP/175MP - maxEND lvl 13 - maxINT lvl 11 - @lvl15 143HP/350MP

Aldmer-Male + lady
start 57HP/125MP - maxEND lvl 6 - maxINT lvl 11 - @lvl15 188HP/250MP
Aldmer-Male + mage
start 45HP/150MP - maxEND lvl 11 - maxINT lvl 11 - @lvl15 155HP/300MP
Aldmer-Male + aprientice
start 45HP/200MP - maxEND lvl 11 - maxINT lvl 11 - @lvl15 155HP/400MP
Aldmer-Male + atronarch
start 45HP/225MP - maxEND lvl 11 - maxINT lvl 11 - @lvl15 155HP/450MP

On top of these clear HP costs there are certain weaknesses.

*for the mage sign there is no weakness, it's a clear swap of HP for MP.

*for the aprience sign, you get 50% weakness for magic,
it means spells cast on you are much more likely to hit you.
-redguards can handle it, because of their fantastic HP
-bretons can handle it, their 50 magic resistance cancels away this 50% weakness, so the neth effect for them is zero.
-but aldmer should never ever pick this, as this would give them a 100% weakness to magic causing EVERY spell to hit them.

*for the atronarch the disadvantage is frozen MP, that means you can only replenish MP by drinking manapotions, not by sleeping.
That makes using magic very hard, and unplayable without detailed knowledged of the game,
*first you would need to know what vendors sell refreshing supplies of manapotions or ingredients you can brew them with
*next you would need to know good locations and methods to get tons of money to fund this manapot-adiction as you will need hundredfold more money
*finally you would need to have intemite knowledge about alchemy recepy's to make your own manapots, and to know where the alchemy master-trainer is to get good in it fast.
for these reasons only experienced players who know the game very well can work with this birthsign.

as for the breton of the aldmer race, both come at a disadvantage.
*the bretons have the lowest HP of all races, and lower MP than aldmer, but also a resistance against magic
*the aldmer have the most MP of all races and more HP than bretons, but also a lot of weaknesses.
*both have horrible skills, not a single one is an armor or weaponskill, so for that regard both are equally bad.

so as you can see :
getting a boost in MP comes at a price in HP, and that effect is permanent.
With an HP reduction upto 37,5% at game start, and a reduction upro 31,25% at level 15.
On top of that if you want more than a 50% MP increase you pay also with some disadvantages.
While the absolute gap in HP and MP will stay static after level 15, the percentual gap in HP will decrease while the percentual gap in MP will stay static
As such mages shine at higher levels and are very hard to play at lower levels, while melee classes max out a little less powerfull but are much easier to begin with.
Thats why beginners better stick to melee classes.

Now the best picks for a MP increase listed in order 1-10

#1 redguard + the aprientice
A neat +150% boost in MP, combined with the 3d best HP of all magic classes, with only a minor weakness, while still having good starting skills and HP, makes this the best balanced magic option and one of the best suited for beginners.

#2 aldmer + the lady
A neat +150% MP increase, combined with the highest late-game HP of any MP class makes this a high ranking class, however the aldmer have a few extra weaknesses compared to the number 1 option, and start with bad skills and lower starting HP makes it just lacking for the top spot.

#3 redguard + the mage
a basic +50% MP increase, without any weakness, and still the 3d best HP, while maintaining excelent skills and HP at game start, making this the best beginner mage option.
However for the more daring the numer 1 or 2 options might be more interesting.

#4 breton + the lady
a basic +50% MP increase with a defence, and no weakness and the 2d best endgame HP, however the very low starting HP and lack of usefull starting skills, makes this one hard to play with as a beginner, option 3 might be better.

#5 redguard + the atronarch
A large +200% MP increase without weakness and with the third best HP, and good starting HP and skills too. whats not to love. But the atronarch is hard to play with, so not for beginners, still if +150% is not enough for you the best option.

blasted these dwarven ghosts cast their spells again with their steam-engines declaring the lenght of my sheets of paper, well off to the next page I say!

blast those steam deadra orderning the lenght of my sheets of paper!
I proceed here :

#6 breton + the aprientice
a large 200% MP increase, without weakness or strenght, as the resistanced of breton and weakness of aprientice cancel eachother out. However the lowest endgame HP, and lowest starting HP and skills make this a touch one to start with, as everything will be able to kill you, leveling a few levels with training is a must, and that required knowledge about where the trainers are and how to obtain some early money without fighting anything.
It is because of this extra required knowledge and skill required in the early phase of the game why it ended lower than option 5, however in lategame it will be easier than 5 to play with, so if you have the extra experience required and can handle a wimpy start, pick this one over 5.

#7 aldmer + the mage
A large 200% MP increase, with slightly more HP and slighly more weaknesses than opion 6
Overal the extra HP does not offset the extra weakness so thats why this one ranks lower.
This one in late game is still easier than option 5,but if you accept early game hardship for more lategame power, you better pick option 6.

#8 aldmer + the atronarch
a whopping 350% MP increase, making this the best mage possible.
But since you pay for this with relative low endgame HP, aldmer weaknesses, and the difficultiy of the atronarch, while also having low starting HP and no usefull starting skills, this option is not the best well rounded character and one of the hardest possible to play.
However for very experienced players who want to play a pure mage, and cast the strongest spells possible, this is a nice challenge.

#9 breton + the atronarch
A very large 250% MP increase, making it the second best mage possible.
You have less Hp than option 8, but also no weakness, and instead the bretons resistance.
Making this one overall slightly more easy to play than opion 8, but still only suited for the VERY experienced players
A nice middle of the road option, more resistance than 6 and 8, but less HP and MP than 8 too.
Overall I'd say you be better of picking 6 or 8 than this combination, thats why this one ended lower than those two, but if +200% is not enough for you and you find option 8 still to hard, this is the path to go.

#10 breton + the mage
only +100% MP increase, while having the lowest HP, and with bad startin HP and skills even with a resistance, is just overall not worth it, any option above this is better.
There really is no reason to pick this, overall all the other option are better, even if you desire the +100% or more MP, just pick any option above that grants that.

So now you have an idea whats possible mage-wise and know why you as a beginner should only consider option 1 or 3, while as an experienced player you might want to try out 6 or 8.

now off you go, go build yourself a telvani tower.