The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

Skills & Attributes

Understand Morrowind's skills and attributes. Learn how Strength, Intelligence, Blade, and Destruction influence your Vvardenfell character's combat and magic.

Skills & Attributes

Your character's effectiveness in Morrowind is determined by their Attributes and Skills. Attributes are core statistics that provide passive bonuses, while Skills represent your proficiency in various actions, from combat to magic and social interaction. Choosing your starting Attributes and Skills wisely during character creation is crucial for shaping your character's development and playstyle.

Attributes:

There are eight core Attributes, each influencing different aspects of your character:

  • Strength (STR): Affects melee damage and carry capacity.
  • Intelligence (INT): Affects Magicka and the effectiveness of certain spells.
  • Willpower (WIL): Affects Magicka regeneration and resistance to certain magical effects.
  • Endurance (END): Affects Health and fatigue.
  • Agility (AGI): Affects chance to hit with ranged and melee attacks, and resistance to certain physical effects.
  • Speed (SPD): Affects movement speed and fatigue.
  • Personality (PER): Affects disposition with NPCs and the effectiveness of Speechcraft.
  • Luck (LCK): Affects all skill checks and random events, providing a general bonus to success.

Attributes are increased through leveling up, with bonuses awarded based on your chosen class and births. Higher attributes provide more sificant benefits.

Skills:

Skills are divided into Combat, Magic, and Stealth categories. Each skill has a rating from 0 to 100. Your proficiency in a skill determines your success rate when using it.

  • Combat Skills: Long Blade, Short Blade, Axe, Blunt Weapon, Spear, Marksman, Heavy Armor, Medium Armor, Light Armor, Block.
  • Magic Skills: Destruction, Alteration, Illusion, Mysticism, Restoration, Conjuration, Alchemy, Enchant.
  • Stealth Skills: Sneak, Security, Hand-to-Hand, Speechcraft, Mercantile, Light Armor (also listed under Combat due to its defensive nature).

Skill Progression:

Skills increase through use. The more you perform an action associated with a skill, the higher it will become. For example, hitting enemies with a long blade increases your Long Blade skill.

Leveling Up:

When you gain enough experience (by using your skills), you will level up. At each level-up, you can increase your Attributes. The amount you can increase an Attribute is influenced by the number of skills you have raised in its associated category since your last level-up. For example, to maximize a Strength increase, you'd want to have raised several Strength-based skills (like Long Blade, Blunt Weapon) since your last level-up.

Careful management of your Attributes and Skills is the foundation of a successful Morrowind playthrough.