Choosing a Birthsign

Morrowind Character Creation Guide, Part III: Choosing a Birthsign

Back to part I: Choosing a Race

Back to part II: Choosing a Class

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

GOOD SIGNS WITH INCREASED MAGICKA

• The Apprentice
• The Atronach

GOOD SIGNS WITH INCREASED ATTRIBUTES

• The Lady
• The Lover
• The Steed

DECENT SIGNS WITH CONSTANT POWERS

• The Thief
• The Warrior

THE SIGNS I DON’T RECOMMEND (roughly in order of decreasing usefulness)

• The Tower
• The Ritual
• The Shadow
• The Mage
• The Serpent

THE SIGN YOU MUST AVOID AT ALL COSTS

• The Lord

INTRODUCTION

If you’ve been following my advice in the guide on class creation, then there are two types of Birthsign that are good: Signs with increased Attributes and signs with increased magicka. As mentioned in the other guides, go with increased magicka if you plan to cast a lot of spells, or increased attributes if you prefer to rely on other skills. The other signs mainly give extra powers and spells which mostly you could also get from having skill in the right spell schools; two of these are Constant Effects that could possibly be considered to match up with signs that increase Magicka or Attributes, but the other ones just aren’t as good in my opinion. Whatever you do, stay away from the birthsign known as «The Lord» («The Fool» would have been a more apt name for it).

GOOD SIGNS WITH INCREASED MAGICKA

The Apprentice

Powers: +150% to maximum Magicka

Drawbacks: 50% Weakness to Magicka

Analysis: This birthsign is perhaps your safest bet to make a spellcaster out of any race, including Nords, Dark Elves and Redguards, or simply to give your Breton even more Magicka to use. The 50% weakness to «Magicka»-based attacks is not a major problem. Mainly it means you are at a bit of a disadvantage against vampires and their «Absorb Health» spell, but once you get to a certain level, that spell really isn’t going to be very dangerous anymore. You’ll also be hurt 50% more by nerfing attacks like Blind or Damage Attribute, but these aren’t that deadly, and you’ll have plenty of magicka to cast Dispel or Restore Attribute with.

Verdict: Recommended!

The Atronach

Powers: +200% to maximum Magicka AND 50% chance of Spell Absorption

Drawbacks: Cannot regain Magicka from resting

Analysis: Not being able to rest up your Magicka is a very serious disadvantage. To overcome it, you may have to employ some more or less unbalancing tricks (for the tricks and exploits, see the UESP Wiki: Hints and Cheats pages). However, if you are willing to use these somewhat dishonourable methodss, then the Atronach sign arguably confers the greatest benefits of any Birthsign. Not only does your maximum magicka get the best boost of any sign (and also more than any race confers), but you also get a 50% chance to «Absorb» every spell cast on you, nullifying any negative effects and recharging your own magicka instead. The latter effect also makes this an interesting choice for High Elves, since it helps alleviate their weaknesses to hostile spells as well as giving you the largest possible Magicka supply in the game. The Atronach is also a perfectly honourable choice for characters who never intend to cast any spells themselves, but would like the protection from enemy casters.

Verdict: Recommended if you are willing to forgo spells or use «tricks»

GOOD SIGNS WITH INCREASED ATTRIBUTES

The Lady

Powers: +25 Endurance, +25 Personality

Drawbacks: None

Analysis: Arguably the best attribute birthsign in the long run because the increased Endurance lets you get more hit points right from level 1. The Personality boost doesn’t hurt either – it’ll raise everybody’s Disposition towards you by 12-13 points. A total of +50 extra Attribute points is also the largest of any Attribute boosts from birthsigns.

Verdict: Recommended!

The Lover

Powers: +25 Agility, Paralyze 1 enemy for 60 seconds once a day

Drawbacks: The Paralyze power costs 200 Fatigue

Analysis: If your character starts with low Agility, this can be a big help (at least until you can level it up). The paralyzing power is also nice early on but not that impressive later since enemies with high Willpower tend to resist it, which leaves you too exhausted and vulnerable. The main reason for choosing this sign is that more Agility means a better chance of hitting an enemy with weapons as well as a smaller chance of being hit and, especially, knocked down.

Verdict: Recommended for characters with low starting Agility

The Steed

Powers: +25 Speed

Drawbacks: None

Analysis: While non-Beast races can get all the speed they want from a certain (in)famous pair of boots, those honourable Argonians need another way to speed up their movement so you can do more fun stuff in less time. This is one such way. It only gives you one-eigth the boost of the Boots, though.

Verdict: Recommended for beast races, or if you don’t want to use the Boots

DECENT SIGNS WITH CONSTANT POWERS

The Thief

Powers: +10 Sanctuary (10% smaller chance to be hit by enemy weapons)

Drawbacks: None

Analysis: Being hit less often is obviously great, though 10% isn’t that much.

Verdict: Recommended

The Warrior

Powers: +10 Fortify Attack (i.e. 10% greater chance to hit with weapons)

Drawbacks: None

Analysis: Effectively adds +10 to skill with every weapon, meaning you’ll reach effective max skill at 90. Quite useful up to that point, though afterwards you would have benefited more from the extra hit points conferred by the Lady, or even the extra dodging conferred by the Thief.

Verdict: Recommended

THE SIGNS I DON’T RECOMMEND (roughly in order of decreasing usefulness)

The Tower

Powers: Spell to Detect Animal, Key and Enchantment in 200 feet for 60 seconds for 5 magicka, power to Open up to lvl 50 lock once per day at no Magicka cost.

Drawbacks: None

Analysis: This is undoubtedly the best «Detect» spell in the game, turning your minimap into a veritable radar showing animals, keys and enchanted items for just 5 magicka. Personally though, I don’t think a magical radar is as useful as more hit points or magicka. If you can hide, you can find animals before they find you anyway; much good loot isn’t enchanted; and who needs a key when you can just pick the lock? Admittedly, keys are important in some mods where doors are scripted to be opened by no other means, but I must confess I haven’t tested a Tower character with those mods – yet, anyway.

Verdict: Feasible, but Not Really Recommended

The Ritual

Powers: Power to heal 100 health points once per day at no Magicka cost, 2 spells to Turn Undead

Drawbacks: None

Analysis: As «Turn Undead spells» go, these are much more mana efficient than ordinary Conjuration spells, so if for some reason you prefer to scare those Bonewalkers off instead of killing them, go ahead. And extra healing power is always nice, but it can’t replace Restoration spells/enchantments because it doesn’t affect diseases, disabling effects etc.

Verdict: Feasible, but Not Recommended

The Shadow

Powers: Power to turn «Invisible» once per day for 60 seconds at no Magicka cost

Drawbacks: None

Analysis: This lets you cast a fairly long-lasting «Invisibility» spell without any Illusion skill, so that you can slip past enemies undetected. This is still a rather limited hide capability, however, since you can’t do anything besides moving when invisible – opening a door, picking something up etc. will dispel the invisibility and you can’t re-cast it until the next day. This could be really bad news if you’re in the middle of a room full of enemies you were planning on avoiding.

Verdict: Feasible, but Not Recommended

The Mage

Powers: +50% to maximum Magicka

Drawbacks: None

Analysis: Although this is the only Magicka-increasing sign without any drawbacks, a 50% boost is not enough to make it really attractive – The Apprentice would yield three times as much.

Verdict: Not Recommended

The Serpent

Powers: Poison spell (3 points for 30 seconds on Touch) for 5 Magicka

Drawbacks: Spell results in Damage 1 point of Health on self for 30 seconds

Analysis: With Destruction skill, you could make a comparable or better spell that would draw a little more Magicka, but which at least doesn’t hurt yourself as well as the foe.

Verdict: Not Recommended

THE SIGN YOU MUST AVOID AT ALL COSTS

The Lord

Powers: Spell to Restore 2 Health points for 30 seconds at normal Magicka cost (15)

Drawbacks: 100% Weakness to Fire

Analysis: With Restoration skill, you can make a similar or better spell any day without suffering double damage from every fire attack in the game. If you’re desperate for a healing birthsign for some reason, go with the Ritual instead.

Verdict: Not Recommended!

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