Character Creation in Morrowind Rebirth

Character creation in Morrowind can change a good deal if you use the Morrowind:Rebirth mod, which among other things aims to re-balance character creation. The whole point of that is to make more of the character options in the game viable, thus reducing the use of character creation guides like the one you see on this site. The first thing to note, however, is that changing character creation is an entirely optional part of the mod. You can simply disable the relevant .esp files to do with races, birthsigns and skills in the launcher and still keep the rest of the mod, like the expansions of the settlements and so on.

If you want the re-balance though, most of my guide will still be very relevant to your characters but there are a few things that won’t. Fear not, I’ll take you through some of the differences but also summarize some of the advice that still applies with this mod.

Race and birthsign

First off, while a lot of the races’ powers have changed in Morrowind:Rebirth, the bonuses to magicka and resistance are mostly the same as vanilla, so a lot of the old advice still holds. For spellcasters, Breton race and Apprentice is still my no. 1 preferred choice. If you plan on using spells for most tasks, the extra magicka is just extremely useful, perhaps even more so in the late game, as stronger spells cost more to cast and skill doesn’t lower the cast cost, just the success rate. Plus, the Breton resistances negate the 50% weakness to certain attacks brought by the birthsign, so the race and sign synergise perfectly. I should perhaps acknowledge here that I don’t like managing supplies of potions and scrolls, it bores me no end. High Elves also get even more magicka, of course, but the lower resistances mean you’ll be more of a glass cannon in a spell duel.

Likewise, Redguards or Nords are still my preferred warrior-archetype races. They still sport the best resistances, Nord slightly better, but the Redguard +15 to Long Blade is just a massive asset in the early game and will reduce the annoying hacking-that-doesn’t-connect that happens when you attack with a melee weapon with low skill.

I’d say the biggest change to race recommendations is that Bosmer, formerly a race I disparaged, now look like a really attractive race for stealth archetype characters with the mod. Sneaking and, especially, pickpocketing is hard at the best of times in Morrowind, but the Chameleon spell effect that Bosmer race now gives immediate access to, is a really powerful way to stealth better. Plus the bonus to Marksman does help with early game archery. I haven’t really playtested this though, so please take it with a grain of salt.

Unlike races, the birthsigns have been throughly revamped and most are very viable with the mod, especially for non-casters. The Serpent is now actually useful rather than suicidal, but it’s still not my preferred choice. The Atronach has been nerfed from 50% chance to absorb enemy spells to 25% chance, which means I stand even more by my Breton/Apprentice choice over the Altmer/Atronach that some people suggest. For non-casters, high starting Endurance is so important that the Lady is still a good choice, even if the bonus is now +10 (down from +25). There are a lot of good alternatives now, though. The Steed now has a really nice +100 carry capacity to go with the +20 Speed bonus, making it a useful alternative to using the Boots of Blinding Speed exploit, especially for Beast races. The Lover has been nerfed from +25 Agility to +20, but there is now no backlash to using its Paralyze power – this birthsign is still a very powerful tool in the early-through-mid game, especially if your race’s initial Agility is low, though the Agility bonus is largely wasted once your weapon and armor skills are nearing max level.

Class and skills

Probably the biggest change to my suggestions for how to make custom classes is that Morrowind Rebirth makes it impossible to use Restoration’s Fortify Skill effect to provide access to effects of skills like Repair, Speechcraft, Alchemy etc. Spellmaking and creating enchantments now cannot use the Fortify Skill effect. The same applies to Invisibility, which is odd, since Chameleon apparently isn’t affected. Even Command and Frenzy can’t be used for spellmaking or enchanting anymore. Again, the changes to skills are optional and you can disable the *.esp file to keep the old skills. If you don’t, however, you may need to reconsider how to get your items repaired and whether you’re prepared to accept the legal repercussions of murdering someone you can no longer Frenzy into attacking you with Illusion skill, which means Speechcraft is no longer quite as inferior to Illusion as it once was. Also, you can’t just make enchantments to duplicate the effects if you lack skill in Illusion. In short, including Repair and/or Speechcraft in your custom class will now benefit your character more than before, but since I don’t like the chores of managing my potion supply, I still consider Restoration a bit of a must, especially for casters, either through the spell school or through enchantments, if only to cure those horrible stat damaging attacks that may leave you too weak to carry all your gear, for example.