Tra Hari on 5/6/2002 at 18:31
Mages tend not to be very powerful early on, and it's usually not until higher levels that mages can hold their own in combat.
Morrowind seems a bit different in that regard, since (AFAICT) spell casting costs don't change; only the chance to successfully cast the spell changes. This means that a high level spellcaster can't cast _more_ spells; they can just cast better, more expensive spells and have a higher chance of success.
Melee is much easier than magic, I'll grant you that. All you have to do is click, and you don't need to pay attention to spell durations and things like that. Magic has the potential to be much more powerful, though I have yet to see a spellcaster in Morrowind get really, really powerful.
That's one thing that really concerns me. It seems like it's impossible to be a spellcaster who can cast a substantial number of powerful spells, regardless of how skilled you are. It seems like unless you start off with more than one magicka fortification innate ability that you're more or less screwed as you get to higher levels. After a certain point, it seems like you'll bottom out just by virtue of lacking the spell points to cast a given spell.
- Tra'Hari
Iucounu on 9/6/2002 at 20:07
I've been wondering if Shield works as well, mostly based on this observation:
Cast shield on self, then check armor rating in inventory screen, and the AR doesn't change! That is, until I unequip a piece of armor and then re-equip it, at which point the AR number will jump up to reflect the extra Shield spell. Very odd...
Tra Hari on 9/6/2002 at 22:34
Iucounu:
Aha! Definitely remarkable!
It seems like it _is_ supposed to change the armor rating number displayed, but perhaps that number is not updated until your armor rating is recalculated when you would, for example, take off or put on armor. The question is whether or not this change in display means it's working, or whether this is a symptom of the armor rating display being broken, signifying that perhaps there's something else at work that we're not seeing.
Were you able to ascertain whether or not the change in armor rating took effect in the game after you noticed the change in display?
I should test this myself.
Thanks!
- Tra'Hari
