Morrowind:Classes

In Morrowind, every humanoid character has a class, including your character and all NPCs. A character's class reflects their occupation, their position in society, or simply what sorts of things they are good at. In game terms, class comprises three different aspects of a character: Specialization, Favored Attributes, and Major/Minor Skills. Together, these choices have significant impact on the state of your character at the start of the game, as well as how they will develop as they increase in level. When you create a character, you will either create a custom class, or use one of the game's twenty-one predefined player-character classes, detailed below. NPCs also use these classes, and there are many NPC-only classes.

M	Major skill
M	Major skill under specialization
m	Minor skill
m	Minor skill under specialization

Class	Combat										Magic										Stealth										Favored Attributes
	Armorer	Athletics	Axe	Block	Blunt Weapon	Heavy Armor	Long Blade	Medium Armor	Spear		Alchemy	Alteration	Conjuration	Destruction	Enchant	Illusion	Mysticism	Restoration	Unarmored		Acrobatics	Hand-to-hand	Light Armor	Marksman	Mercantile	Security	Short Blade	Sneak	Speechcraft		Agility	Endurance	Intelligence	Personality	Speed	Strength	Willpower
Acrobat		M							m			m							M		M	m	m	M				M	m		Yes	Yes
Agent				m									m			m			m		M		M		m		M	M	M		Yes			Yes
Archer		M		M			M	m	m									m	m				M	M				m			Yes					Yes
Assassin		m		m			m				m										M		M	M		m	M	M					Yes		Yes
Barbarian	m	M	M	M	M			M											m		m		m	m											Yes	Yes
Bard				M			M	m			M				m	m					M				m	m			M				Yes	Yes
Battlemage			M			M	m				m	M	M	M	m		m							m									Yes			Yes
Crusader	m			M	M	M	M	m			m			M				m				m									Yes					Yes
Healer					m						m	M				m	M	M	m			M	m						M					Yes			Yes
Knight	m		M	M		M	M	m							m			m							m				M					Yes		Yes
Mage											m	M	m	M	m	M	M	M	m								m						Yes				Yes
Monk		M		m	m												m	M			M	M	m	m				M			Yes						Yes
Nightblade												M		m		M	M		m				m	m		m	M	M							Yes		Yes
Pilgrim				m				M			m					m		M				m		M	M		m		M			Yes		Yes
Rogue		m	M	m			m	m														M	M		M		M		m					Yes	Yes
Scout		M		M			M	M			m	m							m				m	m				M				Yes			Yes
Sorcerer						m		m				M	M	M	M	m	M							m			m					Yes	Yes
Spellsword			m	M	m		M	m			m	M		M	m			M														Yes					Yes
Thief		m																			M	m	M	m	m	M	M	M	m		Yes				Yes
Warrior	m	M	m	M	m	M	M	M	m															m								Yes				Yes
Witchhunter				m	m						M		M		M		m		m					M	M				m		Yes		Yes

What Defines a Class

Each class has one of three Specializations: Combat, Magic, or Stealth. Each of the twenty-seven Skills is also classified into one of these Specializations. Your character enjoys a five-point bonus to their starting proficiency in the nine Skills that match the Specialization of their class. They also increase those Skills faster, needing only 80% of the normal experience points for each Skill level. In the table above, the shaded set of Skills for each class indicates their Specialization.

Each class "favors" two of the eight primary Attributes. Your character will start with ten extra points in the favored Attributes of their class, added to the values determined by their race and gender. The final column of the table above shows the favored attributes of each class.

Each class categorizes five Skills as "Major", five others as "Minor", and the remaining seventeen as "Miscellaneous". The greatest significance of this is that only Major and Minor Skills advance your progress toward the next level when they increase. Another benefit, however, is that your character's proficiencies will start at 30 in each Major Skill and 15 in each Minor Skill. Miscellaneous Skills start at 5. These are the values before any bonuses from race or Specialization. The experience points required to increase a Skill are only 75% of normal for Major Skills, but they are increased to 125% of normal for Miscellaneous Skills.

Choosing a Class

Your character's class is set near the beginning of the game, when you first talk to Socucius Ergalla in the Seyda Neen Census and Excise Office. You have three options for how to go about it. If you choose to "answer his questions", he will ask ten questions and suggest a class based on your answers. See Class Quiz for details. If you choose to "give him the info", you will be able to select one of the predefined classes. The third option, "fill out the forms", will allow you to create and name your own custom class by selecting the Specialization, Favored Attributes, and Major/Minor Skills. You can try any of these options and still have the chance to change your mind and try a different one, but once you confirm all your choices with Socucius, your race, gender, class, and birthsign are fixed and cannot be changed.

Choosing a class is largely a matter of personal taste and style. Fortunately, your choice of class "only" determines the starting level and progression rate of skills, posing no strict limit to the opportunities available to you for character development, plot, or gameplay, only making some opportunities require more or less effort to exploit. For example, your character need not be a Thief, nor even a Stealth specialist, to join the Thieves Guild, but you may find the Thieves Guild quests to be more challenging if your class considers Skills like Security and Sneak to be Miscellaneous. The cost of training does not decrease if a skill is part of your classes skills, and the increase to a skill's starting level it provides will actually make initial training more expensive (a concern if a skill is being raised primarily to increase Attribute progression instead of direct use).

Therefore, creating a custom class has no inherent disadvantages, but it does require extra care and consideration. A custom class thrown together haphazardly has every chance of being frustrating to play. The most crippling blunder, arguably, is a lopsided distribution of governing Attributes among your Major, Minor, and Miscellaneous Skills. This can make it extremely challenging to get the best Attribute increases from each level up and cause some Attributes to lag far behind the others when you reach higher levels.

It's also very helpful to learn exactly what actions build experience in each Skill, along with the risks and obstacles to performing those actions successfully. If a Skill starts low because it's Miscellaneous, it can be very tedious or even dangerous to gain experience in it through practice. Beginning with higher proficiencies in some complementary skills can reduce this handicap. For example, it's less dangerous to wield a weapon you are not skilled with when you wear armor that you are skilled in. It's also less time-consuming and expensive to use the weapon repeatedly if you're skilled at repairing it yourself. Taking these things into consideration when choosing Major and Minor skills for a custom class can make your character more enjoyable to play, and allow you to rely on training less often.

One final consideration for custom classes is the option of choosing Luck as a favored attribute. None of the predefined classes available to the player do so, but it can be a significant advantage. Taking Luck as a favored attribute will effectively add 5 points to every attribute for the purpose of chance of success (but not derived status such as max health or carry weight), which makes your character better at everything both early on, and (since luck adds to success chance even when an attribute has capped at 100) late game. Since Luck can never increase more than one point each level, it will tend to grow much more slowly than the other primary attributes, which the instant ten-point bonus for a class that favors it substantially mitigates.

Pre-defined Classes

Acrobat

• In-game Description: Acrobat is a polite euphemism for agile burglars and second-story men. These thieves avoid detection by stealth, and rely on mobility and cunning to avoid capture.
• Specialization: Stealth
• Attributes: Agility, Endurance

Major Skills:  Acrobatics  Athletics  Marksman  Sneak  Unarmored

Minor Skills:  Speechcraft  Alteration  Spear  Hand-to-hand  Light Armor

Agent

• In-game Description: Agents are operatives skilled in deception and avoidance, but trained in self-defense and the use of deadly force. Self-reliant and independent, agents devote themselves to personal goals, or to various patrons or causes.
• NPC Agents generally offer training in their 3 highest skills.
• Specialization: Stealth
• Attributes: Personality, Agility

Major Skills:  Speechcraft  Sneak  Acrobatics  Light Armor  Short Blade

Minor Skills:  Mercantile  Conjuration  Block  Unarmored  Illusion

Archer

• In-game Description: Archers are fighters specializing in long-range combat and rapid movement. Opponents are kept at distance by ranged weapons and swift maneuver, and engaged in melee with sword and shield after the enemy is wounded and weary.
• Specialization: Combat
• Attributes: Agility, Strength

Major Skills:  Marksman  Long Blade  Block  Athletics  Light Armor

Minor Skills:  Unarmored  Spear  Restoration  Sneak  Medium Armor

Assassin

• In-game Description: Assassins are killers who rely on stealth and mobility to approach victims undetected. Execution is with ranged weapons or with short blades for close work. Assassins include ruthless murderers and principled agents of noble causes.
• Specialization: Stealth
• Attributes: Speed, Intelligence

Major Skills:  Sneak  Marksman  Light Armor  Short Blade  Acrobatics

Minor Skills:  Security  Long Blade  Alchemy  Block  Athletics

Barbarian

• In-game Description: Barbarians are the proud, savage warrior elite of the plains nomads, mountain tribes, and sea reavers. They tend to be brutal and direct, lacking civilized graces, but they glory in heroic feats, and excel in fierce, frenzied single combat.
• Specialization: Combat
• Attributes: Strength, Speed

Major Skills:  Axe  Medium Armor  Blunt Weapon  Athletics  Block

Minor Skills:  Acrobatics  Light Armor  Armorer  Marksman  Unarmored

Bard

• In-game Description: Bards are loremasters and storytellers. They crave adventure for the wisdom and insight to be gained, and must depend on sword, shield, spell and enchantment to preserve them from the perils of their educational experiences.
• Specialization: Stealth
• Attributes: Personality, Intelligence

Major Skills:  Speechcraft  Alchemy  Acrobatics  Long Blade  Block

Minor Skills:  Mercantile  Illusion  Medium Armor  Enchant  Security

Battlemage

• In-game Description: Battlemages are wizard-warriors, trained in both lethal spellcasting and heavily armored combat. They sacrifice mobility and versatility for the ability to supplement melee and ranged attacks with elemental damage and summoned creatures.
• Specialization: Magic
• Attributes: Intelligence, Strength

Major Skills:  Alteration  Destruction  Conjuration  Axe  Heavy Armor

Minor Skills:  Mysticism  Long Blade  Marksman  Enchant  Alchemy

• Spells:

Shield - Shield 5 pts for 30 secs on Self

Water Walking - Water Walking for 60 secs on Self

Bound Dagger - Bound Dagger for 60 secs on Self

Summon Ancestral Ghost - Summon Ancestral Ghost for 60 secs on Self

Fire Bite - Fire Damage 15-30 pts on Touch

Crusader

• In-game Description: Any heavily armored warrior with spellcasting powers and a good cause may call himself a Crusader. Crusaders do well by doing good. They hunt monsters and villains, making themselves rich by plunder as they rid the world of evil.
• Specialization: Combat
• Attributes: Agility, Strength

Major Skills:  Blunt Weapon  Long Blade  Destruction  Heavy Armor  Block

Minor Skills:  Restoration  Armorer  Hand-to-hand  Medium Armor  Alchemy

• Spells

Fire Bite - Fire Damage 15-30 pts on Touch

Healer

• In-game Description: Healers are spellcasters who swear solemn oaths to heal the afflicted and cure the diseased. When threatened, they defend themselves with reason and disabling attacks and magic, relying on deadly force only in extremity.
• Specialization: Magic
• Attributes: Willpower, Personality

Major Skills:  Restoration  Mysticism  Alteration  Hand-to-hand  Speechcraft

Minor Skills:  Illusion  Alchemy  Unarmored  Light Armor  Blunt Weapon

• Spells:

Hearth Heal - Restore Health 20-80 pts on Self

Shield - Shield 5 pts for 30 secs on Self

Water Walking - Water Walking for 60 secs on Self

Detect Creature - Detect Animal 50-150 pts for 5 secs on Self

Knight

• In-game Description: Of noble birth, or distinguished in battle or tourney, knights are civilized warriors, schooled in letters and courtesy, governed by the codes of chivalry. In addition to the arts of war, knights study the lore of healing and enchantment.
• Specialization: Combat
• Attributes: Strength, Personality

Major Skills:  Long Blade  Axe  Speechcraft  Heavy Armor  Block

Minor Skills:  Restoration  Mercantile  Medium Armor  Enchant  Armorer

Mage

• In-game Description: Most mages claim to study magic for its intellectual rewards, but they also often profit from its practical applications. Varying widely in temperament and motivation, mages share but one thing in common - an avid love of spellcasting.
• Specialization: Magic
• Attributes: Intelligence, Willpower

Major Skills:  Mysticism  Destruction  Alteration  Illusion  Restoration

Minor Skills:  Enchant  Alchemy  Unarmored  Short Blade  Conjuration

• Spells

Hearth Heal - Restore Health 20-80 pts on Self

Shield - Shield 5 pts for 30 secs on Self

Water Walking - Water Walking for 60 secs on Self

Fire Bite - Fire Damage 15-30 pts on Touch

Chameleon - Chameleon 10 pts for 30 secs on Self

Sanctuary - Sanctuary 10 pts for 30 secs on Self

Detect Creature - Detect Animal 50-150 pts for 5 secs on Self

Monk

• In-game Description: Monks are students of the ancient martial arts of hand-to-hand combat and unarmored self defense. Monks avoid detection by stealth, mobility, and agility, and are skilled with a variety of ranged and close-combat weapons.
• Specialization: Stealth
• Attributes: Agility, Willpower

Major Skills:  Hand-to-hand  Unarmored  Athletics  Acrobatics  Sneak

Minor Skills:  Block  Marksman  Light Armor  Restoration  Blunt Weapon

Nightblade

• In-game Description: Nightblades are spellcasters who use their magics to enhance mobility, concealment, and stealthy close combat. They have a sinister reputation, since many nightblades are thieves, enforcers, assassins, or covert agents.
• Specialization: Magic
• Attributes: Willpower, Speed

Major Skills:  Mysticism  Illusion  Alteration  Sneak  Short Blade

Minor Skills:  Light Armor  Unarmored  Destruction  Marksman  Security

• Spells:

Shield - Shield 5 pts for 30 secs on Self

Water Walking - Water Walking for 60 secs on Self

Fire Bite - Fire Damage 15-30 pts on Touch

Chameleon - Chameleon 10 pts for 30 secs on Self

Sanctuary - Sanctuary 10 pts for 30 secs on Self

Detect Creature - Detect Animal 50-150 pts for 5 secs on Self

Pilgrim

• In-game Description: Pilgrims are travellers, seekers of truth and enlightenment. They fortify themselves for road and wilderness with arms, armor, and magic, and through wide experience of the world, they become shrewd in commerce and persuasion.
• Specialization: Stealth
• Attributes: Personality, Endurance

Major Skills:  Speechcraft  Mercantile  Marksman  Restoration  Medium Armor

Minor Skills:  Illusion  Hand-to-hand  Short Blade  Block  Alchemy

• Spells:

Hearth Heal - Restore Health 20-80 pts on Self

Rogue

• In-game Description: Rogues are adventurers and opportunists with a gift for getting in and out of trouble. Relying variously on charm and dash, blades and business sense, they thrive on conflict and misfortune, trusting to their luck and cunning to survive.
• Specialization: Combat
• Attributes: Speed, Personality

Major Skills:  Short Blade  Mercantile  Axe  Light Armor  Hand-to-hand

Minor Skills:  Block  Medium Armor  Speechcraft  Athletics  Long Blade

Scout

• In-game Description: Scouts rely on stealth to survey routes and opponents, using ranged weapons and skirmish tactics when forced to fight. By contrast with barbarians, in combat scouts tend to be cautious and methodical, rather than impulsive.
• NPC Scouts generally offer training in their 3 highest skills.
• Specialization: Combat
• Attributes: Speed, Endurance

Major Skills:  Sneak  Long Blade  Medium Armor  Athletics  Block

Minor Skills:  Marksman  Alchemy  Alteration  Light Armor  Unarmored

Sorcerer

• In-game Description: Though spellcasters by vocation, sorcerers rely most on summonings and enchantments. They are greedy for magic scrolls, rings, armor and weapons, and commanding undead and Daedric servants gratifies their egos.
• Specialization: Magic
• Attributes: Intelligence, Endurance

Major Skills:  Enchant  Conjuration  Mysticism  Destruction  Alteration

Minor Skills:  Illusion  Medium Armor  Heavy Armor  Marksman  Short Blade

• Spells:

Shield - Shield 5 pts for 30 secs on Self

Water Walking - Water Walking for 60 secs on Self

Bound Dagger - Bound Dagger for 60 secs on Self

Summon Ancestral Ghost - Summon Ancestral Ghost for 60 secs on Self

Fire Bite - Fire Damage 15-30 pts on Touch

Detect Creature - Detect Animal 50-150 pts for 5 secs on Self

Spellsword

• In-game Description: Spellswords are spellcasting specialists trained to support Imperial troops in skirmish and in battle. Veteran spellswords are prized as mercenaries, and well-suited for careers as adventurers and soldiers-of-fortune.
• Specialization: Magic
• Attributes: Willpower, Endurance

Major Skills:  Block  Restoration  Long Blade  Destruction  Alteration

Minor Skills:  Blunt Weapon  Enchant  Alchemy  Medium Armor  Axe

• Spells:

Hearth Heal - Restore Health 20-80 pts on Self

Shield - Shield 5 pts for 30 secs on Self

Water Walking - Water Walking for 60 secs on Self

Fire Bite - Fire Damage 15-30 pts on Touch

Thief

• In-game Description: Thieves are pickpockets and pilferers. Unlike robbers, who kill and loot, thieves typically choose stealth and subterfuge over violence, and often entertain romantic notions of their charm and cleverness in their acquisitive activities.
• Specialization: Stealth
• Attributes: Speed, Agility

Major Skills:  Security  Sneak  Acrobatics  Light Armor  Short Blade

Minor Skills:  Marksman  Speechcraft  Hand-to-hand  Mercantile  Athletics

Warrior

• In-game Description: Warriors are the professional men-at-arms, soldiers, mercenaries, and adventurers of the Empire, trained with various weapons and armor styles, conditioned by long marches, and hardened by ambush, skirmish, and battle.
• Specialization: Combat
• Attributes: Strength, Endurance

Major Skills:  Long Blade  Medium Armor  Heavy Armor  Athletics  Block

Minor Skills:  Armorer  Spear  Marksman  Axe  Blunt Weapon

Witchhunter

• In-game Description: Witchhunters are dedicated to rooting out and destroying the perverted practices of dark cults and profane sorcery. They train for martial, magical, and stealthy war against vampires, witches, warlocks, and necromancers.
• Specialization: Magic
• Attributes: Intelligence, Agility

Major Skills:  Conjuration  Enchant  Alchemy  Light Armor  Marksman

Minor Skills:  Unarmored  Block  Blunt Weapon  Sneak  Mysticism

• Spells:

Bound Dagger - Bound Dagger for 60 secs on Self

Summon Ancestral Ghost - Summon Ancestral Ghost for 60 secs on Self

See Also

• NPC Classes