total n00b question - how to avoid jail?

[Felicia]

First of all, thanks to everyone who helped me figure out how to get this game running on my Macbook! I'm really enjoying it.

I feel like this is a completely idiotic question, but I can't figure out how to effectively commit murder or steal things without instantly going to jail. I don't just mean randomly, but like the quest you get to kill the five "bad people" (Commona Tong members) in Balora - they all just hang out at that one bar all the time, as far as I can tell. In Skyrim you could wait until someone was alone, or sneak into their homes, but it seems like in Morrowind the NPCs are pretty much static. So without having some kind of high level invisibility effect, how do you kill five people in a bar without instantly getting arrested? Similarly, the first few Thieves Guild quests are pretty challenging, because my stealth is so poor (although I did find a few of her diamonds in the upstairs chest - but how do you possibly get the others when she stands right next to them the whole day?).

It's all a little confusing to me because in Oblivion and Skyrim I was the type to sneak through all dungeons and try to take people out silently. Stealth doesn't seem to be a major element in Morrowind (at least, not so far), and I can't really figure out how to effectively do things sneakily.

[p-sto]

The Comma Tong mission is likely one of the trickiest quests in the game. It is possible to do it without taking a bounty but it took me a lot of trial and error to get it right. The wiki entry for the quest may be able to help you more then I can since it's been a while and really all I can remember is that it's a pain, especially at low levels. Http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Larr ... ttle_Story

[Felicia]

Interesting. It's becoming increasingly clear to me that unlike Skyrim and to a lesser extent Oblivion, not all Morrowind quests are appropriate for every level. Just because you get a quest at level 1 doesn't mean the game "wants" you to complete it at level 1 - there are no real implications about what should be doable for any given character. Would you say that is accurate?

[Avron the S'wit]

That is absolutely true. I remember running into a dungeon located right outside of Seyda Neen whose inhabitants were so high leveled, I won't even embarrass myself by telling you how often I died. Morrowind is unique in that there are some areas and quests you may want to revisit when you're much stronger - but that's half the fun!

[Felicia]

Also (totally unrelated) - what does fatigue actually do? I feel like that's a stupid question, but how come I can keep running / jumping with no problem even when my fatigue bar is at 0?

[p-sto]

Having your fatigue bar empty increases the chance of you failing at actions that are impacted by probability, which is just about everything in Morrowind.

And Avron raises another good point. A key skill in Morrowind is a good strategy for running away. You'll have a lot more fun if you learn how to run for your life and come back later than if you try to force yourself through a dungeon or quest.

[AddictedtoMorrowind]

Sneaking is definitely less implemented in Morrowind than Oblivion or Skyrim. It actually works well if your sneak skills are high enough, and if I remember correctly, you can get 2.0x damage bonuses.

[Belthazor]

If you want to commit murder without getting a bounty, you have to keep two things in mind:

1) It's not a crime to kill a person if they attack you first.
2) By taunting people a few times, you can make them attack you.

That's why I found Speechcraft to be a very useful skill in Morrowind. The only problem is, it only works reliably if the NPCs disposition towards you is high. That's not often the case, so you have to either admire them first (which also fails often if their disposition is low) or simply bribe them. If you plan on killing them, anyway, don't be a cheapskate with the bribes. You'll get your money back from their corpses after the fight .

I don't recommend doing this particular quest early on, though. Those guys are quite tough.

[Felicia]

If you want to commit murder without getting a bounty, you have to keep two things in mind:

1) It's not a crime to kill a person if they attack you first.
2) By taunting people a few times, you can make them attack you.

Yeah, I had a disposition disaster with one of them. I tried to taunt him, failed, tried again, failed, noticed his disposition was at 9, desperately tried to admire him, disposition dropped to 0, tried to bribe him, he wouldn't take my money. popularity fail.

[Golden Sinner]

Why run away when you can do something better. In Balmora, Nalcarya the alchemist sells potions of Mark and Recall in her shop. Go somewhere safe, like a Temple or right next to a Guild Guide and drink the Mark potion. Now, whenever you are in trouble, or drowning or falling to your death, just open your inventory menu, which freezes action, and take the Recall potion. You will be instantly whisked away to the place where you took the Mark potion. Always have a Recall potion available and a useful location with a Mark.

[H8Ball]

One way to get someone to attack you first (so you can "legally" kill them in self-defence) is to use Persuasion. Bribe their Disposition up, Taunt it back down, and repeat. Eventually, they'll say something like "That's it", give you the Goodbye option to exit dialogue, then attack you (usually after a short delay). This technique works even at VERY low Speechcraft skill, as Bribes still have a fair chance of succeeding and it's only a matter of time before Taunts succeed. This means it often costs a LOT of Gold in bribes, but you'll get it all back when you loot the corpse anyway, so you've lost nothing.

[Aesir]

Yeah, I had a disposition disaster with one of them. I tried to taunt him, failed, tried again, failed, noticed his disposition was at 9, desperately tried to admire him, disposition dropped to 0, tried to bribe him, he wouldn't take my money. popularity fail.

Just keep on clicking the ole' taunt button. Eventualy you will make them mad enough to say "goodbye". I've sat clicking taunt over and over for 5 or so minutes of real time before succeding. No need to bribe or admire.
One other thing. After you've taunted them enough to get the red goodbye, ALWAYS make sure you let them take the first swing.

[Felicia]

Why run away when you can do something better. In Balmora, Nalcarya the alchemist sells potions of Mark and Recall in her shop. Go somewhere safe, like a Temple or right next to a Guild Guide and drink the Mark potion. Now, whenever you are in trouble, or drowning or falling to your death, just open your inventory menu, which freezes action, and take the Recall potion. You will be instantly whisked away to the place where you took the Mark potion. Always have a Recall potion available and a useful location with a Mark.

Yeah, I escaped a fight yesterday with one of those Intervention scrolls. worked pretty well, except I had a red haze all over my screen until I got in another fight...

[H8Ball]

Yes, that's caused by the "Hit Fader" bug. If you take damage and the hit fader (red ring) hasn't fully faded when you transition between cells (through a load door, via fast-travel, intervention, recall, etc), it's stuck in semi-faded state until you take damage again. The bug does no harm. It's just an annoying visual glitch. But it becomes VERY annoying if you're a Vampire and taking sun damage, since the usual way to stop the damage is to escape indoors but it's nearly impossible to time going through a load door in the fraction of a second between hit fader appearances. You can prevent the annoying visual glitch by disabling the hit fader. Just edit Morrowind.ini and set ShowHitFader=0. I mean, you can TELL you're taking damage anyway by the fact that your character screams in pain... And with cartoon-style cheesy captions if you have Subtitles enabled... Ow! Aieeee! Hunnngh! And so on.

[Raynil dralas]

As well as taunting remember if your illusion skills any good you can make a custom frenzy 100pts for 5 secs spell or something, its pretty cheap and will turn most npc's hostile so they do the first hit making it cool to defend yourself.

That council club quest is best left till you're stronger, those guys are tough and they mob you pretty good.

Also a few tips in regard to law, if you plan on breaking the law join the thieves guild. Even if you don't intend to do quests for them there's a guy in most major cites that can clear your bounty for a price, just ask any guild member you come across where they can be found.

When you do get busted all your stolen items get taken from you, an annoying thing is when you steal a type of item all other items of that type will forever be labeled stolen.... so if you stole a petty soul gem one time everytime you get busted ALL your petty soul gems will be removed.

A way around this is to quickly go to the menu before you're apprehended and drop all your stolen goods, people wont pick things up of the ground oddly so you can return and pick everything up later.

Its also worth noting that any goods you do have removed by the law will be placed in the nearest evidence chest, these are nearly always in the nearest fort somewhere and if you can find and stealthily pick it you can get your stuff back.

Just a tip on sneaking as well, its a real pain to level up and its not that effective, invest in the illusion skill instead, chameleon is far more effective than sneak for stealing things from under noses.

[Demiverse]

Stealth doesn't seem to be a major element in Morrowind (at least, not so far), and I can't really figure out how to effectively do things sneakily.

Stealth is pretty tricky in Morrowind. It isn't really effective until higher levels, but at lower levels it's difficult to train the skill up since you're not good enough to remain undetected yet. Remember, there's no shame in training skills if you can afford it, particularly ones that are difficult to raise. Also, augmenting Sneak with the Chameleon effect works wonders.

Oh, and as for Nalcarya's diamonds - you're all set with the ones you found upstairs. The Thieve's Guild can't expect you to be capable of stealing right from under people's noses on your first assignment.

[yoginc]

The easiest way is to simply cast a frenzy humanoid spell on them..I slaughtered the camonna tong in that club and completed almost all morag tong quests using this spell.And it makes taunting useless..Just cast the spell and they'll be forced to attack u first and then u can use ur right to defend urself and kill them.U don't incur any bounty at all.I can murder people this way even in front of the guards,no one will even bother!

[onewithchaos]

I found an invisbility amulet that might come in handy for you. Please helpo me out, its been a whiel sense I played, so I am not sure of the exact location buu.

There is this female who has "lost her ring" She wants you to find it and if you do she will give you aa "special treat" Just kill her and her partner who is invisible nearby as they will attack you anyway. One of them has the said amulet.

You can put that one and become invisible and take the targets out.

you can start at genises, though I am not sure where to go from there as, like I said, its been a while sense I played the game.

[yoginc]

I found an invisbility amulet that might come in handy for you. Please helpo me out, its been a whiel sense I played, so I am not sure of the exact location buu.

There is this female who has "lost her ring" She wants you to find it and if you do she will give you aa "special treat" Just kill her and her partner who is invisible nearby as they will attack you anyway. One of them has the said amulet.

You can put that one and become invisible and take the targets out.

you can start at genises, though I am not sure where to go from there as, like I said, its been a while sense I played the game.

Hmm, i think ur talking about the amulet of shadows. Below is the link with the details of the related quest

Code: Select all

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:The_Lady%27s_Ring

But even though it gives you a very high chameleon, most of it will also depend on your sneak skill. So if ur not well of with sneak, chances of being detected may still be quite high, especially with a very vigilant npc/enemy. And someone who has the sneak skill maxed out, like my character, won't need any invisibility or concealment magic. You can simply creep up behind someone and land a blow with 99% success rate. So, that amulet may be useful for someone with mid levels of sneak.