The How to Abuse Morrowind FAQ v1.1
"How to Be a Cheap Ass"
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By Mochan <
[email protected]>
created May 18, 2002
last modified May 19, 2002
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cheap adj(1509) 1: at minimum expense
2: gained with little effort
3: obtainable at a low rate of interest
4: STINGY
ass (bef. 12c) 1: any of several hardy gregarious mammals (genus Equus)
that are smaller than the horse and have long ears
2: a stupid, obstinate, or perverse person
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DISCLAIMER
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This FAQ was written with the PC version of the game in mind. Any discrepancies
with the XBox should be excused. Best read with a 79-width text viewer with a
fixed-size font. This FAQ will likely not be updated because I am lazy. But you
never know.
I have included my e-mail address in the header up there. If you want to write
me anything be sure to include this tag in the subject:
[MORROWIND FAQ]
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!!!!!IMPORTANT!!!!!
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Do *NOT* I mean do *NOT* ask me about dropping any bound Daedric item if you
are playing the X-Box version. ****I REPEAT*****
IF YOU ARE PLAYING THE X-BOX VERSION DO NOT ASK ME ABOUT DROPPING BOUND ITEMS.
If I had a dime for every time someone wrote an e-mail about this I would be
a millionaire. If you ask me this question I will ignore your e-mail and if
you keep bugging me about it I will block your e-mail.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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DISCLAIMER
TABLE OF CONTENTS
WHY THIS FAQ WAS WRITTEN
FAQ
HOW TO BE A CHEAPASS
* Stealth is your Best Friend
* Removing Bounties
* The Fine Art of Mugging
* Mercantile 101
* How to make lots of Cash really quick
* You Steal Men's Souls!
* Fashionable Enchantments
* Demon Arms
* The Saint's Cloth
* Skill Powerups
* God Strength and Endurance
* God Speed (Shinsoku)
* How to Kill Lord Vivec
AFTERWORD
LEGALESE
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WHY THIS FAQ WAS WRITTEN
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Because I could. I could write it, so I wrote it. Blah blah.
I don't know what it is that is in me that possesses me to always try to
play an RPG in the best possible way without cheating. That is, I try to
discover the limits and bounds of the game system, finding ways to take
advantage of it, abuse it, and otherwise push the game to its limits to
make myself as powerful as I can, *WITHOUT ANY ACTUAL CHEATING.*
Like in Final Fantasy 8, where I would pump up Squall's attack power as
high as possible, then keep him perpetually on the brink of death so that
I could do a Lion Heart every round.
Yet even while doing this I still keep into the character concept I made
for my character when I started the game. Because that is what PC Role-
Playing games are about: creating a role, and doing your best in that
role so that you can overcome the difficulties in the game legitimately,
without resorting to edit hacks or what not. It is all about YOU and
YOUR POWER, against the game and all of its hardships.
Because of this single-minded devotion to becoming the best I can be, I
have managed to slay Lord Vivec in his teeny palace even before I was
promoted to Blade Apprentice by Caius. I broke into the Hlaalu Vault
without anyone noticing. And a bunch of other sneaky things, because it
is all in-line with the character I play: a thief.
And this document is all about showing *you* how to do the same. So read
on, and become a Cheap Ass.
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WHY THIS FAQ WAS WRITTEN
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Q: How come I can't drop my bound Daedric Longsword?
A: Because you're playing the X-Box.
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HOW TO BE A CHEAP ASS
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Here are the various techniques and philosophies you need to know in order
to become a Cheap Ass. Follow them and you will learn the "Mochan Style of
Cheap Assedness."
Some general rules first:
1. ALWAYS attempt risky percentage actions (things that you have a chance of
failing, and which result in a bad thing if you fail) with full stamina.
Lesser stamina puts a big negative modifier on your change to succeed in
any action. You don't want to fail while trying to pick someone's pocket
or persuade someone. If necessary, drink a Fatigue Restore potion or
rest/wait a bit.
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*** Stealth is your Best Friend ***
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As a thief, naturally the first thing I wanted to understand was how to make
other's possessions into my own. There are a few things to keep in mind
regarding how theft works in this game:
1. If you're not caught, there won't be any problems.
2. You will only get caught if people see you.
3. There are many ways to not be seen while stealing.
4. So don't get caught!
5. If you do get caught, just run away and pay the Thieves' Guild to
take out the bounty. Then go back and everyone's friendly to you
again.
Pretty simple, right? Everything is pretty much straight-forward, but I
can see that you will probably need more explanation on point #3 and #5.
Okay, #3 -- how to remain unseen?
The most simple way is to power up your Stealth skill to 100, and when
you press the sneak button most people in the game will have trouble
finding you.
So how do you reaise your Stealth Skill to 100? Sounds daunting. Well,
actually it's the easiest thing, but it does take time and patience.
Here's how:
1. Find a non-violent NPC or creature.
2. Stand up to him or it or her.
3. Put a weight on your sneak key so it is depressed without you
doing anything.
4. You are now sneaking in front of the NPC/creature. Your Stealth
skill will rise as long as you are doing this.
5. Go out for a walk, sleep, get into a fistfight, spend a night in
jail, or bring out your PS2 and play Metal Gear.
6. Come back a few hours later. Your Stealth skill is now at 100.
If Stealth was one of your major or minor skills this will also give
you a bunch of level-ups! Bad part is this is not exactly the most
efficient way of distributing attribute points at level up, but you
can get around that by increasing some other skills, preferably a
misc skill, before you rest to level up (so you get a x2+ multiplier
on level up)
(NOTE: You can also use this trick on Athletics. There are many ways
to improve your skills easily, I'll discuss that later)
If you're too impatient to do that, there are some other tricks you
can use to remain unseen. One trick is to hide behind a pillar or
something when stealing. Test it out by talking to the shopkeep.
If they go, "Who's There?" and the only option is Goodbye, that means
they can't see you, and you can steal away.
Another technique is to use a Telekinesis effect to steal "from a
distance." You can couple this with hiding behind a pillar so that
you can steal most anything in the game. You can also use Telekinesis
to open chests, but you must have unlocked them already.
You can also jump on people's heads or up on shelves and walls. If you
jump and move forward while facing a beam or protrusion on the wall/ceiling,
you can usually "stick" to the wall. The point is to get off the horizontal
level of the NPC. This also makes you unseen most of the time. Or at least
it helps your sneaking chances.
I use that trick to pick open locks on chests beside a shopkeeper.
NOTE: being Invisible does *NOT* help your chances of stealing undetected
at all!!! That is because the moment you try to steal anything you
immediately become visible!!! Some people claim that it does help, most
likely they were sneaking or otherwise unseen already when they filched
the item; in other words they could have been visibile and still achieved
the same effect. Trust me, I've tested this extensively, Invisibility does
not help you remain undetected while stealing. Chameleon is a different
matter, that helps as long as it is active.
That ends the discussion on remaining unseen for stealing purposes.
Now #5 I will discuss in a new section. That's it for Stealth, though there
are other considerations I will discuss in the next part.
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*** Removing Bounties ***
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If you are a Thieves' Guild faction member, you can pay certain
thieves to remove the bounty off your head. This is better than paying the
fine because it is half-price and no one takes your stolen goods away. If
you pay a fine, it is full-price, and any stolen items in your inventory
will be removed and put into the various Evidence chests around the game.
Alternately, you can drop all your stolen items to the ground before
paying a fine, the dumb guards will not realize there's a bunch of stolen
loot at their feet, so when you talk to them all you need to do is pay the
fine and then pick up your loot after you've cleared your name.
The thieves who can get rid of bounties for you can be found at the various
thief joints over the game. In Balmora look up the South Wall and talk to
the thieves there to find out who can remove bounties. I forgot their names
so just look it up yourself. ^_^
If the bounty/thieves' guild price is too much for you to pay, you can hide
your stolen goods somewhere (you can "acquire" a house easily in this game to
do so, more on that elsewhere maybe) and go to the guard and serve your
time in labor. This will lower your skills, which can be good or bad.
If you're starting out and are trying to pump yourself up this is bad. But
hey, you were too stingy to pay up so live with it. But if you're maxed out
and can't level up anymore, this is actually a good thing because it will
allow you to accrue more level-up points.
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*** The Fine Art of Mugging ***
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The Fine Art of Stealth lets you make other's belongings your own sneakily.
The Fine Art of Mugging will teach you to do it up-front. This usually makes
lots of people pissed at you and accrues a HUGE bounty, but you will want
to do it sometimes because even the best pickpockets have trouble stealing
stuff in other people's inventories. Good news is, I've developed a system
that allows you to take EVERYTHING in someone else's inventory without
killing them, without getting them royally pissed at you, and without a
huge bounty!
To do this, remember:
1. You will only receive a bounty if someone reports you doing something bad.
2. If someone sees you doing something bad, they will attack you.
3. If someone attacks you, you can slaughter them without repercussion
provided no one else is watching. (in general)
So, what's the trick? Simple: do a minor offense in front of someone you
want to mug. Minor offenses only give you a puny bounty; failed pick-
pocketing will give you a bounty of about 20 gold I think, which is very
cheap. The best thing though is to steal a pot or plate or some other very
cheap item; you get a bounty proportional to the item's value. So steal a
plate and you get a bounty of 2 gold or something like that. But not
everyone has a convenient plate or cheapo item next to them, so the best
thing is to "try" to pickpocket them, and they will attack you. This is
better than punching them, which I think incurs a bounty of like 40 gold.
This will goad the NPCs who see you into attacking you. Here is the
complicated part. If there were multiple NPCs, killing someone will
give you a bounty of about 1000 if it is seen and reported by others.
If he is alone, then you have no problems. There are tricks to deal
with multiple people, but I'll discuss that later.
For a solo target, just goad him into attacking you as mentioned earlier.
Next, use Hand-to-Hand or a fatigue draining effect to knock him out. Here
is the crux of it!
While he is down on the floor, pick-pocket him WHILE UNSEEN. It is crucial
that you pickpocket him UNSEEN. Why? Because if you steal an item in
someone's view, they will report the crime and you will get a bounty
proportional to the value. If you steal all his items and he sees you,
you will get a LOT of bounty. You don't want that, since you are doing
this for profit. The only reason you knocked him down, is because
knocking him down allows you to pickpocket everything in his inventory,
even without a high Security score. It also ensures that you will succeed.
The only catch is to do it WHILE UNSEEN. To do this, while he is down on
the ground step back a few feet, to the farthest possible where you can
still touch him. If you have a Telekenesis effect this is even easier.
Hold the Sneak button and pickpocket. Viola! Take all his inventory. If
no crime was reported then you've managed to lift his entire inventory
without killing him, and only getting a puny bounty which you can pay off
for a penny at a thieves' guild (or at a law enforcer, using the guidelines
in "Removing Bounties" given above). If a crime was reported, it means
you were seen, so practice on that stealth skill or use the telekinesis
trick. Also, try stealing when they are knocked out flat on the floor
(not getting up), I think they will not notice it because they are dazed.
That was for solo people. How about multiple people? For two people (which
is usually how many people are in a merchant shop: the merchant, and one
guard) it is still doable, but you have to be a skilled combatant or else
the guard will chop you up. Just use Hand to Hand or Fatigue Drain to knock
the guard out, then knock the other guy up! If you're having trouble timing
it, just knock both of them down to 0 fatigue, they will get up after a
while, do it such that you only need one good punch to floor both of them.
While they are both floored, do your stuff as described above. Simple enough,
no? The hard part is being a good enough fighter to knock out a guard. You
can theoretically do this with 3 people, maybe more, but it becomes
increasingly difficult because a person will stay on the floor for only so
long. You can theoretically try to increase their down-time with a Burden
spell, if you can manage it, but I haven't tried this yet.
Note: this punch-out trick also works if you want to kill people. If a
witness is "knocked out" he cannot report your crime. This is useful in
some situations where you have to kill people in a public spot, but do
not want to get caught in the act of killing (for instance, this can
expel you from certain guilds).
Note 2: You can also use summoned creatures to do your dirty murderous
work for you!
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*** Mercantile 101 ***
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So what is the point of all this stealing? Obviously, to make yourself richer!
And you can only convert these goods to cash by selling them to merchants. So
these are the things to remember when dealing with merchants:
1. Merchants will charge you less and pay more if they like you. So always
Persuade merchants as best as you can. Bribe them if you must. But try
to get their disposition towards you to 90+ or so, this helps a lot.
2. Merchants only have limited spending money, some more than others. This
makes it harder to sell expensive items or lots of stuff to them. Most
merchants are also selective and will only buy certain kinds of items,
depending on their profession (alchemists only buy potions, reagents,
and mixing utensils for instance). But merchants will regenerate their
cash, typically in 24 hours, so if you need to sell more stuff just
sleep for 24 hours and they're as good as new.
3. If you ever steal anything from a merchant, do NOT attempt to sell or
use any item that you have stolen with that merchant, even if you got
that item from somewhere else. Merchants are *paranoid* if you have
ever stolen from them and will accuse you of stealing as long as you
are hawking any instance of the stolen item.
For instance, if you steal a grand soulgem from an enchanter, you can NEVER
sell any soulgem to that particular enchanter, or enchant any item using
any grand soulgem, regardless of where you got the soulgem.
So make sure not to sell stolen goods to the same merchant. GOOD NEWS: there
is a super-rich merchant in Caldera, in Ghorak Manor. He is named Creeper,
and he is a scamp. He has a 5000k budget and regenerates his cash in 24 hours.
He buys almost everything except for alchemist ingredients and raw materials.
Best of all, he always pays full price for any item so you never lose money
in a transaction with him.
So visit him now and help a scamp "down on his luck." :P
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*** How to make lots of Cash really quick ***
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What is the best way to make quick cash? Well, there are numerous ways, but
one of the best in my opinion is hunting down ordinators in the dark alleys
and canals of Vivec and mugging them for their armor and weapon. The
ordinator helmet alone is like 3,000 gold, their Ebony Mace is worth 12,000!
Using the "Fine Art of Mugging" above this shouldn't be a problem, and you'll
only get a minimum bounty for approximately 40,000 gold worth of equipment!
That's PER Ordinator so if you mug 2 Ordinators you get 80,000!!! And in the
streets of Vivec you can usually chance on a lone Ordinator patrolling the
walkways, or the canals. In these cases you don't even need to get sneaky,
just kill them however which way is easiest for you and you get a quick 40K
profit!
The only catch is that you have to be strong enough to kill an ordinator.
Well early in the game you don't need that much cash anyway, so you can just
go and steal from merchants as detailed above. Later, when you're stronger,
you can hunt Ordinators.
Ordinators are ideal because they are relatively easy to kill, respawn and
are unlimited, and you do not suffer any adverse effects from killing them
because they are not crucial named NPCs who have a quest bound to them.
NOTE: do not wear their armor, if you do so all the Ordinators in the game
will get royally pissed at you and attack you on sight. Which is not
necessarily bad if you want to kill them but... you get the idea.
And what do you do after you get their gear? Sell it to Creeper of course!
(see above, "Mercantile 101"). But Creeper only has 5K and I the mace is
12,000! Easy, first sell the ordinator helm (3k) and boots (2k), for 5K.
Sleep for 24 hours to let Sleeper replenish his cash.
Then sell the Mace for 12k, and buy back the helm and boots for 5k, so
you still sell 7k. Buy something else that's 2k (another pair of boots,
if you've done this before the other boots are still in Creepers inventory!).
Now you have sold the expensive mace, but got Creeper's money and now have
easier to sell items of 3k and 2k increments! Works fine doesn't it? Yes,
making money in this way DOES take some time and effort to sleep and sell/
buyback stuff from Creeper, but it is much easier than looting dungeons and
finding merchants to hawk your loot. This is definitely one of the easier
ways to make tons of cash easily.
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*** You Steal Men's Souls! ***
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Okay, enough about making money. What do you DO with all that money? Well,
for starters, you can find trainers to increase your skills and level up.
That's one worthwhile thing.
The other worthwhile thing is to use all that cash to ENCHANT items.
Enchanting is expensive, but it's like having a free, recharging, re-usable
spell in your inventory all the time! It is definitely a good investment.
Enchanting goes like this: buy/steal/acquire a soul gem, find a monster.
Cast Soultrap on the monster (this is a spell you can acquire from a mage).
Kill monster while soultrap is active. Presto, the monster's soul is sucked
into the gem!
Note though that unlike in Daggerfall, soulgems here come in 5 sizes, and
smaller sized soulgems cannot accomodate the souls of larger monsters. So
make sure your soulgem is big enough. I'd like to make a chart of all the
monster soul values and the capacity of soulgems, but it is quite hard.
Maybe one of these days. But in general:
Petty Soulgem -- holds soul values of up to 400
Lesser Soulgem -- holds soul values of up to 1,000
Common Soulgem -- holds soul values of up to 5,000
Greater Soulgem -- holds soul values of up to 30,000
Grand Soulgem -- holds any soul
A "soul value" is what I term how much the soul gem is worth when you seal
a soul in it. For instance, a rat's soul is worth 100 gold, while a Golden
Saint is worth 80,000. The soulgem capacities I gave above are more or less
how it seems to be, frankly I am not sure and if you get any data that
invaldiates it please tell me so I can fix it up. This is just from
experience, not too sure if those are the real values.
NOTE: you CANNOT steal the souls of NPCs. Except maybe for Lord Vivec.
If you try to do so the Soultrap spell will not "acquire a target."
Okay, now that you have a soulgem with a soul in it, what do you do?
Get an item from your inventory go to an enchanter (or use your enchant
skill if you have it, by dragging the soulgem into your inventory).
Select an item to enchant, select a soulgem to use to empower the
enchantment, and select an effect from your magic list. Pay up. Congrats,
you know have a new magic item!
Items have a maximum enchantment capacity, and certain effects cost
a certain capacity. Stronger effects require more enchantments. The
biggest capacity I have seen for conventional enchantable items is
120, for exquisite rings and amulets. I don't know if there are others
but please tell me if you do find something with more capacity.
You can only use effects that you know; i.e. those that are in your
spellbook. My first character is not a mage (she's a thief) but I buy
all the spells I can anyway so I can use them for enchantments.
The soulgem you use to enchant determines how many charges the item has.
Each effect on the item costs a certain number of charges to cast.
When you cast the effect, you will drain those charges. They will
recharge over time, or you can recharge them in the enchantment menu
by using a soulgem if you're in a hurry.
The effect you put on the item can be one of three types:
1. Cast when Used -- meaning you have to select it in your magic
menu and activate it manually
2. Cast when Strikes -- for weapons only, when you hit a target you
the effect instantly occurs
3. Constant Effect -- the most prized enchantment, the effect is
ALWAYS on as long as you wear the item. If it is a weapon, as
long as it is equipped as your active weapon.
You can only create Constant Effects using a Grand Soulgems with
80k souls (like the Golden Saint and the Ascended Sleeper).
Now, here is a nasty trick that lets you create Constant Effects
even with a rat's soul:
In the enchantment menu, select the item to enchant, then select
the Grand Soulgem with 80k soul. Select the effect type below,
and change it to "consant effect." Now swap out the soulgem with
any other soulgem. The Constant Effect is still there!
Now load up the effects you want and give it a name, and do it!
But you still need to abide by charge requirements; if the effect
takes 100 charges you will still need to use a 100 charge soul.
NOTE: You can also enchant things yourself if you're not rich
enough, provided you have the enchant skill. Most people overlook
this strangely enough; just drag a soul gem to your character
portrait and it will bring up the enchant dialogue.
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*** Fashionable Enchantments ***
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now that you know how to enchant, what to enchant? Well, clothes are an
excellent thing to enchant. Why? Because they are cheap, light, you can
wear them under (or over) armor, and they have very high enchantment
capacities (half their value). Weapons and armor tend to have very poor
enchantment capacities.
So enchant a ring or a pair of boots today and feel the difference!
QUICK TIP: you will definitely appreciate the ability to levitate; in fact
it is crucial for certain quests. Assuming you know a friendly enchanter who
has 100 friendship with you and you are part of their guild, you can enchant
an item (I prefer a pair of cheap boots) with a Magnitude 1, 6 Second duration
Levitate. Why do this instead of a constant effect or a 2 minute duration or
whatever? Well, here're my reasons:
1. It's dirt cheap. Only about 600 septims, for a VERY useful magic item
like this that's a steal.
2. It wears off quickly. Having a 2 minute levitate is annoying; you have to
wait for it to wear off. Unless you enchanted a very high velocity
levitate, you'll be moving very slow. And you can't jump. It is very
awkward to be moving about flying, though you can get used to it. But
you cannot JUMP, if you think jumping is useless when you can fly,
think again. Jumping is FASTER, faster than running actually, especially
if you have a high acrobatics skill (which is easy to achieve). It is
very useful to jump to evade enemy attacks, and if you're levitating you
do not have the agility and speed needed to do that.
3. This kind of cheapo enchantment only takes 1 charge point to activate.
And 1 chargepoint takes what? 6, 7 seconds to recharge? Especially if
you have a high Enchant skill. But even with a low enchant skill (I
only had 5 at the start) it will recharge quickly enough. And you won't
be needing to use this thing for more than 10 seconds, probably. So
even if you enchant it with only a rat's soul (10 charges) you have more
than enough time to levitate to whatever point you need to get to.
In other words, you have all the levitate time you could ever need for
this game. Unless you want to fly like a bird all the time. Not really
recommended though, since this game does not have a "rise up" or "float
down" key like in Ultima Underworld, which means that flying is NOT very
agile in this game, you have to look wherever you want to go. Not very
easy to control.
Well, it's your choice, but that's my recommendation. Try to get those boots
as soon as you can, they are very useful (they double as a featherfall spell),
are very easy and inexpensive to make, and are actually crucial in certain
points of the game.
Other useful items to make would be:
* a 30 capacity item that can do a 100 magnitude Open spell (to open ANY lock
in the game). Cost is about 20K though.
* a telekenesis item that allows you to steal items at a distance, as per
the instructions under the section "Stealth is your Best Friend."
* items that cure poison, paralysis, dispel, disease, recall, etc. -- so you
don't have to carry all those potions and scrolls. Rings are a good choice;
they weigh .1 pounds each and have high enchantment capacities.
* Constant Effect fatigue and health items (these can be quite expensive).
The strongest constant health regenerating effect you can make is 4-5 points
though that is good enough for game purposes. A constant fatigue restore of
around 5 points is generally enough to forever abolish the need to rest and
catch your breath.
* Constant Waterbreathing effect item, for those who like swimming in the sea
* Constant Nighteye (or Light) effect, for those who like crawling in dark
places. (think of the constant Night Eye effect as "Night Vision Goggles")
* a weapon enchanted with Soul Trap so you have no trouble casting soultrap
on enemies.
And so on and so forth.
NOTE: I cannot figure out how to enchant bows with "Cast on Strike." Can
anyone confirm whether this is possible? And is it at all possible to enchant
arrows? If anyone knows, please tell me!
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*** Demon Arms ***
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here's another way to power yourself up and be armed to the teeth, without
any encumbrance penalty! Are you familiar with the spell "Bound Longsword?"
This is a spell that summons a daedric longsword for your personal use for
the duration of the spell. It is a mighty weapon, and it even fortifies
your Long Blade Skill. And it weighs absolutely nothing!
Catch is, as I mentioned, the sword disappears after the duration. Or does
it? Try dropping the summoned sword and then wait for the duration. Viola!
The sword is still there!! Now what? Well, now you have a permanent
Daedric longsword that weighs absolutely nothing, costs only 1 septim to
repair no matter how broken it is, and is a kick-ass weapon to boot!
And you can pick it up very early in the game! If you're not a spellcaster,
you can go to Ravirr in Balmora (he's a khajiit general merchant) who sells
these stuff. He does sell a rather expensive Fiend Katana which summons
the Long Sword, but if you follow my advice in "Stealth is your Best Friend"
you know that it is very easy to "acquire" the katana from him without
paying the 9000gp price tag.
End result? Free Daedric Katana! Enjoy slaughter Ordinators now.
**** THIS TRICK DOES NOT WORK WITH THE X-BOX VERSION ****
--- so don't ask or I'll give you the Stealth Virus ---
NOTE: you can also use the same trick with all the bound items, including
Bound Cuirass, Bound Boots, Bound Helm, etc. You can be fully armed to the
teeth!
By the way, on dropping summoned items: you cannot drop them while wearing
the item, so unequip it first. Also, if you pick it up and the menu is
still open, you cannot drop it immediately so close the menu first before
trying to drop it again. Just experiment with how to drop it, you'll get
it eventually.
And no, it is not a good idea to sell these items because they only cost
1 gold. :P
NOTE 2: There is another bug to exploit here, similar to the "God Speed
(Shinsoku)" section below. That is, you can retain the permanent skill
fortification and you can accumulate it! Imagine a Long Blade skill of
1,000. BROKEN!!!
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*** The Saint's Cloth ***
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is one of the ultimate fashion enchantments. Beware though, it will take
you over 400,000 gold (!!!) to make. Not counting the raw materials like
the soul gems and the clothes.
How does it work? Amass all that gold with the tricks I mentioned above. Use
it to imbue the following with a Constant Sanctuary Effect, as much as each
item will hold. It will come out like this:
Ring 1: Sanctuary 24
Ring 2: Sanctuary 24
Exquisite Shirt: Sanctuary 12
Exquisite Pants: Sanctuary 12
Exquisite Skirt: Sanctuary 12
Extravagant L Glove: Sanctuary 4
Extravagant R Glove: Sanctuary 4
Exquisite Belt: Sanctuary 8
Grand Total: 100 *CONSTANT* Sanctuary.
And what does Sanctuary do, you ask? Each point of Sanctuary is a percentage
chance to dodge attacks. So what happens when you have 100 Sanctuary? Yes,
you guessed it, you won't get hit by attacks! And since it is CONSTANT, it
is ALWAYS in effect while you are wearing the above items, meaning you will
NEVER get hit by a physical attack again!
Believe me it is worth it, though it is entirely BROKEN and makes the game
such a cakewalk. Oh sure, you still get hit by spells, but you know what?
The whole suit is under 10 pounds, meaning you can move VERY FAST. Spells
need to TARGET an opponent. If you move very fast, you can DODGE the spell
without any problems! But I get tired!
Well, easily remedied. Make a pair of shoes or some other item (a robe will
do, but it looks ugly) and enchant it with a Constant Fatigue Restore effect.
That way you will never get tired, so you can run and jump around all you
want! Makes it VERY easy to dodge spells, especially if you're a thief like
me who has high speed, athletics and acrobatics.
My first character had Akaviri Danger sense (The Thief Sign ability) so I
didn't need the belt to make 100 sanctuary.
I also wear an amulet that has a constant 4 HP regeneration ability. If
someone does hit me, I regenerate it in a matter of seconds, assuming
they don't kill me outright. If necessary I can just run around waiting
for my health to come back. And I never get tired since I have a belt
that regenerates 8 fatigue constantly. Excellent setup, no?
I also enchant various rings with healing effects like cure paralysis,
dispel, cure poison, etc. so that if I do get into trouble I can always
cure it that way. Also have a restore attribute item so that if I get
cursed I can just restore my attributes (getting cursed to 0 strenght
is NOT fun, you can't move at all).
I will tell you, a set of clothing enchanted in this way (I call it
the "Saint's Cloth" though of course you can call it whatever you want)
is so damn cheesy that I actually hid it away in a dark corner of my
house and sealed it there so I don't use them unless I absolutely
must (if I find an opponent so powerful that I must use them to win).
Thus far though I haven't found such a powerful opponent yet (I was
able to kill Lord Vivec easily enough, see the section later on).
Believe me, with this set of clothes the game is so easy (easier than it
already is) that it just spoils the game. How fun is it to just stand
there while opponents futilely try to hack you to pieces? Well, you be
the judge of that, but I didn't find it too amusing so I hid the clothes
in a closet until I really need them. ^_^
NOTE: You can also use this "stacking" trick with Chameleon, and most
any other effect. Imagine yourself ALWAYS invisible. That's even cheaper
than cannot be hit, because you are never attacked at all! And you have
to take off an item to even talk to NPCs. Talk about Broken! Or how
about a stack of HP Restore effects? Imagine regenerating 28 Hit Points
every second? BROKEN!!!!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*** Skill Powerups ***
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What are the easier ways to power up your skills? Aside from trainers, which
cost cash and only level you up to a certain point, there are many techniques
which you can use (or abuse) to power up your skills. To give you ideas:
* Stealth -- described in the section "Stealth is your Best Friend" above.
* Athelitcs -- same as stealth, but do it in a pond because swimming seems
to increase your athletics faster than running. Be careful not to drown.
* Magic disciplines -- make a 1 mana point cost cantrip of the school you
want to increase. Any effect will do, just make sure it only takes 1 mana
to cast. Stand by a bed or something, keep casting until the cantrip
until you run out of mana. Sleep. Wash, rinse, repeat. Each time you
cast the cantrip you'll gain some skill experience. Fastest way to level
up a magical discipline, apparently.
* Armor disciplines -- find a rat, wear your armor (or unarmored) and stand
there for a long time. Let the rat hit you all it wants. Each hit powers
ups your armor skill. Excellent! You can also do this with a shield. Make
sure you don't die. If you have Constant Effect Health Restore item you
can leave the rat alone and it will probably never kill you.
* Weapon disciplines -- sadly, no easy trick here. Practice is all it is.
Just whack all the enemies you see. If it's unarmed skill, it's easier,
and you can do it in town using the "Removing Bribes" trick to turn
townsfolk into punching bags.
* Acrobatics -- just jump around all the time.
The other skills I haven't really formulated good ways to increase them,
so get creative. Use the techniques above as guidelines. You can do it!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* God Strength and Endurance
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Do you want Godlike strength and endurance? This is yet another way to
break your game! Warning, some SPOILERS ahead.
>>>>>> SPOILER SPACE <<<<<<<
>>>>>> SPOILER SPACE <<<<<<<
>>>>>> SPOILER SPACE <<<<<<<
>>>>>> SPOILER SPACE <<<<<<<
>>>>>> SPOILER SPACE <<<<<<<
>>>>>> SPOILER SPACE <<<<<<<
>>>>>> SPOILER SPACE <<<<<<<
>>>>>> SPOILER SPACE <<<<<<<
>>>>>> SPOILER SPACE <<<<<<<
Okay, later in the game you WILL acquire Corprus Disease. When this happens,
you will periodically lose Intelligence, Willpower, and Personality while
gaining Strength and Endurance. I don't know what happens when your
attributes hit 0, maybe you go crazy or something, but your Strength and
Endurance WILL go up. How to abuse this? Simple.
Make an item or spell or potion something to cure your ailing attributes.
So gain them back while letting your strenght and endurance go through
the roof. I have no idea up to what level you can get your strength and
endurance up to, but I'm thinking you can go at least up to 255. I do
not know for sure. But that is MORE than enough!
Do this BEFORE you take the potion that cures you of Corprus (you will
get it eventually if you follow the main quest). When you take the potion,
your disabilities will disappear, but your ill-gotten strength and
endurance will not!!! Now go punch someone out with one hit. :P
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* God Speed (Shinsoku)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here's yet another broken trick. Boots of Blinding Speed? Feh! Go to a
mage guild and learn the spell "Bound Boots." This spell summons a pair
of Daedric Boots which have the effect "Fortify Speed +10" for the
duration of the spell. How to abuse this?
Ask a spellmaker at the mage guild to make a Bound Boots spell for you
with 0 duration. Now cast the spell. You will not receive bound boots
because the duration is zero, they will disappear instantly. BUT,
because they disappear instantly, apparently the program does not check
to remove the effect. So guess what? You now have a permanent +10 speed
increase! And you can do this as much as you want! So enjoy.
NOTE: This works with other Bound Stuff
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*** How to Kill Lord Vivec ***
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lord Vivec, one of the big bad "bosses" of this game. You can find him in
Vivec, Temple District, in his big palace with a 100 strength lock on the
door. I heard how tough he was, I wanted to kill him and get his soul, but
unfortunately if you kill him early in time you will no longer be able to
finish the game, so I had to reload after I whacked him.
Vivec isn't so tough, actually he's quite easy if you know what you're
doing. These are the only things to keep in mind when fighting Vivec:
1. He has a kick-ass fire spell which does massive damage and drains you
life afterwards. AVOID AT ALL COSTS. If you do get hit, use Dispel
to cancel the damage.
2. He moves FAST.
3. His only attack is hand-to-hand.
4. He only has enough mana to cast two of his fire spells.
So what's so tough about him? People talk about this dork in fear, but
actually he's a pushover. As long as you can jump and move faster than he
can run, he'll never kill you in melee. He doesn't do damage with his
attacks, he only hits your fatigue. Of course if you fall down he WILL
damage you!
As you can see, the only thing you really have to fear from Vivec is his
firespell. But if you can move fast enough to avoid them, no problem.
Make him waste his magic, dodge them (no problem if you move really fast)
and he's down to his fists, making him really weak.
His fists are strong though, and he can knock me down even with my
Constant Fatigue Restore items. But just avoid him and he's pathetic.
Tip: don't wear armor. You want to move as fast as you can, and without
armor you can move very fast. If you have a high athletics and acrobatics
(shouldn't be a problem if you follow my advice in "Skill Powerups" --
and you won't need 100 athletics, I beat him with 51 athletics and 92
acrobatics) and are unencumbered you can match his speed easily, making
it easy to avoid all his attacks.
Just bring a good melee weapon and some Fatigue restoring effects, so
you don't get tired from running, because it will take a LONG time to
kill Vivec, he has much health under his skin.
Try to backstab him with a powerful melee weapon at first. He will then
respond by casting his spells at you. Dodge. Vivec runs out of mana.
Kaput. He will then try to beat you up with his fists. Run around and
keep whacking him, if you have a constant effect fatigue restore run
away when your fatigue goes low from his blows. If not, run away and
use your fatigue restoring items/spells. Then have at it again.
When you chip him down to approximately half his life, he will stop
attacking and start running away. Pathetic! This is actually harder
than beating him up because the bastard runs away so fast it's hard
to catch him. But you will catch him so don't worry, just keep
whacking him silly. Soon he will die. It is a happy day!
If you do this early in the game you will render the game unfinishable
because apparently Vivec is essential to the plot at some point. So
don't do it. I did, I reloaded. :P
I think later on you can kill him without repercussions (haven't
confirmed this yet, I haven't played that far yet). When you do, be sure
to whack him with a soultrap and bring along a Grand Soulgem so you can
have his soul, hahhahahaha.
===============================================================================
AFTERWORD
===============================================================================
Well, that's it for now, did this FAQ for fun, do what you will with it.
I hope someone writes a more in-depth work features lots of things like
item tables, monster lists, etc. I certainly am too lazy to do so. I
may or may not update this FAQ, who knows. But there is enough info in
this text to get you newbies up and running and kicking ass in no time.
So use it well. Use what you consider "useful" and "keeping within the
flavor and fun of the game." Using ultra-broken methods, though they
are not "cheating," can make the game less enjoyable. Believe me. So
remember in Uncle Ben's immortal words, "With Great Power comes Great
Responsibility."
Have a nice day.
===============================================================================
LEGALESE
===============================================================================
This document is not copyrighted by me, Mochan, on May 18, 2002.
I did not go to a patent office, I did not register this with any
publishing company, I did not do anything to copyright this FAQ
at all. So you can be cheap and rip me off.
*** BUT ***
If you do I will send a Stealth Virus to infect your computer (because
I am a Cheap Ass, I *know* when you rip me off) and this Stealth Virus
will stay in your computer without your knowledge, destroying your life,
but you will never know because it is a Stealth Virus. You can go on
with your life as if nothing happened, you will not know anything
about the Stealth Virus until it is too late. The virus is so advanced
it will cause all sorts of things in your life to go haywire. That
girl you were courting turns you down? Stealth virus. Lost your job?
It wasn't the recession, it was the Stealth Virus. Failed your last
midterms? That's because the Stealth Virus played low frequency
sounds from the PC speakers while you were asleep, causing a fitful
sleep that did not prepare you to undertake the next day. Trouble
with the Missus? The Stealth Virus has been sending all sorts of
profane e-mails from you to her best friends, and they've been
talking about your obscene behavior during their tea-time get togehters.
There is no anti-virus for my super advanced Stealth Virus. The only
way to get rid of it is to trash your PC. You must trash the PC, because
if you don't it will be back. If you sell it to a friend the virus will
dial-up from the friend's house to find your computer again and infect it.
It infects the BIOS as well, so if you change your harddisk it won't help.
This is an evil virus, designed by me to give you heaven's punishment
for being a Cheap Ass rip-off. If by some divine intervention you do manage
to get rid of the Stealth Virus, your confidence will still have been
shattered by the devastating effects of the virus, crippling you for life
and impairing your efficiency and esteem.
So plagiarist beware.
