The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
Author's Foreword
Creating Your Character (An Overview)
The Skills
The Races
The Signs
Controls
Magic & Combat
Crime & Punishment
Goods & Services
Coming Soon
Version History, Credits, & Contact Information
Morag Tong Guild
Power Leveling Skills
The Apprentice
Abilities:
Elfborn (Fortify maximum magicka 1.5x intelligence 50% weakness to magicka)
If the 0.5 magicka bonus granted by The Mage just isn't enough for you, you can opt for the 1.5 version from The Apprentice, instead. The price you pay with this sign, however, is a 50% weakness to magicka. This is a sign geared towards mages, which should be a pretty big hint for you to invest in some serious spell absorption magic as early in the game as you can possibly afford it. And as if it even needed to be said, High Elves, who already boast a 50% weakness to magicka, are additionally cautioned against choosing this sign, as the effects of the two penalties are indeed cumulative.
The Atronach
Abilities:
Womburn (Fortify maximum magicka 2.0x intelligence, spell absorption 50 points, stunted magicka)
A favorite sign of many Morrowind veterans, The Atronach is possibly the sign with the largest and most significant impact on any character. While the 2.0 magicka bonus may seem nice at first, the true draw of this sign is the defensive bonus offered by a constant 50-point spell absorption effect. The Atronach transcends a mere love of the spell by basing your entire character around it. Since spell absorption is the only way for a character under this sign to regain any magicka, it becomes a lot harder to keep a desirable amount on hand, even with the hefty magicka bonus. It is worthy of note, however, that blessings from temple altars are candidates for absorption, meaning that there is a safe, combat-free method of recharging your magical batteries.
The Lady
Abilities:
Lady's Grace (Fortify personality 25 points)
Lady's Favor (Fortify endurance 25 points)
Two 25-point stat boosts to endurance and personality are what you get with The Lady. Of all the stat-boosting signs to choose, The Lady is one of the better ones, if not solely for the fact that you get double the bang for your buck. The only drawback suffered by this sign is pretty much the same one as all the other birthsigns whose main function is to boost a stat: it's really only useful early in the game, before you have a chance to really boost your stats. If you read section I.A. of the FAQ carefully, you might have some idea as to just how easy it is to max your stats out rather early on in the game, in which case signs like The Lady tend to be of limited use.
The Lord
Abilities:
Trollkin (100% weakness to fire Powers)
Powers:
Blood of the North (Restore health 2 points for 30 seconds on self)
This sign grants a character crippling weakness to fire in return for an extremely weak healing power that is very easily matched or beaten by other healing spells or potions as early in the game as, well, immediately. As much as I attempt to remain unbiased in my quest to bring the masses only the best of in-game strategy, there occasionally surfaces a device which I could not in good faith recommend in any situation. The Lord is one of them.
The Lover
Abilities:
Mooncalf (Fortify agility 25 points Powers)
Powers:
Lover's Kiss (Paralyze for 60 seconds on touch, drain fatigue 200 points on self)
A 25-point agility bonus with a side of uber-powerful paralyzation power is The Lover. Lover's Kiss, the aforementioned paralyzation spell, is of limited use due to the fact that it can only be used once per day (the fatigue drain isn't helping its case too much either, but a decent potion shouldn't have any difficulty counteracting it). The agility bonus remains useful as long as you have yet to max out all of your stats. The Thief and The Warrior each do about half the work of this sign (with a bonus to evasion and a bonus to accuracy, respectively), but since neither of them actually boost a stat and therefore cannot be invalidated over time, both are more useful over the long haul.
The Mage
Abilities:
Fay (Fortify maximum magicka 0.5x intelligence)
A simple 0.5 magicka bonus is what is offered by The Mage. Extra magicka reserves are always nice to have (and damn near mandatory if you want to make use of many of the game's more powerful spell effects), and your options to boost them are somewhat limited, especially if signs like The Apprentice and The Attronach, or races like the High Elves or Breton do not appeal to you. Aside from playing as a Breton, The Mage is the only method of fortifying your magicka that will not result in any negative effects.
The Ritual
Powers:
Mara's Gift (Restore health 100 points on self Spells)
Spells:
Blessed Word (10) (Turn undead 100 points for 30 seconds on target)
Blessed Touch (5) (Turn undead 100 points for 30 seconds on touch)
The Ritual offers not one, but two different turn undead spells, and a very potent healing power called Mara's Gift which restores 100 health per use. For those that didn't already know, Turn Undead spells are probably some of the easiest, if not the easiest spells in the game to come by and use, meaning that the only real thing that sets The Ritual apart from all of the other signs is a once-per-day healing spell which is about as useful as your lack of ability or incentive to find any better. It's still better than The Lord, though.
The Serpent
Spells:
Star-Curse (5) (Poison damage 3 points for 30 seconds on touch, poison damage 1 point for 30 seconds on self)
A lot of people don't like this sign, and I can see why. Not too many folks are very keen on a spell that poisons an enemy at the notable expense of poisoning themselves. For better or worse, the damage is dealt slowly over the course of 30 seconds, allowing both parties involved ample time to do whatever it is they need to do. If you can either quickly heal, neutralize your poison, or just be tough enough to take the damage, what you are left with is a quite powerful and reliable spell that will eat away at your enemy while you're busy tending to yourself. Of course, it would have been infinitely more useful if you didn't have to get up close and personal to use it.
The Shadow
Powers:
Moonshadow (Invisibility for 60 seconds on self)
If you didn't know the subtle difference between the invisibility spell effect and the chameleon spell effect before choosing this sign, odds are that you'll find out pretty quickly. While invisibility does render you completely undetectable to anyone else, it will last only as long as you don't try to do anything that being invisible might make easier, like stealing something or... what else do thieves do, anyways? Invisibility makes sneaking past things you'd rather not fight or sneaking up on something to deliver a critical blow a great deal easier, but only being able to use a relatively cheap spell effect (albeit at a high magnitude) once per day is a major setback to this sign.
The Steed
Abilities:
Charioteer (Fortify speed 25 points)
Quite often, when people play Morrowind for the first time, one of the most difficult things for them to get used to is the actual somewhat realistic speed (read: extremely slow) at which their character moves. This often will prompt them to choose The Steed as a birthsign, in hopes that the 25-point speed bonus will do something to light a fire under their character's ass. This decision is usually followed by subsequent bitching that it and even choosing Athletics as a major skill isn't helping much. My frank advice to anyone considering this sign is to learn to live with being a slowass and to choose a sign that will actually convey a useful benefit to them.
The Thief
Abilities:
Akaviri Danger-Sense (Sanctuary 10 points)
The Thief grants extra evasiveness in the form of a constant 10-point Sanctuary spell. While Sanctuary is somewhat of an easy spell to locate and cast, at least in the 10-point range, having a constant effect version of the spell is still far more useful. It's also more useful in the respect that it is cumulative with other Sanctuary effects you might pick up throughout the game, meaning that The Thief is one of the few birthsigns that can remain useful even late into the game.
The Tower
Powers:
Tower Key (Open 50 points on touch)
Spells:
Beggar's Nose (5) (Detect enchantment 200 feet for 60 seconds on self, detect animal 200 feet for 60 seconds on self, detect key 200 feet for 60 seconds on self)
Like so many other birthsigns, The Tower is only as useful as your inability to hunt down and duplicate its effects at some point during the game. Quite unfortunately for it, a 50-point unlock spell is available as early as Balmora, and is not limited to one casting per day (unless your character is just ungodly stupid, I guess). The other spell offered by this sign, Beggar's Nose, is really all this sign has going for it. Yes, it is actually a very good detection spell- far better than anything you could whip up during the game. But the question you've got to ask yourself is whether that spell is worth choosing The Tower as your sign over. I didn't think so, either.
The Warrior
Abilities:
Warwyrd (Fortify attack 10 points)
The only real problem with this sign is that attack is a hidden stat. Ergo, there is no real way to determine exactly how substantial a 10-point bonus to it would be. Additional accuracy is always nice, especially in the early game when you should find it to be significantly lacking. The sign can remain useful throughout the game based entirely on the fact that it is not known if it is actually possible to max out the stat, but at higher levels of weapon skill(s) and agility, the risk of failing to connect with an attack is infitesimal at best.
Last Update: December 31, 2005
Contributors: BTB
