I like Skyrim, will I like the others?

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The problem with magic in Morrowind isn't that it's weak, so much as there's no point using actual magic. Enchanted items and alchemy can accomplish everything magic does far, far quicker & easier. Casting a spell from an enchanted ring will work 100% of the time, and unlike your magicka pool, enchanted items recharge over time. Alchemy may take a few attempts to brew a potion, but drinking them in combat always works and can be done from the inventory screen without leaving you vulnerable. The only down side versus "proper" magic is the extra carry weight of items & potions you're hauling along... well, until you neck a few fortify strength potions. One of the key flaws in Morrowind was its magic system; Oblivion's spells may have been poorly balanced, but they were, at least, relevant. Skyrim does well versus its predecessors' in the regard that its system may still not be balanced right, but it's not totally broken out of the box.

 

Rubbish. There is nothing wrong with magic in Morrowind. I find it better working then in the succesors and at least it is balanced and has relevance. In Skyrim magic is even dumbed down and they have taken the school of mysticism out of it.
Magic isn't broken in Morrowind. Well ok, the enchant skill is. Enchanting things on your own in Morrowind doesn't work properly, as even if you have 100 in both intelligence and enchant it is still no guarantee that you make a succesfull enchanted item, especially with a constant effect. Then better seek out an enchanter and pay the high price. But the rest of the schools work. Destruction, conjuration, mysticism, restoration and so on. You only have to take time to develop it and that could be a long way. Yes, you can brew potions and use enchanted items. But it doesn't replace the use of magic. Your magicka pool does regenerate, except if you have chosen the atronach birthsign. But for that is also a solution; just cast an ancestral ghost, hit it 3 times and then let it attack you. The ghost will cast spells on you, which result in replenishing your magicka pool. Other option is offcourse to drink restore magicka potions. By the way, your magicka pool regenerates faster then an enchanted item. And as for the use of enchanted items: this is also the case in the other elder scrolls games. In Oblivion things are made even more easier and soulgems have no use there since you can just use a sigil stone for enchanting. Transmuted sigil stones gives the best enchanting results, making soulgems completely worthless. Soulgems in Morrowind have at least use. Morrowind has it's flaws by default and some things could be done better, but at least Morrowind is more balanced and things work properly overall. In Oblivion and Skyrim you can clearly see that things are dumbed down and the games are made easier for the casual player/console player.

 

Firstly, let me clarify that Morrowind is definitely my favourite of all TES games. But that will never stop me calling it out on the bits of it that are either broken, poorly designed or Just Not Fun. Which is why I use mods, just not as many as I have to add to Oblivion or Skyrim.

Exactly. OK, Enchanting is ridiculously OP in Skyrim too, but at least it doesn't manage to sub for every single magic skill. Both games need significant tinkering to their magic systems to make them work. But put Enchant as a major skill in Morrowind, farm enough cash, and you can use those other 9 skills to do everything else. Granted, Tradeskills in Skyrim throw everything off kilter (and enough has been said on this matter by Sir Rechet, methinks ), but the fact you can be a more effective mage using Enchant than by being an actual mage should have been obvious to everybody at Beth from the off, and immediately beaten down with the nerf stick. Or magic made to function better. Nerfing Enchanting needed to happen, it's just that Oblivion went too far.

Not unless you use mods, or rest. Which isn't always an option. Potions are usually the best bet, but as you say, then you may as well go Atronach. In fact, there aren't any compelling reasons to choose any other Birthsign, tbh.

 

Back when this thread was originally posted, I bought Morrowind and Oblivion on Steam. Unfortunately, I seem to have a bugged version of Morrowind and I cannot save (the option is MISSING from the main menu, and Quicksave doesn't work either, nor were there any autosaves). I found ONE other person online with this issue, and no one had any advice (though there were several people who just didn't know how to access the main menu). I tried uninstalling the game and reinstalling it, but it still had the same problem. Obviously I need to talk to Steam or Bethesda about this, but it was very frustrating. Now that it's summer for me (teacher), I have more time to address this kind of issue.

 

^ Weird. I've seen plenty of bugs in Morrowind, but never had it stop me saving (except for during the character creation, of course). Have you tried patches / unofficial fixes (e.g. Baldurdash, the Morrowind Code Patch)?

 

Not yet, no. I hadn't thought of that actually, so I'll look some of those up. Hopefully it will help! Thanks for the advice.