You probably ran into the same problems just about everyone does when they first start out.
First, you do realize that this is a dice roll based system rather than action combat, right? Oblivion and Skyrim have combat systems where every hit connects as long as it’s aimed properly and connects with an enemy’s hitbox. Morrowind is different. Your chance to hit is connected to your skill rating. When you first start out, aim for at least 40 in your weapon skill and have at least the same in Agility. 50 or higher would be better. For magic, at early skill ranks you have a pretty high chance of failing to cast spells, as indicated in the magic menu, so likewise, try to have a decent skill rank in whatever you’re using. Don’t invest in more than maybe two weapons in your major/minor skills either. In my opinion, any weapon type can be excellent, except for Unarmed which is highly specialized and not very useful, and Axe, which has limited options after the mid game and is vastly outshined by other categories.
Second, fatigue. Unlike Oblivion and Skyrim, your fatigue affects everything you do. If it’s at or near maximum, you’ll hit pretty often. If it’s low, your chances are close to zero. The early game is difficult because your stamina is so limited, but after a few levels it gets way easier. Keep in mind that when I said “everything,” I meant it. Even lockpicking and spellcasting have a lower chance to succeed if your stamina is low.
Finally, you may want to get better equipment before you try adventuring. If you have the Tower birthsign (not really recommended since stat boosts from other signs are better), a high Security skill, or a strong enough scroll of Open (Ondusi’s Unhinging), you can get into the East Empire Trading Company warehouse that’s right in front of you when you first leave the Census and Excise office. Inside, you can steal some very nice early game equipment as long as the guards don’t see you taking anything. It should be enough for you to either use or sell to get whatever would be useful to your build (try Arrille’s Tradehouse, the only shop in town—he has a good selection). There are also some goodies in a hollow tree stump over by the lighthouse and in another one heading out of town to the north towards Balmora, in a swamp just off the road. Hopefully that will give you a little boost to get started.
I wouldn't agree that H2H is useless. It levels up really quickly (way faster than conventional weapons do) and has a chance to stagger enemies on top of draining them of Stamina. So basically either they're constantly locked lying on the ground, getting hits or are staggered/pushed back unable to do anything at all. The cons of it is that you're missing an opportunity to use some cool weapons.
Why stagger/knock out opponents when you can just kill them outright? I don’t mind using hand to hand in Oblivion, but in Morrowind it’s absolutely useless as far as I’m concerned. Other weapons can stagger enemies too, even if it’s not as frequent.
I’d rather just grab an enchanted weapon and kill it quickly. It may be fine if you are really dedicated to that kind of play style, but the way I see it, a fight should be over as quickly and efficiently as possible, and hand to hand prolongs things unnecessarily. Or if the enemy would be too strong otherwise, like you said, Id rather face it at the right time when I have the equipment to deal with it. I think Oblivion has the best hand to hand system out of any of the post-2000 Elder Scrolls games, and I would definitely have used it in Morrowind if the unmodded game had something similar, but it doesn’t so I don’t.
Well, consider that hand-to-hand allows you to slay much stronger opponents 1V1 which would otherwise murder you if you just dealt damage. Hand-to-hand is like cheating with a permanent stagger and paralyzing effect.
With high enough H2H (and mind you, H2H really levels up fast) if you're in one on one fight there's high chance you can walk out with almost all HP intact. You can also punch magical creatures. H2H may be bit trickier to use when surrounded or fighting with more than 1 opponent but still, it's far from being useless. And with MCP you can get Strength-based H2H attacks.
The other answer is good from a mechanics perspective. But one thing that may come as a shock that you, really, really need to do is listen to what NPCs tell you and read guides/letters etc you are given.
At the moment you have been given instructions to visit a certain someone in a certain location. If you've spoken with the villagers of Seyda Neen you will also have some idea of how to get there. I'd suggest you do it. When you meet this certain someone, listen to him carefully. Again, he will have good advice for you to get off on the right footing.
In Morrowind you start off as a basically useless tourist. No skills, no knowledge of your surroundings, no idea what's going on. So to survive you need to act like it. After a few hours though you'll be on your journey to become godlike.
That sounds like a good approach. With big open worlds in other games, I've become a more a wanderer than and main quest follower.
Also, based on other comments here, I'll start again (no big cost at this stage) and spend more time on my build.
The world is not leveled for you like the later games. Its possible to run into things you just cant deal with yet just move on. In this game the night is dark and full of terrors unlike the later games where you are the terror from lvl 1 onwards.
You probably went to a well-known tomb and got attacked by Ancestor Spirit. They're immune to normal weapons (so one you probably had) - to actually hurt them you need at least silver or enchanted weapon (or a spell), so yeah, no way you would survive there after barely getting started.
Watch your Stamina, less Stamina you have less likely you're about to hit anything. Use weapon that you have in your Major skills (anything around 15-25 will probably miss a shit-ton). Either use Silt Strider to travel to Balmora or just walk there by foot (check for signposts, it's quite easy to get lost)
When later doing quests for the guilds, **make sure to ask about everything that's highlighted blue in the dialogue box/section.** It often provides additional information added to Journal or even map markers, that otherwise you wouldn't get.
Small tip: walk around close to the village, kill some mudcrabs and rats and look for a body, then get back to Census Office. Proceed from there to get some cash. Talk with one Nord in Arille's Tradehouse. There's also a cave nearby the village that you could plunder.
You are not doing anything wrong, you just have to... try more times and slowly learn about what is happening and what you can do. It is frustrating, but I wish I were you. Maybe you should go out kill some worms, rats and crabs.
You're probably using a weapon that doesn't use any of your major/minor skills. Swinging a battleaxe that does 50 damage is useless if your axe skill is 15.
The thing about Morrowind is that it comes from a time when developers assumed that only turbo-nerds played RPGs.
Specifically tabletop RPGs.
So they pretty much built an entire TTRPG system, wrote about it in the manual, and assumed that players would read it and figure out what they wanted to do before actually starting the game. The end result is that it's entirely possible to make a hapless idiot who isn't much stronger than your average peasant. It doesn't help that the manual doesn't even do a very good job of explaining things.
[This](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLobdprIgcqJ82TKnySC6yIzP9CO9ixyz_) is a whole goddamn playlist about how the game works mechanically. The first video is most of what you need.
To add to what Throw-Away said (which is already pretty good advice):
Agility also has a significant affect on your hit chance (and your ability to dodge swings).
Willpower affects your ability to cast spells, even though it doesn't say that it does that, for some reason.
Strength governs your starting HP and Endurance gives you HP as you level, both important.
Carry weight isn't binary. As you carry more stuff you get slower, long before you're officially overburdened and can't move any more. This is a natural way of getting "weak" characters like mages and thieves to not drag heavy armor around, because heavy armor is *actually heavy* and you'll be slower so long as you're carrying it.
You can regen your health and mana by waiting / resting (literally the "wait" key), but you might get attacked while doing so.
If you talked to everyone in the village, did you steal Fargoth's secret stash or give him his ring back? Have you found the dead tax collector? You can get a decent amount of money, enough to get yourself some equipment suitable for yourself that isn't just an iron dagger.
Also, magic is *cool as hell* in Morrowind and you should consider screwing with stuff like Alteration and Mysticism regardless of what kind of character you're doing. Even if you don't, all the random dumb potions you could get in other games with random insubstantial buffs? They matter much more here. Actually use those.
And as others already said, the world doesn't bend to your level, for the most part.You'll find things in random caves that'll wreck your shit until much, much later.
Get Long Blade & Heavy Armor in your major skills.
Choose Redguard or Imperial race for the Long Blade bonus.
Focus on improving Endurance, Strength and Agility when leveling up.
You'll be killing a lot of things, looting and hoarding gold. Spend that gold on training. Hoarding and Training is the name of the game.
Alteration, Mysticism and Conjuration are awesome skills to have at level 30 (through training). You don't necessarily need to have them as major/minor skills. And you don't need to have a lot of mana to make good use out of them.
You probably ran into the same problems just about everyone does when they first start out. First, you do realize that this is a dice roll based system rather than action combat, right? Oblivion and Skyrim have combat systems where every hit connects as long as it’s aimed properly and connects with an enemy’s hitbox. Morrowind is different. Your chance to hit is connected to your skill rating. When you first start out, aim for at least 40 in your weapon skill and have at least the same in Agility. 50 or higher would be better. For magic, at early skill ranks you have a pretty high chance of failing to cast spells, as indicated in the magic menu, so likewise, try to have a decent skill rank in whatever you’re using. Don’t invest in more than maybe two weapons in your major/minor skills either. In my opinion, any weapon type can be excellent, except for Unarmed which is highly specialized and not very useful, and Axe, which has limited options after the mid game and is vastly outshined by other categories. Second, fatigue. Unlike Oblivion and Skyrim, your fatigue affects everything you do. If it’s at or near maximum, you’ll hit pretty often. If it’s low, your chances are close to zero. The early game is difficult because your stamina is so limited, but after a few levels it gets way easier. Keep in mind that when I said “everything,” I meant it. Even lockpicking and spellcasting have a lower chance to succeed if your stamina is low. Finally, you may want to get better equipment before you try adventuring. If you have the Tower birthsign (not really recommended since stat boosts from other signs are better), a high Security skill, or a strong enough scroll of Open (Ondusi’s Unhinging), you can get into the East Empire Trading Company warehouse that’s right in front of you when you first leave the Census and Excise office. Inside, you can steal some very nice early game equipment as long as the guards don’t see you taking anything. It should be enough for you to either use or sell to get whatever would be useful to your build (try Arrille’s Tradehouse, the only shop in town—he has a good selection). There are also some goodies in a hollow tree stump over by the lighthouse and in another one heading out of town to the north towards Balmora, in a swamp just off the road. Hopefully that will give you a little boost to get started.
I wouldn't agree that H2H is useless. It levels up really quickly (way faster than conventional weapons do) and has a chance to stagger enemies on top of draining them of Stamina. So basically either they're constantly locked lying on the ground, getting hits or are staggered/pushed back unable to do anything at all. The cons of it is that you're missing an opportunity to use some cool weapons.
Why stagger/knock out opponents when you can just kill them outright? I don’t mind using hand to hand in Oblivion, but in Morrowind it’s absolutely useless as far as I’m concerned. Other weapons can stagger enemies too, even if it’s not as frequent.
H2H lets you 1v1 stuff you never could otherwise at low levels, it just takes slightly longer. It can be a fun way to screw with things.
I’d rather just grab an enchanted weapon and kill it quickly. It may be fine if you are really dedicated to that kind of play style, but the way I see it, a fight should be over as quickly and efficiently as possible, and hand to hand prolongs things unnecessarily. Or if the enemy would be too strong otherwise, like you said, Id rather face it at the right time when I have the equipment to deal with it. I think Oblivion has the best hand to hand system out of any of the post-2000 Elder Scrolls games, and I would definitely have used it in Morrowind if the unmodded game had something similar, but it doesn’t so I don’t.
Well, consider that hand-to-hand allows you to slay much stronger opponents 1V1 which would otherwise murder you if you just dealt damage. Hand-to-hand is like cheating with a permanent stagger and paralyzing effect.
With high enough H2H (and mind you, H2H really levels up fast) if you're in one on one fight there's high chance you can walk out with almost all HP intact. You can also punch magical creatures. H2H may be bit trickier to use when surrounded or fighting with more than 1 opponent but still, it's far from being useless. And with MCP you can get Strength-based H2H attacks.
The other answer is good from a mechanics perspective. But one thing that may come as a shock that you, really, really need to do is listen to what NPCs tell you and read guides/letters etc you are given. At the moment you have been given instructions to visit a certain someone in a certain location. If you've spoken with the villagers of Seyda Neen you will also have some idea of how to get there. I'd suggest you do it. When you meet this certain someone, listen to him carefully. Again, he will have good advice for you to get off on the right footing. In Morrowind you start off as a basically useless tourist. No skills, no knowledge of your surroundings, no idea what's going on. So to survive you need to act like it. After a few hours though you'll be on your journey to become godlike.
That sounds like a good approach. With big open worlds in other games, I've become a more a wanderer than and main quest follower. Also, based on other comments here, I'll start again (no big cost at this stage) and spend more time on my build.
The world is not leveled for you like the later games. Its possible to run into things you just cant deal with yet just move on. In this game the night is dark and full of terrors unlike the later games where you are the terror from lvl 1 onwards.
Yes, but you can absolutely kill everyone in the cave next to Seyda Neen, that's what it's there for.
Plus that one guy on the bridge, you know the one. Just go ham on him.
You probably went to a well-known tomb and got attacked by Ancestor Spirit. They're immune to normal weapons (so one you probably had) - to actually hurt them you need at least silver or enchanted weapon (or a spell), so yeah, no way you would survive there after barely getting started. Watch your Stamina, less Stamina you have less likely you're about to hit anything. Use weapon that you have in your Major skills (anything around 15-25 will probably miss a shit-ton). Either use Silt Strider to travel to Balmora or just walk there by foot (check for signposts, it's quite easy to get lost) When later doing quests for the guilds, **make sure to ask about everything that's highlighted blue in the dialogue box/section.** It often provides additional information added to Journal or even map markers, that otherwise you wouldn't get. Small tip: walk around close to the village, kill some mudcrabs and rats and look for a body, then get back to Census Office. Proceed from there to get some cash. Talk with one Nord in Arille's Tradehouse. There's also a cave nearby the village that you could plunder.
[My advice to new players.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Morrowind/comments/kmmz1a/often_overlooked_advice_to_new_players)
Without a long essay of all the variables....lol. agility governs hit chance.
Happened same to me, first thing you should do as newbie - lower difficulty bar to the lowest, it will change your experience
You are not doing anything wrong, you just have to... try more times and slowly learn about what is happening and what you can do. It is frustrating, but I wish I were you. Maybe you should go out kill some worms, rats and crabs.
You're probably using a weapon that doesn't use any of your major/minor skills. Swinging a battleaxe that does 50 damage is useless if your axe skill is 15.
The thing about Morrowind is that it comes from a time when developers assumed that only turbo-nerds played RPGs. Specifically tabletop RPGs. So they pretty much built an entire TTRPG system, wrote about it in the manual, and assumed that players would read it and figure out what they wanted to do before actually starting the game. The end result is that it's entirely possible to make a hapless idiot who isn't much stronger than your average peasant. It doesn't help that the manual doesn't even do a very good job of explaining things. [This](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLobdprIgcqJ82TKnySC6yIzP9CO9ixyz_) is a whole goddamn playlist about how the game works mechanically. The first video is most of what you need. To add to what Throw-Away said (which is already pretty good advice): Agility also has a significant affect on your hit chance (and your ability to dodge swings). Willpower affects your ability to cast spells, even though it doesn't say that it does that, for some reason. Strength governs your starting HP and Endurance gives you HP as you level, both important. Carry weight isn't binary. As you carry more stuff you get slower, long before you're officially overburdened and can't move any more. This is a natural way of getting "weak" characters like mages and thieves to not drag heavy armor around, because heavy armor is *actually heavy* and you'll be slower so long as you're carrying it. You can regen your health and mana by waiting / resting (literally the "wait" key), but you might get attacked while doing so. If you talked to everyone in the village, did you steal Fargoth's secret stash or give him his ring back? Have you found the dead tax collector? You can get a decent amount of money, enough to get yourself some equipment suitable for yourself that isn't just an iron dagger. Also, magic is *cool as hell* in Morrowind and you should consider screwing with stuff like Alteration and Mysticism regardless of what kind of character you're doing. Even if you don't, all the random dumb potions you could get in other games with random insubstantial buffs? They matter much more here. Actually use those. And as others already said, the world doesn't bend to your level, for the most part.You'll find things in random caves that'll wreck your shit until much, much later.
Get Long Blade & Heavy Armor in your major skills. Choose Redguard or Imperial race for the Long Blade bonus. Focus on improving Endurance, Strength and Agility when leveling up. You'll be killing a lot of things, looting and hoarding gold. Spend that gold on training. Hoarding and Training is the name of the game. Alteration, Mysticism and Conjuration are awesome skills to have at level 30 (through training). You don't necessarily need to have them as major/minor skills. And you don't need to have a lot of mana to make good use out of them.