Modding

Morrowind Character Guide Series: The Scout

Danae

• 10 min read
Morrowind Character Guide Series: The Scout

Foreword

For those who watch my let's plays and livestreams, you'll know that we're all about role-playing and not at all about min-maxing. This series is not about the ultimate [insert class] build, let's face it, sooner or later your character will be a god-killer whether you min-max or not. In addition, we tend to always want to play the same way, with the same style, the same weapons, the same game play. So instead, I want to suggest ways to play a class and mods that can make the experience fresh and more unique. For more general role-playing mod recommendations, you can check this guide.

Skills, Race, and Birthsign

scout
The Scout's main attributes are Speed and Endurance. With their skills, the scouts can have all kinds of builds: Melee with Long Sword and Shield, Ranged with Sneak and Marskman and wear whatever armour compliments your style best. You can make use of Alchemy and be closer to the Barbarian, or Alteration and play like a Nightblade.
Personally, I would go the true hybrid route where the scout snipes enemies off and is ready to meet them head on, blade in hand in tight spaces. I know most people do that with most characters but since I tend to specialise, a hybrid character is quite the novelty!
Whatever the race you pick, I would recommend you pick one with high Agility as this attribute is vital (hit chance, dodge chance and stagger chance) but will be hard to improve with Sneak and Block. Male Argonians, Bosmers and Khajiits of both genders start with 50 Agility.
I like the Argonian male, and their natural resistance to diseases: it will be useful with the survival mods I have in mind for the scout. In addition, the Argonian is probably more at ease in the great outdoors than in any Telvanni settlement or plantation.

I like the Steed for the birthsign: it stands to reason that the scout will spend a lot of time exploring and traveling, let's not make that more tedious than it needs to be. You might like this mod: Run Faster - Faster Running Speed to help you resist the urge to fast travel or teleport.
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Gameplay and Mods

The scout is all about exploration. Time to make your regions visually stunning (see the Pilgrim Guide and fill you game with exciting dungeons to explore. Oh, we also want survival aspects.

The Great Outdoors

  • Merlord's Ashfall, beta available on the MW modding discord: my favourite, the UI makes the whole keeping track of hunger, thirst and tiredness easy. The ability to make your own fire and cook is sexy, the weather effects make you think twice before heading out. Still being developed but already the best. Like most sexy mods, you'll need the latest MGE with built-in MWSE. Here's a YouTube video review I did on Ashfall a while ago, before cooking was implemented. Best of all, you can customise the mod in-game by enabling/disabling every feature.
    • + Did I mention sexy and customisable?
    • + More features to come (shaders, more survival gear, more to do with the survival skill, tea integration, skooma addiction integration...)
    • + All survival aspects: hunger, thirst, tiredness, cold, heat, camping and cooking.
    • - No special models for your cooked dishes (for now).
    • - Unlike NoM, no recipes to collect.
    • - MWSE is a must.
  • Frostwind by Merlord as well, use this one if you wanted Ashfall but can't use MWSE mods.
    • + Has most of Ashfall (current features).
    • + No MWSE requirement.
    • - No sexy UI, you get the info through message boxes.
  • Necessities of Morrowind by Taddeus, edited by WanderRA. The super classic and still a very solid mod. Use this if you want more recipes as well as some actual food ingredients (like pies, cheeses).
    • + A long-time favourite in the Morrowind Community.
    • + Collect recipe books and utensils to unlock all recipes.
    • + Includes juices and teas with a quest to learn to brew your own tea.
    • + A lot of house mods are NoM compatible.
    • + No MWSE requirement.
    • - Not as sleek as Ashfall but solid.
  • Bare Necessities by Destructor, edited by WanderRA. The lightweight survival mod but also solid.
    • + Simpler than Ashfall and NoM.
    • + Skooma addiction!
    • - No actual cooking (drop ingredients on your ragdoll to eat them raw).
    • - Some FPS drops reported when choosing the dynamic well conversion option.
    • - Needs Bottle Return For Bare Necessities patch.
  • Tooltip Complete by Anumaril21 is great, especially because it is modular. With a scout, enable the tooltip for plants and ingredients, with a Warrior, enable those of arms, your character is passionate about history, enable the artifact tooltips, etc. You get the idea.
  • My own Adventurer's Backpack: you get a wearable backpack with a feather enchantment; when dropped on the floor, take your camping gear out to set up camp. Compatible with all mods mentioned above.
    scout

Exploration!

You are a scout, you go places and keep you eyes open. The following lists deal with vanilla dungeons and hidden treasures. No new dungeons here because this article would be too long!

The super simple

Remiros' Tomb Expansion, Mines and Caverns and Dwemer Rebirth Project. That's it. With those three a good portion of dungeons will be new(er).
If you want to cover as many locations as possible, read on!

Tombs

Caves

There are two big mods when it comes to caves: Cavern Overhaul and Mines and Caverns. I'm recommending the latter because it covers more caves, it doesn't modify the caves' entrances and most importantly, it's not currently hidden on the Nexus. That being said, I've used and enjoyed Cavern Overhaul, pick this one if you've already played Mines and Caverns a lot: we want to explore, not re-visit.

Use the Morrowind Enchanted Editor to delete the Cave of the Incarnate cells, Koghoruhn cells, as well as Aleft cells to enjoy all three mods. Honestly, it is well worth the effort. If not, I would pick these three mods over Detailed Dungeons.

  • Cave of the Incarnate Overhaul by Aiomevello. Conflicts with Detailed Dungeons.
  • Caldera Mine Expanded by Greatness7, Melchior Dahrk, and TheDrunkenMudcrab. Comes with a quests based on the Great House you belong to.
  • Salt Gems at Bensamsi by Melchior Dahrk. Comes with a quest!
  • Mamamea Awakened by Endoran, Lucevar, Melchior Dahrk, and RubberMan.
  • Zerabi Expanded by Jsp25
  • Brand new! Shal Overgrown by Abot, Lucevar, Tizzo, and myself. Obviously, I like this mod, so did the jury of the Morrowind Modding Madness. Expands Shal, a tiny Bitter Coast cave, adds a quest and new areas to explore.

Daedric

Stongholds

Time for some Morrowind Enchanted Editor magic, delete the exterior cell, also delete Mournhold cells that have been edited for no reason.

  • MRenewal - Dunmer Strongholds expansion by hater_8. Only changes Hlomaren for now, so compatible with other Stronghold mods. Clean before use.
  • Kogoruhn Expanded by Greatness7, Remiros, PhDinSorcery, and Meriyal. Conflicts with Detailed Dungeons, but so good! You will need to mod your shaders in MGE to get the full effect if this mod.

Dwemer

  • Dwemer Rebirth Project by Rubberman. The new ruins not only look great (somewhat Skyrim inspired but better) and they even boast a few puzzles. Modified ruins: Mzahnch, Mzuleft, Aleft, Nchuleft, Arkgnthanch-Sturdumz, Bethamez, Nchardahrk.
  • Bthuand Expanded by Jsp25. Explore and eradicate cliffies. Double win.
  • Endusal and Tureynulal Redone by Trainwiz.
  • Aetherium Forging by Grond1911, touches up Nchardumz but mostly, gives you a way to craft a new armour set.
  • Darknut's Greater Dwemer Ruins version 1.2. The massive dungeon by Darknut, a classic. Be warned that Darknut likes his traps deadly, save often!
  • Deeper Dagoth Ur by Team Voluptous Velks (OperatorJack, Petethegoat, RedFurryDemon, Wolli) is a stunning overhaul of Dagoth Ur (the place) with epic exteriors and scripted events. Not compatible with Darknut's Greater Dwemer Ruins.
  • Redreach by Team Azturnal (mysty and CalicoGwen) overhauls Nchuleftingth (for now, more is planned).

Expansions and Others

If you are using Mines and Caverns, and want Tel Shadow's Vassir-Didanat mine, use the Morrowind Enchanted editor to edit this mine out from Mines and Caverns.

Can I just say: PHEW!! Massive thanks to Lucevar whose Dungeon List was most precious to make this article.
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Things to find

  • A Strange Plant by PeterBitt.
  • The Great Love Pillow Hunt by Stuporstar and Merlord.
  • Treasures of Magic by Team Wool and Floof.
  • My own Lucky Coins: you will find them in crates and personal belongings. Each coin gives a small constant buff to attributes or skills.
  • Also one of mine: Morrowind Trading Cards: common cards can be bought but the uniques ones have a small quest or are just lying there for the taking.
  • Treasure Maps by qqqbbb: buy a map, find the place, get the treasure. Easy for a top scout! (Won't work with mods that disable the map.)
  • The Uber Crystal Egg Hunt v1.3 by Bryss Phoenix & Fliggerty. The ultimate test of paying attention to details while exploring. Be sure to grab Crystal Egg Icons by Drackolus. If you have Caves and Caverns installed, also install Denina's The Uber Crystal Egg Hunt Display Resource: Eggs have been moved to work with the new caves.
  • Dwemer Loot v.1.2 by Poodemon, adds all kinds of items to the dwemer levelled lists for variety's sake.
  • Palladin47 - The Artifacts: New NPCs will give you quest to retrieve lost artifacts.
  • Explorers by Lord Lionmane. A classic: when picking up a plant, there is a chance you'll find a buried chest. When opening the chest, you may trigger a deadly trap, be attacked by a bandit, ... or find some treasure. In addition, you will be sent on missions to kill specific creatures roaming the land. I love this mod, my only issues were that:
    - Some of the rewards (robes and cuirasses) are not BB compatible.
    - I found too many treasures (easy edit of the script to reduce that).
    - It was not compatible with Graphic Herbalism AT THE TIME, now we have MWSE graphic Herbalism.
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Others

  • War Kagouti Companion by Melchior Dahrk. Because a guar would ruin your boots just as sure as running up and down Vvardenfell would. If you do prefer a guar, especially one that you can ride, get Abot's Guars.
  • Sea Rover Tent by Tizzo. Perfect tent that you can enter, and roll up and carry when you are done.
  • Assuming you have not modded your trees: Seasons by TheLys: trees will change colours as time passes.
  • Seasonal Weather of Vvardenfell by Violet.
  • Merlord's Character Background you'll want the Tracker or Child of Nature.
  • Something's not Right... to have a few immersive messages when you approach dungeons and locations.
  • Radiant Quests by WanderRA lets you make a nice profit selling hides, meat, etc. You can also turn in Ash Statues and get paid for hunting Blighted creatures.

Handicaps and Goals

  • The greatest challenge for a scout: have no map. Try NullCascade's Get Lost. You will find yourself without a map AT ALL, not even the mini map.

  • Slightly less punishing, Compass Pointer Removal by Kirel: You still have your map, but not the "You are here" icon.

  • At the very least, use Minamir's Local Map Marker Remover removes the names of buildings, caves, etc. you have on your local map. Map markers on the world map are left untouched.

  • Put your scouting to good use and become a cartographer! Using the vanilla map note system (On your local map, double click, type your note in the window that appears, press enter, enjoy a new marker). Perfect with Minamir's mod: Now only places that you have scouted will have a map marker.

  • Map the whole of Vvardenfell, or pick a single region to explore thoroughly.

  • Go on, try and find all 165 eggs, 100+ artifacts!

Final words

If you want more ideas for random handicaps and goals, check this blog entry with wheels to click, you can find my permadeath modlist (and all the others, actually) here and if you'd like to see many new characters created, join us on Twitch every Sunday for our permadeath runs ;)

Happy Morrowinding!

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