Foreword

I love Morrowind; I love it so much I have multiple installs of it.

One of these is for my permadeath runs, so unlike the others that I have for a specific purpose or character, this one is a fit-them-all kind of install, one that will let me role-play a variety of characters.

Below you will find mods that greatly contribute to that effect.

Must-have mods

Immersion and Realism

Crafting, survival, and realism mods are not to everyone’s taste: the balance between realism and just plain annoying in particular is different for everyone. Here are my go-to mods for realism:

Crafting and Survival

Ashfall by Merlord: Another mod I love to pieces. Like Necessities of Morrowind but sexier. Still in development, check the Morrowind Modding discord for discussion, progress and available beta.

Morrowind Crafting by Drac and Toccatta: As the name indicates you will be able to craft pretty much everything, from clothes to candles, furniture, or weapons. You have a number of skills to harvest materials and a set of skills to craft. A must if you want to role-play any sort of regular Joe with a job in Vvardenfell.

Go Fletch by Merlord: Make arrows, bolts and darts.

Realistic repairs by Merlord: You will need to find an anvil or a forge to use your hammers. You'll also want Get Sharp by Rubberman that adds 2 gorgeous forges to the game with tools to sharpen your weapons and repair them. Before: Find a hammer while sneaking about in a tomb, use it up (noisily I expect) to repair your gear, sitting between two urns. Now: make sure your gear is in good condition before you set out. Train your Armorer skill to be able to get a little more out of your weapons. Personally, if my character has Armorer as a major skill, I use the blacksmith's vice that has unlimited repair uses but force other characters to use hammers. A new alternative: 4NM_Armorer let's you improve your weapons beyond simple repairs, effectively sharpening or hardening them.

Immersive Mining by Merlord: No pickaxe, no mining.

Realism

What next?

In the coming weeks, I will add guides specific to each class. I may not mention the mods above in all of them, it certainly doesn't mean you shouldn't use them!

Things you can expect:

Role-playing suggestions for a given class; it certainly won’t be an exhaustive list because your imagination is the limit.

Mods to enhance gameplay specific to each class. For example, the Acrobat will have mod suggestions for throwing items while the Archer will have a more complete overhaul of the marksman skill. The Sorcerer will have conjuration and Enchant mods, while the Mage will deal with destruction. The Barbarian will have a combat enhanced mod, the Warrior a different one, etc. The point is to try different mods for different classes.

Graphic replacers: with a war machine of a PC you are probably replacing everything to HD already; however, with slower computers, I like to replace things relevant to my character. For example, with a Barbarian, I’ll have some gorgeous Blood, for my Alchemist, some lovely potion replacers, for the Pilgrim, improved shrines, frescoes and tapestries, etc.

Mods to look the part (armour, clothes, weapons, and accessories).

When relevant, a house mod, a companion mod...

To conclude, I want to thank Bethesda for making a great game and the Morrowind Modding Community for making it greater. Heartfelt thanks to Aurel, ProfArmitage, Lighsourced and Gavrilo who read a lot of these guides, made corrections and suggested mods I had overlooked.