The Warriors


Nord - The Berserker
Str 50 | 50
Int 30 | 30
Wil 40 | 50
Agl 30 | 30
Spd 40 | 40
End 50 | 40
Per 30 | 30
Lck 40 | 40

Seen any elves? HAHAHAHA! No changes necessary.

Axe 10
Blunt Weapon 10
Heavy Armor 5
Medium Armor 5
Mercantile 5
Spear 10

Nords are pretty good, they're a strong people with skill in a variety of martial techniques, and their skills reflect this. To further emphasize this preoccupation with weapons, moved +5 from medium armor to spear. Nords are described as “industrious and enterprising in trade” so I swapped long blade for mercantile. With high strength and a love of weapons bordering on fetishistic, this should help the Nord buy equipment and sell everything else. Overall, I would characterize the Nord as a berserker, dancing close to the fire with an appalling bloodlust to rip and tear and nary a thought to their own defense.
As for racial abilities, the best I can say is… what? Immunity to frost is easy, Nords are highly resistant to cold. Shock resistance, they’re known as the Children of the Sky and lightning comes from the Sky, so fine. Woad? Thunder fist? What are these abilities? Why does Thunder Fist do frost damage? My only conclusion can be Bethesda didn’t really care about these abilities. So Thunder Fist and Woad have danced too close to the fire, and in their place I added a new ability called the Breath of Ysmir based on depictions of the Thu’um in Children of the Sky and PGE1. “Sharpens blades” (fortify strength 50 and fortify attack 100 for 20s on self) “stop a charging warrior” (demoralize humanoid 60 for 20s on target) and “doors are blown in” (unlock 100 on target.) Depending on how you use this ability, it can help you defeat a powerful foe, send them fleeing, or open the sturdiest of locks (or all of these things, if you find a situation that can make use of all these abilities in 20 seconds.) I also reduced the immunity to frost to a 75% resistance, because immunities are lame and even Nords are known to have a breaking point when it comes to the cold, they’re still human after all.


Orc - The Tactician
Str 45 | 40
Int 30 | 40
Wil 50 | 50
Agl 35 | 35
Spd 30 | 30
End 50 | 50
Per 30 | 25

Lck 40 | 40

Not much change, I decreased female strength by 5 and increased willpower by 5, to slightly bolster the female Orc’s potential to dabble in the battlemage side of things.

Armorer 10
Axe 5
Block 10
Heavy Armor 5
Medium Armor 10
Blunt Weapon 5

If Nords are berserkers, Orcs are tactical fighters. With impressive endurance and willpower, the Orc can shake off blows that would cripple other races. Bonuses of +10 in block and medium armor further bolster the Orc’s defensive style, and +10 in armorer helps maintain that armor from all the abuse it sees in combat. The only change I made here is to add blunt +5 and decrease heavy armor by 5, as two +10 armor skills seems a bit redundant and weapon versatility is more useful.
The Orc’s racial ability is as stale as it gets, a single 25% resistance to magicka. So I set out to make it more interesting by looking at the other games Orcs appear as a playable race in. Imagine my surprise when I discovered Oblivion gives Orcs the exact same ability, and Skyrim doesn’t give them one at all! Orcs didn’t appear as a playable race until Morrowind, so that’s the end of that idea… or is it? As it happens, the base Orc enemy in Daggerfall has some abilities. One of those abilities is a resistance to disease, which according to UESP mechanically is a +25% to a base +50% chance to resist for all races. So 75% disease resistance is in, but that’s not very exciting on its own either, so I had to get a little creative to add some additional effects. The mythical origin of the Orcs is connected to that of the Chimer; Boethiah used Trinimac’s voice to show his people the lies of the Aedra, then s-h-a-t him out in front of them. The schism between Turdimac and Boethiah is what created the Orsimer and the Chimer. So I thought it would be interesting if that were reflected in their racial abilities. The Dunmer have a 75% fire resistance, so I gave Orcs a 50% weakness to fire. I balanced this by taking the 25% resistance to magicka, fairly useless since most offensive magic is elemental, and expanding it into two 25% resistances to frost and shock.


Redguard - The All Rounder
Str 50 | 40
Int 30 | 30
Wil 30 | 30
Agl 40 | 40
Spd 40 | 40
End 50 | 50
Per 30 | 40
Lck 40 | 40

I’ve always felt the Redguard is great, so no change on the attributes.

Athletics 5
Spear 5
Heavy Armor 10
Long Blade 15
Medium Armor 5

Short Blade 5
Redguards strike me as a beginner-friendly race, and I think they’re great for that. With powerful strength and endurance without compromising on speed and agility, they make excellent physical fighters good for new players unfamiliar with Morrowind’s magic system or those who would rather leave that magic stuff to the elves. I removed axe and put its +5 into heavy armor, because with +15 long blade having three other weapon skills is pretty superfluous. I swapped blunt weapon with spear, because Redguards have this “middle eastern samurai” schtick going on, and the traditional arms of the samurai were a spear and a longsword. I also like spears.
I don’t really see why Redguards would be resistant to poison; certainly not the same as Argonians which I reduced to 75%, so that’s down to 50%. Sorry about that.
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The Mages


Breton - The Defensive Caster
Str 40 | 30
Int 50 | 50
Wil 50 | 50
Agl 30 | 30
Spd 30 | 40
End 30 | 30
Per 40 | 40
Lck 40 | 40

Breton supremacy. I really like their vanilla attributes, no change.

Alchemy 5
Alteration 10
Illusion 5
Enchant 5
Mysticism 10
Restoration 10

For their stats, I didn’t change a lot; I replaced conjuration with enchanting, reduced it to +5 and increased Alteration to +10 to reflect their “perceptive grasp of... enchantment” and further emphasize their specialization in *defensive* spellcasting.


High Elf - The Offensive Caster

Str 30 | 30
Int 50 | 50
Wil 50 | 50
Agl 45 | 45
Spd 30 | 35
End 35 | 30
Per 30 | 30
Lck 40 | 40

The Altmer attributes are pretty solid I feel; strong emphasis on magic at the detriment of physicality. I furthered this by increasing willpower to 50. One exception is that, in Morrowind and in previous games, Altmer are described as deft or agile so I increased agility by 5. To compensate for these changes, I reduced female speed and male endurance by 5. I reduced personality by 10 both to compensate and because Altmer tend to be insufferably egotistical.

Alchemy 10
Alteration 5
Conjuration 5
Destruction 10
Enchant 10
Mysticism 5

Contrary to the Breton focus on defense, Altmer are specialized offensive spellcasters. I didn’t change much to reflect this, just swapped illusion for mysticism.
The Altmer’s racials set them up as a magical glass cannon, able to put out unmatched magical damage at the cost of being able to take very little magical punishment. I haven’t changed this, but I gave them a 75% resistance to paralysis. I toned this down from a full immunity in Daggerfall, but I think it should still help plenty in avoiding a fireball to the face.
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The Rogues


Khajiit - The Pugilist

Str 40 | 30
Int 45 | 45
Wil 30 | 30
Agl 50 | 50
Spd 45 | 45
End 30 | 40
Per 30 | 30
Lck 40 | 40

The Suthay-raht breed of Khajiit is described as “intelligent, quick, and agile.” In vanilla their 50 agility reflects this, but their 40 intelligence and speed do not, so I increased them both by 5. To compensate I reduced personality by 10, reasoning that they are similarly mistrusted and disliked by the races of men and mer for their bestial qualities as the Argonians.

Acrobatics 15
Athletics 5
Hand-to-hand 10
Unarmored 5
Light Armor 5
Sneak 5

Khajiit are famous for their unarmed martial arts, and of course their claws are formidable weapons, so I have raised hand-to-hand from 5 to 10, and removed short blade to compensate. I have swapped security for unarmored, for the same reason as Argonian, the poor beasts need to compensate for being unable to wear full sets of armor. Security is a weirdly specific skill for a racial bonus too.
Good racials, but I felt they could use an ability. So, since they’re cats I gave them the ability ‘Cat Quick’ based on their ability in Shadowkey (hi MickyD and the one other Shadowkey player) which gives a 5 point sanctuary.


Wood Elves - The Marksman

Str 30 | 30
Int 45 | 45
Wil 30 | 30
Agl 50 | 40
Spd 50 | 50
End 30 | 30
Per 35 | 45
Lck 40 | 40

The Bosmer have been the butt of the joke in TES since players first met Fargoth. Their attributes are ok, emphasizing their speed and agility above all else. Though not as extreme as Argonians, there is a notable difference between the genders with Bosmer; the women are all gorgeous, while the men have all lost their power of glamour. To represent this, I’ve decreased personality by 5 for males and increased it by 5 for females. To offset this I increased male intelligence by 5, and reduced female agility by 10, with the remaining 5 going to level intelligence back out. Bosmer are described as being quick “in body and wit” so I think a small increase to intelligence is appropriate. This leaves the Bosmer males with superior agility but diminished personality and females vice versa. This creates an interesting dynamic between the two; while they are both best suited for stealth playstyles, the female is more suited to using her charms to manipulate others while the male is better for infiltration, breaking locks, and picking pockets.

Acrobatics 5
Alchemy 5
Light Armor 5
Marksman 15
Sneak 10
Athletics 5

With low endurance and strength but high speed, Bosmer shoot straight and run like the wind. This is well reflected in the Bosmer’s base skills, which I have only modified slightly to decrease the light armor bonus by 5 and add a +5 athletics bonus. This reinforces that the key strategy of the Bosmer is avoidance; be it through stealth or speed.
Beast Tongue is well known to be almost worthless because of its shit magnitude. I’ve increased the magnitude to 15, hopefully giving it some real utility. Resist disease is nice, but it isn’t particularly game-changing, so I’ve added a 50% poison resistance.


The Hybrids


Argonian - The Night & Blade

Str 40 | 35
Int 40 | 50
Wil 30 | 45
Agl 50 | 40
Spd 50 | 40
End 30 | 30
Per 30 | 30
Lck 40 | 40

Female and male are for Argonians described as “life-phases” with distinctly different adaptations. The vanilla attributes showed this pretty well, but I raised female will by 5 and took 5 from strength to compensate. This makes the Argonian a unique hybrid race, with males adapted for stealth and females adapted for magic.
Alchemy 5 + 5 for female
Athletics 5 + 5 for male
Illusion 5 + 5 for female
Unarmored 5 + 5 for male
Mysticism 5 + 5 for female
Spear 5 + 5 for male

I took away their 5 point medium armor buff, and equalized all their base skill bonuses to 5. Another 5 will be added, thanks to the power of MWSE, to three skills based on sex.
I turned their immunity to poison into a 75% resistance, for the same reason as Nords.


Dark Elf - The War Wizard

Str 45 | 40
Int 45 | 45
Wil 35 | 35
Agl 45 | 45
Spd 40 | 40
End 40 | 40
Per 30 | 35
Lck 30 | 30

Dunmer are described in-game as possessing “powerful intellect combined with strong and agile physiques” so their strength, intelligence, and agility has been buffed to 45. Dunmer female strength remains 40, in exchange for higher personality. As Dunmer are renowned for making excellent wizards, willpower has been buffed from 30 to 35. To reflect the cultural importance Dunmer place on enduring hardship, endurance has been buffed from 30 to 40. Dunmer female personality has been reduced to 35, while Dunmer male personality remains the same, to reduce the gender difference from 10 to 5. One translation of Dunmer is “cursed people” and one interpretation of Dark in Dark Elf is “ill-favored by fate” so their luck has been reduced to 30. Finally, to bring the total attribute bonus back down to 45, I have decreased speed to 40.
I added a 0.5 max magicka multiplier to make their magicka pool more viable for moderate magicka use playstyles, or heavy use with appropriate birthsign selection.
Athletics 5
Destruction 10
Medium Armor 10
Long Sword 10
Marksman 5
Mysticism 5
Light armor has been swapped for medium armor for a few reasons:

* In the book series Bone, a Dunmer character is surprised by his natural affinity for medium armor.

* Many prominent native Dunmer armors are medium. Bonemold is the uniform of all House guards, while Indoril is the uniform of Ordinators.

* Medium armor, being a cross between permitting agility and requiring strength, is a good representation of the Dunmer’s notable physical attributes.
Shortsword has been removed, splitting its 10 point buff between medium armor and longsword. This is because, contrary to the vanilla stat distribution and trope associations with "dark", Dunmer in lore are only described as excelling in the warrior and wizard archetypes, not stealth.
* The Morag Tong are of course the exception, but they are a small and very exclusive faction in Dunmer society, so I think being the exception is acceptable.

In vanilla, I felt the Dunmer racial stats were influenced more by a desire to have the ‘default’ race be suitable for all styles of gameplay, and lacked a unique gameplay identity in line with its lore. That feeling is why I started this mod, and it’s why the Dunmer is the most extensively edited race in this mod.


Imperial - The General

Str 45 | 40
Int 40 | 40
Wil 30 | 35
Agl 30 | 30
Spd 35 | 30
End 40 | 45
Per 50 | 50
Lck 40 | 40

Imperial is pretty good in vanilla. I increased male strength and female endurance by 5, so there is a little versatility there in terms of choosing a powerful or resilient warrior. To compensate I reduced female willpower and male speed by 5. I also decreased the male weight to 1.05, because they are “physically less imposing than other races” yet at 1.25 they’re as thicc as Nords. Females are already 0.95, so no change is needed there, and it supports my feeling that males being 1.25 was a mistake. Caius will be preserved.

Block 5
Spear 10
Light Armor 5
Long Blade 5
Mercantile 10
Speechcraft 10

Imperials are described as remarkable “light infantry” as well as “shrewd traders and diplomats.” Mercantile and Speechcraft +10 were good and complemented their 50 personality, but their physical skills were a bit messy. I looked to the Imperial Legion and Imperial Guard NPCs for what ‘light infantry’ meant for an Imperial. I elected to bring in block and spear, replacing hand-to-hand and blunt weapon, because many Imperial Legion members use sword-and-board and spear is a favored skill of the Legion (and iconic of the Roman Legions from which the Empire takes some inspiration) and is sorely underrepresented in racial stats. I made spear +10, taking 5 from long blade, to better distinguish the Imperial from the Redguard and also because to me the spear seems iconic of Roman light infantry. This presents the Imperial with a great deal of flexibility to interweave the rogue and warrior styles, excelling both in battle and in backroom negotiations.
Voice of the Emperor needs no change, but Star of the West’s absorb 200 fatigue is very situational and frankly pretty bizarre. The west in the context of Cyrodiil would be Colovia, so I am revamping this ability to represent the militant Colovians and contrasting it with a new Star of the East to represent the esoteric Nibenese.
Star of the West: “They are uncomplicated, self-sufficient, hearty, and extremely loyal to one another.” Fortify Health 25 for 60 seconds, Fortify Endurance 20 for 60 seconds.
Star of the East: “They are more given to philosophy… The Nibenese find the numinous in everything around them.” Spell Absorption 25 for 60 seconds, Fortify Intelligence 20 for 60 seconds.