This mod aims to give weapons and armour clearer use cases and more sensible power progression while preserving that real Morrowind feel. It stays very close to vanilla and within the spirit of the game while fixing obvious oversights and making some neglected items more useful.

It is neither a balance nor a realism mod, although it improves on vanilla in both areas. Fear not - you will still get that "wow" feeling of power increasing when you make the leap from Steel to Dwemer or Bonemold to Orcish, but now you will get to enjoy Nordic Fur, Iron, and Adamantium too! 

The mod is in a mature state and requires community feedback to improve.

What this mod offers:

• Improved weapon range, speed, and damage to line up with their visual appearance and also to be more relevant/ interesting. Halberds can now chop and slash, short swords have less reach than longswords, and so on.
  

• Clearer armour progression from netch to fur to chitin, from iron to steel to Dwemer, and from imperial chain to bonemold to native bonemold/Dragonscale. 
  

• Boosted the performance and value of some rarer items like imperial newtscale, native bonemold, and dragonscale. These are now a clear upgrade over the closest level normal gear, but will cost more.
  

• Tweaked duplicate items to differentiate them and added clearer differences between bracers & gauntlets, helmet variations, and normal/tower shields of various armour types.
  

• Early-game armours are harder to find.  You can't just start out with Chitin or Steel from Arrille's Tradehouse now. 
  

Notes on difficulty:
Although not a difficulty mod, some changes will affect the difficulty.  Overall, the game is slightly harder in the early stages, and enemies with 2-handed weapons will remain dangerous for longer. 

• It will take slightly longer to progress past the lowest level armour and weapons. You will take slightly more damage due to being limited to iron or fur armor initially (instead of steel or chitin in vanilla).
  

• Blunt weapons are significantly more dangerous, especially in the early game. Be warned - Fur or Chitin will no longer be sufficient to tank warhammers! 
  

• The mining pick has doubled in damage. Watch out for Miners at level 1!
• Medium and Heavy armor have a stronger use case now.  You might find yourself seeking out Orcish or Dwarven instead of going through the whole game with Chitin. 
  

How do I know if this mod is for me?
If you want something that makes vanilla gear more sensible or believe that almost all weapons & armour should be useful depending on your build, then this is for you.  If you want a difficulty or an economy mod, or something that adds a lot of new items, this mod doesn't do that. 


Requirements:
Morrowind, Tribunal and Bloodmoon.

You may wish to use  Dark Brotherhood Delayed if balance is important to you:  Delayed DB Attack V2 at Morrowind Nexus - mods and community (nexusmods.com).  I have not touched Dark Brotherhood armour as I think it is perfectly balanced, it just shows up too early.


Installation:
Extract the .esp file to your Morrowind/Data Files folder and activate it in your Data Files when starting the game.  That's it. 

Updating to the latest version:
Extract the latest version of More Sensible Weapons and Armour to your Data Files folder.  Replace any existing version of the file.  That's it.   

Note:  While most item weights are unchanged, an item's weight only updates in-game when you pick it up, so if anything seems odd, try dropping your gear and picking it up again.


Conflicts:
Any mod that changes vanilla weapons & armour, or any merchant that sells weapons & armour in Balmora & Pelagiad will clash. Some NPCs (e.g. Alveleg) have had some items replaced in their inventory so powerful items don't show up too soon.

There are no new scripts here; the worst clash you will have is one mod's item changes replacing another mod's.  

I use this mod in conjunction with Tamriel Rebuilt and it works fine (just put this one last in your load order).  Its power curve is slightly different to TR; but you will have to look pretty closely to notice the differences.


Full changelist:

Armour

Light Armour:

• Reduced Netch armour weight while keeping base armour value at 5.  Netch is now the clear lowest tier light armour.
• Increased Nordic Fur weight, durability, and armour rating (to 7).  Now a clear upgrade from Netch and midpoint towards Chitin. 
• Chitin armor gained +1 base armour rating and is now harder to find and slightly heavier, fitting its superior stats.  Arrille doesn’t sell any, and neither does anyone in Balmora or Pelagiad except by chance.  If you want the lightest armour possible, Chitin is no longer that choice.
  

• Created a "new" tier of light armour with 15 base armor class from the leather items - leather bracers, Newtscale cuirass, heavy leather boots.  This is better than Chitin and can only be found in dungeons.  Renamed leather braces to Studded Leather Vambraces to better fit their new role.
• Imperial Studded Leather is now better than chitin but heavier and more durable.  Now also counts as a Legion uniform for the light armour players out there.
• Reworked Gauntlets of Glory (late-game Imperial Cult reward) to make these more worthwhile. They have higher armour value and a constant effect enchantment now.
• Halved Dark Brotherhood item sale values.  The gear is still highly protective and very valuable but should now no longer offer life-changing money.
  

Medium Armour:

• Imperial chain now has a base armour of "around" 12  (Coif 10, Cuirass 12,  Greaves 16, Pauldrons 14), better than Nordic Ringmail.   Reduced the weight and armour of the Pauldrons to fit them into the Medium category.  Imperial Chain had weird stats and I have tried to preserve that while still making it a clear beginner's armour.
• Bonemold has been strengthened (base armour 17) in line with Steel, and is slightly lighter. Native bonemold is stronger, sometimes heavier, and more expensive than default bonemold befitting its special nature.  Each of the Native bonemolds' item stats reflect its unique style.
• Bear and Snow Bear armour is slightly better than Wolf/Snow Wolf now to compensate for its greater weight.  This was achieved by reducing base Wolf armour by 1 and increasing Snow Bear base by 3. 
• Tweaked House guard shields.  Telvanni have higher enchant potential, Hlaalu is lighter, Redoran is heavier with higher armour and durability. 
  

• Dragonscale has been improved (base armour 24).  It is now better than bonemold and more expensive – dragons are extinct, after all, and it’s dragon scale.  Now occupies the space in between bonemold and dreugh.
• Dreugh cuirass, helm, and shield are now significantly lighter and have somewhat lower durability, a) because it's basically leather and b) because the upper end of the medium armor slot was already pretty crowded with dreugh, indoril, orcish, royal guard, and stahlrim having similar weight. 
• Tweaked armour values of Royal Guard, Adamantium, and Ice Armour.  Adamantium now has base armour of 50 (the same as Glass),  Royal Guard 55,  Ice Armour 65 (better than Ebony).  I think Adamantium should be better than Royal Guard given its supposed rarity, but this is in line with Vanilla for now.  Adamantium enjoyoooors speak up please. 
• Renamed "Ice" armour and Weapons to "Stalhrim".
  

Heavy Armour: 

• Increased Iron base armour rating by +2 to 12, making it better than Chitin. Added difference between iron bracer & gauntlets.  Slightly reduced weight of the set to help make it viable for new players.  
• Steel armour has a higher base rating of 17 (vs 15 previously), making it better than imperial steel now, in line with its appearance as sophisticated plate. Added +1 weight to the steel helm to help differentiate it from the Legion helm. Steel should no longer be available from Arrille and is much less common in Balmora or Pelagiad.  You might want to keep ahold of that Cuirass from Rithleen when you get it! 
• Imperial steel (16 base armour rating) is lighter and more durable than steel. It should be an effective alternative to steel and iron for travelling adventurers. Imperial steel enjoyooors please try this out and let me know!
• Templar armours were given a higher armour rating of 20 and Silver/Duke's Guard gear has ratings in the mid 20s as befits more elite soldiers.  The silver gear is now heavier and more expensive due to the silver plating, as well as having lower durability. There should now be clear progression steps between Imperial Chain, Steel, Templar, and Silver armours.
• Imperial Silver Cuirass now counts as a legion uniform.
• Dwemer armour is now heavier & has a higher base armour (27) and value as befits its appearance. Overall the set is ~35% heavier for 35% higher armour rating, and it should better occupy the space between Steel and Ebony now.   Due to the weight, you'll be using Steel for a lot longer and alternatives like Templar are much more appealing (which is also partly why Steel received the boost it did).
• Renamed Nordic Mail to Nordic Honor Guard, increased its weight by about 20%, and reduced its base armor from 66 to 48, now worse than Ebony (60) and Adamant (50). It was pretty wild that this was stronger than Ebony while being as light as steel - now it should be a clear midpoint between Dwemer & Ebony, while still remaining an attractive light alternative to ebony or daedric.  
• Daedric face helms all have the same armour rating now. Durability and value remain unchanged to differentiate them.
  

Further feedback is required to know if the Nordic Mail changes went too far - calling all true sons and daughters of Skyrim to share your thoughts.

Shields:
Generally shield stats have been tweaked in line with their armours, above.  

• Shields and tower shields now have different stats in all cases.
• Changed the enchanted Imperial Shields so there are now Light (Light Shield, Veloth's Shield) and Medium ("Feather Shield") armor variants in addition to the unenchanted Heavy.
  

Weapons 

All weapons have been balanced both within and between types to ensure that each is viable throughout the game. Another pass may be necessary pending community feedback, but Long Blades are no longer the clear best weapon type. 

Broadly I have tried to place the weapons on an axis between "high DPS and low per-hit damage that is more easily resisted by armour" (Clubs, Stars & Darts, Long & Short Blade) to "high per-hit damage, slower strikes that are better for penetrating armour and staggering"  (Blunt, Axe, Throwing Knife, Marksman, Spear).  Within classes there is some variability - Chitin Spear and Katanas hit fast for low damage, Wakizashis are relatively slow for high damage, and so on.


Spears:

• Split out duplicate spears (iron, ebony) into clear types – the spear and short spear.  Spear is unchanged, shortspear is shorter & faster with higher min and lower max damage.
• Chitin spears are lighter & attack a lot faster, closer in spirit to a one-handed spear.  They should now not be an automatic no vs an iron spear. 
• Huntsman spears now act like a beefed-up Chitin.
• Steel, Ebony, and Adamantium spears are now "Longspears" with longer range and slower attacks, in line with having the longest weapon models.
• Tweaked spear and halberd damage based on design.  Halberds perform more like versatile poleaxes now, and are slightly heavier.
• Long-bladed spears (silver, dwarven, daedric) now have somewhat higher slash damage. 
• Much clearer progression from Iron to Steel to Dwarven Spears.  Previously Steel was worse than Iron and Dwarven was the same as Iron. The Dwarf spear should now be much more viable than in vanilla, when it was inferior to everything and a waste of space. Ilkurok is a great piece of gear now.
• Arguably Spear and Halberd damage should be higher, but it is hard to gauge what the bonus reach is really worth....so that is pending your feedback, Spear Stans.
  

 
Long Blades:

• Longswords and sabres have 1.2 reach (up from 1), broadswords have 1.1 (up from 1) and Katanas are steady at 1. 
• Longswords strike at 1.25 speed (down from 1.35) while katanas are steady at 1.5.
• Broadswords have been improved to strike a little faster and do a little more damage, and should be a viable alternative to longswords now.
• The relatively rare Steel Broadsword is now rarer and occupies a space in between Steel and Ebony as the "Fine Steel Broadsword" with improved damage.  (There were too many long blades at the lower item tiers (Iron, Nordic, Imperial Steel, Steel for the broadswords, plus sabers and longswords), and it was too hard to differentiate this from the base Imperial Broadsword given the identical weapon models.)
• Claymores now have 1.2 speed and 1.4 reach (down from 1.25 and up from 1, respectively)
  

Axes

• Waraxes now have 1.2 speed and 0.8 reach (down from 1.25 and 1 respectively) and slightly increased damage.  These changes bring their damage more in line with 1H long blade and mace.
• Battleaxes are steady at 1 speed and 1 reach.  While their stats are mostly unchanged (Dwarven battleaxe got stronger) their DPS is now similar to claymores and warhammers. 
• Previously, claymores were the clear winner and warhammers and battleaxes were objectively worse; now they are each much more viable in their own way. 
  

Maces & Warhammers:

• Maces now have 1 speed (down from 1.35) and 0.8 reach (down from 1) and deal ~30% more damage per hit. Base damage is also higher as maces hit hard and even a glancing blow will deal damage.
• Warhammers have 0.7 speed (down from 1) and 0.9 reach (down from 1.5) and deal 40% more damage.  These things hit like a truck - just make sure you don't miss.   
• A high armour rating is much more important against mace users now.  (Ironic, given that maces are designed for cracking armour and would be worse than blades against flesh, but Morrowind's combat system doesn't support this nuance).
  

Staves:

• All staves gained +3 damage and bonus enchantment capacity.  Daedric & glass received a slightly higher damage boost as they are covered in spikes.  Glass staff will now work as a spear in a pinch.
• Greatly boosted the default wooden and dreugh staff’s enchant capacity.
• Arguably staves should have shorter reach and a little more damage, but this is pending your feedback.
  

Clubs:
In vanilla, Clubs are the ""daggers" of Blunt weapons, with fast strike speed and low per-hit damage. Unfortunately they were a little too weak for anyone to ever use them.  They should now be a more appealing choice, especially if enchanted for DPS. 

• All clubs are now shorter and most received a minor damage boost.
• Clubs attack really fast by default, so with their increased damage, they should now be a viable alternative (if not better!) than maces. Low per-hit damage still makes them more easily resisted by armour though.
• The goblin club is unchanged & still among the strongest weapons in the game.   I could & should nerf it, but that would make the goblins in mournhold much less challenging. This needs further thought. 
  

Short blades:

• All short blades have less than 1.00 reach now.  Daggers are shortest (0.6), followed by tantos (0.7), and shortswords and wakizashis at 0.8.
• Daggers & shortswords are better at stabbing than tantos, as akaviri blades are single-edge weapons.  
• Tantos/wakizashis have better durability and better slash/chop vs dagger and shortsword, and are longer, heavier, and slower than their non-akaviri equivalents.
  

 
Arrows & bolts:

• Corkbulb and chitin now weigh less than iron, to give you a reason to take them. 
• Steel, silver, and bonemold arrows/bolts cost more
• Slightly boosted glass arrow damage, as they cost almost as much as ebony but do half the damage and barely more than steel.  In vanilla, glass (volcanic obsidian) is sharp but fragile, and would be poor for penetrating strikes e.g. with arrows, which shows up in the stats.  They are now more viable, but still relatively less efficient from a damage/cost perspective relative to Ebony.
• Orcish bolt does more damage and costs more. It was previously similar to Steel, and considering there are no daedric/ebony/glass bolts – these should now fit the top-tier role better.
• Increased projectile recovery chance to 50%
• Faster arrows:  +80% to arrow projectile min & max speed (fprojectilemin/max)
• Faster thrown weapons: +20% to fthrownweaponmix/max speed
  

Throwing:
Rebalanced all stars, darts, and knives.  Needs more feedback, but all of these should be genuinely dangerous now.

• Stars attack much faster, are the lightest, and have low damage and narrow damage range.
• Darts attack somewhat faster, have middling damage with a wider damage range.
• Knives attack the slowest, but have the widest range and the highest max damage.  Glass throwing knives hit for 1-24. You'll only get one or two off before closing to melee range, but your opponent will definitely notice. 
• Updated the enchanted darts in Tribunal to correctly ignore normal weapon resistance, so these can now damage ghosts.
  

 
General weapon changes:

• Nordic silver weapons in Bloodmoon now fill a role above dwemer and below glass/ebony.
• Huntsman weapons in BM are basically beefed up chitin, with low damage and fast attacks for high DPS.
• Rebalanced item weights for longswords, war axes, and maces as these had some weird values in higher tier gear (e.g. 45 weight daedric mace vs 72 for the war axe)
• All ice weapons are renamed to Stalhrim, now.
  

Enchant value changes:

Started work rebalancing some enchant values for higher end gear:  

• Generally axes and maces got a boost to enchant capacity to bring them more in line with long blades.
• Boosted adamantium armour enchant values and slightly nerfed royal guard – adamantium is now more enchantable than royal guard, befitting its “special” nature and also compensating for its slightly lower armour rating relative to RG.  
• Slightly boosted some pieces of Her Hand, Indoril, and Stalhrim enchantability as these were too low.
  

Other changes:

• Ranged spell projectiles move faster & are harder to dodge: +40% ftargetmaxspellspeed
• Reduced the damage of bound weapons by 25% and rebalanced purchase price for Fiend/Devil/Demon items. Bound armor is unchanged.
• Made a number of unique items like Magebane, Lord’s Mail, Koal Cave Dreugh Armor, Stormkiss, Staff of Hasedoki, Warlock’s Ring, Temreki etc more useful or relevant. The changes stay very close to vanilla, but you may now see an occasional constant item that used to be cast-on-use or similar.  
• Some relatively weaker items, like Umbra and the artifact staves, will now do more damage, and/or have a buffed enchant to compensate.
• Silver weapons now have 50% higher enchant values than steel (previously it was 20% lower).  This is probably unbalanced given silver weapons have other advantages.  LMK your thoughts.
• Gave Ice and Adamantium armour minor boosts to enchantability.  I'm not keen to rebalance the entire game's enchantments so I'm generally looking to add a little bit of flexibility and reduce imbalances without allowing the player to go nuts.
• Added a multiplier to trap difficulty.  Traps should have difficulty of 0.2x their lock difficulty...high enough for people to get an idea of whether they like having trap difficulty, low enough not to be a huge hassle.  I can tell already this was removed in vanilla so as not to duplicate the tedium of lockpicking - this is a controversial change so let me know your thoughts. 
• Removed and replaced some items such as Arrille's newtscale cuirass and Alveleg's dragonscale shield to prevent the player from finding these too early.
• Increased the value of some enchanted items. No more enchanted bonemold gear for 100 gold.
• Mornsu Omalor now carries 1 bow and 40 arrows instead of 12 bows and 1 arrow.  If you know, you know.
• Fryse Hag no longer carries the devastating daedric-equivalent Winterwound dagger at level 8.  Thank me later.
• A little surprise: Reimagined the Steel Broadsword of Hewing as the Masterwork Steel Broadsword with better damage and a special enchantment.  It's pretty hard to find now so good luck...
• Fixed a number of missing flags and errors with silver/enchanted weapons not appearing as such, or enchantments not triggering properly because they were cast on strike (touch) instead of (target).
  

Optional File - QoL Changes:

This mod also includes an optional file that reduces the number of cliffracer spawns by 99%, makes escort characters faster and more durable, and bosses carrying legendary items tougher.  More information on the changes can be found here.

Many bosses carrying legendary items, especially the mages, are only level 15 or so and can be killed before casting more than 1-2 spells.  If you use this optional file, this will no longer be the case.  Generally they will not be any more damaging, just more durable, and should take another 4-5 hits to go down.  You will need to manage your own survivability more now, you can't just go HAM - and this has positive flow-on effects for making supporting potions and items that offer resistances and debuffs more useful.

Future changes:

This mod really needs community feedback to get better, so leave a post or comment in the forum. Planned upcoming changes include:

- Review the enchantability of top tier weapons and armour (mostly unchanged to date) as there are a number of small imbalances in vanilla.

  

- Further tweaks to item enchant value and comparisons.  At the higher gear tiers there are some clear imbalances between weapon and armour types and materials, which need to be revisited given the drastic changes to damage (especially for maces).  


Final Notes:
Thanks to everyone on Reddit for help & input.

If this mod is not up your alley, I was inspired by the following mods which you should check out:

Inspired by: 
Better Balanced and More Realistic Weaponry:  Better Balanced and More RealisticWeaponry at Morrowind Nexus - mods and community (nexusmods.com)
Morrowind – Hardcore Mode: Morrowind - Hardcore Mode at MorrowindNexus - mods and community (nexusmods.com)