Morrowind:Combat

Attack Types
There are 3 basic attacks you can do, each depends on how you are moving when you start your attack. (Not necessarily how you are moving when you finish it.)

Note that you can bypass this mechanic by going into the Options menu and turning on "Always Use Best Attack", upon which you will use the highest damaging attack style for your weapon no matter your character's movement.

Chop
This is the default attack. To Chop, all you need to do is start your attack while standing still, or you can run forwards and strafe left or right at the same time (a diagonal movement). You will raise your weapon and do a downward stroke at your opponent. Most weapons seem to deliver the most damage with this attack. The only weapons that do not work very well with a chop are Spear class weapons.

Slash
To perform a Slash, start your attack while moving to the left or right. You will swing your weapon sideways (right to left) instead of downwards. This is a good attack to use in close combat, as you will be more likely to dodge your opponent's attacks while moving to the side. Most weapons are good for slashing, the notable exceptions again being Spears. A few, mostly Long Blades, are best used with this attack.

Thrust
To perform a Thrust, start your attack while moving forwards or backwards. You will attack straight ahead with your weapon. This attack is good for keeping your distance from opponents, especially since you can start it while moving backwards, and always keep yourself out of range of their attacks. Most weapons do not do as much damage when Thrusting, but Spears are ideal for it. Most Short Blades also receive a slight advantage with this attack.

Marksman
In addition to the three melee attacks, there are also ranged weapons. For these you will either need a bow and arrows, a crossbow and bolts, or a supply of throwing weapons. For bows and crossbows, you must equip both the weapon and the ammunition in order to use them. Bows and crossbows are 2-handed weapons, so you cannot hold a shield or a light while using them. Throwing weapons are not restricted in this manner.

Weapons
There are five basic classes of melee weapons, as well as Hand-to-hand combat and Marksmanship.
Axes
These come in one-handed and two-handed varieties. They are best as Chopping weapons, though fairly effective for Slashing as well. They are by far the most damaging of weapons, but they are also quite heavy, and generally slower in attack speed, and with a narrower range of attack than most other weapons.

Blunt Weapons
Blunt weapons come in a wide variety; from maces and clubs to warhammers to staves, they can be used for a variety of different fighting styles. For damage, warhammers are the best you can get outside of axes, and have the advantage of range as well. Maces and clubs are not nearly as strong as their two-handed cousins, but give you the advantage of faster speed and the ability to use a shield. Staves are mostly useful for their ability to hold powerful enchantments, though they are also faster and have a wider range than any other two-handed weapons. Blunt weapons typically have narrow damage ranges. For example, while a Longsword might have a damage range of 2-20, a blunt alternative will have a range of 8-12. In this way, "charge time" is far less necessary with blunt weapons.

Long Blades
Long blades are good versatile weapons, able to Chop, Slash, and in most cases Thrust with almost equal facility. Long blades are also the most numerous weapon-type in the game, and there are more Artifact-class long blades than any other weapon type. Furthermore, the one-handed weapon with the most Enchant points in the game, the Ebony Scimitar from Tribunal, is a long blade. Long Blades are generally faster in attack speed than axes or blunt weapons, though like axes, they are limited in their range of attack. They come in both one-handed and two-handed varieties. One-handed blades are slightly less damaging and slightly faster, and allow the use of a shield. If you use a two-handed blade you will be unable to block, even if you have a shield equipped in your inventory.

Short Blades
Short blades are by far the fastest weapons available, though they suffer for damage. However, being able to get in twice as many attacks in the same time period may make up for it. They are all one-handed, and their light weight is perfect for those who want to be able to carry a lot of loot, or just stay fast on their feet. They are mostly equally effective at Chopping and Slashing, and slightly better for Thrusts.

Short blades tend to have higher minimum damage and lower maximum damage, so it can be more effective to repeatedly attack with them as fast as possible rather than fully drawing them before each strike. Their fast attack speed also makes them useful for repeatedly inflicting Cast when Strikes enchantments at a higher rate compared to slower weapons.

Characters who choose Conjuration as a major skill will also start the game with Bound Dagger, which is the most powerful weapon you can have at that moment in the game. That being said, a new character can quickly travel to Balmora to buy the other Bound Weapon skills, so this advantage is limited.

Spears
Spears are great for those who like a different style of combat, as they are generally best used with Thrust attacks, and not very effective for Chops and Slashes, in contrast with all the other weapon types. They have the widest range available, allowing you to keep your distance. They are all two-handed, so you can't use a shield, but if you keep far enough away from your opponents, you shouldn't need one. Spears are also generally lighter than most two-handed weapons (with the exception of staves, over which spears have the clear advantage of higher damage). Unfortunately, spears lack the variety of options of the other weapon classes, as there are far fewer quality spears available. It's also harder to find training in the skill - only 2 people in the entire game offer spear-training.

Spears are a useful weapon for stealth combat due to their longer reach. Because they can hit opponents from farther away, it is easier to get close enough for a sneak attack with a Spear compared to other melee weapons, meaning that Spears can retain the 4x multiplier to melee critical hits while still attacking from a longer distance.

Hand-to-hand
Another option for melee combat is to fight with your bare hands. Attacks with fists deal damage to the opponent's Fatigue instead of their Health, until they become exhausted and fall over, at which point you start dealing actual damage. After an opponent is knocked unconscious, a single punch will typically knock the enemy back to the ground, since their fatigue stays at or below 0 while they are knocked out.

There are a couple advantages to using hand-to-hand. You are far more likely to stagger opponents with hand-to-hand attacks compared to strikes with weapons, which makes the skill surprisingly potent against single enemies. With sufficient skill level, rapidly punching with fists will repeatedly stagger even the most powerful opponents in the game until they fall to the ground, unable to attack back after the first punch. Even if they do manage to get an attack in, opponents are much less likely to hit you due to their depleted fatigue. In general, if you can hit your opponent first, it is typical to avoid taking any damage at all in a hand-to-hand fight against a single opponent. The trade-off is that due to the extra step of attacking the opponent's fatigue, kills with hand-to-hand tend to take longer. Because fights are prolonged against each enemy and you can only punch one enemy at a time, hand-to-hand is much less effective when fighting multiple opponents. For this reason, you will typically take less damage against a large group of enemies by using weapons or magic to fight.

While hand-to-hand is commonly thought of as an alternative to fighting with weapons, it is usually more efficient to make use of the skill in tandem with a weapon or damage spell. Not only does this allow you to more effectively fight large groups of enemies at once, but it also grants you a faster method of dealing damage to downed opponents. While the fatigue depletion and high stagger rate of fists are very powerful, the health damage they deal once the enemy is knocked out is extremely low. The fastest way to kill an enemy with hand-to-hand is to deplete the opponent's fatigue with fists, and then switch to a weapon when the opponent falls to the ground, as the weapon will deal far more damage than fists. If the opponent lasts long enough to stand back up, temporarily switching back to fists and punching the enemy once will knock them back out. That being said, any one-on-one fist fight is essentially over once an opponent is knocked down, fists or otherwise, so using hand-to-hand with a weapon skill isn't necessarily required in a one-on-one fight.

Note that while it is commonly thought of as a useful strategy to use hand-to-hand in tandem with Paralysis (since punching a paralyzed opponent will damage health), this is generally a very inefficient method of using the skill. The most powerful strengths of Hand-to-hand are its high stagger rate and fatigue depletion, neither of which come into effect when punching a paralyzed enemy. When using paralysis, it is nearly always better to use a weapon or damage spell instead.

While the disabling function of hand-to-hand can be duplicated somewhat by using spell effects such as Damage/Drain/Absorb Fatigue or Damage Strength/Agility, hand-to-hand has the advantage of bypassing Magic Resistance and Reflect, which can be found as passive effects on certain creatures such as mid to high level Daedra. Nothing is immune or resistant to hand-to-hand.

This skill is also useful in a few quests in the expansions where you're expected to disable an opponent without killing them, so you may want at least a few levels so that you can land a blow to knock out your target if your supply of fatigue-draining magic is insufficient.

Marksman
Marksman weapons come in three varieties: bow and arrows, crossbow and bolts, and throwing weapons. Bows, crossbows, and throwing weapons are placed into your main weapon slot, while arrows and bolts get their own Ammunition slot (where they will stay even after switching to another weapon). Unenchanted ammunition that hits an enemy will randomly be added to their inventory where it can later be reclaimed, but be warned that enemies might equip it and fire it right back at you (especially if you are using a Throwing Weapon against an unarmed opponent). The chance of this happening is determined by the game setting   (25% by default). Ammunition that misses is lost forever.

If you throw/fire a ranged weapon directly into an incoming spell, the two projectiles collide in mid-air, and the spell activates as if it hit anything else. You can destroy an enemy's spells before they hit you this way. This also works with spells against spells.

The most compelling reason to use Marksman weapons is the ability to deal damage at range. This allows the player to attack enemies from areas unreachable by the AI, or simply strike or kill an opponent before they can get close enough to attack with melee. A significant disadvantage to using Marksman is the lack of enchantment options. Bows and crossbows cannot be enchanted with custom Cast When Strikes enchantments, which limits their potential compared to Melee weapons. In this sense, Marksman competes with magic as a method of ranged combat because spells can deal a wide range of effects from a distance as opposed to being limited to just straight damage. The main advantages of using Marksman weapons compared to using spells for ranged attacks are the simplicity of managing ammunition compared to managing Magicka in combat, the ability to deal Critical Hits with sneak attacks for 1.5x damage, and the fact that Marksman damage is increased by the Strength attribute.

Bows
:These are the most commonly found Marksman weapons. Bows can be found in many places, or you can instantly get yourself the best option weightlessly with the use of a Bound Longbow spell. Arrows are so common you should almost never run out, no matter how bad a shot you are. Arrows in Morrowind take a long time to be pulled down by gravity, so aiming above the target is necessary only for more distant targets.

Crossbows
:Crossbows are far less common - only two varieties are found in the main game (Bloodmoon adds a third). They have a longer reload time between shots than the other Marksman weapons, but have the unique advantage of having the same minimum and maximum damage (on Crossbows themselves, anyway; bolts still have a small range of damage). This makes them ideal for rapid firing in close quarters, though they can be used for medium-to-long range attacks as well (but be warned that gravity will bring down a bolt that wasn't fully drawn back sooner, making rapid-fire long-ranged combat less than ideal for crossbows).

:One disadvantage of crossbows is the relative rarity of their ammunition. You will be mostly dependent on the vendors for your supply, since Bolts are rarely found in great supply in the wild. Luckily, there are vendors that sell an unending supply of bolts.

Throwing Weapons
:Throwing Weapons are another option for ranged attacking. Since they don't require a bow to use, you can travel lighter and still hold an item in your other hand. However, they suffer from the same problem as crossbows, in that it can be hard to find a steady supply of quality throwing weapons (indeed, all restocking purchasable throwing weapons aren't especially good). For the sake of determining damage, they are treated as both the bow and the arrow, essentially dealing double the damage listed on the weapon itself. For most throwing weapons, this is not enough to overcome the power added by, say, a Daedric Long Bow, but many of the Throwing Weapons added by the Tribunal expansion can hit for hundreds of damage with sufficient Strength.

:It also deserves mentioning that Thrown Weapons move much more slowly than Arrows or Bolts, and succumb to gravity sooner. Somewhat comically, the Boots of Blinding Speed can give the player enough speed to outrun a weapon they have just thrown.

Chance to Hit
Combat in Morrowind is relatively straight-forward. Your chance to hit can be generalized as  .

Hit Rate
  Order of Operations (PEMDAS) applied.

In essence, your Hit Rate is equal to your Weapon Skill, increased by 1% for every 5 points of Agility or 10 points of Luck you have. This is then multiplied by somewhere between .75 to 1.25, depending on how much Fatigue you have left. Having full Fatigue will increase your accuracy by 25%, and being depleted of fatigue will decrease your accuracy by 25%. Finally, your hit chance is increased by a flat amount from Fortify Attack effects (such as from the Warrior Birthsign), and because of a glitch, Blindness effects.

 

Evasion
 

Evasion works exactly the same as Hit Rate, only the defender's Weapon Skill isn't used and evasion is increased by Sanctuary instead of Fortify Attack.

Blocking
Blocking is a simple matter of having a shield equipped. Your chance to block is your chance to evade, but with your block skill also included in the equation. You cannot block without a shield, so if you're using a 2-handed weapon or want to carry a light instead, you will not be able to block attacks. Blocking will not protect you from spells or weapon enchantments.

Blocking also has a floor and cap. A character's chance to block is no lower than 10% when a shield is equipped and no more than 50%. In-game constants for this are iBlockMinChance and iBlockMaxChance.

Blocking is rolled only after a Hit is confirmed against Evasion.

If a character has a 30% chance to beat Evasion and a 20% chance to beat Block,
They have a  6% chance of connecting the blow to the enemy, dealing weapon damage and proccing Cast on Strike enchantments.
This is a 30% chance to beat evasion, times an 20% chance to still beat block.
They have a 24% chance of hitting the enemy shield, proccing Cast on Strike enchantments.
This is a 30% chance to beat evasion, times an 80% chance to be blocked.
They have a 70% chance of missing completely and dealing no damage or effects.

Damage
The Damage a player deals can be described as  .

Weapon Damage
Generally speaking, you can figure out a weapon's damage by looking at the weapon's description. Each attack type for a given weapon will have its own damage range - unlike some other RPGs, the Weapon Damage isn't chosen randomly from this range, but rather this range is to describe how damage will be if the attack button is pressed quickly or if you let the weapon be pulled back all the way before releasing.

Bows and Crossbows have this damage further increased by the projectile they shoot. How this works is fairly simple - the Arrow/Bolt's damage is added to the Bow/Crossbow's. See the Marksman page for a listing of all projectile strengths.

Throwing Weapons are treated oddly, in that they are considered both weapon and projectile. Simply put, take the Weapon Damage and double it when using a Throwing Weapon.

Note that the damage of any Cast on Strike Enchantments are not affected by how far the weapon is pulled back - they really do deal damage randomly within the range listed.

Strength Modifier
 

Basically, 50 strength is the break even number. That offers a 100% strength modifier  (no gain, no loss in damage). Each point above or below 50 strength is equivalent to a 1% gain or loss in the modifier.  So, 0 strength offers a 50% or half damage strength modifier, while 100 strength offers a 150% or 1.5 times modifier.

Condition Modifier
 

Condition is a simple ratio - if your weapon has 50% Condition left (say, 400/800), you will deal 50% as much damage as you would have with a weapon in perfect Condition.

Critical Hit Multiplier
This is equal to 1 for regular attacks, 4 for melee Critical Hits, or 1.5 for ranged Critical Hits.

If you perform an attack without being seen, the game might tell you that you dealt Critical Damage (this is generally called by players a "Sneak Attack" or "Critical Hit"). This is a simple multiplier, but remember that damage dealt by Cast on Strike enchantments is not multiplied.

It is easier to perform multiple Sneak Attacks on a target if you can somehow remove it from combat between attacks (it performs fewer Sneak Checks and is less likely to run away). A Calm effect can help nicely with this, though be warned that you can rack up a new bounty for Assault with each attack if a Guard is in sight (even if the target originally initiated combat).

Note that due to a glitch in the combat system, if you manage to hit an opponent with a ranged spell while remaining undetected, your first physical attack following the spell may be considered a sneak attack.

Damage Reduction From Armor
Physical damage is divided by   to calculate the Health loss of the target (i.e. damage cannot be reduced to less than 25% of the original amount).

Armor affects damage in a more complicated way than the other factors, since how much damage a particular Armor Rating prevents depends on the amount of incoming damage.

Here is a quick list of things to remember regarding Armor:
The reduction occurs only after all the multipliers are applied to the damage.
Armor is subject to diminishing returns; each point of Armor Rating prevents less damage than the previous point did.
Greater incoming damage means a smaller percentage of that damage will be prevented (e.g. an Armor Rating of 10 will reduce 10 incoming damage by 50%, but it will reduce 20 incoming damage by only 33%).
An Armor Rating more than three times higher than the amount of incoming damage is wasted.
The ToggleCombatStats Console Code displays only damage before Armor Rating is taken into account, not the final damage.

Example:
1 + 240 / 500 = 1.48
Since 1.48 is lower than 4 it can be used in the equation.
500 / 1.48 = 337

If the number is above 4 then default to 4.

Hand-to-Hand
  Fatigue Damage or  
  Health Damage

Hand-to-Hand uses its own damage formula, which does not take Strength (or Condition, obviously) into account. The above formulas describe the damage dealt by a fully-drawn back punch, with Health Damage being dealt only against targets that have collapsed from a lack of Fatigue or that are paralyzed.

NPCs and Creatures
NPCs have their own attributes and skill levels, and use mostly the same damage and accuracy formulas that the player does, with a few minor differences. NPCs do not "draw back" their weapons--every NPC in the game attacks at the same speed no matter what weapon they use. The portion of damage they would have dealt by "drawing back" their weapon is instead randomly determined. For this reason, opponents that use weapons with high damage ranges such as axes or warhammers are generally the most dangerous type of NPCs to face, outside of enemies with powerful weapon enchantments.

Creatures have the same attributes as NPCs, but they do not use NPC skills. Instead, creatures use a simplified set of three creature-exclusive skills: Combat, Magic, and Stealth. Combat is used to determine the accuracy of all melee attacks made by creatures. This includes basic weaponless attacks, attacks with weapons, and hand-to-hand attacks. Magic is checked when creatures cast spells. Stealth is checked whenever the creature would have utilized the Marksman skill.

In addition to the damage bonus they get from the Strength attribute, creatures also have a base damage range that is added to the damage of all their physical attacks, including attacks made by creatures wielding weapons or fists. For instance, the reason why Vivec deals so much Fatigue damage with Hand-to-Hand is almost solely due to the fact that he has a base damage value of 100-400, which is added to the damage of his punches. This mechanic also makes creatures such as Dremora who wield weapons particularly dangerous, since the base damage assigned to the creature is added to the damage that they already deal with their weapon.

Stagger/Knock Down
One potential side-effect of damage is staggering or even knocking down opponents. Higher damage (and lower opponent Agility) will increase the chance of these effects, which means that slower, harder-hitting two-handed weapons are generally more likely to keep an opponent off its toes. Note that Hand-to-Hand attacks have an unusually high stagger rate and will knock an opponent down automatically once they run out of Fatigue.

Armor
Armor is used to reduce damage from physical attacks. The strength of armor is known as Armor Rating, or AR. The AR for each piece of armor is  . The AR for each unarmored slot, including shield, is  . Equipment slots filled with Clothing (anything without a listed Armor Rating) are treated as Unarmored.

Despite the manual's claim that your cuirass determines 40% of your total armor rating and every other piece determines 10%, your total AR is actually  . In other words, your Cuirass makes up 30% of your total armor rating, while your Shield, Helm, Greaves, Boots, and individual Pauldrons make up 10% each and each Gauntlet/Bracer accounts for 5% each.

If going completely unarmored, you need to know about the Unarmored Bug.

Spell Damage
It is also possible to deal damage using magic. Unlike physical attacks, spell damage does not naturally carry the chance to stagger or knock down opponents, though there are dedicated spell effects that can disable or hinder enemies.

Spell damage is not directly modified by attributes or skill level--instead, these stats only affect the chance that the spell will be cast successfully. The damage range listed on the spell is exactly the damage that will be dealt when cast, modified only by the opponent's resistances and weaknesses. Spell damage ignores Armor Rating, and cannot deal Critical Hits.

The formulas for determining the spell cost, chance of successfully casting, and damage range can be found here.

Useful Spells
Other than the obvious attack spells, there are several tactical spell effects which can be very helpful in combat.
Blind – A good preliminary spell to use from a distance, particularly against archers or spellcasters, as it will keep them occupied until you can get in range.
Burden – Generally only useful in very large doses against opponents who are wearing heavy armor, as most opponents are not carrying nearly enough to become encumbered otherwise.
Calm – A sneaky way to stop opponents from fighting in order to gain a second chance at a sneak attack. Unlike most offensive spells, Calm is not resisted by creatures with magic resistance.
Command - A good way to get a few additional allies in a battle, if only for a little while. Also gives the non-Commanded creatures an additional target to attack instead of you.
Damage Attribute - Can cripple your opponents. Damaging your opponents' agility will have him falling over every time you hit him and struggling to block. Damaging your opponents' strength will reduce the damage he deals and can lower his encumbrance enough that he cannot move.
Demoralize – An enemy that's running away is an enemy that isn't attacking you. However, this can cause problems if they happen to run into town and start fights with the locals. Just hope the guards take them out for you.
Frenzy – A good way to initiate combat with a non-hostile target without being accused of a crime.
Levitate – A favorite of archers or spellcasters, as it gives you a perfect vantage point from which to attack your enemies while remaining out of reach. Be aware that many enemies who lack ranged attacks will flee if you levitate above their attack range. Also 1 point levitate on target with long duration makes them essentially run in place and can then be avoided.
Paralyze – Makes your opponents completely helpless. Be aware that some enemies, most notably vampires, are immune to paralysis, and most enemies have a small chance to resist it.
Silence – Invaluable against spellcasters, though you may want to use Paralyze instead. It costs the same and is equally effective in most cases.
Turn Undead – See Demoralize above. This is somewhat more useful, as undead are much less likely to be found near towns where they can cause trouble by running.
Water Walking – A good trick mostly for avoiding combat, as water-bound enemies can't attack you on the surface, and normally land-based enemies move very slowly in the water.

Death
When you die, you are prompted to load your most recent saved game. Choose "no" and you get the option to load another save, start a new game, or quit.