So… Morrowind and leveling pace…
 

As much as it shames me to admit, I've installed Morrowind not once but twice - and have yet to make it more than 30 minutes into the game. I'm thinking about going full steam ahead with it after I tire of Skyrim (which will happen soon I think), but one thing concerns me: character experience and pacing.

In Skyrim, I was level 25 with barely any effort, hardly getting the chance to visit any towns beyond Whiterun before everything got crazy with scaling. Now, at level 53, the game is finally where it should have been all along with its pacing… but encounters are too easy and there's still 80% of the game left to go (in my estimation).

In contrast, how is Morrowind's leveling curve, is it also ridiculously easy in the start, only leveling off after your character is already stupidly powerful?

In Vanilla Morrowind I happened to suffer a lot in the low levels. I mean, if you absolutely must explore each cave on your way, you will sooner or later run into bandits who are so much better. I still remember fleeing from a Dremora for several game days when I was level 5…
Once you're beyond level 10, however, your adventuring life becomes rather simple IIRC.

OTOH, I found Tribunal to be a lot easier while still very low-level because enemies levelled with me and had access to equipment that was very detrimental to my health.

Are things still a challenge at higher levels under Vanilla?

Yeah , Morrowind is very tough at early levels if you start exploring caves and tombs too early. I'd recommend going to Balmora before doing that, and begin the faction quests to get useful equipment.

While what Jaz and Thrasher say is true, I have found it quite quite entertaining early on to OCCASIONALLY poke my nose into a temple/cave or tomb and see if I could punch above my waist. Now, in most of the cases it didn't work, but when it did it was most rewarding experience :)

Oh yes, I did that extensively with my character. It was very touch and go. Many reloads required. But by the time I made it to Balmora, the faction quests were not as challenging and the rewards were not as useful.

It depends a lot on your character. If you go heavy on the enchantments, then the game will become a cakewalk later on. Same is true if you focus most of your effort into one weapon category, and one armour category (you can alleviate this a little by picking medium armour & spears, as both are a bit worse than the other similar alternatives, though not gamebreakingly bad).
You can also break the game by stacking chameleon buffs (from armour). At 100%, monsters can't see you, and it is a relatively common armour enchantment to find on loot.
Also, sooner or later you will reach a point where the game stops scaling.

So it has the same issues as Skyrim. Hmm… Can anyone recommend a balancing mod?

Galsiah's Character Development or Wakim's Game Improvements. However, you will have to do your own research because WGI is a compilation of multiple tweaks and you will probably not want to use all of them.

There were also LDones' Balancing Mods but his site no longer exists.

In short… no.

It doesn't really matter how you play either. In my game, I tried to be a "jack of all trades", and I was still a god by the time I was 2/3 finished.

I'm a completist though, so it was sort of unavoidable simply because I put so much time into the game. If you're able to ignore some of the sidequests and just concentrate on the MQ, then it's probably not as bad.

Are you playing with Tribunal installed? If so, I highly recommend this mod.

Seconded! I'd even consider this mod to be more of a patch, as playing Morrowind from the start with Tribunal installed is quite borked without this.

I would be playing with both expansions, yes. Though, I have to admit, my enthusiasm for doing so is no longer as great with the confirmation of this scaling issue.

I'm reading through a couple of the balancing mods listed by zahratustra, but it's hard to discern what's appropriate and what's not, with not having played through previously.

Sorry Drithius, it's a long time since I have played Morrowind so I can't really offer you any advice on what particular tweaks might be useful to you.

I don't understand why someone would WANT level scaling. I'd prefer a static world that doesn't level scale with the PC, and Morrowind is closer to that ideal than either Skyrim or Oblivion.

You don't have to power level to make progress in Morrowind. That's one of its charms.

Can't speak for the others Thrasher but what I mean is that, even if you don't power level, you still level too fast.

Aye, that's one of my worries. The other being that I'd be too powerful for the majority of the game's content once leveling up too fast. I'll do some more research once I'm all Skyrim'ed out.

Well, I never leveled too fast as mage. I always felt underpowered against some enemies until I created some uber enchantments. Stay away from enchantments and uber alchemy and you're fine, I think. BTW, that is the way I am playing Skyrim, too.

There's a good chance that you're going to be overpowered by the end of the game regardless of class or playstyle.

Honestly though, I didn't find it to be a huge deal in Morrowind. Combat is not the game's strong point to begin with. Exploration, and discoving locations/lore is where the game really shines.

Very true JD. I never thought of Morrowind's leveling as much of a problem.

Yep, good point JDR. Also, do not look at walkthroughs to find the hidden OP equipment.