Ok so, most of us know the Character Lineages.

such as:

Warrior: General fighting stuff, such as main quests, houses and fighters guild
Barbarian: same as warrior, more or less
Crusaders: Main quest, Temple, Imperial cult, imperial legion. Good guy
Knights: same as warrior,barb more or less
Scouts: General fighting as above.
Archers: ranged fighting, main quest etc.
Rogues: same as above, maybe less main quest

Mages: main quest, etc.
Sorcerors: same as above
Healers: Imperial Cult, maybe main quest
Battlemages: main quest etc.
Witchunters: temple, imperial cult... maybe main quest
Spellswords: main quest etc.
Nightblades: Morag tong assasin, thief guild

Thief: Thief guild
Assasin: morag tong guild
Acrobat: morag tong, thief


Now, the ones that I do not know, are the next ones. These ones I have no idea how you could go about. These ones are obviously not meant for main quest, ofcourse u could do them. What would you use these guys for?

Monks: unarmed combat... ??? what guild, faction etc?
Pilgrims: uhh, Temple??
Bard: no idea. What, you play a lute at a bar?

I just dont see what u can do with those, does anyone see?

I think it's easiest to use a combat specialized character your first time through the main quest. The developers knew melee fighters would be the most popular characters and designed the game around them. Magic and stealth specialized characters are much easier to play if they have some strong combat skills.

Pure monks and Pilgrims are at the other end of the spectrum from the melee fighters. They are hard to play without mods and probably used mostly by experienced players.

This link has an Excel spreadsheet that's helpful for character creation:
http://www.gamebanshee.com/morrowind/downl...rationGuide.xls

Morrowind is pretty open-ended when it comes to character development though. You can have the baddest lute-playing bard on the face of Nirn if you want. You can have a huge Orc warrior who becomes Cassius Curio's roomie if that's your thing.

I usually make custom classes for my new characters now. So far I have:

Class / Specialization / Race / Sex / Name
Fallen Priest / magic / Altmer / male / Aiden Direnni
Freebooter / combat / Dunmer / female / Tarasa Servu
Warden-of-the-Root / combat / Argonian / male / Seeks-Far-Waters
Seer / magic / Breton / male / Berdic the Lucky
Moon Dancer / stealth / Khajiit / female / S'Darsha
Shield Maiden / combat / Nord / female / Freydis Helsdottir

Thats a very useful spreadsheet; nice link Dilvish

I don't bother using the ready-made classes, as i always seem to end up with one or two skills that i don't use. You make a good point about the bark and the monk; it certainly makes the game harder when you have a combat-weak character. I've always found most stealth characters pretty weak as well, down more to the mechanics of the game rather than anything really wron with the character.
I think you are right about the game being built around combat chars Dilvish, since the game tries to force you down that path whilst you play. I seem to remember someone ages ago posted on here that a nice MW game would have a huge amount of preset rules; like no saves, when you die you begin the game again, no potions, no magic... It was pretty intense, but i think someone who could play the game in that way will get the most out of MW.

I just started this monk character:
Marius Nothus
Imperial
custom class - Monk Militant of Julianos
specialization - stealth
favorite skills - luck, agility
sign - The Lady
Major Skills:
hand to hand
unarmored
restoration
sneak
athletics
Minor Skills:
acrobatics
alchemy
conjuration
security
illusion
I want to concentrate on hand to hand and avoid the use of weapons if at all possible.
I downloaded these mods:
Monk mod by Aragon which allows hand to hand attacks to damage health instead of just fatigue.
Dodge mod by Aragon to beef up the unarmored skill.
So far, Marius has taken out two Dark Brotherhood assassins without weapons. He is working on the Imperial Cult quests.
He has to get past the skeleton warrior in the Tomb beneath the house in Caldera now. Sneak/invisibility/chameleon may work since punching the skeleton sure doesn't.
Does anyone know if gloves or gauntlets can be enchanted with cast on strike spells?

I don't enchant gloves or gauntlets so I can't be sure whether cast on strike is possible. Try it out and see. The most enchantment points will be found in exquisite gloves I suspect. However if they won't take cast on strike you can have constant effect fortify (skills, attributes and attack) all of which will make you more powerful.

http://www.uesp.net/morrow/hints/mwitems.shtml

I'm almost certain that this page will give you a load of information about every item in the game, including enchant values. I'm certain that Malchik is correct in saying that the exquisite gloves have the highest values, but i cannot check because the college server decided to get all arsy and filter a couple of UESP pages

I'm beginning to think that hand to hand won't damage creatures that are immune to normal weapons. If this is true, then my idea of using hand to hand combat exclusively isn't feasible.
If I can find some gloves or gauntlets that can be enchanted with cast on strike, Marius could use them against the various undead and daedra with normal weapons immunity. Cast on strike enchantments may be limited to conventional weapons though.
Anyone have a silver mail gauntlet or spiked glove mod out there?

Anyway... It's a little early to worry about taking on an Ogrim or a Daedroth yet. Marius is building up his skills by terrorizing the local fauna during his missions for the Imperial Cult. Mudcrabs, scribs, and rats are getting scarce. Nix hounds and cliff racers beware!

Edit 11/29/04
I found the mod "Fists of Fire" by Argent.
It adds a variety of cast on strike spells for hand to hand and gloves that can be enchanted with cast on strike.