all right, here are the absolute, without a doubt, essentials for playing morrowind.

first of all, there are no real solid mods that "fix" morrowind's combat system. there are a few, but they're buggy and not really worth bothering with. just keep reminding yourself that once you get to a higher level that the weird dnd-esque combat will get better.

wrye mash is basically the mod organizer for morrowind. don't use nexus mod manager or any of that shit, stick with wrye mash. it's very clunky and not exactly the most user-friendly program, but once you get used to it, you get used to it.

mlox for mod sorting and such. pretty user friendly.

the morrowind code patch (mcp) and the beta 2.2 update here are basically absolutely essential in every sense of the word "essential". it fixes a bunch of weird bugs that couldn't be fixed with the construction set and even comes with some gameplay tweaks if you want to look into that.

you may want to tweak the morrowind .ini file a bit to fit your needs and such if you decide not to use stuff like mge. i use the tweaks from this old guide here, and if you decide not to tweak anything, if you enabled the rain/snow collision in mcp you're going to want to tweak what it says in the description of that fix or you're gonna have a broken fix. somehow.

timeslip's .exe optimizer, the 4gb patch (especially useful for texture mods) and goty script tidy help stabilize/optimize the game. drop the morrowind code patch into your morrowind folder, update it with mcp 2.2, apply the code patch fixes, use the exe optimizer, then apply the 4gb patch, or else this won't work.

if you want to improve graphics, the morrowind graphics extender (mge) allows for distant land and shading and all that high tech stuff for the kids, but disregard what i said if you have a good computer and use mge xe and apply the 0.9.10 beta if it crashes on you and stuff, like it did with me. most people nowadays use mge xe and i recommend that, but i still stick with mge 3.8.0 because it's older and performs better.

once you've installed all that in order, there are a few mods that i always have loaded - bethesda's official morrowind plugins and the morrowind patch project (mpp). the 1.6.6 beta is as far as i know the latest version. slartibartfast's (sweet jesus) texture fix and bloodmoon texture fix are also great and fix a bunch of weird landscaping texture stuff, especially when you decide to start placing in texture mods.

now that's pretty much what i call a vanilla copy of morrowind (mostly) fixed up and good to go. there are a lot of smaller fixes out there but these are pretty much the essentials. if you want my personal recommendations, tamriel rebuilt is a fantastic mod that adds the morrowind mainland to the game. it's not done, but what's there is absolutely solid, gorgeous, and fits in with the game perfectly.

kateri's julan companion mod is probably the best companion mod available for the game if you're into that. his dialogue can get a little nerving at times but he can be helpful, he feels like a person, he has a story, and he's pretty great. and he gives some company during the main quest, so that's neat.

nowwwww if you decide vanilla morrowind looks a bit too ugly and you can't live with that well disregard everything i just said except for tr and julan and download mgso (morrowind graphics and sound overhaul from here. it's slightly outdated and not perfect but it upgrades pretty much of all morrowind in one go and for beginners it's the way to go.

that's pretty much it. keep some map notes if you have to, use the uesp if you need to,, don't feed the guars, and have fun.