That shirtless guy in Morrowwind was an asshole. Sending some kid into a basement to fight giant rats well knowing that it'd be their first battle and likely not surviving, while he stayed at home shirtless and well fit to remove those pestering rats, just pretending to be an alcoholic or something.
I mean your whole argument still stands though because iirc correctly the first real quest he gives is the "go into the bandit filled murder robot dungeon and find a tiny ass Rubik's cube"