Skyrim

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Bergzore

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Bergzore

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About this mod

Overhaul and tweaks for all things Magic

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Changelogs
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This is a collection of tweaks for players who enjoy a vanilla or at least semi-vanilla play experience.

This mod focuses on settings, perks, skills, and items related to the Magic category.

WHAT THIS MOD INCLUDES:

--Magic scaling--
--Magnitude enchantments--
--Better Conjuration--
--Better Destruction elemental perks--
--Better dual casting--

***I highly suggest playing this mod with a very clean save, or better yet, a fresh playthrough***

If you like the mod, endorse!



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First, a couple notes:
1. Bergzore's mods are clean. You don't need to worry about cleaning them.
2. If you don't know what you're doing, don't make changes to the DLC addons and save them in the CK. It will break dependencies.
3. It's good to periodically check the comments section. I will often post details of why and how changes were made, share ideas that I'm brainstorming, and explain how the game calculates certain things. Think of it as a Twitter page that you can reply to.
4. If you are using Proper Combat, load mods in this order:

(Unofficial patches)
Proper Combat
Proper Combat Dawnguard
Proper Combat Hearthfire
Proper Combat Dragonborn
Proper Magic
Proper Magic Dawnguard
Proper Magic Dragonborn


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Mod details:

Proper Magic aims to improve the progression of the Magic system in a "seamless" way. Vanilla Skyrim is enjoyable for the most part as a mage, but at a certain point it becomes redundant. Players who are not fans of big overhaul mods may find what they are looking for here.

For a list of all changes, please see the Change Log.


Problems, Solutions, and Reasons:

***

Problem: Magic magnitude or duration was mostly static, only affected by perks and alchemy.

Solution: Magic scales at a rate of 0.5% per level to match the combat skills. At a skill of 100, a Magic school's spells will have 50% greater magnitude or duration, depending on the school. Spell cost does not decrease with skill level.

Reason: Combat skills scale with skill level, and there is no reason why Magic should be any different. Every character has the right to greater damage or effectiveness.

***

Problem: Fortify -Magic school- enchantments only reduced casting cost, resulting in repetitive combat with the player eventually having free spells.

Solution: Fortify -Magic school- enchantments boost the magnitude or duration of spells instead of reducing cost. The only way to reduce cost with Proper Magic is through the normal perks. Additionally, Magicka Regeneration is no longer penalized in combat.

Reason: A mage should be putting points into Magicka, not neglecting it completely due to its ultimate redundancy. Some spells should be cheap and pack little punch, and some spells should have you dumping a lot of Magicka for a big bang.

***

Problem: Bound weapons. Nuff said.

Solution: There are different levels of Bound weapons: Novice, Apprentice, Adept, Expert, and Master. The master tomes cannot be obtained until after the Conjuration Ritual quest is completed, just as any other master spell. This as well goes for the Bound Dagger sold in Tel Mithryn. The "Mystic Binding" versions of Bound weapons are fused with the main perks (Novice Conjuration, Apprentice Conjuration, etc.). The Mystic Binding perk now instead reduces Stamina cost of Bound weapon attacks by 20/35/50%, and this also affects bow zooming. Fortify Conjuration boosts Bound weapon damage as well as Conjuration duration; however, fortify -weapon skill- does not affect Bound weapons to prevent from stacking the effects. The weapon skill itself, and the perks, do.

Reason: Just about every other type of combat-oriented spell has different levels, so Bound weapons should as well. Before, the Bound Bow was overpowered early in the game, and the other Bound weapons were so-so. These new leveled versions of Bound weapons scale from Iron to Daedric damage, and the "Mystic Binding" versions do 1/3 more damage to be consistent with the vanilla formula. The Stamina cost reduction gives conjurers more incentive to use Bound weapons instead of physical ones, and potentially removes the need to dump any points into Stamina as a conjurer.

***

Problem: Mages had limited crafting options.

Solution: Two nonintrusive perks, Jeweler and Lapidary, pierce the Enchanting tree. Jeweler allows the creation of jewelry, and Lapidary allows the creation of circlets. Tailoring is being worked on as well, though I want it to be done right, not just some sloppy mess put together for an excuse to craft robes. I'm not sure when Tailoring will be implemented, but hopefully soon.

Reason: It would be nice to craft circlets, so that is now available. Additionally, I thought it odd that the player has to disenchant gear to learn enchantments, and has to experiment with ingredients to learn Alchemy recipes, but instantly knows how to craft a variety of gear right from the start. I mean, to forge weapons, armor, and jewelry would be a very practiced art. Now, you need the appropriate perk to forge jewelry. Weapons and armor are addressed in another mod, Proper Combat.

***

Problem: Destruction elemental perks like Intense Flames, Deep Freeze, and Disintegrate were useless due to only affecting enemies that were about to die anyway.

Solution: Impact has been moved to replace Intense Flames, and has a 60% chance to stagger with fire projectile spells. Deep Freeze now has a 15% chance to freeze an enemy with frost projectile spells, and now displays the visual effect of Ice Form. A second frost projectile will dispel the effect to prevent buggy stacking. Disintegrate has been replaced by Fulmination, and has a 15% chance to blast an opponent back with shock projectile spells, an effect similar to Unrelenting Force except only single target. Enemies' health level does not need to be low for these effects to happen.

Reason: These perks are clearly more useful this way. Plus, elemental spells are a bit more fun, and more situational.

***

Problem: Dual casting was far too expensive, and even rendered dual casting some schools completely pointless, especially Restoration.

Solution: The solution is very simple really. The dual casting modifier has been lowered to 2.4, down from 2.8.

Reason: The dual casting perks say "overcharges" in their descriptions. To "overcharge" something quite literally means to spend more than you receive, so I don't believe you should get more bang than the Magicka you put out. However, the vanilla +40% Magicka for +10% effectiveness was a bit over the top. +20% for +10% is much more reasonable.


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Installation, uninstallation, and compatibility:
Install with Nexus Mod Manager
-or-
Extract anywhere, then move or copy the .esp file(s) and the scripts folder into your Skyrim/data folder and be sure the mod(s) is/are checked in data files. To uninstall, remove the .esp file(s) from the data folder, the BoundBowEffectScript.pex, PerkDarkPotencyScript.pex, and QF_MGRitual03_00099F27.pex from the data/scripts folder, and the BoundBowEffectScript.psc, PerkDarkPotencyScript.psc, and QF_MGRitual03_00099F27.psc from the scripts/source folder.
This mod may not be fully compatible with other mods that modify or overhaul the Magic system. It was built around the latest release version of Skyrim.


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Why I feel these changes are important:

From day one, I've played Skyrim as a warrior, assassin, or archer, and I have no quarrel with those systems. I've wanted to play as a mage at times, and the only thing stopping me was the lack of proper progression for the Magic system. Spells just becoming cheaper wasn't enough for me; it just didn't feel right.
I think the game should be challenging or roughly balanced while leveling, but I am an optimizer at heart, and I like to see how much bang I can squeeze out of my character. With melee and archery, it's quite a satisfying bang, but for a mage...not so much. I've never been a fan of big overhaul mods (no offense to the authors; I'm sure they do great work), but some elements of Skyrim I feel could have been delivered better. While exploring new ideas for tweaks or changes, I try to ask myself, "How should Bethesda have done it?" as opposed to, "How will I do it?"

Note from author:

If there is a mod that makes these exact changes and nothing more, please let me know and I will eat my eyes.


Thanks, and have fun blowing stuff up.[/size]