SSE New Perks and Skills System with Oblivion Influences

[DivineAurora]

I've been thinking about a new perk and skill system, more refined for immersion and elder scrolls historical skill systems.

 

It would bring back the following skill trees:

 

Athletics

 

Acrobatics

 

Mysticism

 

Hand to Hand

 

and it would put Pickpocket and Lockpicking together in a 'Subtle Manipulation' skill

 

Lorewise, Mysticism is still gone as an official school of magic of course, but some older spell tomes and some found in places like Apocrypha would still have older labels, and the mysticism skill tree would still affect spells that were traditionally in it's school or older spells that are sometimes still labeled as such. There'd probably be a lore-book added somewhere to note which spells changed to which schools and talking about the official reasons for the changes, but the College of Winterhold is old enough and many of the lore and spellbooks you have access to is old enough that you should probably be treating Mysticism as still a distinct thing in parts of your training. Notably, many mysticism spells would be affected both by the mysticism skill tree and their new skill trees.

 

On to changes to the various skill trees.

 

Initial note: Damage is no longer as related to repeated points into perks, especially early perks, in skill trees, and has more significant relation to your level in a skill, both for spells and physical combat

 

Archery: More of the general bonus damage is tied to skill level, rather than points in Overdraw. Overdraw still exists, but only with a single point that can be put into it, and it's only something like a 25% bonus (with the remaining 75% put into just gaining levels in the skill. Critical Shot switched to only a perk point, scaling with skill level. Hunter's Discipline is potentially renamed and reflavored and changed a bit, rather than letting you collect more arrows from dead targets, it creates a chance for you to collect additional 'damaged' arrows that would normally have been unusable which can be used as part of the supplies when creating arrows at a forge, also, arrows in general have their recollecting ability changed a bit, they have different durability ratings (with most higher level arrows being more durable), increasing the odds of rather than being totally destroyed, leaving a 'damaged' arrow with this perk, or leaving fully intact arrows to collect normally even without it. Steady hand no longer requires multiple perk points invested, instead, it's time adjustment scales with skill level. Bullseye no longer exists. Something like Ordinator's Crippling shot exists which temporarily slows targets sometimes. A new perk causes you to get a damage bonus if you remain still for six seconds while the bow is drawn and then release an arrow with a bow without moving, you now need stamina to hold a bow drawn regardless of if you have this perk or not. A new perk slightly increases the damage of crossbows and reduces their reload times if you've enhanced them with smithing (adjusting them to yourself), loading crossbows requires stamina regardless of if you have this perk or not.

 

Block: Shield wall turned into a single perk, blocking effectiveness increase more tied to skill level. New perks reduce stamina costs of various aspects of blocking, separate ones for blocking, shield bashing, and power bashing. Normal staggering from shield bashes aren't as sure of a thing, nor are power bashing, but a chance calculated partly based on an opponent's armor value and remaining stamina, and has even more reduced chances on some large opponents like dragons and giants and such, and a new perk increases the odds of this calculation. There is a new perk that gives a chance to stagger non-large type opponents whose power-attacks are blocked. There is a new perk that creates a small chance to disarm an enemy hit with a power bash or whose power attack was blocked, the chance is related to an opponent's stamina. A new perk gives you temporary boost to magic resist when blocking with an enchanted shield or weapon for spells that hit the shield or weapon rather than hit you directly.

 

Heavy Armor: Juggernaut is now a single perk, and armor rating improvements from heavy armor are more related to your level in the skill. Falling damage now is higher the more weight you are carrying and wearing (including weight that is normally negated from things like perks), Cushioned perk isn't enough to negate the increase from the heavy armor weight, only decrease it. Conditioning no longer entirely removes the heavy armor movement penalty, only reduces it. Well-fitted now decreases the chances of you taking a critical hit, as does matching set, along with reduced versions of their normal increases to armor bonus. Reflect blows is gone. A new perk reduces the amount worn pieces of heavy armor applies to your encumbrance (although the weight still applies in some other areas, like the above-noted falling damage calculations), this effect is improved for a matching set, this perk also reduces the penalty of heavy armor to sneaking, and does so better if you have a matching set. A new perk reduces the amount wearing heavy armor increases the stamina cost of sprinting (it still increases the cost of sprinting, just not as much). A new perk causes a full set of enchanted heavy armor to grant a small amount of magic resistance. A new perk reduces fire, frost, and shock damage slightly while wearing a full set of heavy armor. A new perk reduces your damage taken from physical attacks (melee and archery/crossbow, but not magic) when you are below 25% health but above 50% stamina while wearing a full set of heavy armor. A new perk reduces damage taken from 1 handed weapons and ranged weapons when wearing a full set of heavy armor. With a new perk if you are at 80% or better stamina, non-large foes that strike you with a power attack have a small chance of being staggered and possibly also disarmed (related to their remaining stamina) when you are wearing full heavy armor. A new perk prevents weapons hitting you from causing bleeding damage through things like perks with a full set of heavy armor.

 

One-Handed: Armsman is now a single perk, more damage adjustment is tied to skill level. Bladesman, Bonebreaker, and Hack and Slash are all now single perks, with their bonuses affected by your level in the skill, same with dual fury. Attacking while jumping is now possible, and power attacks while jumping works for critical charge. Paralyzing strike is renamed and now has a chance to slow and/or stagger it's targets, based on their remaining stamina, rather than paralyze. A new perk lets power attacks with one-handed weapons have a chance of disarming a target based on their remaining stamina, which still works on blocked attacks if they were blocked with a weapon rather than a shield. A new perk causes unblocked attacks with one-handed weapons to deal a small amount of bonus damage to an enemy's stamina. A new perk lets unblocked attacks with one-handed weapons reduce an opponent's magicka regen temporarily. A new perk increases the speed of attacks with one-handed weapons (for non-dual-wielding purposes) slightly.

 

Two-Handed: Barbarian is now a single perk, more damage adjustment is tied to skill level. Deep Wounds, Limbsplitter, and Skullcrusher are now all now single perks, with bonuses affected by your level in the skill. Jumping works for Great Critical Charge, not just sprinting. Warmaster replaces paralysis with a chance to slow and/or stagger it's targets based on their remaining stamina. A new perk lets two-handed power attacks that aren't blocked have a chance of staggering an opponent based on their remaining stamina (reduced chances for large opponents). A new perk lets power attacks with two-handed weapons (blocked or not) deal a small amount of bonus damage to an opponent's stamina. A new perk lets unblocked power-attacks with a two-handed weapon eliminate an opponent's ability to regen magicka temporarily. A new perk increases the speed of attacks with two-handed weapons slightly (not as much as the similar perk for one-handed weapons normally, but better for power-attack related DPS).

 

Hand-to-Hand: This is an all new skill tree. One of it's perks grants a scaling armor bonus for wearing absolutely no armor, which scales with the level of the skill, and a perk that is on that perk's part of the tree requiring it increases this bonus if you are wearing a full set of enchanted non-armor clothing or completely nude (neither of these are as good as wearing actual full armor sets of light or heavy type for level and perk equivalent stuff, and the full enchanted set bonuses is better than the full naked mode bonus). This skill tree increases the damage of your unarmed attacks by default, and one of it's perks grants a damage bonus similar to the modified Armsman, Barbarian, or Power Draw perks but for unarmed attacks. A new perk grants unarmed attacks a chance to disarm opponents based on their remaining stamina, with chances improving with an unarmed power-attack. A new perk grants unarmed power attacks that aren't blocked the ability to reduce an opponent's magicka regen temporarily. A new perk lets unarmed attacks deal damage to opponents normally only affected by normal attacks (like ghosts, if this isn't implemented, it will be like it was in Oblivion). A new perk lets unarmed attacks that aren't blocked have a chance of causing a stagger to non-large opponents based on an opponent's remaining stamina. A new perk reduces fall damage when not wearing any armor and at less than half your max encumbrance. A new perk allows for kicks as a type of unarmed attack that doesn't use bonuses from things like gauntlets or racial claws, which have a chance to stagger or cause to fall opponents who are hit while power-attacking, but guarantees you fall if you get hit with a power attack while trying to kick and staggers you if you are hit by a normal attack or spell while trying to kick, kicks can be performed while doing a lot of other types of actions. A new perk lets kicks while sprinting or jumping deal bonus damage. Dodging is now a mechanic regardless of if you have certain perks or not, but a new perk improves your dodging speed while completely unarmored and turns it into a combat roll, rather than a simple dodge-step type thing (which is slightly faster and also lets you go under some attacks and stuff). A new perk improves your sprinting speed and reduces it's stamina consumption while completely unarmored. A new perk increases stamina regeneration when not wearing armor.

 

Light Armor: Agile Defender is now a single perk with a smaller bonus and most of the extra armor rating comes from levels in the skill. Unhindered now only decreases the amount of effective weight of light-armor when worn by half, and not for purposes of fall damage. Wind Walker no longer requires you to wear a full set of light armor, and isn't as good as the equivalent perk for being completely unarmored in the hand-to-hand tree, it just requires you to be wearing some light armor and no heavy armor. Deft movement is removed as a perk. A new perk increases your sprinting speed when not wearing any armor heavier than light, not as good as the unarmored equivalent perk from hand-to-hand, but still works with some light armor, as long as no heavy armor is worn. A new perk makes it so that you take reduced damage while dodging or sprinting if wearing a full set of light armor. A new perk grants increased magic resistance if wearing a full set of enchanted light armor. A new perk grants improved resistance to shock, frost, and fire damage (not as good as the equivalent heavy armor perk) while wearing a full set of light armor.

 

Smithing: A new perk allows you to take apart and get some supplies back from various items, like leather strips from leather armor, or ingots from various metal things, you don't get back all the materials used for creation though, or you might get back some things that are effectively 'degraded' or need to be used in groups to make an equivalent ingredient, it doesn't work on enchanted items, but having it allows you to have a chance to get materials for this process from disenchanting, although not as high a chance as using unenchanted items. This process can also remove 'stolen' tags from the resulting materials. Scaling on improvements to refined items are adjusted and capped, with higher caps for certain higher end item types, and caps can't be reached by NPCs, only the player (who must have appropriate perks and skills and have used loops of enchanting potions and alchemy boosting gear and such to prepare effective smithing boosting enchantments and potions to hit some of the highest caps on some of the best gear types). A new perk lets you improve armor and weapons to a reduced degree away from the normal equipment for such (benches and sharpening wheel things). Improvements now degrade over time and use and must be refreshed, but degrade slower for certain materials and enchanted items. Clothing can now be created at new weaving stations.

 

Athletics: Levels in this improve stamina regen somewhat, as well as affect your running and swimming speeds and partially affect jump height/length. The starting perk in this tree improves your stamina regen rate when not doing anything besides standing or walking or sitting. A new perk increases your sprinting speed. A new perk increases your jump height. A new perk lets you make attacks with one-handed weapons or unarmed attacks while underwater. A new perk lets you make attacks with crossbows while underwater. A new perk lets you cast spells while underwater. A new perk lets you perform 'swim-sprints'. A new perk increases your walking speed. A new perk increases your carrying capacity a bit. A new perk reduces the stamina cost of sprinting. A new perk lets you perform a slightly bigger 'power-jump' at the cost of stamina.

 

Acrobatics: Levels in this reduce your fall damage and the amount of height you need to fall in order to take damage at all. Starting perk in this tree improves the height you can fall from safely without taking damage and reduces fall damage as long as you aren't staggered or ragdolling or the like and have remaining stamina, switching your falls to in such a state to a controlled tumble. A perk in this tree improves your dodge speed (either from combat rolls or from regular dodges). A perk in this tree improves your jump height and increases the height you can fall without taking damage by your max jump height. A perk in this tree lets you 'roll with blows' if you dodge while getting hit, reducing their damage slightly. A perk in this tree lets you 'control your grounding status' and reduce shock damage a bit you take while touching the ground (platforms that aren't metal/stone connections to the ground perhaps don't count as touching the ground, depending on implementation difficulty). A perk in this tree reduces the amount of time you spend staggered or ragdolling as long as you have above 50% stamina.

 

This is taking a while, so I'm going to take a break before posting more, but I hope some of the ideas are starting to get across.

[DivineAurora]

Continuing ->

 

Alchemy: Alchemist now a single perk with more of the scaling tied to level in the alchemy skill. You don't only collect one alchemy item from many ingredient sources, different sources give different amounts randomly below a certain number depending on the source, modified Green Thumb ensures you get an extra as long as it doesn't bring you above the max, in some cases, the normal random amount can become 0 gathered, and the modified Green Thumb, perhaps named differently, ensures you gather at least one. A new perk lets you make single-ingredient potions, although they only let you make a potion based on the first effect of an ingredient, similar to Oblivion's mastery perk. A new perk lets you turn food items into alchemy ingredients, these loose their food benefits and have similar alchemy traits to those found in Oblivion for similar food items when possible, with things like restore stamina being a dominant benefit as it is for many food items in Oblivion. A new perk increases the odds of slain enemies having alchemy ingredients on them, like bears having claws or sabre cats eyes. Potions are no longer all the same weight, but have at least 2 different possible weights when found, and you start out making the heavier weight ones, and a new perk lets you create the lighter weight 'concentrated' potions instead. A new perk lets you make the full restoration potions for stamina, health, or magicka. A new perk extends the duration of potions you make with durations. Some of the food items that are turned into ingredients contain the new effects needed to create fortification potions for the new skills, some ingredients might simply be edited for such based on Oblivion versions.

 

Subtle Manipulation: Fused skills of Pickpocket and Lockpicking. Light Fingers is now a single perk and more of the bonus is based on your level in the skill rather than multiple perks. Extra Pockets is re-named Organized Packing. 'Rank' Locks perks are gone, instead being fused into Light fingers as a single perk that makes all locks a hint easier to pick (less for more advanced locks) with a scaling related more to level added that makes up the difference and works for the entire level for lower level locks, but only starts improving for higher level locks once you reach a certain level, for the same effective total bonuses by max level. Golden Touch and Treasure Hunter are removed. Unbreakable is replaced by a perk that increases lockpick durability. A new perk makes it so that some failed pickpocketing attempts aren't ones that get caught, simply make the target suspicious of you and end your current pickpocketing attempt and stagger you and cause you to make some noise that draws nearby attention from others and such.

 

Sneak: Stealth is now a single perk, most of the adjustments are now based on level in the sneak skill, rather than the perk. A new perk lets you treat the armor rating of opponents by half for your melee attacks while hidden from them. Rolling is a dodge variant upgrade from acrobatics now (used partly for avoiding fall damage), but the perk that previously unlocked it with sneak now makes it so that you can dodge while sneaking without it adding to the noise of your movement. A new perk lets lands from jumps be quieter if you dodge at the moment you land (regardless of if you have related rolling acrobatics stuff or not, but if you don't have that, it won't help you with damage avoidance for hitting the timing). A new perk makes it so that your melee attacks deal bonus damage based on a percentage of the opponent's max health if you make a sneaking power attack after remaining still and hidden for at least 6 seconds.

 

Speech: Haggling is now a single perk, more of your bonus is now based off your skill level Speech. Allure is removed, it's bonus is halved and moved over to the general bonus for the skill level like most of Haggling was. A new perk lets you sing at inns (especially if you have an appropriate instrument as well like a lute or drum) after gaining permission from the innkeeper and any already present bards. You'll do a performance and gain an amount of gold in the form of tips from random people in the inn or from the innkeeper, the amount will be semi-random and based on your speech skill level. A new perk 'Heart into Prayer' gives you slightly boosted bonuses from praying at shrines (equal to the old bonuses, which are reduced without this perk) and unlocks disease removal when praying at shrines (which is removed without this perk). A new perk lets you convince a hold guard or soldier for your faction of the civil war (once you've joined it) to follow you briefly and help you in combat if it isn't triggered by a crime during that time. A new perk reduces the cost of getting skill training from NPCs. A new perk lets you sell certain enchanted and/or smithing enhanced weapons and armors to Jarls (different lists of what they'll buy for each Jarl), they have much more gold for this purchase than most merchants, but their gold doesn't re-set as often.

 

Enchanting: Enchanter perk is now a single perk, with more of your bonus now based on your level in Enchanting. Infinite loops have been removed between enchanting and alchemy, restoration no longer getting involved in the mess, and you only really being able to go back and forth between fortify alchemy equipment and fortify enchanting potions to a limited degree, with the max possible based on having all the required perks and skill levels and things like Ahzidal's Genius effect. A new perk lets you create full protection disease protection and poison protection enchantments if you have the base enchantments for them, as long as you are using a grand soul gem. It is now possible to create spellbooks for spells you know using soul gems (higher ranking spells require higher ranking filled soul gems). It is now possible to create spell scrolls for spells you know, the recipe is similar to the spellbook but doesn't require leather or as much paper, and requires one lower rank of soul-gem. A new perk causes you to deal bonus damage with scrolls and staffs that deal damage, the bonus scaling based on your enchanting skill level. Enchantments for the schools of magic can no longer be made that with a full set reduce the costs to 0%, even with maximum looped Ahzidal's Genius alchemy/enchanting, they are adjusted to only reach around 90% cost reduction at that point. Athletics fortification increases run and swim speeds and jump height/distance. Acrobatics fortification reduces fall damage and increases jump height/distance and dodge speed. Various gear pools are adjusted to fit the new stuff existing or changing for other skills. A new perk lets you create an enchanted item 'set bonus' where if you have at least 4 items part of that 'set' you created being worn you get the bonus enchantment effect, similar to Ahzidal's Genius, with a limited set of options for what can be applied to this kind of bonus.

 

Spell Schools in general: The Apprentice, Adept, Expert, Master spell cost reduction perks change how they work, instead of their original version, they don't offer their full benefits right away except for Master, and all the lower ones have their benefits split up between the lowest perk and each of the higher perks. Apprentice gives you 1/8th cost reduction of Apprentice spells, Adept gives you 2/8ths Apprentice and 2/8ths Adept, Expert gives you 3/8ths Expert and all the ones below it. Master finally brings them all to half-cost for that school.

 

Alteration: Magic Resistance is now a single perk scaling partly off of your alteration skill level. Mage Armor is now a single perk scaling partly off of your alteration skill level. A new perk significantly increases the duration of stoneskin type spells. The duration of alteration spells in general with durations is now partly based on your level in alteration, although the scaling isn't that impressive. A new perk makes spells like telekinesis, detect life and detect dead use up less magicka/second. The damage of things thrown with telekinesis is now partly based on your level in alteration skill.

 

Conjuration: The duration of most summons and soul trap effects is now partly based on your level in conjuration. Your level in conjuration now affects what level of daedra/undead can be banished/commanded with appropriate spells to some degree. A new perk improves the power of non-atronach summoned daedra. Summoner is now a single perk that scales partly on your level in conjuration. If it is possible with the game mechanics easily, all summons have a health-adjustment partly scaling based on your conjuration skill level, and possibly a damage one as well.

 

Destruction: 'Augmented' element perks now are single perks partly affected by your level in destruction skill. Your damage with destruction spells now scales somewhat based on your level in the destruction skill. Various levels of destruction spells have their DPS altered so that Master spells do properly have the best DPS with all the various damage alterations and dps adjustments now calculated partly based on destruction skill level.

 

Illusion: The level of targets that can be affected by illusion spells is now partly a calucation based on your level in the illusion skill. If possible with game mechanics, frenzied targets now get a small amount of bonus damage based on your level in the illusion skill. Night Eye is restored as a spell and has a duration partly based on your level in the Illusion skill. Your mind-affecting spells now have a duration partly based on your level in the illusion skill. Enemies now exist that cast calm, fear, and frenzy spells on you, but it just staggers you if you are low enough level to be affected at all and it manages to bypass your magic resistance. Most perks that increase the level of enemies your mind-affecting spells can affect also give you a resistance to mind-affecting spells as if you were higher level. Alternate light generation spells are added to the illusion school, one that makes your body glow, and one that makes your eyes/face glow and one that you can cast on an 'other' that makes their body glow.

 

Restoration: Restoration spells now heal partly based on your level in the restoration skill. Recovery is now a single perk which partly scales based on your skill in restoration school. Damaging restoration spells now have their damage somewhat affected by your skill level in restoration. Levels of undead affected by certain restoration spells now adjusts partly on your level in restoration. There is now some more poison spells available in Solstheim and from Khajit traders and certain Dunmer merchants. A new perk reduces the magicka cost/second of ward spells. The amount of damage wards can absorb is now based partly on your skill level in restoration.

 

Mysticism: Mysticism is leveled partly by the ward spells, detect life/death spells, soul trap spells, the clairvoyance spell, and telekinesis spells. It's reductions in costs affect them as well as their base schools of those spells. Dispel spells are brought back, and are only in Mysticism, and can only be found in dungeon chests, Apocrpha, and certain very old merchants that sell spell tomes, they can cancel active spell effects enemy spellcasters are using or certain spells that are currently affecting you of some types, ending lingering effects, including your own spells, end lower level conjurations like summons or temporary undead or summons early, etc. Your level in mysticism partly affects the damage dealt by the telekinesis spell and the level of things various levels of dispel spells can affect, as well as the amount wards can block (similar to how restoration affects wards). Perks for mysticism include: One that slightly increases magicka recovery rate, one that slightly increases spell resistance, one that slightly increases resistance to fire damage, one that slightly increases resistance to poison and poison damage, one that slightly increases resistance to disease, one that slightly increases resistance to shock damage, one that slightly increases resistance to frost damage, one that slightly improves your magicka recovery rate when not wearing any light or heavy armor and also either naked or wearing robes.

[Incudust]

call your pickpocket and lockpicking fusion skill Subterfuge