LE Magic needs to be more powerful

[enderes]

Overall, magic in Skyrim is weak. Very weak. It can't hold a candle to physical combat, most of the schools are very difficult to powerlevel, and pretty much the only way to be an effectively powerful magician is to specialize your character in it.

 

I need something that makes magic more powerful & effective to use, so I can sometimes chose it instead of a bow or warhammer because it's "a better choice" rather than for my current reason which is "so that I'm using magic" (because I always have my characters do as much as they can of everything).

 

All the things wrong with the magic system in general are laid out in the description of this mod: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/4374/?

 

I'd like to use that mod, but judging by the comments section, it seems to carry much too high a risk of breaking the game or conflicting with the many other mods I'm already using. Can anyone recommend an alternate? Maybe something with less bells & whistles?

For the most part I just want to make magic spells more powerful (ESPECIALLY the damage done by destruction spells, but also the other schools in their own ways, such as longer-lasting alteration spells), and for them to cost less mana (without having to rely on gear that reduces the casting costs of one one school or another). Or maybe instead of making spells cheaper, just make it so that all characters have WAY more magicka by default, especially at higher levels.

 

My character is level 76 right now, her skill levels range from 70 to 100 depending on school, but even the strongest destruction spell I can afford to cast barely scratches enemies anywhere close to my level, and some master-level spells cost nearly twice my maximum mana, & I won't be able to cast them until I'm closer to level 90. I know that I can use perks to reduce, casting costs, but to do that for master-level spells costs 5 perks per school, so it's still inefficient & still requires specializing more in magic & less in other skills.

 

I'm not looking for something that adds new spells, I've got a few of those already. I'm just looking for something to make spellcasting easier & more worthwhile in general. An overhaul of magicka, spell costs, and spell magnitudes. Not overhaul of *perks*, because that would cause conflicts for me.

 

I also looked at this mod, and it seems like an even better fit for what I want, but unfortunately it has some direct conflicts with other mods I use (changes to perks, & a problem with Categorized Favorites).
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/11139/?

 

[ArchangelZero7]

I play as a mage character, and I also used to have this issue. However, I found this to be helpful in that regard.

[enderes]

Thanks, that looks awesome! It might be exactly what I need! I'm gonna try it out.
I've never heard of it, & I never would've found it just by looking for *magic* overhauls.

 

BTW, I've asked this in the posts section of that mod's page, but in case I don't get an answer there, maybe you can tell me. Does the load order matter for this mod? Should it be higher or lower on the list than anything else in order to work right?

[ArchangelZero7]

for this I don't believe it matters. Normally the author will mention the order if it's needed. But if you'd like to be safe you can always place it lower. Mine is towards the bottom of my list but isn't the last one. Also you can always use BOSS to do a general sort if you're unsure.

[skyler544]

Sorry for resurrecting a months-old topic, but I suggest you try out SkyTweak. it requires SKSE and SkyUI, but in my opinion at least, those are essentials for any skyrim installation. It's similar to BYOG, but from what I've read, more featureful and actively updates to reflect in game changes such as the effects of **SPOILER** any Black Books you might read.