LE Immersive Spell Learning

sidewaysfcs07 · April 25, 2014

Hello there, i have this idea for quite a while now, since Skyrim was launched in fact.

Ever think learning spells is too "accesible" in skyrim? like any peasant can pick up a spellbook and cast the spell like he was born with magical abilities? (almost like...a dragonborn ._. )

Learning shouts is actually quite immersive, as it requires you to kill dragons, visit Greybeards, and actually partake in GAMEPLAY.

But learning spells feels like going to a pharmacy "oh yes i'll have the fireball spell, only 100 bucks? sweet" .........totally breaks immersion.

For people who don't want to feel like the world revolves around them in-game, (and maybe want to delay the main questline till lvl 40-ish) this is a major immersion kill.

- partially inspired by the " Spellmaking in Skyrim - The Last Altar by KhalEdos " -

So here's my idea, this idea is for all modders, but also for Bethesda themsevles, hopefully some of these ideas get passed on and reach their ears one day.

1. remove flames,healing and ALL spells for NEW characters, this includes all Racial spells (like Imperials, bretons, dunmer etc), also nerf High elves maybe, either a questline for that extra magicka or something similar.

2. add random spell tomes to Skyrim's open world. but here's the catch , you CAN'T use them yet! (because you're a filthy lvl 1 peasant )

3. if you wish to learn a spell, you must use the spell tome AND a Spell Altar

The spell tome contains information on how to craft the said spell, ex: (fire salts, soul gem for the Flames spell) , and YOU must go and gather those ingredients yourself if you want to CRAFT the spell.

I imagine it could take a long time to write text for each tome, but 2-3 ingredients is enough for starters.

Spell Altars should be present wherever Enchanting Altars are, also, the Atronach Forge could act as a special Altar for very hard-to-learn spells like ressurecting dead people and summoning dremora, basic spell ingredients could be sold by court mages and general shops, advanced ingredients require questing and killing stuff.

4. some begginer spell tomes should be lying around in bookshelves for new characters to find, there's also the spell tome in the Helgen cage for new characters, but they all require you to craft the spell with ingredients.

5. whenever you reach a new spell rank (adept/expert etc) , you need to do a small quest to advance your rank, kind of like a Ritual, you can either visit the College of Winterhold to consult with better mages about it, OR learn the new rank yourself by finding a book on the matter, the book could be called "the Mage's Guide" and you find it in Whiterun in Fardengar's office, on the table, you can read it anytime without stealing it and not get into trouble.

6. this way , you can always learn the new spell ranks yourself without visiting the college ,and always craft newer, better spells by yourself as long as you do questlines.

7. for special spells, like Masters spells, you can either go to the College, or again, learn them yourself, but this time they require a special questline, and the books for each rank, wich will be scattered across dungeons, without the books, you can't advance, you can also find the books at the college if you don't feel like running all over Skyrim searching for them, but the books aren't cheap (1000 gold minimum for the first rank)

Also, for very advanced (and evil) magic, like Conjuration, Necromancy and anything that has to do with Undead or Daedra, you also need to do a questline to summon a better group of monsters, and also a new book "Dark Arts" , and a similar questline is needed each time you progress to a new class of undead/dremora (like for the dawnguard and dragonborn summons)

For example, you should not be able to learn the begginer conjuration spells without doing a special questline in wich you actually kill some animals/atronachs/dremora (wich could be hidden in certain dungeons related to the quest OR outside the world) and harvest some of their ingredients (hearts/salts) for a special ritual.

The reasoning is that Conjuration and Necromancy are very taboo, and most mages will not teach you these spells OR even talk to you about them, except for maybe that guy in WInterhold that is totally cool with Necromancy.

Here's how it would play for a fresh character

you start off in Helgen (or anywhere with "live another life" mod) , once you get your butt in a main city , you find some begginer spell tomes in the local court mage's office and also the "mage's guide" book, and want to LEARN more about magic, the court mage tells you how to learn magic, by several choices.

1. you choose to learn it yourself, so you read the first tome, gather ingredints, (buy them, harvest them, craft them, many possibilities) possibly kill some nooby animals for extra stuff , then return to the court mage and CRAFT the spell at his Altar (wich should be next to the Arcane Enchanter, or could be incorporated into the enchanter itself.)

you now have one or more begginer spells (i would hope illusion spells are harder to find, since they are quite OP)

also, hidden altars could be scattered across Skyrim, (like the shack near Bleak Falls Barrow, where that crazy old lady lives, she totally should have an altar in the cellar) , and your player home should have the option of having one.

i imagine the safest way would be to incorporate this into the Arcane Enchanter, that way it doesn't clutter the world.

2. you visit the college, where you can find many new tomes, and they can teach you how to craft spells, this should never be mandatory though, except maybe for the very special (evil?) spells, wich might require the atronach forge (or Soul Cairn / Apocrypha for the DLC's)

now you are at Adept level, but you cannot learn Adept spells until you do the Quest to advance in level, wich requires you to read the Mage's guide in order to find out where to obtain the rarer ingredients

this stept can go many ways, i'll leave it to people's imagination.

you return to an Altar and perform the Adept ritual, now you can learn Adept spells.

etc.

learning Conjuration/necromancy requires additional tasks, and might even require you to kill people (innocent or not) to fill black soul gems, to learn necromantic spells etc, i imagine some custom spell mods that have very evil spells, would require you to do evil things to get them, so magic should also have moral choices like theivery.

In addition to learning spells with the Altars, i also imagine you can make custom spells by combining several effects together , as seen in " Spellmaking in Skyrim - The Last Altar by KhalEdos ", this guy had an awsome idea of making a quest revolve around it all, it's a shame Bethesda chose to remove this since Morrowind and Oblivion, can't imagine why.

The beauty of this idea is that new (mod added) spells that are very powerful would also deserve a very rare selection of ingredients, and would require the player to travel all over skyrim to get them, if he wishes to have the spell, very overpowered spells could also a require a special questline of their own, the possibilities are endless, just as long as spells aren't a trivial thing that gets sold over the counter and any character can learn at level 1.

I imagine this would be quite hard to do, as it would be a complete gameplay overhaul, and would be imcompatible with spell mods that have tomes (patches patches patches) but i imagine this is the best immersive way to learn spells in a fantasy rpg, and i really hope Bethesda one days implements something like this, instead of dumbing down the game with over-the-counter spells.

Edited April 25, 2014 by sidewaysfcs07