Thoughts on this Illusion overhaul ?

[Deleted2838758User]

Hi,

I was thinking how a way to make Illusion more entertaining and also more viable at higher levels.

As you probably know, Illusion in vanilla is very unbalanced because of the level scaling, and while many mods fix this problem by increasing the level cap of Illusion spells, there is another problem that remains :

Illusion spells are very strong and cheap to use : A single cast of Frenzy/Calm on a group of enemies and you've already won.

I had this sudden idea of making the basic Illusions spells ( Calm, Rally, Fear and Fury) concentrated (Like the novice destruction spells) instead of fire-and-forget.

• You will have to maintain them for some time before the target is finaly under your spell.
• The time it will take will depend on the target's level, your level in Illusion and the target's agression and confidence (A very confident target for example will be easy to influence with Rally, but hard to influence with Fear)
• There will be new spells that can only be used on targets that are under influence of a basic Illusion spell, for example a spell that make frenzied/feared targets take damage-over-time, or another that turn Rallied/Calmed targets into permanent allies.
• There will be other new spells such as "Mind Read" that will sneakily provide information about a target's stats, Confidence and Agression.

Other ideas I'm thinking of :

• Creating illusions to Phantom animals.
  It has already been done in Skyre and Mighty Magick, but I thought it would be cool having the possibility of creating different types of Illusions. Actors will randomly have a phobia of an animal (that you will be able to discover with Mind Read). Summoning an animal that someone is afraid from will causes him to run (if his confidence is low), or try to fight his fears and get debuffed (if his confidence is high).
• Fatigue Supression : You trick your into body ignoring fatigue for a short amount of time, causing you to always have maximum stamina. But at the end of the effect, you take damage based on how much stamina was consumed.
• Make Noise : Causes a distraction at the target area.
• Dream Feed : Cast on a sleeping target to absorb magicka from it every second and prevent it from waking up.
  Whisper : If you are undetected or your target is affected by Calm, causes it to come to your current location.

  Hypnotize : Cause a bright light that staggers all nearby enemies who are in front of you and blind them for 3 seconds. Blind enemies are immune to this spell. Animals will flee.

 

 

 

This is an idea that I came up with in the last 10 minutes, so I still am thinking of how to improve it.

What are your thoughts on this overhaul ?

Edited April 30, 2015 by Guest

[firepower02]

• You will have to maintain them for some time before the target is finaly under your spell.

I agree with this one, it takes some time before they will be affected.

The time it will take will depend on the target's level, your level in Illusion and the target's agression and confidence (A very confident target for example will be easy to influence with Rally, but hard to influence with Fear)

There will be new spells that can only be used on targets that are under influence of a basic Illusion spell, for example a spell that make frenzied/feared targets take damage-over-time, or another that turn Rallied/Calmed targets into permanent allies.

I don't think the turn into permanent allies is a good idea. It could potentially break quest. Some bosses should not become your allies, and doing a check if they should be affected is time consuming, and having tons of allies following you could get cramped it tight spaces, unless they are permanent allies and they don't follow you. Maybe only for npcs that are not unique.

There will be other new spells such as "Mind Read" that will sneakily provide information about a target's stats, Confidence and Agression.

This is a good idea, some mods already have this spell.

[Deleted2838758User]

 

• You will have to maintain them for some time before the target is finaly under your spell.
• I agree with this one, it takes some time before they will be affected.
• The time it will take will depend on the target's level, your level in Illusion and the target's agression and confidence (A very confident target for example will be easy to influence with Rally, but hard to influence with Fear)
• There will be new spells that can only be used on targets that are under influence of a basic Illusion spell, for example a spell that make frenzied/feared targets take damage-over-time, or another that turn Rallied/Calmed targets into permanent allies.
• I don't think the turn into permanent allies is a good idea. It could potentially break quest. Some bosses should not become your allies, and doing a check if they should be affected is time consuming, and having tons of allies following you could get cramped it tight spaces, unless they are permanent allies and they don't follow you. Maybe only for npcs that are not unique.
• There will be other new spells such as "Mind Read" that will sneakily provide information about a target's stats, Confidence and Agression.
• This is a good idea, some mods already have this spell.

 

Thanks for your feedback, I didn't think about permanent allies capable of breaking quests. Maybe I will it so that the effect is hard to cast and won't work against opponents that are too strong.

[firepower02]

How about make it a concentration spell, it would seem more balance. Enemies would break free once you lose concentration.

[Deleted2838758User]

How about make it a concentration spell, it would seem more balance. Enemies would break free once you lose concentration.

I'm considering making it concentrated, but after a certain amount of time, you won't need to keep concentrating the spell since the enemy will be totally influenced by your illusions.

[gulogulo]

These are very interesting ideas. I like the idea with concentration spell turning fire and forget.

 

There should be some king of mental struggle at the beginning and its time and outcome should depend on illusion skill and magicka of you and the target.

 

I like the idea about wisper.

 

I also like the idea about phantoms but I think they should be vidible only to victim.

 

However for me the biggest issue is how you cast spells. You shoot them from hand when you should apply them undetected even without eye contact.

[orian34]

• You will have to maintain them for some time before the target is finaly under your spell.
• The time it will take will depend on the target's level, your level in Illusion and the target's agression and confidence (A very confident target for example will be easy to influence with Rally, but hard to influence with Fear)
• Interesting, i kinda like that!
• Creating illusions to Phantom animals.
• It has already been done in Skyre and Mighty Magick, but I thought it would be cool having the possibility of creating different types of Illusions. Actors will randomly have a phobia of an animal (that you will be able to discover with Mind Read). Summoning an animal that someone is afraid from will causes him to run (if his confidence is low), or try to fight his fears and get debuffed (if his confidence is high).
• Perhaps, instead of that, a spell that could spawn randomly a 'nightmare' fighting the target. It will count as a minion of the target but will fight it, downside will be that if the target kills his nightmare, would get a high boost of strength. Would only work on weak minded creatures/humanoids
• Make Noise : Causes a distraction at the target area.
• Doesn't that already exists? With the arrows and the "Telekinesys" dragon shout. Guess that would need a more in-depths delving.
• Dream Feed : Cast on a sleeping target to absorb magicka from it every second and prevent it from waking up.
  It remembers me a certain daedric weapon...about nightmares...

 

[lofgren]

Looks like a lot of good ideas to me.