LE Dragon Shout Caster

[Homitu]

As I near 120 hours played in Skyrim, 2 things have occurred to me:

 

1. 
    
   
2. If you play a physical based hero (2h sword or sword + shield), your combat isn't very diverse, and yet still incredibly powerful--probably the most powerful class types in the game. Simply auto attacking in your suit of ungodly enchanted daedric armor is so powerful that...
   
3. Your Dragon Shouts become virtually obsolete. Add in the facts that all Shouts share a cooldown, you can usually only cast one every 30-40 seconds, and that due to limited keybindings you have to pause combat completely to pull up a menu and select a new Shout, most players probably only use a few bread-and-butter Shouts.
   

 

Dragon Shouts don't strike me as overpowered as the severe limitations on their use would seem to indicate. Aside from the ridiculousness of Storm Call, most of the other Shouts are fun utility spells that could greatly enhance Skyrim's combat if they could only be used more fluidly. So what do I suggest?

 

My proposed Mod:

 

• 
   
  
• A) Give Dragon Shouts unique cooldowns (perhaps some can be shared), within reason. This would allow you to use various shouts in succession, and then reuse each one again when each individual shout comes off its own cooldown. My intention is not to unbalance the game (although the game is already made effortlessly easy by many mechanisms already available to the default combat and crafting system,) but rather to make the Dragon Shouts more fluid, accessible, and fun to use.
  
• B) Allow these Shouts to be bound to AND cast by the same button. This would allow each dragon shout to essentially be a spell available to you at the push of a button.
  
• C) Obviously this would require a rework of the current available keybinds (1-8), which many others have already begun tweaking. So this could easily work in tandem with other keybind mods.
  

 

 

Presently, you can manage something of this sort just through the console commands, but it's just too limited. You can bind 8 shouts to buttons 1-8, but that leaves no room for any other necessary bindings, such as weapons, shields, spells or consumables. You can reduce Shouts' cooldowns to zero using the console, but then they become spammable, which most definitely IS overpowered for some of them. There needs to be a way to reduce each shout's cooldown individually. Lastly, even if you bind a Shout to 1-8, you still have to press your Power button afterwards. Every Shout becomes a 2 button press.

 

I only just brainstormed this right now as I wrote this post, so it's certainly not a fully developed idea. Feedback, comments, suggestions welcome! (even if you just want to tell me what a horrible idea it is.)

[DemonfireNinja]

I want more powerful Shouts in general, I don't like how weak they are, they are supposed to be these really powerful magical abilities that are better than magic so I don't know why they are so pathetic and weak.

[freemanstretten]

I am hoping for a new skill line that is focused on shouts. Base it on character level for perk advancement instead of skill points (no shout skills), or... I don't know... a combination of other skills.

Increasing shout perks can reduce cool down... or increase damage, or add damage (like physical damage to Fus Roh Dah).

Oh, perhaps a way to combine or modify shouts like using an enchanter table. Only you could inscribe runes into new "sentences" to create new shouts.

A characters personal dragonwall in the back yard? :)

 

A teleport shout would be cool too... (Unless there is one that I haven't found yet or something, haha).

 

A Dragonborn that focuses mainly on Shouts as his major powers instead of spells or weapons - and has the appropriate skill line to back that up, would be a great character "class" I think. :)

Edited December 2, 2011 by freemanstretten

[Homitu]

I am hoping for a new skill line that is focused on shouts. Base it on character level for perk advancement instead of skill points (no shout skills), or... I don't know... a combination of other skills.

Increasing shout perks can reduce cool down... or increase damage, or add damage (like physical damage to Fus Roh Dah).

Oh, perhaps a way to combine or modify shouts like using an enchanter table. Only you could inscribe runes into new "sentences" to create new shouts.

A characters personal dragonwall in the back yard? :)

 

A teleport shout would be cool too... (Unless there is one that I haven't found yet or something, haha).

 

A Dragonborn that focuses mainly on Shouts as his major powers instead of spells or weapons - and has the appropriate skill line to back that up, would be a great character "class" I think. :)

 

A shout perk tree is a fantastic idea that would complement a revamped shout cast system perfectly. I definitely approve of all of these ideas.