Draugr Overhaul

[InuyashaFE]

Oblivion had wonderful overhauls and it seemed impossible to play without them. I remember the Creature Diversity mod, which added many creatures such as different colored trolls, different undead, and many more.

 

Skyrim's big thing now is draugr, and they all seem like boring, generic zombies. They aren't frightening enough! So rather than making a request and hoping someone would do the work for me, I've decided to take the less lazy approach and mod it myself.

 

What this mod will add is...

Draugr Weapons now with Silver Sword enchantments: Draugr in norse lore (IIRC) are supposed to be very weak against their own weapons when they're used against them. So what I'll do is add the silver sword enchantment to their weapons. Seems simple enough, true. I plan to expand upon this once I get more experience.

 

More Draugr Shouts: Most will use Unrelenting Force or the Disarm shout. I'll be finding a way to add things such as Fire Breath, Slow Time, Elemental Fury, Marked for Death and more.

Special Draugr Powers: Draugr are known to be able to change size, change into wisps of smoke, and drive people and animals mad. I'll be finding a way to add setscale scripts as powers, and possibly even overhauling dungeons to allow for large Draugr. The Become Ethearal shout as well as Animal Allegiance or Dismay will be essential here. The Wights will also be given a wider magical range, such as Flames, Sparks, and necromantic spells.

 

Draugr Weaknesses: To permanently kill a draugr you would have to behead the body, and burn them to ashes. Obviously we can't rely on beheading as a finishing move because it's too rare, however I plan to mod in a 30-40% chance for a draugr to revive if it hasn't been disintegrated. Once killed the second time it'll dissolve into ash. Or if the player doesn't want to deal with a second wave, and they have a quick hand, they can behead as many draugr as they can. This will give them a draugr head similar to the hagravens seen in the Companions quest. Alternatively a mage can burn the body and after burning for some time, they will turn to ash.... If they don't revive first, that is.

 

Haugbui: A variation of the draugr, I plan on making these a form of lesser draugr found in the dungeons, I'll probably add them to the levelled lists. More is a work in progress, but I'll possibly find a way to give them seperate textures.

 

Better Ambience: Upon entering a draugr ruin, you will hear the whisperings and ramblings of the nords buried there, as they lie in their tombs, awaiting oblivion. -Darksun45230 is currently working on ambient voice clips.

 

I'll be doing more research on draugr and will figure out what to add as we wait for the CK to come out.

 

If anyone has any suggestions or opinions to share, this topic is here. :)

Edited January 3, 2012 by InuyashaFE

[BadMaker]

I would personally like to see more in the way of Draugr priests. Seeings as I would imagine the ancient nords were heavily based on viking culture, I also imagine them burying their dead with more personal belongings. Perhaps a draugr horse could attack the player? Draugr war dogs?

 

Another idea would be for for some sort of Draugr trolls to patrol around as a higher level enemy.

[bowlofPetunias]

I'd love to see this, I'll be watching for it! Other than that, personally, I'd lower the chance to 35 or 40 and add a beheading option. I don't think it's too unfair, not everyone can behead, but not everyone can disintegrate, either, it's a decent ways up the destruction tree. Also, those who can behead can only do so on the last enemy. This means everyone but archers can (potentially) kill a draugr the first time around, but mages are the only ones who can do it every time. Seems fair too me, archery requires a bit of stamina to hold your breath(I think? I've never rolled an archer), so they can sprint away if they can't deal with the second wave. Those with 1h/2h are usually strong enough to absorb a second wave of blows. Mages are super squishy with low stamina, but they can kill the first time around.

 

Edit: How long do you plan to make the revive timer? I suggest about 3-4 seconds, real time.

Edited December 29, 2011 by bowlofPetunias

[InuyashaFE]

I would personally like to see more in the way of Draugr priests. Seeings as I would imagine the ancient nords were heavily based on viking culture, I also imagine them burying their dead with more personal belongings. Perhaps a draugr horse could attack the player? Draugr war dogs?

 

Another idea would be for for some sort of Draugr trolls to patrol around as a higher level enemy.

 

I remember something in the College quest where you have to fight a draugr that draws power from an artifact near it's tomb. What my friend suggested was to have a spectral draugr that would be invulnerable, or perhaps it would keep reviving, until you deal with it's remains properly. I think I could make a custom dungeon out of this, Perhaps you have to gain tools from different levels of the dungeon, coming across a writ of sealing along the line which gives you a hint on how to defeat the draugr... Those tools could allow you to deal with the draugr's remains and render them killable.

 

It won't kill them outright, perhaps it'll set their essential tag to 0 so you can kill them that round, because while you have this powerful priest, it would seem imbalanced if you could just destroy their remains and kill them instantly.

 

I'd love to see this, I'll be watching for it! Other than that, personally, I'd lower the chance to 35 or 40 and add a beheading option. I don't think it's too unfair, not everyone can behead, but not everyone can disintegrate, either, it's a decent ways up the destruction tree. Also, those who can behead can only do so on the last enemy. This means everyone but archers can (potentially) kill a draugr the first time around, but mages are the only ones who can do it every time. Seems fair too me, archery requires a bit of stamina to hold your breath(I think? I've never rolled an archer), so they can sprint away if they can't deal with the second wave. Those with 1h/2h are usually strong enough to absorb a second wave of blows. Mages are super squishy with low stamina, but they can kill the first time around.

 

Edit: How long do you plan to make the revive timer? I suggest about 3-4 seconds, real time.

 

Sure, I can lower the chance, I want Draugr to be fearsome in this mod but not annoying. 30 or 40 seems like a good amount to work with.

 

Beheading, now that I've had time to think of it extensively, I may add something similar to the hagravens in the companions quest in which you can behead their corpses. However, it's too easy to behead them before they revive, so what I'll try to do is have the game check for something like an embalming tool in the player's inventory. If they have it, they'll be given an option to behead the corpse. Perhaps you have to have a special draugr weapon. I'll have to think on a way to balance it properly. Once you get a certain tool to kill the draugr before they revive, well, then you don't have to worry about them anymore. I do want to give mages the ability to disintegrate them as well without the perk. I think possibly if you burn their corpse, they should turn into ash after a few seconds, so if you burn them quickly enough, they won't revive. However it'll be easy to not burn them in time.

 

Revive will be something similar to that, 3 or 4 seconds sounds good for now, I'll work with numbers later on and see what works. The hard part for me is going to be having them revive on their own accord, I want them to self-cast some sort of necromancy spell on themselves but I'm having trouble thinking on how I can get something like that to work.

[Lalaz4]

This sounds like its going to be a very good mod!

[billyro]

I reckon the Nord Weapons need to be completely remade. Aside from the claymore and the bearded axe, I think all the weapons look shamble-y and plain weird. My opinion is almost based solely on the one-handed sword. I think it is a stupid and unrealistic style. Surely the Nords in ancient times would be better craftsmen than that...

[huntsman2310]

What really needs to be done to Draugr, would be different sized Draugr.

 

Like you'd have normal sized ones, the medium class, you'd have these giant heavys, and then you'd have sneaky light guys.

[Alithinos]

I wander how Slow Time would work when an enemy uses it.

They would seem to be moving really fast.

[InuyashaFE]

I reckon the Nord Weapons need to be completely remade. Aside from the claymore and the bearded axe, I think all the weapons look shamble-y and plain weird. My opinion is almost based solely on the one-handed sword. I think it is a stupid and unrealistic style. Surely the Nords in ancient times would be better craftsmen than that...

 

I agree with you there, it isn't so much the style IMO, it's that they contrast so heavily with their armor, they don't look like they were made in the same era or by the same type of blacksmiths.

 

What really needs to be done to Draugr, would be different sized Draugr.

 

Like you'd have normal sized ones, the medium class, you'd have these giant heavys, and then you'd have sneaky light guys.

 

Yeah I could do something similar to that, you would have draugr death lords that look normal but then they grow in size and get buffed health and stamina.

 

The medium ones could be their size in general but that's going to be very difficult to translate into levelled list because they wouldn't fit in their coffin.

 

I wander how Slow Time would work when an enemy uses it.

They would seem to be moving really fast.

 

That'd be the idea behind it. Obviously I can't just give them the actual Slow Time shout so I'll have to see how customizable the shouts are. My hope is that I can somehow reverse the slow time effects, so the player is slowed down just as much as an enemy would, but the enemy is the one that's almost unaffected.

 

It's either that or find a way to speed up the enemy's animations, which might be difficult to do.

[InuyashaFE]

Added Haugbui to the list of changes in the overhaul.

 

That CK needs to get here. >_<