LE Skeleton Crafting spell Package (Mod request and Discussion)

[JediSword]

One of my personal favourite play-styles in fantasy RPGs is that of the necromancer, and while Skyrim does a lot better than most other RPGs in that regard with its reanimation spells It still lacks the ability to create skeletons, despite NPC necromancers clearly having this ability. Books such as “Corpse Preparation” gives insight into this http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Corpse_Preparation,_Book_I

I have seen several other mods attempt this concept, but they all seem to be either way more complex than they need to be (Ordinator) or just not fit in with the rest of the magic system in the game (Ordinator and Perkus Maximus),

Ideally this mod would be simple, and seamlessly integrated into the game, seeming like it had been in the game all along, and achieve as much compatibility as possible with other mods. I think this could be achieved with a list of conjuration spells implemented into the game’s levelled lists similar to mods like Apocalypse Spells. I have attempted to teach myself the modding system for skyrim in hopes of creating them myself, but thus far the barrier for entry has been a bit difficult for me. I would love to see someone willing to either try and create this, or alternatively help teach me the tools I’d need to do it myself. I’m aware that it’s apparently illegal to make money directly from skyrim mod making, but I would definitely be willing to make a donation to anyone who could put in the effort to help with this.

Also, all perks (including those from other mods hopefully) that improve reanimated minions should also effect created skeletons.

Here’s the spells and features I’ve so far thought of. I’ll start with what I think will be levels of programing complexity. Starting from the easiest and then moving on into more complex stuff.

-----LEVEL 1: Base Requirements

-Harvest Bones (Novice)

Cast on a nearby humanoid corpse. Corpse is turned to ash (all items from NPC left in ash pile) and places directly into your inventory 1 bonemeal (with a chance to give you a skull and more bonemeal based on your conjuration skill level.) (Might include the ability to grant “Human flesh” as well) Alternatively you could simply just gain 5 bonemeal and 1 skull whenever the spell is successfully cast.

-Skeleton Creation Spells

-Craft Skeleton Warrior (Apprentice)

-Craft Skeleton Archer (Adept)

-Craft Skeleton fire Mage (Expert)

-Craft Skeleton frost Mage (Expert)

-Craft Skeleton lighting Mage (Expert)

Each spell requires 5 bone meal and 1 skull, creating a skeleton with weapons and AI of the corresponding type that will last until destroyed or replaced. Skeletons should either last as long as the thrall spells or at least for a very long time. Creating skeleton mages also require salts of the corresponding magic type. Fire=fire salts, frost=frost salts, lightning=void salts

If possible their death shouldn’t cause their bodies to disappear but instead causes them to simply fall to the ground where they can be reused with reanimation spells.

Both of these spells should require long cast times, as they are not intended to be used in the middle of combat.

-----LEVEL 2: Advanced Concept

-Craft Petty Skeleton (Novice)

-Craft Lesser Skeleton (Apprentice)

-Craft Common Skeleton (Adept)

-Craft Greater Skeleton (Expert)

-Craft Grand Skeleton (Master)

-Craft Dark Skeleton (Master)

Each of the 6 skeleton crafting spells would require 5 bonemeal, 1 skull, and a filled soul gem that corresponds to the spell’s level. The larger the soul used the more powerful the skeleton.

Skeletons inventory’s can be accessed and given weapons to use in battle. If they are of greater quality or higher they may be given frost salts, fire salts, or void salts into their inventory which will allow them to cast spells of the corresponding type. Alternatively this could instead be a spell cast upon the skeletons consuming the salts and granting the skeleton the spell casting.

Dark skeletons, unlike other types, can cast reanimation magic to create their own temporary minions. Or some other similarly dark bonus

-----LEVEL 3: Non Human Skeletons

If possible, the mod could also be implemented with the use of beast skeletons (http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/28957/?). You could have 5 skull types; human, elf, khajiit, argonian, and orc. Human skulls would still be the only ones you find in the world, but when casting Harvest Bones you would gain a skull related to the humanoid race you cast it upon. And whenever you cast Craft Skeleton you’d be given an option as to which type of skull to use in its construction

The difference between each skeleton race would be primarily cosmetic, but there could also be slight statistical differences such as:

Human: base health, base magicka, base stamina

Elf: -10 health, +20 magicka, -10 stamina

Khajiit: -10 health, -10 magicka, +20 stamina

Argonian: +20 health, -10 magicka, -10 stamina

Orc: +10 health, -20 magicka, +10 stamina

-----LEVEL 4: Other Conjuration Spells and a Patch

-Improve Skeleton Minion

By expending leather/leather straps you can improve the armor/HP of a targeted skeleton minion.

-Command minions (Adept)

This long range spell tells all minions of the caster to move towards the target location, attacking anything they find along the way. Perhaps a secondary feature would be if it targets an actor rather than just the environment they will focus on attacking that target and no others. All effects of the spell last for 10 seconds, after which the minions will return to their normal behavior.

This spell is based of me always having troubles with conjuration focused builds where my following minions will run away instead of facing the enemy. I think this has to do with the fact that they enter combat mode, but are too far away from the actual enemy to detect them, and instead just go wandering in random directions. Perhaps the programing of this spell could work by temporarily telling all summoned minions to follow a certain targeted area as though that were you. This would make it easier for conjuration dragonborns to let their minions lead the way, rather than always having to be the first into battle, and it would help mitigate that bug I mentioned.

-Oblivion inoculation (Name work in progress) (Master)

The spell activates and deactivates a togglable mode during which the caster has no summon limit, instead each summon, skeleton, or reanimation will cause the caster’s magicka to be reduced by a certain amount depending on the spell level of the summon for while the minion lasts. Somewhat similar to this mod: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/10335/?

-Return them to Oblivion (Apprentice)

Destroys all summoned, reanimated, or crafted creatures, this is mainly as a tool to combat bugs, could make it an alteration spell and have it end ALL temporary effects on the player.

-Ordinator Compatibility Patch

I enjoy the Ordinator perk overhaul for everything except its (in my opinion) badly implemented skeleton crafting system. If these spells could all be made it would be great to see a compatibility patch that replaces the ordinator skeleton crafting with feats that benefit these skeleton spells.

-----LEVEL 5: Lichcraft

It’s highly debatable whether this should even be here or somewhere else entirely. If the subject of lichdom doesn’t interest you or overwhelms you feel free to simply ignore this, but competently done lichdom is something I’ve wanted to see in skyrim since it began.

The only mod I’ve seen to even go close to this is the mod Undeath. It had a very good story and quest. But to me personally the actual transformation was a let down and a big mess. In my personal opinion (as well as based off what lore reading I’ve done) the lich should instead be a static state like a normal vampire, instead of a transformation like a vampire lord.

Achieving lich ascension should be mechanically similar to vampirism in that it changes your active race to a lich version of whatever your race was before. Visually the lich forms should use the Beast Skeletons mod so that they all look the part. The human and elf races could perhaps also have a draugr appearance option. For example a nord would become a nord lich, and an argonian should become an argonian lich. To give it even more push the lich races should also have a hovering animation perhaps based off this mod (http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/71391/?), They could either be restricted to spell and staves or if there are any good animators out there that want to give it a go the other fighting styles could also be fleshed out.

Statistically there’s a lot of different ways the lich could be made unique. I imagine one good way to do it would be to classify them as undead (like vampires) give them bonuses to magicka with penalties to stamina and HP, perhaps raise their summon limit by 1 or 2, and if possible, program them to be “essential” once a day. What this would mean is that once a day, when your HP is brought to 0, instead of dying you would raise up again with full HP magicka and stamina. This could either be done like essential NPCs or even include the full reanimation animation to stand up. This could only be done a limited number of times a day though. Alternatively if this is all infeasible in programing they could just simply have special stats and animation. That might be more lore friendly anyway. And of cause they’d be immune to hunger and sleep, this would probably have to be communicated by a patch with the mod Realistic Needs & Diseases or something.

This form could be achieved by either a patch to the Undeath mod, or a somewhat more lore friendly way to do it. I could see it working as a master level spell, you would need a series of complex components in your inventory as well as a phylactery that you would pick from any non quest item in your inventory. This phylactery would have to stay in your inventory for several days while the transformation is taking place, Just like we read about and see it happen in Oblivion.

I was even able to create something similar to this by combining a series of mods (See attached files for screen shots) but being able to combine them all into one unified mod would be awesome.

-----Final thoughts:

Anyone who can offer any help in these would be greatly welcomed, be it though either creating them, or giving me advice/guidance on how to do it myself. And as I said, I’d even be willing to offer donations to anyone who can directly assist in getting them completed.

And even if you can’t help me, thank you for taking the time to read it!

Edited June 9, 2017 by JediSword