Make the Dragonborn feel less gimmicky?

[sgman1]

Are there any mods out there that can make the dragonborn and shouting system feel like less of a gimmick that they added for Skyrim?

 

The things that I want to change up are:

 

1. The cooldown system: Is there any way to make it better? Having less cooldown time still makes you unable to even use the simplest shouts like unrelenting force after using a strong shout like storm call or call dragon. I tried using one that allowed you to exchange magicka, stamina or health in exchange for negating shout cooldown. Only thing was that once I had depleted either my magicka or stamina gauge, the mod wouldn't take into account my regeneration rate (which I had enhanced) so the cooldown minus the points that were left in the gauge at the time of the shout was the time I had to wait before using another shout as well as either magic or stamina based abilities! It's no fair that the dragonborn himself has a supposed cooldown whereas the dragons, greybeards and ulfric don't even if they use only simple shouts.

 

2. I doubt any mods such as this will be made until at least 2 full years from release but are there any (not so buggy) user created mods that add new shouts (other than that shout of madness mod)? Most of the shouts just seem like the stereotypical greek/roman god stunts like immobilizing enemies, using the elements to hurt them, getting superspeed, or creating a pseudo-apocalypse to strike down everyone (not just your enemies which makes it worse and it's not even creative given that it's like zeus using his thunderbolts). It wouldn't be so bad except that several if not most, have a fairly limited range. There's also the fact that most arch/ascendant prefix spellcasters can use even more powerful spells 'based of the elements' against you which seems like you are fairly gimped and superspeed is just one of the basic supers along with superstrength, super endurance and super senses (okay aura whisper suffices for that).

The thu'um is described in such a way that a master of the thu'um (as in those equal to the dragons or a dragonborn him/herself) would be nigh omnipotent. So why aren't there any not so stereotypical shouts that actually make you feel powerful? Why couldn't some of the shouts that are redundant be merged or replaced such as frost breath merged with ice form or just having animal allegiance instead of both animal allegiance and Kyne's peace? Why can't you become a superfast, superstrong berserker with elemental fury instead of just being able to swing faster? Why do some of them have such little strength such as slow time? Why does the sun have to be blotted out with the use of an arrow in Dawnguard instead of being a shout (when it literally is on one of the plaques of High Hrothgar that the Thu'um can blot out the sky)? And finally why can't there be any shouts such as summoning massive swarm of bloodthirsty locusts, creating a dozen twisters around you that disorientate and mangle your victims, create a clear path through water like Moses or make water rise up out of a large water body and swallow every moving enemy around you while neutrals and friendlies along with structures are protected by a mystical barrier?

Maybe I'm just overthinking that last question as I already mentioned that the Thu'um pretty much makes you like a mythical demigod and several of my ideas would probably just be clutter but it's as I said that the Thu'um should make you nigh omnipotent so I think there should be some more intense and creative shouts than the same old boring "ZOMG DRAGON FIRE!!11".

 

3. Finally, when you get to High Hrothgar, Arngeir mentions that even a whisper in the Thu'um can kill anyone untrained. It would probably break the game but according to that lore, shouldn't there at least have been a shout that acts like an atom bomb to all NPCs below a certain level threshold and/or those that are boss characters/unique NPC combatants. Like you just breathe on them and they turn to ash/dust/whatever. That is probably the only kind of shout I would expect a cooldown for seeing as how it would be broken if there was little or no cooldown. Of course the part about only the dragonborn having a cooldown comes back...

 

So guys, any suggestions you could suggest to make my dragonborn less gimmicky?

[Sjogga]

I guess you could set all cooldown to 0 and then have a scripted cooldown, similar to how the Vampire Lord powers work. That way every shout has its own, internal cooldown, which in my opinion would make gameplay much more interesting.

[sgman1]

Now that is an interesting idea, isn't it? I actually thought of something like that although slightly different.

 

Well if any modder might read this who thinks they might have the mettle to try it out, what I'd suggest is the following:

 

Divide the shouts into three classes - primary, secondary and tertiary with primary being either the really basic/strategic ones or weak ones like Unrelenting force, Ice form, become ethereal, Animal Allegiance, etc. and give them individual shout cooldowns whereas the secondary ones would be the more powerful damage dealing ones like fire breath and frost breath and the tertiary ones would be really powerful ones like call dragon and storm call each type having shared cooldowns of their own.

 

The reason I would suggest such a scheme is because I think having an individual cooldown for EVERY SINGLE shout would be quite a strain on the computer. Also there's the fact that you can't dish out crazy damage with such a scheme but you won't be deprived of your dragonborn powers either nor are you deprived of your basic strategic shouts. It would just have to be made sure the each of the basic shouts have a cooldown of like at least twenty seconds at full power to make sure that strategy simply doesn't become spamming ice form and unrelenting force.

 

And for a final touch add bit of damage and duration mixing and matching to make certain shouts more viable on higher difficulties against stronger enemies such as fire breath and frost breath and, viola.

 

I think that would suffice for a much better shout system, don't you?