Rikiaz's Skill Overhaul and Perk Pack

[Rikiaz]

This is just an idea thread for me to brainstorm and get some input and for others to give ideas that I may be able to implement. This is technically a work in progress but as of now it is just ideas floating around in my head.

 

Nonetheless, here we go.

 

RIKIAZ'S SKILL AND PERK OVERHAUL!!!

 

The aim of this mod will be to reintroduce some old skills by rearranging and merging old skills.

 

Skills that were merged:

 

Sneak, Lockpicking, and Pickpocket were merged to for Stealth, I found it completely unnecessary to have three skills dealing with thievery.

 

Block has been merged with Light Armor and Heavy Armor, shields have armor types don't they? Just move the block perks into light and heavy variants to make room for a new tree.

 

One Handed and Two Handed have been mixed and renamed to Light Weapons and Heavy Weapons. Light Weapons encompasses Swords, Daggers, and War Axes. Heavy Weapons includes Maces, Battle Axes, Greatswords and War-hammers. Seems redundant right? Well if everything goes well I'm planning on making a version for those of you with Heavy Armory and Weapons of the 3rd Era!

If you have Heavy Armory then Light Weapons will include Short Swords, Spears, Short Spears, and Quarter Staffs, while Heavy Weapons will have Glaives, and Halberds.

With Weapons of the 3rd Era Light Weapons will receive Long Swords, Scimitars, Battle Staffs, Katanas, Wakisashis, Tantos and Nodachis.

Light Weapons will be focused on weapon specific perks, speed, and versatility, while Heavy Weapons will be more focused on more more and more damage, bleeding, and armor penetration.

 

Speech and Illusion are now a stealth skill with the name of Personality. It's skill level will work for better prices, speech checks, and Illusion magic. I always thought speech was a little useless so I stuck it in Illusion. But don't worry, you don't have to use Illusion if you want to level Personality, I'll explain later.

 

Skills that were removed:

 

Possibly Smithing. To help prevent exploiting and to make room for another skill I may make your smithing based off of the corresponding skill (if it can even work like that.) So you can't learn how to craft Daedric Armor by making 10 billion iron daggers. You would have to level your Heavy Armor to 100 [and maybe a new skill too ;) ]to be able to understand how to make it. And to improve that sword of your to legendary, well you'd need to know all there is to know about swords and similar light weapons. Although this is just an idea, and, quite frankly I'm not even sure if it will work.

 

Skills that were reworked into a different skill but are still in:

 

Alchemy. Alchemy is now Survival, it allows you to craft better potions, and other items that will increase survivability. Such as Bandages which are extremely long duration, weak healing potions. Also cooking might be tagged in here too.

 

Skills that were added:

 

There are now 6 (5 if smithing leaves) Combat skills, 5 Stealth skills, and 7 (8 if smithing leaves) Magic skills

 

New combat skills are Athleticism and Unarmed fighting.

 

Athleticism: How fast can you run? How high can you jump? How strong are you? How much endurance do you have? Athleticism determines all of these things.

 

Unarmed: Your bare (and gloved) fists unleash a fury that, while weaker then a weapon, can kill just as easily with good timing and smart tactics.

 

 

There are no new stealth skills, just skills that are merged and reworked

 

New magic skills include Mysticism, Unarmored, and possibly Lore.

 

Mysticism: Your raw arcane knowledge, learn how to manipulate magicka for more efficient and more deadly spells, as well as turn your body into a living magicka battery

 

Unarmored: Who needs armor when you can turn your skin as hard as ebony?

 

(If smithing leaves) Lore: More of a miscellaneous skill but fits magic the best I think. Most of these skills will only have a requirement of your lore skill and you can go in any order you wish.

 

 

How will the skills level?

 

Light Weapons, Heavy Weapons, Light Armor, Heavy Armor, and the basic magic schools (Restoration, Conjuration, Destruction, Alteration) all level like normal.

 

Personality will level while buying/selling, completing speech checks or casting Illusion spells.

 

Survival will level from crafting survival items, including potions, living with a disease, being poisoned, and by harvesting flora.

 

Athleticism will level by running, swimming, jumping ect.

 

Unarmed by dealing unarmed damage

 

Mysticism increases when you successfully cast a spell or are hit with a spell.

 

Unarmored by taking damage while wearing no armor (Mage armor is allowed, in fact it is the basis of the skill)

 

Lore will be raised by doing anything but will raise very slowly.

 

Branches, specializations, and paths

 

One thing that bugs me about vanilla Skyrim is that the skills aren't in-depth enough. If you have a 5/5 in armsman and 100 in onehanded you are just as skilled with swords and axes, but in reality the two weapons are completely different. In Destruction you can cast fire spells the entire game and them voila once you reach 100 you can summon a lightning storm. Well not anymore. Introducing new Branches, Specializations, and Paths!!! Certain perks require you to specialize in one thing or another. Making you better with your specialization but not as good with other things. You might not even be able to take certain perks if you take a certain specialization, for example, if you take the Necromancy Specialization perk in Conjuration you can no longer take any Daedra based perks and your Daedric summons cost more to cast. There are even some perks that prevent you from using certain spells or weapons altogether. If you take the Master of Undeath perk in Conjuration you cannot summon daedra as long as you have that perk. This adds a new layer of depth and thinking to what perks you take, and for you perfectionists out there MOST OF THE SKILL TREES WILL BE IMPOSSIBLE TO FILL!. This includes, but is not limited to all weapon and armor skills, all magick schools, Survival, and Mysticism. There will be a book with details on each perk, what perks will prevent you from taking it, all of the requirements ect. Not everything will show in the in-game skill menu.

 

 

So how does it sound? Any thoughts, criticisms, complaints, ideas ect?

Edited December 7, 2012 by Rikiaz

[Rikiaz]

Here are some examples of the skill trees for Conjuration, Destruction, and Restoration. They are open to criticism. The rank perks are not listed but they are still in.

 

 

Conjuration; Main Tree, Necromancy Tree, Daedric Tree

 

Main tree:

1>Novice Conjuration

2>Dual Casting

3>Summoner; you can summon creatures from further away

4> Otherworldly Lore; (Rank 1) Allows you to control 1 extra minion (Rank 2) Allows you to control 2 extra minions.

 

Necromancy Tree:

1>Apprentice Conjuration

2>Necromancy Specialist; You have chosen to specialize in undead, your raise dead spells can affect stronger targets but you cannot choose to specialize in daedra

3>Blood Ties; (Rank 1) You’ve discovered the Ring of Dark Souls, while wearing this ring your reanimated dead will have more health but your reanimation spells will sap some of your health to fuel the spell (Rank 2) Summoning Undead from the Soul Cairn is a lost art, however you have showed talent in it. When you summon undead from the Soul Cairn you lose some health but they are much more powerful.

4>Necromanctic Lore; you’ve learned some special necromantic spells which will change the way your raise dead spells work, also your different undead from the soul cairn are now roughly the same power level

5> Master of Undeath; you’ve learned how to make your necromancy much more efficient. Your necromancy spells last much longer, are more powerful, and are more stable. However you can no longer summon daedra.

 

Daedra Tree:

1>Apprentice Conjuration

2>Daedric Specialist; You have chosen to specialize in Daedric magic, your summons now last much longer but you cannot choose to specialize in necromancy

3>Summoner; (Rank 1) You can summon your daedra from further away and they last a little longer (Rank 2) You have been gifted with the Ring of Oblivion’s Bargain, while wearing this ring you lose health when summoning, but your summons will be all the stronger for it.

4>Daedric Lore; you’ve created some special spells to summon daedra for purposes other than to be your guardian, also your different elemental Atronachs have the same health and do the same damage, increasing your versatility without sacrificing strength.

5>Daedric Master; You’ve learned how to permanently bind Daedra to the plane. You now have spells that bring even Dremora into the world of Tamriel, also your summons are permanent. However you can no longer raise the dead or summon undead.

 

 

 

Destruction; Mixed Tree, Frost, Fire, Shock Trees

Mixed Tree:

1>Novice Destruction

2>Dual Casting

3>General Destruction Studies; Instead of specializing you have decided to treat all destruction fairly. Destruction spells are 10% stronger and cost 5% less.

4>Elemental Augmentation; Destruction spells have extra effects when Dual Casted. Fire; Ignites targets on fire causing them to take a small amount of damage over a large amount of time, Frost; Causes the targets muscles to go numb reducing the amount of damage they deal with weapons for a short period of time, Shock; May disarm the target. All elemental destruction magic is 10% stronger and costs 5% less.

5>Elemental Maelstrom; Dual Casting an elemental destruction spell can cause a small amount of damage from the other elements and causes a weakness to the element of the spell. All elemental destruction magic is 10% stronger and costs 5% less.

6>Cloak Resonance; If you cast a destruction spell while having the same element of cloak active the spell is 15% stronger and amplifies the damage done by the cloak for 15 seconds.

 

Fire Tree:

1>Novice Destruction

2>Fire Specialization; Your fire spells are 25% stronger, other destruction spells are 10% weaker, you can only specialize in one element.

2>Fire Augmentation; Your fire spells are 10% stronger, you may Augment two elements, spells of the third element are 20% weaker.

3>Intense Flames; Your fire spells are 15% stronger if you specialized and 10% stronger if you augmented. Fire spells may apply a fear effect.

4>Pyromancer; Fire spells do 10% more damage and you gain a resistance to fire. Frost and Shock spells cost 5% more to cast (even if you Augmented them)

5> Arch Pyromancer; Fire spells are all you use. Having a Flame Cloak and Flame Atronach each increase the power of your fire spells by 5%. In addition to fear fire spells can also disintegrate their target. You cannot cast Shock and Frost spells anymore unless you augmented them, however even if you augmented them they cost 10% more.

 

Frost Tree:

1>Novice Destruction

2>Frost Specialization; Your frost spells are 25% stronger, other destruction spells are 10% weaker, you can only specialize in one element.

2>Frost Augmentation; Your frost spells are 10% stronger, you may Augment two elements, spells of the third element are 20% weaker.

3>Deep Freeze; Your frost spells are 15% stronger if you specialized and 10% stronger if you augmented. Frost spells may paralyze.

4>Cryomancer; Frost spells do 10% more damage and you gain a resistance to frost. Fire and Shock spells cost 5% more to cast (even if you Augmented them)

5> Arch Cryomancer; Frost spells are all you use. Having a Frost Cloak and Frost Atronach each increase the power of your frost spells by 5%. In addition to paralyzing frost spells can also instantly freeze your target to death if they are low on health. You cannot cast Shock and Fire spells anymore unless you augmented them, however even if you augmented them they cost 10% more.

 

Shock Tree:

1>Novice Destruction

2>Shock Specialization; Your shock spells are 25% stronger, other destruction spells are 10% weaker, you can only specialize in one element.

2>Shock Augmentation; Your shock spells are 10% stronger, you may Augment two elements, spells of the third element are 20% weaker.

3>Arc Lightning; Your shock spells are 15% stronger if you specialized and 10% stronger if you augmented. Shock spells may electrocute targets dealing damage over time.

4>Electromancer: Shock spells do 10% more damage and you gain a resistance to shock. Fire and frost spells cost 5% more to cast (even if you Augmented them)

5> Arch Electromancer; Shock spells are all you use. Having a Shock Cloak and Storm Atronach each increase the power of your shock spells by 5%. In addition to electrocution your shock spells can also arc to multiple targets. You cannot cast Frost and Fire spells anymore unless you augmented them, however even if you augmented them they cost 10% more.

 

 

 

 

Restoration; Life, Death, Offensive (Anti-Undead vs Poison/Disease)

 

Life Tree:

1> Novice Restoration

2> Life Specialist; Healing spells heal the living by 25% more, but you have forsaken the undead and can no longer heal them.

3> Respite; Healing spells also restore stamina

4> Power of Life; Once a day when your health drops below 25% you and all your allies are healed to full health and constantly regain stamina for 60 seconds

 

Death Tree:

1> Novice Restoration

2> Death Specialist; Healing spells heal the undead by 25% more, due to your necromantic nature you would rather have the living die to serve you in death, therefore you cannot heal them.

3> Essence Drain; Casting healing spells on living targets will sap them of their stamina, transferring it to you.

4> Power of Death; Once a day when your health drops below 25% you absorb the health of all living around you. If any die from this you gain 50 points of temporary health for the next minute.

 

Cleansing Tree:

1> Novice Restoration

2> Cleansing Specialization; You seek to cleanse this world from the blights of Undeath, poison, and disease. Your anti undead spells are 25% more effective and you can no longer cast blight spells

3> Tolerance; You have learned how to make people more tolerable to blights, when you cure yourself or an ally of a disease or poison they gain immunity to both for a while.

4> Retribution; You show no mercy to those who would call blights upon the land, when struck with a poison or disease you instantly cure yourself and apply a deadly necrogen to whomever struck you.

 

Blight Tree:

1> Novice Restoration

2> Blight Specialization; You wish curses and foul plagues upon your enemies. Your poison and disease spells are 25% more effective, however you have grown weak to cleansing spells and can no longer cast them.

3> Blighted Affinity; You’ve grown so close to poisons and diseases that you draw power from them, while you are diseased your own disease and poison spells deal more damage and cure you.

4> Tainted Flesh; While others try to stay healthy, you welcome the curses that you have become accustom to, when you dispel a disease by casting a curse you temporarily gain some health.

 

 

For the Ring of Dark Souls, I have to have it be a ring or else it conflicts with anything that tries to add a spell onto reanimation and I plan on having more rings that do a similar thing but with different effects. The Ring of Oblivion's Bargain is just for consistency, and so you can turn off the life lose.

Edited December 7, 2012 by Rikiaz