Creation Kit Spell Mod help

[rayban87]

Okay so I was just messing around with it since I just got the creation kit.

What I was trying to do was add a little shock damage to the ice storm spell but the problem is whenever I load it in game, the default animation is a shock spell.

I actually wanted to keep the ice storm animation (the one with the giant icy wind animation) from the original spell but just add shock damage to it.

 

Is there a way I can do this, or does creation kit automatically change it and you can't do anything about it?

[BlackCompany]

What I would do:

 

1. Find a shock spell that uses the casting type of the spell you want to change. Probably a Fire and Forget, Aimed effect.

2. Rename the Effect and create your own

3. Remove ALL visual elements from your base effect, unless you want a Shock projectile. If you do, keep that. IF not, use the HealFakeProjectile one. If you have an Aimed spell with no projectile you will see an error when loading the mod in the CK.

4. Add your base effect into the spell you wish to change

 

Things to remember:

 

As far as the creation kit goes, there is NO such thing as Shock/Fire/Frost damage in Skyrim. There is only Damage. What makes elemental damage different from regular damage are three KEY elements of the BASE EFFECT used in a spell. In order for your spell to deal ELEMENTAL damage, these 3 things MUST be present:

 

1. Resist Type. IAllows actors with this resistance to reduce damage from this element. Should already be in place if copied another effect.

2. Keyword (in this case MagicDamageShock). This associates the damage with Perks like Augmented Shock. Without this Keyword, most Destruction perks will NOT enhance/alter/affect this portion of your spell. This is bad.

3. Visual effects. Not so big a deal here, since you just want some Shock damage in a Frost Storm spell. But without visuals, you just have a "Damage Health" spell. Boring.

 

Remember these three key facets of Magic spells. Spells are easy as pie to create in Skyrim and you can do soem very fun things. But without proper keywords, visuals and resistances your spells lose A LOT.

 

Other helpful hints regarding spell creation:

 

About Conditions. These are weird but they matter. You don't want poisons affecting Dwarven robots or undead. You don't want paralysis affecting Dragons for balance, etc. Two things about Conditions in case it helps you later:

 

-Placing conditions in the BASE EFFECT: Conditions here will ONLY be checked when the spell initially hits its target.

-Placing Conditions in the SPELL: These conditions are checked continuously throughout the life of the spell (until the duration wears off)

 

If you create a Frost spell, and put a condition in the base effect of haskeyword - actortype - Undead == 0 the spell will not affect undead.

 

If you create an ability that stays on the player, or an NPC, as a permanent effect, and add a condition to the BASE EFFECT, it will not do any good. The condition will only be checked once, when the ability is first applied. If, however, you place the condition in the ability itself, the condition will ALWAYS apply. For instance, create an ability or enchantment that Wards the player. Copy a Ward effect, make it a Constant Effect type. Now, add it to an ability. In the Ability itself, give it the following condition:

 

isblocking == 1

 

The Ward will always bere there, invisible and inactive. But when the player is blocking, the Ward will turn on.

 

Hope some of this comes in handy, and that the first part works for your spell. Good idea, too, adding Shock to a STorm spell!

[Bpayne767]

just out of curiosity, is there a way to change what the spell can target. Im trying to mod the dead thrall spell so that it works on anything other than dragons, elementals, and beings that turn to ash or such when they die. is there a way to do that?