Brutal Skyrim

[OpenWorldAddict]

A Guide to Brutal Skyrim (mod list)

Note: Even though I am giving you a description of these mods, please go to the mod pages for full description. This is just to give you an idea of what each mod does.

All these mods have been carefully selected from they skyrim mod database called G.E.M.S, or Gameplay Enhancement Mods for Skyrim

Brutal Skyrim: A Hardcore Skyrim Mod List meant to make Skyrim the way it is supposed to be. Combine a Harsh climate, rough terrain, tough denizens, and an economy that is torn to pieces by the prospect of on going war; all that makes a world that is hard to live in. A world where survival is a day to day struggle, where every moment can mean the difference between life and death, and the ill-prepared, ill-equipped, and ill-witted can quickly meet an untimely doom. I challenge everyone that reads this to install all of the essential mods, and some if not all the optional add ons and see how far your character can make it. Can you survive in such a brutal land. Welcome to Brutal Skyrim.

1. Don't leave home with out the things you need to survive!

Of course, the absolute core of a brutal skyrim is the essential survival realism mods, so let me start there.

A. Battle Fatigue and Injuries: This mod causes your body parts to get injured if your lose 25% of your health in a short amount of time. These injuries effect your skills, and they can also get worse over time. The mod also introduces what's called Battle Fatigue. If your health drops below 25 points in a fight, you will get it and all your attributes will be affected. This represents the mental anguish that occurs when your character is close to death. Battle fatigue can also get worse over time. Healing injuries and battle fatigue is done with lots of sleep. Bandages you can buy at the store can reduce the effects for some time. However, if you are seriously injured, you will need help.

Survival Add On Mod for Battle Fatigue and Injuries:

A-1. Injure Kit (

): With this mod in addtion to the one above, the body part bandages you can craft and wear with this mod has the same effect as the store bought bandages, with the bonus that it will increase health regeneration by 5% each.

B. Frostfall - Hypothermia Camping Survival (

): Frostfall is a mod that makes cold dangerous. Staying alive means staying warm and dry. Getting in frigid water or being out when a blizzard hits can mean a quick death if you are not prepared. Even then, when you're swimming or you're caught out in a rainstorm with out waterproof protection, you'll need to get dry and get warm quickly. You can also get pretty cold at night. When out in the wilderness, you'll need a create a campfire and set up camp when the sun goes down. This means that's you'll have to make sure always have camping equipment and a wood axe to chop wood. Overall, everything that you need to do survival in this cold landscape that we call Skyrim actually makes sense for the climate, so some common sense will keep you alive.

Survival Add On Mods for Frostfall - Hypothermia Camping Survival

B-1. Cloaks of Skyrim (

): This mod add more choices of cloaks to wear to keep warm and dry in. So does....

B-2. Winter is Coming: Cloaks (

)

Note: Frostfall does come with a travel cloak, but that provides minimum protection. Also note that cloaks from Winter is Coming: Cloaks mod protects better against cold and the cloaks from Cloaks of Skyrim mod protects better against rain, so having both is a sure fire way of ensuring that you will have what you need.

B-3. Immersive Armors (

) : This gives you more types of armor to use and they can also help you stay warm and dry.

B-4. Wet and Cold (

): With out this mod, you'd think the rest of the world is crazy. The biggest effects are that people seek shelter when it's raining or snowing, or the put on appropriate gear to keep themselves warm and dry, and went it's cold out you can see vapor coming from their mouths or noses. Really, this mod is a must have for Frostfall.

Note: There is a version of Wet and Cold called Wet and Cold - Ashes that is meant to work with the Dragonborn DLC.

B-5. (install with caution) Project Reality - Climates of Tamriel (

) will add believable weather patterns to Skyrim, making staying warm and dry even more of a challenge. (you may want to try Frostfall without this mod first. It really changes the weather so much that is makes Frostfall so much harder)

B-6: I discovered watching people's video that outdoor (like overhangs) doesn't really protect you from rain or snow, so if you want that kind of protection from rain or snow I recommend getting the Rain and Snow Clipping mod (

). Just beware that I don't think it's compatible with the Project Reality - Climates of Tamriel mod because it does change the weather slightly so that the rain or snow will stop going through the roof or overhang you are standing under.

Edit: There is a better mod to resolve the issue with weather clipping. It's called Real Shelter. Look at the mod page on Skyrim Nexus to see what structures are covered. Plus it compatible with a ton of other mods including Project Reality: Climates of Tamriel

and finally....

C. Realistic Needs and Diseases (

) : This mod fleshes out the final points of survivalism without making it fatal. With this mod, you will need to sleep regularly, drink regularly, and eat regularly. If you don't you would suffer the consequences (although it won't kill you necessarily.) You'll also need to make sure that your drink is water and it is clean, and that your food is fresh and thoroughly cooked. Drinking alcholic beverages will have negative but laughable effects. Drinking untreated water (like from a stream) or raw food is a sure way to get a disease. Sleeping in an area considered dirty is also good way to get sick. Diseases begin mild, but get progressively worse without finding a cure.

Survival Add On Mods for Realistic Needs and DIseases.

C-1. Diseased: Not only does this mod have a better disease progression, but most diseases are now fatal. That progression changes depending on several factors. There are blessings that cure all diseases and give you a random disease resistance. Also it allows you to buy or cook medicines that also cure different diseases. Overall, it's a better system than the plain one you get with the Realistic Needs and Diseases, and the two mods work well together.

C-2. Drinking Fountains of Skyrim (

): This add fountains of clean-fresh drinking water all over Skyrim. Activate it and you get three bottles of crystal clear (joke) drinking water. You can also refill empty bottles with it; and if push comes to shove; you can activate while sneak to drink directly from the fountain. In my opinion, this is an essential for Realistic Needs and Diseases.

C-3. Babettes Feast - Improved Cooking

and...

C-4. Cooking Expanded: Both mods adds new cooking options. However both need compatibility patches to work with Realistic Needs and Diseases (also for Imps More Complex Needs, and SkyRealism - Feast and Famine). (Try one before yo add the other, for they might not work together)

2. Watch out! It's dangerous out there!

All those survival mods, even though it can be a struggle, just makes Skyrim a harsh landscape, not dangerous or brutal. The following mods that change creatures stats, ai, traps, combat, and more in an attempt to correct that.

A.Duel - Combat Realism: Duel overhauls the combat to make fights with NPCs more interesting. In doing so, it also makes groups of npcs (bandit's, forsworn) much more dangerous. It increase the amount of damage weapons and arrows do, and raises armor effectiveness. Staggers are more realistic, but you can still fight even though you may be immobile. Duel allows a fight to avoid damage by turtling behind a shield, but using a shield consumes stamina, so watch out. For pure mages and pure archers, watch out! Duel makes ai also smarter. Every warrior foe is trained on close combat and so they know how to win hand-to-hand combat. They'll even work together to flank you. Also sneaking is harder, and if your detected, the npcs will work together to find you.

Additional Mods for Duel - Combat Realism

A-1. ASIS: (Automatic Spells, Increase Spawns) This is another ai mod that makes NPCs smarter. They now will have spells they have the requirements for, Perks based upon their skill levels,

A-2. Deployable Traps. This adds craftable traps you can deploy anywhere. It really helps with Duel - Combat Realism playing as a character that doesn't egage in close combat like pure archers or pure mages. Just leave the trap between you and the enemy encampment, and draw the enemy to the trap.

A-3. Dodge Mod: This one is for players who do engage in close combat. It does as it says. All you have to do is use the sprint button while in combat moving sideways or backwards in short, quick movements to dodge the enemies attacks. Note: There are two other Dodge mods: TKdodge, and Combat Dodge. If you don't want use the sprint button to dodge, check the others out on Skyrim Gems via 350 Combat mods list under gamplay.

A-4. Dual Wielding Parry. This mod is essential for those that use two weapons instead of a shield.

B. Tougher Traps: This mod makes traps deadler. Some traps incur disease, and darts are poisoned. Nothing more to say. Keep tabs on this mod. The mod maker may add a feature to disarm pressure plate triggers.

C. Syynxs Stubborn Skeletons: Now skeletons are more dangerous. They have more health, do more damage and unless you turn them to ash, they wil rise up again after collasping after a while. Really.... Watch your back.

D. Skytest - Harder Creatures. This makes most monsters harder to kill by giving them more health and making their attacks more dangerous. (It does it to Skeletons too, so I would have Stubborn skeletons higher on the load order. Otherwise, it shouldn't interfere with this mod.)

E. Deadly Dragons. This makes fights with dragons deadlier. Dragons now have different spells and restistances depending on the type of dragon. It also includes new tougher dragons for high level players. When fighting a dragon you will have to take more precautions to protect yourself against their attacks and also find ways to overcome their resistances. Overall, it makes the world a more dangerous place once the dragons return.

Mod Add On for Dealdy Dragons:

E-1. Run for your lives. If you tired of seeing people killed by dragons, especially now that you are using deadly dragons mod, you are going to want this mod. It just basically causes all npcs except guards, to run and hide. Simple as that.

F. Disable Fast Travel Permanently: Does what it says. Has an option to make carriage travel more expensive, so use it to complement the economic series.

G. Scenic Carriages. Lets you (and your companion) travel on the back of the carriages between cities. Now this mod seems like a realism mod instead of making the world more dangerous, but when you think about it and combining it with above Disable Fast Travel mod, it does make travel more risky. You may be attacked by bandits, forsworn, dragons, and possibly more along the way. You now have to protect the carriage driver so that he doesn't die. Also, with Frostfall and the other survival mods, now you will have to stop the carriage when night falls to keep you, any followers you have safe from the cold.

3. The economy sucks. How am I going to make it!

So now the world is harsher and more dangerous. The final ingredient in making Skyrim a brutal world is to toughen up the economy, which makes sense because of the on going war, and to make traveling with a lot a loot harder. The following mods do just that.

A. Realistic Carry Weight. This changes the number of items you can carry based upon your race. Some races can carry more, others less.

B. Complete Weight Overhaul: Changes how much every single item weighs, from weapons to gold, to armor, clothing, jewelry... everything. (only available on steam.)

C. Realistic Room Rental Enhanced: This mod does several things. First it increase the price of room to rent based upon the location of the inn. Second, it also adds more rental arrangements. Now you can rent a room for one night, 3 nights, or a semi-permanent room. Also their are new features like safe storage chests, player-owned chairs, and in some inns even a free meal served in your room. It also adds merchants to remote inns.

D. Expensive Investments: Increases the price of houses, furniture, horses, and mercenary followers.

E. Cutthroat Merchants: Get less gold when selling items. Pay more gold when buying items.

F. Reduced Gold rewards for quests. Does what it says.

That is all for the essential mods. Next article will list recommended mods to use with this list to increase roleplaying and enjoyability. Note: I do not recommend you do not use comprehese total gameplay overhauls such as:

SkRe (Skyrim Redone)

Requiem

Skyrim Unleashed

The following mods are modular, which means they are mostly a complitation of different mods that work together, but they don't all have to be used.

SkyRealism

Erkeil Real Skyrim Overhaul (ERSO)

If you want to do so, you'll need to go through the list and don't use anything that would conflict with it. Or start the game with the overhaul and add the mods one at a time. My recommended mod list is meant to take the place of a gameplay overhaul to make Brutal Skyrim more fun.

Note: I may do more work on this article to add links to mod pages and websites.

[mindw0rk2]

About half of those mods (immersive armors, wet and cold, cloaks of skyrim, run for your lives etc) have nothing to do with difficulty or hardcore.

 

I would add here mods that add more foes and encounters: Sands of Times, Monster Mod, Prides of Skyrim, Real Wildlife, Legendary Creatures, Extra Encounters, Wilderness War Parties, Immersive Patrols, High Level Enemies, Enhanced High Level Gameplay. This not only makes Skyrim harder, but more alive.

 

Also Locational Damage mod for combat.

[OpenWorldAddict]

The ones you mentioned were add ons for the essentials. Locaional Damage is good also, but it may conflict with some of the essential mods. Also, Brutal doesn't just mean how difficult the game is, is it means how difficult it is to survive in the game. Some of the mods might make survival overwhelming. Overwhelming is not Brutal, it's way beyond Brutal. Brutal Skyrim is about making the game feel as it should be in such a harsh enviroment, forcing you to think ahead, plan, and adapt to survive.

[OpenWorldAddict]

I've made a website for this mod list to make it easier to read, and watch videos of the different mods. I also added a installation guide. Please visit the Brutal Skyrim Mod Collection entry on Skyrim Nexus to access my site.