Throwing around racials ideas (Excellent Racials Package)

[EnaiSiaion]

Alright, time to convince y'all to pick altmer (not that you'd need any convincing because they are the best race. Just ask any altmer).

 

Altmer ability: High Barrier

You gain +100 armor when you have more than 50% magicka, and +50 armor when you have more than 50% stamina. Both bonuses are separate. (The funny, but intended, thing is that this benefits fighters more than casters because fighters consume the resource that gives less armor. Yay for class balance)

 

Altmer ability: Magic Affinity

All spells that affect you are 50% more powerful and last 50% longer regardless of whether you cast them, a friend or someone who hates you or is incompetent and makes you green for 11 +50% minutes.

 

Altmer lesser power: Contingency

The big one. When cast, a dialog box appears that asks you to pick a condition: cast, sneak, swing weapon, drop below 25% health, get hit, etc etc etc etc (15 in total). You can now cast any* spell you want to imprint it into the contingency magic lattice thing (ask Tolfdir, he knows more about this stuff than I do). Afterwards, when the condition is met, a random imprinted spell is cast for free. This effect does have a cooldown, depending on the type of condition.

 

Just like the contingencies in Apocalypse. All of them (except Link) and then some, rolled into one with a handy menu on top.

 

Some exceptions cannot be imprinted, for everything else there's Master Destruction Spells™. *evilgrin*

 

 

Altmer power: Arcane Nova

Blasts all nearby targets, dispelling all magical effects and completely draining their magicka and stamina, giving 50% of it to you.

 

This leaves just the social ability and I'll combine it with one of the other abilities so I can flesh out the magicka-stamina interaction some more.

 

 

And some tentative abilities (NYI):

 

Altmer ability: Wellspring

Health is permanently reduced by 25. When you drop below 25% health, half of your current magicka is tapped to heal you. No cooldown.

 

Argonian ability: Scales

When you are at full health, the first incoming attack deals 1 point of damage.

 

Khajiit: Nine Lives

When you drop below 25% health, magicka or stamina, the stat is fully restored after a 15 second delay. This can happen up to 9 times during any given combat, distributed among all three stats (just in case you run into an enemy cat and don't have a lot of dps...).

 

Orsimer: Foolish Mortals

When killed, comes back to life with an explosion that throws opponents unless the killing blow reduces you to more negative hit points than your character level + 5.

 

Orsimer: Lifebreak

Sets a living target's health percentage to twice your own health percentage.

 

 

--

 

For people who just want All The Spells, there will be a (somewhat cheat-ish) way to just give yourself all the powers and abilities.

 

On a related note, enemies get them as well. Enemies get improved versions of them. Enemies get things like total invisibility until you manage to hit them a few times (bosmer).

[EnaiSiaion]

Some NPC only abilities:

 

Altmer - Arcane Superiority

Increases their magicka by 100 and stamina by 50 (yawn) and also (uh oh) when they enter combat, their target (= you, or hopefully someone else) gets a debuff that repeatedly dispels all magic effects every few seconds. You didn't need that oakflesh anyway.

 

Bosmer - Forestwalk

When entering combat, they become totally invisible for as long as their health is above 75%. They are not revealed when they attack, so you have to play it by ear until you deal 1/4 damage to them and make them pop back into visibility. You can also set them on fire or something so you can see their outline.

 

Dunmer - Vengeful Grasp

When a dunmer dies, the spirits of the ancestors root the killer in place and prevent movement for 8 seconds.

 

 

 

And some more racials:

 

Nord - Kyne's Hammer

Ability: When combat starts, up to 3 random nearby opponents get targetted by a bolt of green lightning that deals 15% max health. This may hit the same target multiple times. Nord NPCs get the same ability but it is always tossed at their combat target. The lightning is slightly delayed and can be avoided.

 

Nord - Avatar

(1/day) FOR KHAZ'MODAAAAAAAANNN

 

Dunmer - Spirit Walk

(1/day) When out of combat, it's basically invisibility and muffle with unlimited duration, except it ends when you enter combat (as well as for all the other reasons invisibility ends). This goes well with their Whispers ability which periodically indicates nearby humanoids who might be carrying good loot. In combat, it instead summons two additional Ancestral Guardians on top of the two that are auto-summoned by their own ability.

 

Redguard - Dervish Charge

(1/day) So SkyRe redguards have Sandstorm Charge, which increases run speed by 15% while slowing down time. Challenge Accepted™. This one increases run speed by 300% while slowing down time... for 1 second, but you can hold down sprint to extend the duration, up to 5 seconds. If you did hit sprint, releasing the button ends the spell with a shockwave that throws enemies and deals 35% of their max health as physical damage. It's how they say hello in Hammerfell.

Redguard - Close The Ranks

Ability: Your stat (health, magicka, stamina) with the lowest current percentage regenerates much faster than the others. Bonus regeneration is based on character level. This does work for enemies as well (most abilities do, and if they don't, there is something to replace them).

Next up: Khajiit.

[StayFrosty05]

I see only two issues with the Powers you are giving the Races....the Talos Worshiping for Nords and Skooma Addiction for Khajiits....both of these are immersion/RP breaking....Someone playing a Khajiit may have zero interest in RP'ing a Drug Addicted character....and I know for myself as a staunch Nord player (love my Nord... :happy: ...though he isn't technically a Nord, I just use the Nord race) I have never played a Talos worshiping Nord and would not be attracted to a Mod that enforces or encourages it.....Addiction and Worship are very limiting additions....best off if you design the Racial abilities to be more RP friendly I think....otherwise looking pretty good so far.... :happy:

[EnaiSiaion]

Actually, I just got rid of Nord Uprising for exactly this reason, leaving me staring at the screen with modder's block for 4 hours yesterday evening. Gnarfbl.

 

Kyne's Hammer is "neutral" because 1/ to deny Kyne is to deny being a Nord and 2/ you get involved with Kyne anyway as soon as you use your first shout. I could rename it though, if at the cost of the pretty green lightning. Don't want to just throw out the entire ability because it provides play and counterplay (hold opponents still at the start of battle, or dodge at the start of battle).

 

Skooma Rush... well, moon sugar is a substance with religious significance for all Khajiit. It's a drug for the rest of the world though (and probably similar to catnip). Then again hist sap is LSD for everyone who isn't an Argonian and that's okay.

 

--

 

Planned for implementation in the near future (TBI):

Argonians are about CC. They have no direct offensive abilities or combat buffs, but several different ways to disable opponents. It's a shame you don't really see them in Skyrim because they are freaking crocodiles.

 

Argonian ability: Histborn (already implemented, see before)

 

Argonian NPC ability: My Eyes!

When engaging combat with the player, they spit acid that temporarily blinds you.

 

Argonian power: Fungal Bloom

(1/day) Nearby opponents are covered in slime, holding them in place immobile (but not preventing them from attacking).

 

Argonian PC ability: Stone Hiss

When combat starts, opponents in front of you are disabled until hit by a weapon or spell.

 

Redguard power: Whirling Defense

For 2 seconds, enemies attacking you are damaged and stunned at the cost of some stamina. Can be used once every 6 seconds.

 

Khajiit ability: Prowl

When above 75% stamina, you sneak at double speed and regenerate health and magicka faster when sneaking.

[EnaiSiaion]

Finished Nords and Argonians today, kind of stuck on Orcs though.

So far orcs have:

Ability: Shockwave
Jump up and down in combat to damage and throw enemies. Only works once per combat.

Ability: Blood of Malacath
I wanted to do a killstreak type ability that grants bonuses for a short time after ending a fight (with different conditions for NPC orcs), but the issue is that it would also trigger if the player just chickens out and breaks aggro.

Ability: Sucker Punch
If you start a fight with an unarmed attack, it deals 250 bonus damage. I have no idea what to do with this. It seems way too specialised, but it is too much fun to just abandon.

Ability: Orcish Lockpick (PC)
Once a day, can smash a lock with your fist to permanently reduce its level by 50.

Ability: Battlelust (NPC)
Regenerate 20 magicka and stamina per second for 15 seconds after entering combat.

Power: Berserk
(1/day) Double damage and spell effectiveness for 30 seconds. No longer reduces damage taken (the defensive steroid power is Nord Avatar) but when the power is available for use it will randomly autocast during combat, which does not put it on cooldown.

Power: Lifebreak
(1/day) Sets a target's health percentage to twice your health percentage.

Edited April 24, 2013 by EnaiSiaion

[Setis]

Kind of not getting the point of Lifebreak, seems kind of a lame power. :( And sucker punch would be AWESOME if there was some way to take one hand off a two-handed weapon to do it...

[Urwy]

Kind of not getting the point of Lifebreak, seems kind of a lame power. :( And sucker punch would be AWESOME if there was some way to take one hand off a two-handed weapon to do it...

A massive health buff to followers, thats what it is.

Or, if you're feeling lucky, make that that blasted legendary dragon near invulnerable. XD

 

On the other side, it could be darned powerfull when you're near death. Use it on your foe, heal up and finish him off. High risk, high reward tactic.

 

Should be interesting on npc influenced by fury or raised undead. =)

Edited April 26, 2013 by Urwy

[EnaiSiaion]

I posted a big reply about Bretons this morning but it's nowhere to be found. :wallbash:

 

Anyway, the Breton identity in TES is that they appear to be quaint Frenchmen but have innate practical magics (dat resist) and don't make a fuss about it unlike the A-mer.

 

So, as of now their abilities look like this (heavily WIP and only half functional/implemented yet):

 

Ability: Zap (PC)

Once a day, blast a lock with a bolt of magic to damage its level by 50.

 

Ability: Bulwark (NPC)

Periodically casts a shield during combat. If you hit the Breton while the shield is up, they get healed instead of taking damage.

 

Ability: Spell Mantle

Magic resistance +50%, absorb 50% magicka from spells.

 

Ability: Manmer Blood

Stamina regeneration doubled when below 50% magicka and vice versa.

 

Power: Dome Shield

(1/day) Creates a bubble of magic. While inside, you take half damage (ideally only from people outside and vice versa, if technically possible).

 

Lesser power: Harmonize

(At will) When out of combat, indicates the nearest plant you can forage. When in combat, if the target is casting a spell, it interrupts and stuns them and steals some magicka; if the target is attacking, it steals stamina instead.

 

Kind of not getting the point of Lifebreak, seems kind of a lame power. :( And sucker punch would be AWESOME if there was some way to take one hand off a two-handed weapon to do it...

 

Actually it seems broken OP at the moment and may need a nerf.

:(

I'm a fan of Dota style freeform spells that don't do something immediately obvious but can be exploited by being smart about it, but this is perhaps a bit too easy to abuse.

 

Sucker Punch can be extended to other weapons and spells. It's just... how many times do you start combat from a peaceful state as opposed to getting jumped?

 

Balancing in general is going to be tricky. I already noticed enemy orcs with Berserk/War Machine can one hit players, and pretty much every on-combat-start ability is available to NPCs so when there is an Argonian and a Redguard/Bosmer in the same pack then you get dicked on for 20 seconds.

 

Oh well that's a problem for later. :tongue:

Edited April 26, 2013 by EnaiSiaion

[EnaiSiaion]

Khajiit Ravage is a pretty hilarious power. It increases claw damage by 30 to 80 for one minute (yawn). ALSO, if you perform a killmove while Ravage is active, you are fully regenerated and gain the "Blood Ivory Claws" ability which increases claw damage by 250 for the remaining duration of Ravage. Rrrrawr.

[Setis]

Maybe this is more an animation thing, but just something I was thinking about. Casting spells if you're a two-handed users is annoying. When you pull out the spells from having your weapon out, the weapon just disappears and you suddenly have spells. Then when you switch back, you suddenly have to re-draw the weapon from your back, which is SLLLOOOOWW. It would be awesome if you could do like with one-handers, just take one hand off the weapon to cast with, then put it back on the weapon when ready to swing again. I haven't seen any mods that do this (I'm sure someone has to have had this same idea), so I'm suspecting it's probably not possible or very, very difficult to do. Since you seem quite a skilled modder, just thought I'd bring it up in case you might have an idea whether this is even possible or feasible.